meganiwish Posted April 30, 2021 Share 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 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Shyheels Posted April 30, 2021 Share 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 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
at9 Posted April 30, 2021 Share 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 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Shyheels Posted April 30, 2021 Share Posted April 30, 2021 Apparently he quite enjoyed his time alone in the command capsule. There’s a difference between solitude and loneliness. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
at9 Posted April 30, 2021 Share 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 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Shyheels Posted April 30, 2021 Share Posted April 30, 2021 That would have been a truly dreadful journey Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bubba136 Posted April 30, 2021 Share 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. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cali Posted April 30, 2021 Share 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 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bubba136 Posted May 1, 2021 Share 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. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Shyheels Posted May 1, 2021 Share Posted May 1, 2021 And slide rules… Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
meganiwish Posted May 2, 2021 Author Share Posted May 2, 2021 Imagine giving a slide rule to a youngster today. They'd struggle to draw a straight line with it. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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