Missions to the Moon: PROJECT... ASTRONAUT?

Friday, May 29, 2009

PROJECT... ASTRONAUT?

In 1958, Robert Gilruth, head of the Space Task Group at the dawn of NASA, was struggling with a problem. It probably devoured more of his time than it deserved, as seen in the memo here. Forwarded to relevant parties by George Low, Chief of Manned Space Flight. this memo, created just a few months after the founding of NASA, details Gilruth's apparent displeasure with the name then under consideration for America's first manned space project- Project Mercury. If he wanted a new name for Mercury (see memo), would Gemini have become "Project Two Astronauts"? And Apollo perhaps "Project Tres Amigos"? You decide.

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WELCOME TO THE FUTURE, CIRCA 1969

Welcome to the Missions to the Moon book blog. This is a place to re-live the heady days of the Apollo and Soyuz lunar programs- perhaps the crowning achievements of the 20th Century. Many blog entries will include a new downloadable image or artifact from the space age- items rarely seen and not available in print. It's all in the spirit of my newest book, Missions to the Moon- to remember the great adventure of the Golden Age of space exploration, and ponder what wonders await us in space.

For more info on the author, go to www.rodpylebooks.com.

MORE APOLLO BOOKS AND OTHER MEDIA

There are more things in heaven and earth, Horatio...

So true. And more great media on Apollo than Missions to the Moon.

DESTINATION MOON

By Rod Pyle

This book, available in July 2009, documents the Apollo missions in all their glory. With 200 pages of riveting pictures and text, it's the perfect primer for anyone interested in Apollo. The extensive use of annotated flight transcripts provides some real gems detailing the challenges the astronauts faced during their epic voyages.

FOR SIGNED/PERSONALIZED COPIES OF MISSIONS TO THE MOON OR DESTINATION MOON, EMAIL THE AUTHOR.

IN THEIR OWN WORDS: THE SPACE RACE

By Rod Pyle

This 7-hour audiobook is available on Audible.com and in CD form from many websites. It's a thorough audio record of manned space exploration by the US and USSR, from Sputnik to Apollo 17. Many rare and surprising audio tidbits are found throughout.

A MAN ON THE MOON

By Andrew Chaikin

One of the first- and arguably the best- detailed histories of the people behind Apollo, Chaikin's book, first published in 1984, is as compelling as ever. His 12 years of research and preparation shows through, and his unique access to the Apollo astronauts can be felt in every page. A must read.

T+ 40 Years... and counting!

It's hard to believe it's been 40 years since the Cape flamed orange with the launch of Apollo 11. It's harder still to understand just why we have not returned since. But the legacy of Project Apollo remains, and that's what my new book, "Missions to the Moon," and this blog, are about.

It's been said that Apollo was like something grabbed from the 21st Century and dropped into the 1960's. Odder still, as we near the retirement of the shuttle, engineers are struggling to rebuild a similar capacity for the next manned space effort- Constellation. In fact, recently a few engineers working on the Orion heat shield were looking around for a sample of an Apollo Command Module heat shield, ca. 1970, to... "see how they did it." I'm assuming that they are perfectly capable of designing a new ablative shield, and just wanted to draw meaningful lessons from the past to "check their work."

But this example points to one important facet of this 40th.Anniversary of the first manned moon landing: remember the past, and learn from it. Apollo was a gargantuan effort, dwarfing most technological "pushes" of the 20th Century, save possibly the Manhattan Project (and the results of Apollo were eminently more satisfying). Looking back on this remarkable time, when an entire space exploration initiative was created from scratch in about 10 years, when aggressive civilian aerospace spending co-existed with a major war, when intelligently reasoned risks were taken because they had to be, and when our nation's very technological base as at stake along with our international prestige and even our very credibility... can we learn from this lesson in our new efforts today?

I think you already know the answer.

Apollo went forth to the moon with about 36k in computing power... with barely fleshed-out engine designs with just a few years of testing behind them... and with a primitive gyroscopically-oriented navigation system that had to frequently be re-aligned with sextant-style star sightings. We don't really need to do it better 40 years later, but I hope we can. And soon.

Every decade that humanity dawdles on this planet and it's immediate space environs diminishes us a bit. We are achieving good things here on Earth, sometimes great things. But, even as we continue to probe the depths of the seas and the diversity of the worldly biosphere, the grand reach eludes us, because we are not reaching. We are waiting. And when we become content with waiting, instead of striving, well... maybe that's the end of not just the American Century, but of humanity's most recent golden age. And that would be a real shame.

These may be truths, or they may be the romanticized ramble of a child of the space age. You be the judge. Whatever the truth may be, I have tried to set the stage for this blog: looking back at Apollo. That's what we are here for, and that's what "Missions to the Moon" is in large part for.

So sit back, grab some Tang, and enjoy.

THE ERROR LOG

Corrections, with my apologies!

[Corrections courtesy of the wonderful and talented Steve Adamczyk]

Page 11: 3rd paragraph. Wrong date. Yuri Gagarin launched on 12 April 1961.

Page 14: 2nd column 5th paragraph. It is widely accepted that Gus Grissom hung the lemon over the 'simulator' hatch, not the spacecraft's hatch.

Page 15: LOR consensus box. Should be 'Marshall' not Manned(MSFC).

Page 33: First full paragraph, S1VB should be SIVB.

Page 35: 2nd column 3rd line. "The Eagle had landed" should be, 'has landed'.

Page 47: Pictures box, 03. Charlie Duke, Fred Haise; names are transposed.

Page 48: The Pastor (1930-1991) box. 2nd line, Apollo should be 'Apollos'. 3rd line Apollos should be 'Apollo'.

Page 54: 2nd column last paragraph. Tom Stafford commanded (ASTP) not Deke Slayton.