Author Topic: 40th anniversary of Apollo 11 moon landing: 10 things you didnt know  (Read 1078 times)

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Hollywood

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Interesting article ... here are some of the better ones:

2. The Apollo computers had less processing power than a cellphone.  :o

3. Drinking water was a fuel-cell by-product, but Apollo 11’s hydrogen-gas filters didn’t work, making every drink bubbly. Urinating and defecating in zero gravity, meanwhile, had not been figured out; the latter was so troublesome that at least one astronaut spent his entire mission on an anti-diarrhea drug to avoid it.  :o :o

http://www.popsci.com/military-aviation-amp-space/article/2009-06/40-years-later-ten-things-you-didnt-know-about-apollo-ii-moon-landing

recursivelyenumerable

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Re: 40th anniversary of Apollo 11 moon landing: 10 things you didnt know
« Reply #1 on: July 15, 2009, 02:01:43 AM »
Quote
2. The Apollo computers had less processing power than a cellphone.  Shocked

A couple orders of magnitude less (than something like the iPhone, anyway), I'd imagine.
QED

brawndolicious

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Re: 40th anniversary of Apollo 11 moon landing: 10 things you didnt know
« Reply #2 on: July 15, 2009, 02:05:26 AM »
Their solution at the time seemed to be glorified ziploc bags, with a separate one for piss and shit waste.  Zero gravity crapping into a ziploc bag is actually surprisingly difficult as the fecal matter will stick to your cheeks without any gravity or suction to pull it down.

The current solution is a special toilet that has a constant light suction and that before the astronaut began crapping, they would place a perforated disposable plastic net thing on the bowl to catch the solid waste but to allow the suction pressure.  The net would then be compacted by a special piston on the toilet to make for more economical storage.  The little poo disks would be shipped back to earth for disposal of course.

Urination is very, very easy in comparison though since the urine droplets would be sucked up by a sort of "hose" and that the hose had a separate funnel for each crew member for hygienic reasons.  I heard that the astronauts also use these for the number three.

The advantage of zero gravity when it comes to waste management is when they're doing space-walks and wearing the diapers.  No leaks.
« Last Edit: July 15, 2009, 02:08:35 AM by am nintenho »

Bildi

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Re: 40th anniversary of Apollo 11 moon landing: 10 things you didnt know
« Reply #3 on: July 15, 2009, 02:17:25 AM »
Can someone post more of the article - I get redirected to the fucking Australian website and can't find the fucking article. :maf :maf :maf

Joe Molotov

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Re: 40th anniversary of Apollo 11 moon landing: 10 things you didnt know
« Reply #4 on: July 15, 2009, 02:20:17 AM »
Quote
7. When Buzz Aldrin joined Armstrong on the surface, he had to make sure not to lock the Eagle's door because there was no outer handle.

In an episode of the MST3k, they were reenacting the moon landing, and Joel (as Buzz Aldrin) accidentally locks the keys in the lander.
©@©™

Great Rumbler

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Re: 40th anniversary of Apollo 11 moon landing: 10 things you didnt know
« Reply #5 on: July 15, 2009, 02:24:05 AM »
Interesting article ... here are some of the better ones:

2. The Apollo computers had less processing power than a cellphone.  :o

3. Drinking water was a fuel-cell by-product, but Apollo 11’s hydrogen-gas filters didn’t work, making every drink bubbly. Urinating and defecating in zero gravity, meanwhile, had not been figured out; the latter was so troublesome that at least one astronaut spent his entire mission on an anti-diarrhea drug to avoid it.  :o :o

http://www.popsci.com/military-aviation-amp-space/article/2009-06/40-years-later-ten-things-you-didnt-know-about-apollo-ii-moon-landing

This one is definitely my favorite:

11. The footage of the moon landing was shot on a sound stage at the Johnson Space Center in Texas. The actual rocket launch, witnessed by thousands at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida, was a complex 3D hologram projected against the sky along with four 100-gigawatt speakers providing the sound. To give authenticity to the testimonies of Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin, the two astronauts were placed under hypnosis by Uri Gellar and forced to memorize a script written by Arthur C. Clarke.

Incredible!
dog

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Re: 40th anniversary of Apollo 11 moon landing: 10 things you didnt know
« Reply #6 on: July 15, 2009, 02:24:30 AM »
.
dog

Hollywood

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Re: 40th anniversary of Apollo 11 moon landing: 10 things you didnt know
« Reply #7 on: July 15, 2009, 02:44:28 AM »
Can someone post more of the article - I get redirected to the fucking Australian website and can't find the fucking article. :maf :maf :maf

This month marks the 40th anniversary of humankind's first steps on the moon. Auspiciously timed is Craig Nelson's new book, Rocket Men--one of the most detailed accounts of the period leading up to the first manned moon mission. Here, we have ten little-known Apollo 11 facts unearthed by Nelson during his research.

1. The Apollo’s Saturn rockets were packed with enough fuel to throw 100-pound shrapnel three miles, and NASA couldn’t rule out the possibility that they might explode on takeoff. NASA seated its VIP spectators three and a half miles from the launchpad.

2. The Apollo computers had less processing power than a cellphone.

3. Drinking water was a fuel-cell by-product, but Apollo 11’s hydrogen-gas filters didn’t work, making every drink bubbly. Urinating and defecating in zero gravity, meanwhile, had not been figured out; the latter was so troublesome that at least one astronaut spent his entire mission on an anti-diarrhea drug to avoid it.

4. When Apollo 11’s lunar lander, the Eagle, separated from the orbiter, the cabin wasn’t fully depressurized, resulting in a burst of gas equivalent to popping a champagne cork. It threw the module’s landing four miles off-target.

5. Pilot Neil Armstrong nearly ran out of fuel landing the Eagle, and many at mission control worried he might crash. Apollo engineer Milton Silveira, however, was relieved: His tests had shown that there was a small chance the exhaust could shoot back into the rocket as it landed and ignite the remaining propellant.

6. The "one small step for man" wasn’t actually that small. Armstrong set the ship down so gently that its shock absorbers didn’t compress. He had to hop 3.5 feet from the Eagle’s ladder to the surface.

7. When Buzz Aldrin joined Armstrong on the surface, he had to make sure not to lock the Eagle's door because there was no outer handle.

8. The toughest moonwalk task? Planting the flag. NASA’s studies suggested that the lunar soil was soft, but Armstrong and Aldrin found the surface to be a thin wisp of dust over hard rock. They managed to drive the flagpole a few inches into the ground and film it for broadcast, and then took care not to accidentally knock it over.


9. The flag was made by Sears, but NASA refused to acknowledge this because they didn’t want "another Tang."

10. The inner bladder of the space suits—the airtight liner that keeps the astronaut’s body under Earth-like pressure—and the ship’s computer’s ROM chips were handmade by teams of “little old ladies.”

Craig Nelson uncovered these facts in various NASA archives while researching his new book, Rocket Men (Viking; $28).

Bildi

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Re: 40th anniversary of Apollo 11 moon landing: 10 things you didnt know
« Reply #8 on: July 15, 2009, 02:45:44 AM »
Thank you!

:heartbeat

Bildi

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Re: 40th anniversary of Apollo 11 moon landing: 10 things you didnt know
« Reply #9 on: July 15, 2009, 02:48:57 AM »
Quote
6. The "one small step for man" wasn’t actually that small. Armstrong set the ship down so gently that its shock absorbers didn’t compress. He had to hop 3.5 feet from the Eagle’s ladder to the surface.

I always thought it a bit odd that the ladder ended so high up.  Pretty interesting stuff.

ManaByte

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Re: 40th anniversary of Apollo 11 moon landing: 10 things you didnt know
« Reply #10 on: July 15, 2009, 03:35:25 AM »
With luck we may have high resolution pictures of the landing site from orbit by Monday. Then all the hoaxer distinguished mentally-challenged fellows can die.
CBG

recursivelyenumerable

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Re: 40th anniversary of Apollo 11 moon landing: 10 things you didnt know
« Reply #11 on: July 15, 2009, 12:58:54 PM »
Quote
A couple orders of magnitude less (than something like the iPhone, anyway), I'd imagine.

To follow up on this, it seems to have had 4k of RAM and a 2 MHz custom processor.  The specs are all public so people have made emulators:   http://www.ibiblio.org/apollo/index.html
QED

ManaByte

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CBG

Rman

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Re: 40th anniversary of Apollo 11 moon landing: 10 things you didnt know
« Reply #13 on: July 16, 2009, 12:31:08 AM »
i love nasa.  it's so sad that much of their funding has been cut over the past few presidential administrations.

Bocsius

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Re: 40th anniversary of Apollo 11 moon landing: 10 things you didnt know
« Reply #14 on: July 16, 2009, 12:40:07 AM »
With luck we may have high resolution pictures of the landing site from orbit by Monday. Then all the hoaxer distinguished mentally-challenged fellows can die.

Yeah, no way they could call ILM and get a few renders.

ManaByte

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Re: 40th anniversary of Apollo 11 moon landing: 10 things you didnt know
« Reply #15 on: July 16, 2009, 05:23:40 PM »
Listen to the entire mission in real-time:
http://www.wechoosethemoon.org/

NASA is doing the same thing on their site. But the JFK Library one is much better. NASA's looks like it was rendered by some kid in Art 101.
CBG