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NASA Discovers Space Spies From the 60's
Saeed al-Sahaf writes "In a room forgotten for more than thirty years at NASA's Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida, NASA recently found suits for space spies. Originally thought to be Gemini suits, the manufacturer determined that they were suits from a short-lived Cold War-era military program to put a manned reconnaissance station in space. Begun in 1964, the Manned Orbiting Laboratory program was an Air Force initiative that would have sent Air Force astronauts to a space station in a Gemini capsule. After spending a few weeks in orbit, the crew would undock and return to Earth. An interesting blast from the past."
Does anyone (preferably knowledgable) care to comment on that concept picture in the article @ NASA ?
In particular, i'm wondering about the following:
What do people think those pulsese going down to the planet are in a weird curly line?
That thing above the hurricane that appears to be shooting something into it ? What's that ?
The guy standing on the right side of the picture in the MOL who appears to be "fishing" for the incoming spacecraft... with a what.. a big magnet on a tether ?
How cool is it that the suit # was 007.
So they had the Manned Orbiting Laboratory program, the Dyna-Soar program, and the USAF Space School. None of those survived the 1960s, although they were all good, workable ideas. The MOL incorporated the Gemini spacecraft, the best space flying machine to come out of NASA. (Mercury was the "man in a can" capsule, and Apollo was less maneuverable.)
As for the blue MH-7 suit, there's one of those on display at Wright-Patterson AFB.
Send one or to to the Smithsonian and put the rest on ebay. I bet if NASA unloaded all their old junk they could probably fund another R/C car mission to Mars.
This does raise the question again about what Space exploration is for. With George W stating that its about going to the Moon, then Mars and putting people on planets this is a lesson in how easy it is to put people into Orbit (but how much more expensive to get to the moon, Gemini v Apollo).
With elements like Hubble being decomissioned despite its achievements, and a lack of long range probes being planned the question has to be asked.
Is NASA a marketing campaign for US Military "dominance" of earth and space. Or about futhering Mankind. In the 60s the president gave a target of something that just seemed right (landing on the moon). In the 21st Century the best we aim to achieve is... what JFK wanted us to do in the 60s.
Imagine what MIT, Berkley, Cambridge, Moscow, Paris and a bunch of other top Universities could do in terms of pushing human achievement forwards if they had the budget that NASA gets.
An Eye for an Eye will make the whole world blind - Gandhi
NASA actually took a full share in the Vandenburg refit. There are other purposes besides spying which would justify a polar orbit. NASA had agreed that all astronauts would be military officers however and considering that nearly half of NASA's astronauts were such wasn't considered a major restriction.
So long and thanks for all the fish . . . !!!
I almost forgot my favorite bit of 1960's tech:
Skin tight Space Suits
As crazy as it may sound, these suits (correctly named "Space Activity Suits") were designed to actually *expose* the wearer to hard vacuum while still providing life support for the astronaut! This sort of suit would allow astronauts to have the same working freedom in the suit as the freedom enjoy inside the ship! Such a suit could make regular space construction and maintenence possible. It's also safer than regular suits as it is far less susceptible to depressurization. Perfect for environments like Mars where spacesuit damage becomes a major concern!
Javascript + Nintendo DSi = DSiCade
Back in the 40s and 50s, there was a lot of talk about doing things like surveillance (you can see a lot) and communications (a lot of people can see you) from orbit. One common assumption (which turned out to be correct) was that these things would be extremely important in the near future. Another assumption (which turned out to be totally wrong) was that this would be done by sending people to go live in orbit. Once there, they'd use photography, electronics, and other technology that wouldn't be much more advanced that what people were familiar with. You can see this in Arthur C. Clarke's original proposals for communications satellites and in fiction from Clarke, Heinlen, and others.
What really happened, of course, is that rocket technology progressed relatively slowly, while electronics progressed very rapidly. So long before it was practical to a space station in orbit, it was practical to put a simple electronic gadget in orbit that would do all those chores pretty cheaply. Kind of sad, really -- if building better rockets had been more of an economic and military necessity, we'd probably be the space-going civilization that eveybody back in the 50s assumed we would be.
Then again, the need to build smaller and more reliable electronics did a lot to jump-start the computer revolution -- so we mustn't complain too much!
No, most likely they did. From the article:
Other historical treasures found in the room include old film canisters, one flown shuttle main landing tire, electrical equipment, and various miscellaneous boxes.
Huh. Historical treasures, that just happened to be in a room which nobody said they had a key to. Huh.
Records show that official ownership of this suit was transferred by NASA to the Smithsonian Institution in 1983. The suit itself has now been returned to the Smithsonian.
Anyone else starting to realize that the stuff (which spans decades, completely different programs, and sections of NASA) didn't just get up and walk (either from the Smithsonian, or more likely, from other areas at NASA, never getting to the Museum) to a locked closet nobody said they had keys for?
Sounds to me like someone at NASA was building up their own private collection, and used a room they thought they had the only key to, not realizing there was a master key system in use.
Please help metamoderate.
The USSR actually DID have a series of manned military space stations that orbited during the 1970s. It was known as the Almaz project (more info here). In addition to reconnisance equipment on board, they also carried anti-satelitte weaponry.
The USSR also had some other scary space plans for military space stations. I mean, it even LOOKS sinister, painted black and all...
-- If you try to fail and succeed, which have you done? - Uli's moose
It is an unfortunate reality that unless the US and other countries of similar mindset must be able to militarize space when needed.
Now the reason I like GW's listed goal is that we have been parked in orbit for 40+ years and haven't budged except once to the moon. Sure we send probes out there but probes are not going to advanced space exploration in any meaningful array other than to say "hey, neat rocks here".
Establishing a presence on the moon will do much more than parking ourselves in a tincan in orbit. First off it implies more permanence. Also the moon provides many unique benefits to maintaining a presence in space that an orbital cannot.
Done right, and with luck it might be, private enterprise can use it as a stepping stone to further exploration and yes, exploitation of space.
We are getting no where concentrating on unmanned probes and orbital tin cans. We have three choices. Abandon space. Stick with orbit which doesn't fire the imagination much, or finally stake a spot off this rock. The moon is far enough and "exotic" enough to fire the imagination and marketing. That "baby step" will get us moving in the right direction.
* Winners compare their achievements to their goals, losers compare theirs to that of others.
>That's funny, because in Soviet Russia, the USA was considered an enemy because the Soviets were in the way of the US accomplishing their stated goal of world conquest.
That explains Kennedy pounding his shoe on the table at the UN as he yelled "We will bury you!". Go learn something about the USSR and its brutal repression of its people before you make invalid comparisons.
The road to hell is paved with good intentions.
Lawyers are used to carry out both activities.
My problem in both cases is with the police, the "law enforcement" officers that are supposed to make the system work.
LK
"Hi. This is my friend, Jack Shit, and you don't know him." - Lord Kano
The Soviets eventually came to the same conclusion, only after blowing the big rubles on Almaz and military Salyuts.
Incidentally, the first successful US launch after Challenger was an SDI experiment that used guidance systems from existing guided missiles. Although it was about as rushed as the Polyus battle station you reference, it didn't require major gymnastics to achieve orbit, and provided Reagan with a negotiation advantage over Gorbachev... although I don't think he fully realized the size of it. For a change, the Russians were in the position of attempting to field a system we could all too easily counter, given that the Delta 180 SDI test articles were mostly off the shelf, and could be cheaply integrated and lofted by the trainload, had the need arisen.
Luke, help me take this mask off