Failing at being a crotchety old man

i have no doubt that secret projects are happening all over the world. even in the consumer goods industry

 

Sending people to the moon is fairly groovy.
I recall a picture of Japanese citizens waving US flags to celebrate this achievement...less than 25 years after we fire bombed their largest cities and nuked two of their smaller ones.

Asian memories are long and deep, but it was THAT big a deal!
It wasn’t an American achievement, it was a HUMAN achievement.

However (comma!!!)
We did not discover that there was WATER (ice) on the moon until FOURTY YEARS later, which means that despite the fact that the current POTUS wants to go back, we’ll certainly be sending people back.

Water is heavy stuff, and in space exploration, it’s a pretty big deal too....

So....
Sending beans into space isn’t efficient, but it IS necessary.

Then and now.

YMMV

 

Our largest government secrets factory that is still expanding is down in Australia

Area 51 is just a place to learn to shoot stuff or bomb stuff or in the near future test flame throwers

 

really, what is going on down under?

 

Pine Gap - Wikipedia

Leading edge long range surveillance, data crunching and a chemical lab

 

wow, that's quite a history. never heard of it before.

 

Armstrong and Aldrin are in the Lunar Module now. Well 50 years ago now

Apollo 11 in Real Time

(Audio is MUCH better if you leave it on the "PHOTOGRAPHY" Tab. Bit of a bug on that website.)



Go for Descent Orbit Insertion:


The burn for DOI will happen while they're around the far side, out of radio contact, if I'm not mistaken?

 

103:25:11 Collins Okay. Thank you. Glad to hear the system's looking good. You have a suggested attitude for me? This one here seems all right.
103:25:18 Mission Control Stand by.
103:25:24 Collins Let me know when it's lunch time, will you?
103:25:26 Mission Control Say again.
103:25:31 Collins Oh, disregard.
103:25:34 Mission Control Columbia, Houston. You got a good attitude right there.
103:25:39 Collins Okay. Thank you.

103:27:13 Public Affairs This is Apollo Control. We've had Loss of Signal now from the Command Module and of course, we'll maintain constant communications with the Lunar Module on the lunar surface. We have some heart rates for Neil Armstrong during that powered descent to the lunar surface. At the time the burn was initiated, Armstrong's heart rate was 110. At touchdown on the lunar surface, he had a heart rate of 156 beats her minute, and the Flight Surgeon reports that his heart rate is now in the 90's. We do not have biomedical on Buzz Aldrin.

 

Just to get a sense of the proportions, I sketched this out in autocad:

 

With dimensions:

 

mendel, you realize it was all a hoax, right?

 

I was going to opine that your drawing is a little off, but your measurements might be pretty close.
The Earth’s meridional diameter is about 7,900.something miles or 12,714 km, while the equatorial diameter is something like 7,926.4 miles or 12,756.3 something klicks.

So....now I’m wondering if your 7,917 mile figure is some notional average - or the measurement that results in backing out the 23.5 degree axial tilt?

Hmmmmmm

 

Just Google info, my tape measure didn't reach.

I've heard (Will Smith told me, in a documentary on Netflix...) that if we DIDN'T have that 23.5 degree tilt of the rotational axis, the world would be a far different place. Currently temperate zones would be icebound.

Really enjoyed listening to that 50 years on thing (it's not over yet, they're still coming back, at more than a mile a second), kinda missed it (and a lot of stuff) the first time 'round.

 

Yeah...me too.

 

13,000 nautical miles to go and moving fast.