One small step for a man; one giant leap.... (Read 1542 times)

    Youngsters! Wink

     

    We were herded into one of the science classrooms with a tv to watch Alan Shepherd get blasted into space (first American) then return and recovered from the ocean. I was in 8th grade. While there was more hoopla after John Glenn's orbits (3rd American in space, 1st American to orbit), I don't remember as much on TV, but am sure there was. Man on the moon, I was between college and grad school.

     

    Yes, I was one of those kids who wanted to participate in the space program in some capacity, but being a computer programmer on some small corner of national defense program was as close as I got. (hard for women to get science-related jobs in the 60s) Well, other than visiting Wallops Island on family vacation.

    "So many people get stuck in the routine of life that their dreams waste away. This is about living the dream." - Cave Dog


    Outside Lane

       

       

      Yes, I was one of those kids who wanted to participate in the space program in some capacity, 

      I dreamed of being an astronaut as a kid - grew up in the 60's and still am completely blown away by watching YouTube video of Apollo launches.  So much progress since then - but those giant leaps of those times are absolutely incredible to look back on.

      See how they run...

        I don't know who the equivalent hero is of today.  In the 60's and 70's a kid would grow up with a science hero who was legend.  They drove Corvettes, had high IQ's, lived exciting lives, studied hard, were in great shape, and were all around people.  It's OK to grow up wanting to be a firefighter, or maybe admiring a science guy on TV like Neil deGrasse Tyson, or maybe some war hero I suppose.  But who is the all around awesome kind of person to look up to?  LeBron James or Aaron Rodgers just aren't going to inspire kids into being academics.

         

         

         

         


        an amazing likeness

          “That's one small step for a man, one giant leap for mankind”

           

          So one day back at the very dawn of the digital age, a guy walks into a room says....I need you to figure out a way to get a person from there to there and back, and points at this:

           

           

          ...and oh, by the way...you have less than 10 years.

           

          I believe to this day that I will never experience anything in my lifetime like that of living in the Apollo age of adventure. They were truly the Greatest Generation.

           

          I can close my eyes and picture the living room on that July where we watched. The heat of a July night in the WV hills....the sense of absolute amazement and wonder that this could possibly happen...the gasp from everyone when he stepped off the landing leg...everyone's struggling to hear what Armstrong had said....I have not the words.

          Acceptable at a dance, invaluable in a shipwreck.

            "So many people get stuck in the routine of life that their dreams waste away. This is about living the dream." - Cave Dog
            BeeRunB


              The famous first step

               

              (or the space geek version of rickrolling)

              JanaLamb


                I'm not really sure if this is off topic, but I've always believed in life outer space. I really believe that we're not the only intelligent life forms living in this vast universe. What do you guys think?

                Increase Speed and Stamina Blog


                an amazing likeness

                  One small step for a man, one giant leap for mankind...

                   

                  We are being told each day of the inability of the United States government to accomplish anything.Step outside, look up into the warm summer sky at tonight's moon high in the July sky and ponder what can be done with focus, commitment, and passion to move forward.

                   

                  So one day back at the very dawn of the digital age, a guy walks into a room says....I need you to figure out a way to get a person from there to there and back, and points at this:

                   

                   

                  ...and oh, by the way...you have less than 10 years.

                   

                  I believe to this day that I will never experience anything in my lifetime like that of living in the Apollo age of adventure. They were truly the Greatest Generation.

                   

                  I can close my eyes and picture the living room on that July where we watched. The heat of a July night in the WV hills....the sense of absolute amazement and wonder that this could possibly happen...the gasp from everyone when he stepped off the landing leg...everyone's struggling to hear what Armstrong had said....I have not the words.

                  Acceptable at a dance, invaluable in a shipwreck.

                  gsaun039


                  Caffeine-fueled Runner

                    I had just turned 16.  Got caught up in the entire Mercury, Gemini, and Apollo Programs and was so looking forward to the Apollo 20 mission (the landing in Tycho where the most complex orbital maneuvers of the time for manned spacecraft would be required) and was disappointed when the program was cancelled and ended at Apollo 17.It was the space program and some natural talents that had me look to engineering as my life's career, though by the time I graduated high school my interest had turned from aeronautical and mechanical engineering to chemical engineering.  The calling of environmental protection was a strong one for me.

                     

                    I, too, remember staying up late to watch those black and white images on the screen and as everyone tried to figure out what Neil Armstrong actually said.

                     

                    Over the next couple of years while in high school, I learned how to write programs, first in BASIC and then in FORTRAN.  In my senior year, I added the capacity to program in assembly language.  I was one of the few people who walked into a university as a freshman and knew how to write complex programs.

                     

                    While I was at the university, we made the transition from slip-sticks (sliderules) to calculators

                     

                    Over the years, I kept up with aspects of the space program.  In my son's lifetime, the Space Shuttle has come and gone with the first flight of Columbia.  I was teaching a course in Denver when the Challenger exploded.  I remember hoping against hope that that the crew might survive, that the crew cabin would somehow emerge from the fireball,  But I also knew the reality of the flight dynamics and that it wasn't a survivable event.

                     

                    So much was spun off from the space program that has expanded to some of the wonderful (and not so wonderful) technology of today.

                    PR's--- 5K  24:11,   10K  49:40,   10-Mile  1:26:02,  HM  1:56:03,   Marathon  4:16:17

                    Maniac #11112, Fanatic #14276, Double Agent #2335

                    kcam


                      I was 8 at the time of the first manned moon landing but collected everything I could and knew 'everything' about Mercury, Gemini and Apollo.  If you really want to understand you have to go over Cape Kennedy and get a first hand look at one of those Apollo rockets.  They have one on it's side there and it boggles the mind how big these things were.  Amazing.

                      gsuan - did you write programs with punch cards?  When I got to college in '80 they made us write our first programs in FORTRAN class on punch cards.  Only those first few and then they let us use the terminals - I think they just wanted us to know how bad they had it before us!

                      LedLincoln


                      not bad for mile 25

                        A bit of the flight plan:


                        an amazing likeness

                          The Brilliant, and Surprisingly Funny, Computer Code Behind the Apollo 11 Mission

                           

                          For example...the master engine ignition software routine being named "BURNBABY"

                           

                          "Under the right circumstances, the AGC [apollo guidance computer] could halt and abort operations without dumping memory, forcing the computer into Program 00, a condition called a “P00DOO abort.” Scattered throughout the comments are references to this condition where it’s typed out as “POODOO” (O’s and not zeroes), so it’s pretty clear how they pronounced it when discussing it aloud. There’s no question in my mind that 30 years before anyone had heard of Jar-Jar Binks, NASA engineers stood around chalk boards discussing how to prevent their programs from taking a poodoo."

                          Acceptable at a dance, invaluable in a shipwreck.

                          kcam


                            Engineers are like that.  You find stuff like that in every piece of code ever.  When I first started at National Semiconductor in the early 80's we came out with a new, faster version of a buffer that was already released.  The existing part was the LH0033C Fast buffer.   What did they call the new one?  The LH0063C Damn Fast buffer.  I kid you not.  It was on the datasheet published in our big databook.  Right then I knew I made the right choice in which company to work for!

                             

                            gsaun039


                            Caffeine-fueled Runner

                              I was 8 at the time of the first manned moon landing but collected everything I could and knew 'everything' about Mercury, Gemini and Apollo.  If you really want to understand you have to go over Cape Kennedy and get a first hand look at one of those Apollo rockets.  They have one on it's side there and it boggles the mind how big these things were.  Amazing.

                              gsuan - did you write programs with punch cards?  When I got to college in '80 they made us write our first programs in FORTRAN class on punch cards.  Only those first few and then they let us use the terminals - I think they just wanted us to know how bad they had it before us!

                               

                              My first programs were developed on 8-channel punch tapes read through a tape reader/teletype style terminal with a 100/300 baud audio coupler modem and then stored on the allocated memory given to our high school.

                               

                              When I went to the University, it was punch cards and card decks.  Each card punched and printed using an IBM 129 card machine.

                              PR's--- 5K  24:11,   10K  49:40,   10-Mile  1:26:02,  HM  1:56:03,   Marathon  4:16:17

                              Maniac #11112, Fanatic #14276, Double Agent #2335


                              an amazing likeness

                                The last of the Mercury 7. Brave. Bold. Skilled. Risk-takers.

                                 

                                "...John Glenn, the lifelong pilot, decorated war veteran, and former senator who became the first American to orbit the Earth during the height of the space race, has died. He was 95.

                                 

                                Glenn died Thursday in his home state of Ohio, a day after news of his hospitalization was reported. He was the last-surviving member of NASA’s first class of astronauts in 1959. He is survived by Annie Glenn, his wife of 73 years.

                                 

                                On the morning of February 20, 1962, a 40-year-old John Glenn stepped inside a Mercury capsule, the spacecraft of America’s first human spaceflight program, for the Friendship 7 mission. The launch from Cape Canaveral, Florida, was broadcast live on radio and television. “Go, baby!” exclaimed Walter Cronkite several times on air as Glenn, the only person on board, shot into the sky. A year earlier, NASA had successfully launched Alan Shepard into space on a Mercury capsule, but human spaceflight was in its infancy and remained a potentially deadly endeavor. NASA, a fledgling four-year-old agency, believed they’d lose at least one astronaut to one of the Mercury missions. Glenn’s capsule was launched on the sixth iteration of the Atlas rocket, and two of the first rockets had blown up.

                                 

                                Glenn entered orbit just fine, and circled the Earth three times in four hours and 56 minutes. He sounded cheerful and calm inside the capsule, making jokes to mission control and thanking the Australians who lit up their homes in greeting as he flew over their continent, while he traveled at nearly 17,500 miles per hour. “Oh, that view is tremendous!” he said in one iconic moment...."

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                                Acceptable at a dance, invaluable in a shipwreck.