Good old Beagle Bros. I really miss them. And, yes, I have my "PEEKs, POKEs, and Pointers" chart safely packed away with my Apple II.
We need something along the lines of Beagle Bros. today. The Linux community somewhat reminds me of BB and "Open Apple" (remember that? I have all of them somewhere too!), but there's no sense of fun in it anymore. Even the Open Source movement doesn't have the same attitude towards sharing your findings and tips with others.
First of all, NASA had a plan for everything. They tested every possible failure they could think of. If you look over all the Apollo flights, you'll see that they recovered quite nicely from all sorts of problems - some, like Apollo 13, quite major. Not once did they accept failure or abandon anyone. Even during/after the Apollo 1 fire, rescue workers continued to do everything possible to pull the men from the command module - even though they knew the odds of their surviving the fire were practically zero.
Had NASA planned to just "switch off" the signal from a failed mission, why work around-the-clock to rescue Apollo 13? At the time, many - if not most - of the engineers working on saving the flight believed the three men aboard were as good as dead.
As for the quote about NASA not knowing if the LM's ascent module would be able to return from the surface, it was extensively tested - as were all the other parts of the Apollo spacecraft - before being used for it's intended purpose. If you get right down to it, sure, they didn't know for sure if it would work. However, they (the engineers) had a pretty damn good idea or they (the astronauts - most also engineers) weren't about to try it.
There were no "suicide pills" or other precautions for total failure. Total failure simply wasn't an option.
I can go on and on, but for those who really want the truth and an excellent "behind-the-scenes" look at NASA during Apollo should read Andrew Chaikin's book "A Man On the Moon" (which, by the way, is what Tom Hank's based the HBO special "From the Earth to the Moon" on - also excellent).
I'm surprised by how many Slashdot readers are quick to jump on the cover-up bandwagon and post replies when they clearly don't have a clue what they're talking about. Come on folks, Slashdot is supposed to be for _smart_ people!
Slashdot Mirror
Illinois did something that makes sense? WTF?
Exactly. And I love the description "a surprise game of Sophie's Choice". Gonna steal that. :-)
Oh man. I worked for DOT. Run. Run very fast. I've never seen so many people "playing office" in my entire life. That we even have roads amazes me.
Ooo! Dibs!
Scott
(crickets)
Good old Beagle Bros. I really miss them. And, yes, I have my "PEEKs, POKEs, and Pointers" chart safely packed away with my Apple II.
:-)
We need something along the lines of Beagle Bros. today. The Linux community somewhat reminds me of BB and "Open Apple" (remember that? I have all of them somewhere too!), but there's no sense of fun in it anymore. Even the Open Source movement doesn't have the same attitude towards sharing your findings and tips with others.
Oh for better days.
First of all, NASA had a plan for everything. They tested every possible failure they could think of. If you look over all the Apollo flights, you'll see that they recovered quite nicely from all sorts of problems - some, like Apollo 13, quite major. Not once did they accept failure or abandon anyone. Even during/after the Apollo 1 fire, rescue workers continued to do everything possible to pull the men from the command module - even though they knew the odds of their surviving the fire were practically zero.
Had NASA planned to just "switch off" the signal from a failed mission, why work around-the-clock to rescue Apollo 13? At the time, many - if not most - of the engineers working on saving the flight believed the three men aboard were as good as dead.
As for the quote about NASA not knowing if the LM's ascent module would be able to return from the surface, it was extensively tested - as were all the other parts of the Apollo spacecraft - before being used for it's intended purpose. If you get right down to it, sure, they didn't know for sure if it would work. However, they (the engineers) had a pretty damn good idea or they (the astronauts - most also engineers) weren't about to try it.
There were no "suicide pills" or other precautions for total failure. Total failure simply wasn't an option.
I can go on and on, but for those who really want the truth and an excellent "behind-the-scenes" look at NASA during Apollo should read Andrew Chaikin's book "A Man On the Moon" (which, by the way, is what Tom Hank's based the HBO special "From the Earth to the Moon" on - also excellent).
I'm surprised by how many Slashdot readers are quick to jump on the cover-up bandwagon and post replies when they clearly don't have a clue what they're talking about. Come on folks, Slashdot is supposed to be for _smart_ people!
Scott