Date: Mon, 21 Jul 2014 18:05:24 -0400 From: "Fred Koschara" <blog14721@wfredk.com> To: freebsd-acpi@freebsd.org Subject: Remember the Moon - and Mars! (and Skylab) Message-ID: <201407212205.s6LM5OKc011517@centos5.fkeinternet.com>
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I've written a couple of blog entries this past week that I'd like to draw your attention to. They are related to significant events in the history of space travel whose anniversaries have occurred in the past week and a half: * Remember the Moon - and Mars! http://wfredk.com/blog/2014072106/remember-the-moon-and-mars * 11 July 1979 Skylab fell - and the American public was robbed http://wfredk.com/blog/2014071101/11-july-1979-skylab-fell-and-the-american-public-was-robbed In both articles, I first present historical data about the events, then some commentary. I hope you find the material interesting and informative. I've included a couple of excerpts here, please visit my blog to read the full stories. http://wfredk.com/blog ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Remember the Moon - and Mars! It's been forty five years since the Apollo 11 mission first landed humans on another planetary body - the Moon: At 20:17:40 UT (4:17:40 pm EDT) on 20 July 1969, astronauts Neil A. Armstrong (Apollo 11 Commander) and Edwin E. "Buzz" Aldrin Jr. ("Eagle" Lunar Module (LM) pilot) landed the LM in Mare Tranquilitatis (the Sea of Tranquility). Meanwhile, the "Columbia" Command and Service Module (CSM) continued in Lunar orbit with CM pilot Michael Collins aboard. During their stay on the Moon, the astronauts set up scientific experiments, took photographs, and collected Lunar samples. The LM took off from the Moon on 21 July for the astronauts' return to Earth. NASA's Viking 1 lander was originally planned to land on Mars coinciding with the US Bicentennial on 4 July 1976, but was delayed until a suitable landing site was located. As it worked out, the landing took place at Chryse Planitia at 11:56:06 UT on 20 July, roughly eight and a third hours less than exactly seven years after Apollo 11 had landed on the Moon. The robotic probe returned the first ever close-up pictures of the Martian surface, collected the first-ever samples taken from the surface Mars, and continued to communicate with ground controllers on Earth until 13 November 1982. The Apollo missions continued through 14 December 1972 when Apollo 17 Mission Commander Gene Cernan returned to the LM "Challenger" ending the last Extravehicular Activity (EVA) of what would prove to be the final expedition of the program. As yet, No other humans have returned to set foot on the Lunar surface, foisting on Captain Cernan the dubious honor and title of being "The Last Man on the Moon." ... ... Visionaries in the space travel, exploration and development (space T/E/D) field know there are unimagineable benefits that will come from opening space and the resources "out there" to make them available for the benefit of humanity. We know there's energy from the Sun that can eliminate our dependency on fossil fuels. There are more resources just within our Solar System than we could use in thousands of years. From the research that's been done on the International Space Station, we know protein crystals can be grown in microgravity to help cure diseases that would otherwise be intractible. What we don't - and can't - know is how much more we're going to find after we have actually started getting out and exploring a lot beyond Earth. ... BTW, I feel sorry for the "22% of Americans in 2009" who don't believe we ever went to the Moon. I know better - and I am anxious to get us back there. ------------- There's a lot more to this blog post that will, if nothing else, lead you to think about where the space program has been, and where it's going. Please read the entire article at http://wfredk.com/blog/2014072106/remember-the-moon-and-mars ------------------------------------------------------------------------ 11 July 1979 Skylab fell - and the American public was robbed NASA's Skylab, launched 14 May 1973, was an orbiting space station manned by crews arriving via separate launches. The orbital workshop (OWS) section was a refitted S-IVB second stage of a Saturn IB booster, a leftover from the Apollo program originally intended for one of the canceled Earth orbital missions, modified for long duration manned habitation in orbit. It contained provisions and crew quarters necessary to support three-person crews for periods of up to 84 days each. ... Skylab orbited Earth 2,476 times during the 171 days and 13 hours of its occupation during the three manned missions; astronauts performed ten spacewalks totalling 42 hours 16 minutes. Skylab logged approximately 2,000 hours of scientific and medical experiments, including eight solar experiments (e.g., the Sun's coronal holes were discovered); many medical experiments related to astronauts' adaptation to extended periods of microgravity. Each successive Skylab mission set a duration record for the time the astronauts spent in space. ... ... Today, the ISS is approximately the size of a football field, a 460-ton platform orbiting fifteen and a half times a day between 205 and 270 miles above Earth. It is about four times as large as Mir and five times as large as Skylab. The ISS is "funded until 2024," and may operate until 2028. By then the investment will have grown well into the US$ 150-200 billion range - and plans are to "deorbit" the station when funding runs out. NASA has already set a precedent by letting a US$ 2.15 billion investment fall out of the sky when Skylab came crashing down. The Russians did much the same thing when they took the Mir space station out of orbit, throwing away an estimated US$ 4 billion in 2001 dollars when the project ended. It wouldn't be any different, philosophically, for NASA and its partners to toss another $175 billion (+/- $25 billion) down the toilet by burning the ISS up in the atmosphere, so why not? ... ------------- A major reason "why not" is discussed in the blog post - please read it at http://wfredk.com/blog/2014071101/11-july-1979-skylab-fell-and-the-american-public-was-robbed ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Please feel free to forward this email to anyone you think would like to get it. If it annoys you, feel free to just delete it. If you don't ever want to hear from me again, just send me a note to that effect, and I'll add you to a list I keep of addresses I don't send email to. _____________________________________________________________________________ We are going to run out of oil. Before that happens, we MUST have a replacement source of energy and feed stock for our civilization that has become so dependent on plastic. The time to act is NOW!! Space Power Now, for humanity's survival - http://SpacePowerNow.org The L5 Development Group - Solutions in Space - http://L5Development.com For-profit space exploration and development as a private enterprise FREE space history newsletter - http://L5Development.com/SpaceHistoryNews.php For your daily dose of art, try http://PhotoByFred.com Investment quality fine art prints - http://LimitedEditionPhoto.com My personal Web page is http://wfredk.com - stop by some time!
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