Slashdot Mirror

I'd take pieces of the Moon to give to people or to show off to strangers.

I know of one moon rock you can actually touch if you wanted too. I think was at the CosmoSphere in Hutchison KS http://www.cosmo.org/mu_artifa...

In fact, I'd strongly suggest that if you really insist we didn't go to the moon that you visit both the Cosmosphere in Kansas and the Smithsonian Air & Space museum in Washington DC and go though their exhibits that have the artifacts and facts on the subject. I'm sure you will learn something.

Back when I was living in Wichita, Kansas, one of the few nice things about the area was the Cosmosphere, a shockingly out of place top-notch aerospace museum in nearby retirement town Hutchinson. It has a decommissioned SR-71 hanging from the ceiling in the lobby. I'm not by any means an aircraft geek, but even I have to stop and mumble "that is a gorgeous plane".

The Cosmosphere in Hutchinson, Kansas is worth a visit. Great museum of spacecraft and astro/aero artifacts.

http://www.cosmo.org/ I went here this summer, it's in Hutchison, KS, and has a wide range of actual flight hardware from various space missions - including the Apollo 13 CM. There's also an actual SR-71 Blackbird and genuine V-1 and V-2 rockets from WWII. Worth a trip if you're passing through!

I wonder what the freight costs are from Moscow to Hutchinson?

Nothing terribly much locally. Kansas Cosmosphere and Space Center in Hutchinson was pretty cool last I saw it. Indianapolis Museum of Natural History was also pretty cool. They have a few here in Wichita, but unless it's just on the way anyhow I'm not so sure I'd bother.

Three that I have enjoyed are:
Marshal Space Flight Center, Huntsville, AL
The Atomic Museum, Albuquerque, NM
The Cosmosphere, Hutchinson, KS
There are many more possibilities. Most large government labs, such as Fermilab have tours and/or a visitor center. Most large universities have museums. These are often small but sometimes excellent and some have not been "dumbed down" like some of the larger public museums.

Kennedy Space Center is a decent museum, but for the money, let me plug The Kansas Cosmosphere and Space Center in Hutchinson, KS - they have THE best collection of Russian gear outside of Moscow, as well as a great deal of US gear.

The Air & Space Museum is wonderful; almost equally so is the Kansas Cosmosphere & Space Center (http://www.cosmo.org/) in Hutchinson, KS which is an hour and thirteen minutes away from Wichita as Google Maps calculates it. Other than the space race artifact exhibits, it has an entertaining (though childish) show about rocketry posed as Dr. Goddard's Lab, a couple of good planetarium shows, and an IMAX theater whose schedule rotates.

The did well to list The Cosmosphere, but I'm surprised they didn't mention The Salt Mine Museum just down the road, or Big Brutus over in the eastern part of the state.

I'm rather disappointed that The Kansas Cosmosphere and Space Center isn't listed: there is NO other museum where you can see an authentic V1 and V2 under the same roof, let alone an SR-71, Apollo 13, plus more Russian gear than anyplace outside of Moscow.

I've been to the Kansas Cosmosphere where they have several space vehicles on display, including the Apollo 13 module - it's a great museum.

I don't know if they have the kind of budget to try for this but I hope they can. They are also one of the premier shops when it comes to restoring such items; They actually did the work for the spacecraft in the Apollo 13 movie.

Speaking on behalf of all midwestern /.ers, I hope one ends up in the Kansas Cosmosphere Probably won't happen, though. They're affiliated with the Smithsonian institute, and, while they'll probably get one for the Air and Space Museum in DC, they probably won't buy 2.

Weather here (in Kansas) is fine, and we do have a lot of former astronauts and astronomers from Kansas.

We also have a must-see, while you're on the topic -- the Cosmosphere! It's got a *lot* more space artifacts than the Air and Space Museum.... Too bad it's in Hutchinson, KS, though:
    http://www.cosmo.org/

I can't recommend this place enough. If you are anywhere within 50 miles of Hutchinson, it's worth visiting. For a true space geek, skip the IMAX and planetarium shows and make sure you've got several hours to go through their Hall of Space museum. I've been through over a dozen times, and I'm still in awe every time I go.

You're right, it isn't new.

NASA used liquid cooling garments for temperature control in space suits in the 1960s. They might have been used earlier than that in flight suits for air and space research. You can probably still see one on display at the Kansas Cosmosphere and Space Center's Hall of Space museum.

Jim

If you would like to see a very good comparison between the US and the USSR space race, starting all the way back in WWII Germany, you should go to The Kansas Cosmosphere and Space Center in Hutchinson, KS. The Hall of Space exhibit starts with the German slave camps building the V1 and V2 rocket, and goes all the way through to Apollo/Soyuez.

It is one of the few places on Earth where you can see an intact V1 and V2 rocket.

Should your friend ever decide that he needs to give that computer a new home, send it here.

If you had paid attention, nowhere on the Kansas Cosmosphere website do they abbreviate themselves as "KSC". Moron.

No, I am not talking about Kennedy Space Center.

If you had looked at the subject line, you might have noticed the word "Kansas" there.

If you had read the posts, you might have noticed this link.

In short, if you had paid attention, you might have not needed to post your message.

I wonder if they'll have any involvement. After all they single-handedly restored the Liberty Bell 7 (their link here. And also helped with the restoration of the Apollo 13 as well. When you tought of Kansas, you probably didn't think of space now did ya?

I wonder if they'll have any involvement. After all they single-handedly restored the Liberty Bell 7 (their link here. And also helped with the restoration of the Apollo 13 as well. When you tought of Kansas, you probably didn't think of space now did ya?

As does the Cosmosphere in Hutchinson, KS Hutchinson Cosmosphere
They've also got the Apollo 13 return capsule.
A Refurbished V2 rocket & V1- Buzz Bomb.
One of the largest collections of Russian space equipment in the world.
Sections of the Berlin wall.
Flight ready, backup's of several spacecraft.
A life size training copy of the lunar lander.
A lunar rover.
Most of this stuff is very close to you when you walk through and a substantial portion can be touched.

This is a great place to go and not very expensive.

There is an unused Lunokhod rover here in the states. Here is a color picture I took a few years ago. The rover is/was at the Kansas Cosmosphere. The Cosmosphere is a wonderful place, and well worth making a road trip.

The top of the rover popped open lengthwise to reveal the solar panels. The long nose looking thing on the front was the antenna. There are rumors that these rovers did sample returns even. Havn't seen any proof though.

IIRC, the Kansas Cosmosphere has an example of one of these robot explorers.

Yeah and if you want, you can even LEASE a Gemeni capsule! http://www.cosmo.org/artifact/leasing.html

And if you are in Kansas, you can see them st the Kansas Cosmosphere and Space Center.

There's a nice replica of one of those, not more then ten miles from where I lived. Not to mention being able to touch an SR-71 that flew, and being able to stand less then 5 foot away from the original Apollo 13 command module . . . long live Kansas.

I guess I am spoiled rotten, since the space museum near where I live does restoration for a living.

I wonder if they are going to have the Cosmosphere do the restoration work on the Saturn 5?

Heck, I'd bet they'd do the work for the US$1.5 they have now, if the would let the Cosmosphere display it....

Here is a the actual Cosmosphere link, other one sucks.

If you happen to be in the middle of the nowhere that is Kansas ...
Kansas Cosmosphere

"... a U.S. space artifact collection second only to the National Air and Space Museum and the largest collection of Russian space artifacts found outside of Moscow..." and a chunk of the Berlin wall.

Hays, KS: Sternberg Museum of Natural History
http://www.fhsu.edu/sternberg/.

Hutchinson, KS: Kansas Cosmosphere and Space Center
http://www.cosmo.org. "With a U.S. space artifact collection second only to the National Air and Space Museum and the largest collection of Russian space artifacts found outside of Moscow, the Cosmosphere's Hall of Space Museum is uniquely positioned to tell the story of the Space Race. By focusing on the human story of space exploration and punctuating that story with one of the finest collections of international space artifacts in the world the Museum places space exploration in a broad historical context and presents the story of the Space Race in a way that no other museum in the world can."

Kansas City, MO: Linda Hall Library
http://www.lindahall.org. "The Linda Hall Library, opened in 1946 is the largest privately endowed science, engineering and technology library in the world." I work at Linda Hall, so I'm a little biased, but we really do have tons of journals, monographs, and rare books on just about every geek topic you can think of. :)
...brig

The Kansas Cosmosphere Museum has "a U.S. space artifact collection second only to the National Air and Space Museum and the largest collection of Russian space artifacts found outside of Moscow, the Cosmosphere's Hall of Space Museum is uniquely positioned to tell the story of the Space Race. By focusing on the human story of space exploration--and punctuating that story with one of the finest collections of international space artifacts in the world--the Museum places space exploration in a broad historical context and presents the story of the Space Race in a way that no other museum in the world can."

Of course, there's also Area 51.

The single biggest problem is that Interstate 70 (which runs across the northern section of the state) goes through some of the most MIND-NUMBINGLY BORING terrain I've ever seen, and since that is how most people who cross the state see it they form an unjustified opinion.

Most of Kansas used to be inland see, millenia ago. Hence the flatness - the ocean bottom deposited uniformly across the state.

However, IF you are going to be going through Kansas, let me give you some pointers on where to go:

Southeastern section: Go see Big Brutus in West Mineral, KS.. If you have any interest in mechanical engineering you'll love this.

South Central: The Kansas Cosmosphere and Space Center has the best collection of Russian space hardware outside Russia itself, as well as US gear. They were the first to be made a Smithsonian partner, and that was as much so that the Smithsonian could gain access to the Cosmospere's collection as the other way around. Hutchinson, KS - and if you were planning on going across on I-70 I's suggest you drop down on I-35 (throught the Flint Hills)to US-50 then across into Hutch. Stop by Yoder, KS and get some Cinnamon Rolls at the Carriage Crossing Restaurant.
If you are going towards New Mexico, drop down and take I-160 from Medicine Lodge through the Gypsum Hills. There IS scenery in Kansas - we just don't run our major roads through it.

North West: If you are heading to Denver, you pretty much have to take either I-70 or K-96. If you are on I-70, stop through Quinter, KS and see Castle Rock, a natural formation akin to the Badlands in South Dakota.
Also, you can go to Monument Rocks which is a similar sort of geography.
Also on I-70 in Hays, KS is the Sternberg Museum of Natural History which will be a hit with any parent of children who are interested in dinosaurs.

I just hope they aren't jerks about it like Lucas was for StarWars.

The Imax Theater near me couldn't show Star Wars because to show SW, you had to show ONLY SW - and they could not accept that - they wanted to show their other films as well.

That said, I just wonder how they deal with a 2 hour movie, given the size of the reel for a 40 minute movie....

(I cannot wait until DLPs are beefy enough to use them to feed Imax/Omnimax screens - Imax at 60 Hz would be quite nice.)

1) Big Brutus, in West Mineral, Kansas - the second largest electric shovel in the world, and (IIRC) the only one still in (more or less) one piece. If you are in Branson, MO you are a couple of hours out.

2) The Kansas Cosmosphere and Space Center, Hutchinson, Kansas. See where Apollo 13 and Liberty Bell were restored, and (in a couple of months) watch them restore a V2 rocket (and even help them do it!). (While here, if it isn't Sunday, get directions to The Carrage Crossing restaurant).

3) EBR-1 the world's first breeder reactor, and the first reactor to make electric power, just outside Arco, Idaho (first city to be powered by nuclear power) (while here, you can go through Craters of the Moon National Park, one of the places that the Apollo astronauts trained. Stay in the DK inn, and you have a good chance of staying in one of the rooms they stayed in).
4) The Very Large Array, outside Socorro, New Mexico. While here, you could also go through White Sands National Park.
5) The London Bridge V2.1 in Lake Havasu, Nevada, where the entire London Bridge was relocated to.
6) The Jefferson National Expansion Memorial a.k.a. The Saint Lewis Arch - there is quite a museum below the arch, and I found it mind-blowing to realize that Saint Lewis is an ocean port.
7) Mount Rushmore National Park - go through the Rushmore Borglum Story for how they carved it and the tricks Borglum used to make the faces look more alive. While there, stop by....
8) Crazy Horse Memorial to see such a work being created.
9) Mesa Verde National Park, near Cortez, Colorado, and Walnut Canyon National Monument, near Flagstaff, AZ, are great examples of how people can eake out a living and build a city where you wouldn't think anybody could survive.

Of course, just look at The National Parks Service website for all sorts of cool places to go.

KSC isn't bad, but it's not as great as you might think.

But again, I'm spoiled.

I can see an SR-71, a V2, Redstone rockets, Apollo 13 (the real deal), Russian Soyez and Vostok capsules, Chuck Yeager's jacket, Svetlana's space suit.

Then I can go eat homemade Amish pie.

I have the fortune to live near The Kansas Cosmosphere and Space Center in Hutchinson, Kansas. They are one of the leading space museums (in the same league as the Smithsonian), and their biggest claim to fame is the fact that they have the largest collection of Russian Space artifacts outside Russia. This is in large part due to their main exhibit, the Hall Of Space.

The Hall of Space shows the evolution of the Space Race, from World War II (including a fully restored V2 rocket) to the modern day. But rather than being a "rah rah rah, we beat you to the M-ooon! Nyah-Nyah!" it is a very balanced portrail of just how close the race was, and just how bad the Russians were kicking our asses at first. Thus, the Russians really like the Cosmosphere, and when they are looking for a place outside their own museums to house artifacts they call the Cosmosphere first.

In the Hall of Space they make a point I've not seen made anywhere else - they point out that JFK was trying to find a means of competition between the USSR and the USA that didn't involve building large amounts of weapons, so he started the space race to "drain off" some of the competition, hoping to keep both sides working on that rather than destroying the world.

And it seems to have worked.

So in a very real way the space race was "mankind racing against itself" - racing to mature away from the need to destroy itself.

Really, if you are ever to be anywhere within 200 miles of the Cosmosphere, I urge you to go there. If you are crossing the US on either I40 or I70, then you owe yourself the side trip.

(No, I neither work for the Cosmosphere nor own any interest in it.)

If you are interested, drop me a line in my journal, and I'll give you more detailed advise.

Korolev, the "Grand Designer" of the Soviet space program, was easily the equal of Von Braun. With his ability and the fact that the Russians got all the German V2 production lines and factories and, many of the people who operated them during WWII, also gave the Soviets a huge boost.

And the US *DID* use the V2 scientists to the best of their abilities, but initially only for military projects. The doomed satelite launches made in response to Sputnik (Vanguard) were on not-ready-for-prime-time civilian launch vehicles, not military rockets. In fact, the military already had proven technology on the shelf that could put a satellite in orbit, but Von Braun was expressly forbidden by the President from using 'military hardware' for such a purpose.

Eventually, Von Braun was allowed to put the first American satellite (Explorer 1) in orbit with his Jupiter C rocket.

(NOTE: Jupiter C was a slightly modified Jupiter missle, which was designed during Von Braun's 'satellite ban' for a 'special nose-cone' test. After the initial testing, Von Braun kept a few Jupiter C's in storage for a 'certain time' and a 'certain nose-cone test'. Later it was obvious that the 'nose-cone test' was his plan to put a satellite in orbit.)

Anyway, I picked all this up last weekend at the Kansas Cosmosphere. Very neat place, and the current home of the Odyssey command module from Apollo 13.

The guy who wanted to drive a fortified SUV INTO a tornado shouldn't be allowed to breed. We will be hearing more about him in the Darwin awards, rest assured.

Look, I live in Tornado alley, and up to a few months ago lived in "pre-fabricated housing", a.k.a. a trailer home (a.k.a. "tornado bait"). I'm a part-time storm spotter, and I've seen the damage a "little" F-1 gustnado can cause, let alone an F-5 monster. An F-5 will quite literally suck the asphalt off a highway.

If I were out tooling around in, say, an M1A1 Abrahms Tank, and I saw a tornado coming, I would turn tail and run (at right angles to the path of the tornado) as fast as that tank's treads would take me. Wind speeds in the vortex of a tornado have been measured at OVER 300 miles per hour with Doppler radar. Even a tank will be blown over.

This fool, in his SUV, will be waking up wondering what all these midgets are doing around him. Either that, or wondering where all the harp music is coming from.

I just dodged around a storm last night trying to get home. By local standards it wasn't anything much, but it left the roads covered in hail, dropped over an inch of rain in thirty minutes, and had 60 MPH sustained winds. I was driving, listening to the two local storm spotter nets on 2 meters, and trying to spot the rain and hail shafts in the lightning. It wasn't fun.

I've seen the shows about tourists coming to the US to see a tornado - they spend 2 weeks driving from Texas to South Dakota to see a storm, covering over 3000 miles! Word of advice folks: just come over in the spring, and plan a normal vacation. See the
sights and enjoy yourselves. The tornados will find you. Trust me.

Considering where I plan on spending my weeking, a thought occurs to me.

They say there are about 20 theaters with digital projection equipment in the US. Theaters are having problems getting enough money to buy the gear. Perhaps the digital movement it targeting the wrong forum?

What if IMAX/Omnimax theaters were to go digital? Granted, I'd want at least a 4x improvement in spatial resolution before throwing it up on a big screen like that, but consider the cost of Imax films WRT normal theatrical releases. Perhaps that would be the place to start?

Now, what I'd really like to see is a standard by which a film could be set up for ether Imax or Omnimax - that way you'd avoid the distortion of the Imax to Omnimax lens Omnimax theaters have to use.

Also, I too would like to see an increase from 24 fps to about 60.

Yes, you'd need BIG HONKING harddrives to store all that information (looks down at his computer, with 210G of local storage). Check.

I wonder if Max Ary reads Slashdot....

For those of you who don't know who www.comso.org is (the URL of the link above), the Kansas Cosmosphere and Space center is a space museum here in Kansas (Hutchinson, to be exact) that has the largest collection of Russian space hardware outside Russia itself. It's where NASA sends its astronauts to train on Russian space hardware, where Ron Howard and Tom Hanks went to get the space hardware for their movies, where just about every museum in the world sends their space hardware for preservation work.

I'd always said that I expected Max to be out in the Pacific with a big catcher's mitt when MIR came down. I wouldn't be too surprised if Max got in on this bid.

Assuming, of course, that it is real, and not a hoax...

People keep talking about the heat buildup at Mach 1.5. You forget the Sonic Wind series of experiments: Strap a fool to a rocket-powered sled on rails and light the fuse. Fool and sled exceed Mach 1. Fool and sled hit pool of water and slow down at 20 g's plus.

They have video of this up at the Cosmosphere, but unfortunatly not online. You can actually see the shockwaves from the leading edge of the fool!

and then auction the old clunker off on ebay

1. Woolaroc, OK.
2. The home of Frank Phillips (of Phillips Petrolium), and a very cool place to visit.
3. The Kansas Cosmosphere, Hutchinson, KS. If you are a /. reader you want to visit. One of the top space mueseums in the world, it has one of the largest collections of Russian space artifacts outside Russia.
4. Big Brutis, West Mineral, KS The second largest earthmover in the US.

As for hotel phone lines: Almost all hotels now have a modem jack on the side of the phone so that you won't blow your modem out. However, lots of hotels also try to screw you when you call an 800 number, so be careful.

Lastly, I suggest you look into some good mapping software. I use Delorme's AAA Map N Go, which runs (sort of ) under Wine (and flawlessly under Windows). Add to it their cheap GPS receiver, and you will make your travels a lot nicer.

Hmmm, if we're dreaming, I have a few ideas....

I'll stay away from the usual "HARDWARE, HARDWARE, MORE HARDWARE!!!" wish list. I'm sure that one's going to be quite busy. ;) These are more...experiential.

1) Zero-G Parabolic Flight.
Sure, you have to go to Star City, Russia to do 'em (along with floating around in an old Il-76), but that's a small price to pay to float around in a non-chemically-induced experience.
Price: $4980

2) All-expense paid holiday party at the Tech Museum of Innovation, San Jose CA.
Where else can you pilot an MMU toward a satellite with a beer in your hand? Play with robots! See how all this nifty computer stuff gets made in the factory! They also have good catering. :)
Cost? Don't ask....

3) Dogfights. Aerobatics. Nomex.
Try a visit to Air Combat USA -- normally I'd recommend another company, but I hear they had a mishap. Anyway, Air Combat can hook you up with a parachute, a helmet, and an opponent in another Real Airplane, for your shootin' pleasure. The bullets are simulated, but the adrenaline is real. Sweet.
Price: Starting at $795 per person...

4) Liberty Bell 7 Restoration Crew T-Shirt
Don't go forgetting the Right Stuff during the holidays... Anyone can find a huge boat under a couple thousand feet of water. It takes real skill to find a space capsule in over ten thousand feet of water over an uncertain surface area. ;)
Cost: $25

The Liberty Bell will be in Hutchinson at the Cosmosphere in about a week and will be displayed for the following six months as it's restored. A division of the Cosmosphere, the recently-defunct Space Works, was responsible for several replicas of spacecraft used in movies including Apollo 13 and the HBO series Earth to Moon. Some of the same workers will be restoring the Liberty Bell.

The Cosmosphere recently acquired status as an official branch of the Smithsonian, and remains one of the best aerospace museums in the world. The foyer was built around an authentic SR-17 Blackbird, perched on its nose at an angle.

More info about the Kansas Cosmosphere and Space Center is here. Friday and Saturday, Apollo 17 astronaut Eugene Cernan will be on hand to sign copies of his book, "Last Man on the Moon."

J.

The article was a bit misleading. The capsule won't be going on tour immediately. It's currently in a protective cannister, still submerged in water.

The capsule is being delivered to the Cosmosphere in Hutchision, KS for cleanup and restoration, which may take up to a year. The restoration process, I've heard, will be on full display in a glassed workroom.

After the restoration, it will be taken on tour and then it will be permanently housed at the Cosmosphere. If you are ever going through central Kansas, the Cosmophere is worth checking out. I'm only about an hour away, so I guess I'll go check it out when I can..

More information is here.

jf