Space stuff thread

chefduane · 12 Apr 2018

Went to a talk today given by a guy named Phil Pollacia. He is an old time IBM'er that that worked on all the flight command code for the Gemini up through the SpaceLab programs. He headed up the team that did all the vector calculations for the translunar injection, lunar orbital insertion, trans earth injection, and then re-entry insertion and splashdown. He sat in the control room for Gemini, Apollo, and SpaceLab. Fascinating guy. Turns out he lives in my hometown! He had numerous pictures of him with Chris Craft and a number of the astronauts. Gave about a 2 hour talk and then Q&A for about an hour. Most people asked about Apollo 13 and the movie, etc. But one story he mentioned was that Apollo 8 had some VERY serious nav issues when Lovell mistakenly entered a command that reconfigured the spacecraft orientation and they developed a bad serious wobble that took some celestial dead reckoning to get the spacecraft reoriented properly. The spacecraft and crew would have been lost had it not been for the flight skills of Lovell and Borman. Much more serious than the public ever knew. Very close to losing it he said. Apollo 8 was also the mission in which the famous Earth rise photograph was taken during the Genesis reading. That particular photo completely changed our view of Earth and our place in the Universe. It was also 1968 and the US was in the midst of much social upheaval and that photo made everyone stop and think.

As an ex-Hughes Aircraft guy who worked on satellite systems (being a Chef is a second career) I was really interested in his insights. All in all a fascinating talk from an interesting guy. Hope to see him around town.

Anak · 12 Apr 2018

Wonderful story CD; I'll go to presentations like that and our historical society, and always come away inspired.

Unplanned manual re-alignment

Later, Lovell used some otherwise idle time to do some navigational sightings, maneuvering the module to view various stars by using the computer keyboard. However, he accidentally erased some of the computer's memory, which caused the Inertial Measurement Unit (IMU) to think the module was in the same relative position it had been in before lift-off and fire the thrusters to "correct" the module's attitude.[18]

Once the crew realized why the computer had changed the module's attitude, they realized they would have to re-enter data that would tell the computer its real position. It took Lovell ten minutes to figure out the right numbers, using the thrusters to get the stars Rigel and Sirius aligned, and another 15 minutes to enter the corrected data into the computer.[36]

Sixteen months later, Lovell would once again have to perform a similar manual re-alignment, under more critical conditions, during the Apollo 13 mission, after that module's IMU had to be turned off to conserve energy. In his 1994 book, Lost Moon: The Perilous Voyage of Apollo 13, Lovell wrote, "My training [on Apollo 8] came in handy!" In that book he dismissed the incident as a "planned experiment", requested by the ground crew.[36] In subsequent interviews Lovell has acknowledged that the incident was an accident, caused by his mistake.[18][19]

4.6 Unplanned manual re-alignment | wikipedia

chefduane · 12 Apr 2018

Yes, and there were only 20 people or so there and most of them were seasoned citizens. Too bad that more people aren't interested in things like this (although I understand its not interesting for everybody) and that young folks aren't interested. Pollacia had a significant impact on the success of the space program and much of the technologies that kids today base their lives around came out of the work of guys like him and the technologies of the US space program.

Anak · 12 Apr 2018

I could not agree more.

Anak · 10 Jun 2018

NASA’s Curiosity rover has found new evidence preserved in rocks on Mars that suggests the planet could have supported ancient life, as well as new evidence in the Martian atmosphere that relates to the search for current life on the Red Planet. While not necessarily evidence of life itself, these findings are a good sign for future missions exploring the planet’s surface and subsurface.

NASA Finds Ancient Organic Material, Mysterious Methane on Mars

Brink · 25 Jul 2018

Underground Lake Found on Mars? Get the Facts.

Brink · 26 May 2020

Watch SpaceX launch of Crew Dragon to ISS on May 27 - Windows 10 Forums

TechnoMage2016 · 05 Jul 2020

That Home Brew rocket actually worked! Our guys are now safe on the Space Station. Voila!

chefduane · 10 Jul 2020

I'm beginning to think that SpaceX might be the only way we're ever going to reach Mars. Seems like they've made incredible strides in a few short years. Being able to land vertically on a ocean going platform still blows my mind.

Space stuff thread

NASA Finds Ancient Organic Material...