meganiwish Posted April 30, 2021 Posted April 30, 2021 I wept a little for Michael Collins today. Old age, I know, and a good old age at that, but all those 'spacemen' are part of my childish belief in the future. Such brave men, who readily admit to being little more than ballast. You can fly all the drones you want on Mars. No-one really cares. Chaps doing it for real, now that's a different matter. 2
Shyheels Posted April 30, 2021 Posted April 30, 2021 Indeed! I saw him on a multi-part documentary on the Apollo program and not only did he come across as a man possessing The Right Stuff, but as a genuinely nice guy, full of life and enthusiasm and with a great line of self-deprecating humour. Of all the former astronauts that were interviewed for the feature - and they had nearly all of them - Collins came across as the one I would have most wanted to spend an evening with. He seemed fun. 1
at9 Posted April 30, 2021 Posted April 30, 2021 I grew up with the Apollo program (that makes me quite old) and thought Collins' job just about the loneliest in the universe. Many decades on we still haven't been back. 1
Shyheels Posted April 30, 2021 Posted April 30, 2021 Apparently he quite enjoyed his time alone in the command capsule. There’s a difference between solitude and loneliness.
at9 Posted April 30, 2021 Posted April 30, 2021 (edited) Remember that he (and later CM pilots*) had to train to bring the craft home alone. Thank goodness none of them had to do it. *Strictly speaking this was also true for Apollo 9 and more so for 10. Edited April 30, 2021 by at9 Added notes
Bubba136 Posted April 30, 2021 Posted April 30, 2021 (edited) 8 hours ago, Shyheels said: That would have been a truly dreadful journey Just imagine how many untried things had to go perfectly for that mission to succeed! Edited April 30, 2021 by Bubba136 Being mentally comfortable in your own mind is the key to wearing heels in public.
Cali Posted April 30, 2021 Posted April 30, 2021 As a NASA scientist (MARS landers) in the 70's, I know just how little computing power they had to calculate things. It's amazing that every thing worked as well as it did. 2
Bubba136 Posted May 1, 2021 Posted May 1, 2021 (edited) Not to worry! There was several pads of paper and a few pencils on board for use as back should those computers had failed! Edited May 1, 2021 by Bubba136 1 Being mentally comfortable in your own mind is the key to wearing heels in public.
meganiwish Posted May 2, 2021 Author Posted May 2, 2021 Imagine giving a slide rule to a youngster today. They'd struggle to draw a straight line with it. 1
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