Short list trimmed: Last entry for moonwalkers removed at 82

[Snidely]

Gene Cernan is no longer leaving footsteps.

Among the places reporting his death is NPR, which shows pictures from
then (1972) and nearly-now (2016).

"My dad always used to say, 'Just go out and do your best. You're not
going to be better than everyone at everything.' And he was right,"
Cernan said, "I wasn't. But he was also right one other time when he
said, 'Someday you're going to surprise yourself. Just do your best and
someday you're going to surprise yourself.' "

<URL:http://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-way/2017/01/16/505928876/gene-cernan-last-man-to-walk-on-the-moon-dies-at-82>

/dps

--
The presence of this syntax results from the fact that SQLite is really
a Tcl extension that has escaped into the wild.
<http://www.sqlite.org/lang_expr.html>

[Snidely]

[Adding sci.space.history]
Snidely asserted that:

> Gene Cernan is no longer leaving footsteps.
>
> Among the places reporting his death is NPR, which shows pictures from then
> (1972) and nearly-now (2016).
>
> "My dad always used to say, 'Just go out and do your best. You're not going
> to be better than everyone at everything.' And he was right," Cernan said, "I
> wasn't. But he was also right one other time when he said, 'Someday you're
> going to surprise yourself. Just do your best and someday you're going to
> surprise yourself.' "
>
> <URL:http://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-way/2017/01/16/505928876/gene-cernan-last-man-to-walk-on-the-moon-dies-at-82>
>
> /dps

--

"This is all very fine, but let us not be carried away be excitement,
but ask calmly, how does this person feel about in in his cooler
moments next day, with six or seven thousand feet of snow and stuff on
top of him?"
_Roughing It_, Mark Twain.

[Snidely]

Ooops, ambiguous "last entry" ... in this case, it means last man on
the Moon.

On Monday or thereabouts, Snidely asked ...

> [Adding sci.space.history]
> Snidely asserted that:
>> Gene Cernan is no longer leaving footsteps.
>>
>> Among the places reporting his death is NPR, which shows pictures from then
>> (1972) and nearly-now (2016).
>>
>> "My dad always used to say, 'Just go out and do your best. You're not going
>> to be better than everyone at everything.' And he was right," Cernan said,
>> "I wasn't. But he was also right one other time when he said, 'Someday
>> you're going to surprise yourself. Just do your best and someday you're
>> going to surprise yourself.' "
>>
>> <URL:http://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-way/2017/01/16/505928876/gene-cernan-last-man-to-walk-on-the-moon-dies-at-82>
>>
>> /dps

--

"That's a good sort of hectic, innit?"

" Very much so, and I'd recommend the haggis wontons."
-njm

[Snidely]

Snidely noted that:

> Ooops, ambiguous "last entry" ... in this case, it means last man on the
> Moon.

Wikipedia indicates that there still are 6 moon walkers with us.

/dps

>
> On Monday or thereabouts, Snidely asked ...
>> [Adding sci.space.history]
>> Snidely asserted that:
>>> Gene Cernan is no longer leaving footsteps.
>>>
>>> Among the places reporting his death is NPR, which shows pictures from
>>> then (1972) and nearly-now (2016).
>>>
>>> "My dad always used to say, 'Just go out and do your best. You're not
>>> going to be better than everyone at everything.' And he was right," Cernan
>>> said, "I wasn't. But he was also right one other time when he said,
>>> 'Someday you're going to surprise yourself. Just do your best and someday
>>> you're going to surprise yourself.' "
>>>
>>> <URL:http://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-way/2017/01/16/505928876/gene-cernan-last-man-to-walk-on-the-moon-dies-at-82>
>>>
>>> /dps

--

Maybe C282Y is simply one of the hangers-on, a groupie following a
future guitar god of the human genome: an allele with undiscovered
virtuosity, currently soloing in obscurity in Mom's garage.
Bradley Wertheim, theAtlantic.com, Jan 10 2013

[Jeff Findley]

In article <mn.836e7e1157321a6f.127094@snitoo>, snide...@gmail.com
says...

>
> Gene Cernan is no longer leaving footsteps.
>
> Among the places reporting his death is NPR, which shows pictures from
> then (1972) and nearly-now (2016).
>
> "My dad always used to say, 'Just go out and do your best. You're not
> going to be better than everyone at everything.' And he was right,"
> Cernan said, "I wasn't. But he was also right one other time when he
> said, 'Someday you're going to surprise yourself. Just do your best and
> someday you're going to surprise yourself.' "
>
> <URL:http://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-way/2017/01/16/505928876/gene-cernan-last-man-to-walk-on-the-moon-dies-at-82>
>
> /dps

Godspeed.

Jeff

--
All opinions posted by me on Usenet News are mine, and mine alone.
These posts do not reflect the opinions of my family, friends,
employer, or any organization that I am a member of.

---
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[William Mook]

I remember Eugene Cernan's Gemini flight where he attempted to use a back pack to fly around in space.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tf7L0Ar9IUQ
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CPxDKiH2mk0
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6JD4sxn4JOo
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cw5zJc4cNAg
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CdRjhrG9i1M
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rSp6pHBVd-k
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z7hpTlyr9sg
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=57YopQU6PA0

Now, the EMU was an interesting test because of the possibility of using a rocket pack to land on the moon and return to orbit without a LEM, which would have put us well ahead of the Russians and saved a lot of money besides;

http://www.astronautix.com/g/geminilunargemini.html

https://www.wired.com/2013/07/lunar-flying-units-1969/

http://spaceflighthistory.blogspot.co.nz/2015/07/rocket-belts-and-rocket-chairs-lunar.html

http://rocketbelt.nl/pogos/nasa-lunar-transport

The difficulties of this mission, caused NASA administration to choose to use the LEM and Apollo instead of Gemini, even after the Apollo 1 fire.

Cernan mentioned that a rocket pack would be better than an electric vehicle during his trip on Apollo 17.

* * *


Today, we can finally do what Eugene Cernan worked very hard to prove in 1960s - with large MEMS rocket arrays that produce 50 psi, composite lightweight zero boil off cryogenic tanks, lightwieght mechanical counter pressure suits (and it was the suit limitations that killed Cernan's Gemini space walk) we produce reliable controllable and safe thrust from high energy propellants in back pack sized devices.

Consider a SpaceX Dragon Capsule. Its a modern version of Gemini which outclasses it in many ways;

DRAGON

Dry mass 4,200 kg (9,300 lb)

Payload to ISS 3,310 kg (7,300 lb), which can be all pressurized, all unpressurized or anywhere between. It can return to Earth 3,310 kg (7,300 lb), which can be all unpressurized disposal mass or up to 2,500 kg (5,500 lb) of return pressurized cargo

Endurance 1 week to 2 years

Re-entry at 3.5 Gs

Propellant NTO / MMH

* * *

GEMINI

The spacecraft was 18 feet 5 inches (5.61 m) long and 10 feet (3.0 m) wide, with a launch weight varying from 7,100 to 8,350 pounds (3,220 to 3,790 kg).

The Gemini crew capsule (referred to as the Reentry Module) was essentially an enlarged version of the Mercury capsule. Unlike Mercury, the retrorockets, electrical power, propulsion systems, oxygen, and water were located in a detachable Adapter Module behind the Reentry Module. A major design improvement in Gemini was to locate all internal spacecraft systems in modular components, which could be independently tested and replaced when necessary, without removing or disturbing other already tested components.

* * *

Yet the Gemini is the Path finder;

GEMINI 10 - Boosting to a high orbit

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/4/46/Agena_Firing_-_GPN-2000-001355.jpg


* * *

The Falcon Heavy outclasses the Titan.

FALCON HEAVY:

To a GEOSYNCH ORBIT: 22,200 kg (48,900 lb)

Since it takes more delta vee to enter a GEO than to enter LUNAR ORBIT we know for certain that the DRAGON CAPSULE (fully loaded) is 7,510 kg (16,600 lb) so we have a substantial capacity (14,590 kg (32,300 lb)) to send along Stage 2 of a Falcon 1e;

http://www.spacelaunchreport.com/falcon.html

Falcon 1e Stage 2:

Diameter: 1.678 m (5.5 ft)
Length: 2.700 m (8.9 ft)
Inert: 510 kg (1,122 lb)
Propellant: 4,028 kg (8,862 lb)

We send as many as four of these along with a capsule, to a lunar free trajectory!

With a 3.11 km/sec (6,954 mph) exhaust speed, the Kestrel engine, which weighs 115 lbs and produces 6,900 pounds force.

http://www.lr.tudelft.nl/?id=29271&L=1

The upper stage of the Falcon Heavy can boost you to lunar free return trajectory and then place you into Low Lunar Orbit. That empty stage is left on Orbit, and using the wet station concepts of the 1960s, could even form an orbiting lunar hotel.

It takes a delta vee of 1,566 mph to leave lunar orbit and return to Earth. With an exhaust speed of 6,954 mph that means 20% of your return mass must be propellant. The Stage 2 of the Falcon 1e has 8,862 pounds of propellant, so it could bring back as much has 44,310 lbs. Perfect for our needs!

We have 22,316 pounds of surplus

Biosuits, equipped with MEMS life support, and fuel cells, mass as little as 30 pounds with up to 30 hours of duration. This far surpasses the A7L suit used by Neil Armstrong that weighs 76 pounds and has 6.5 hours duration.

http://www.astronautix.com/b/bio-suit.html

Neil said his suit was almost cuddly. Professor Dava Newman, guarantees her new suits will be all that and more.

http://www.bostonmagazine.com/news/blog/2013/12/10/mit-biosuit-system-dava-newman/

So, an advanced suit, in an advanced capsule, with an advanced booster, with a redesigned upper stage, used as a return stage, equipped with a reinvention of an old idea, the lunar rocket belt... burning LOX/LH2 with a 4.55 km/sec (10,174 mph) exhaust speed, with a requirement to cancel 3,764 mph lunar orbit speed, and then launch again to that speed. A total delta vee of 7,528 mph, with another 2,600 mph for maneuvering around the surface, and guidance, means that 63% of the mass leaving the spacecraft from orbit, must be LOX/LH2 propellant. Allowing 250 pounds for payload and vehicle, this means 675 pounds leaves the vehicle of which 425 pounds is propellant. This means that with 7 astronauts on board the Dragon capsule, ALL SEVEN can land on the moon and return to the capsule after spending a 24 hours on the moon, 4x EACH! A total of 28 trips. This still leaves 5 spare flights, for emergency rescue.

7 rocket packs, with LOX/LH2 propellant is stored around the upper end of the Falcon 1e Stage 2 - with 7 rocket packs, that automatically refuel when attached. That 1.7 m (5.5 ft) diameter stage is securely attached inside the 3.7 meter (12 foot) diameter trunk of the Dragon Capsule. Rocket packs are accessible through the modified trunk just beneath the capsule join line.

Astronauts boost on the Falcon Heavy into a Lunar Free Return Trajectory. The Falcon 1 second stage is tucked inside the Trunk of the Dragon Capsule. The capsule remains attached to the Falcon Heavy Second Stage. As the assembly swings around the back side of the Moon, the second stage boosts again, and the entire assembly is in Low Lunar Orbit. The Dragon then separates from the now empty Falcon Heavy upper stage, turns around and docks with it. If it is equipped as a 'west station' that is one use for it. The astronauts are then free to depressurise the capsule, using it as an airlock, to exit the spacecraft, as Gene Cernan did in his Gemini flight, make their way to the rocket pack, and fly to land on the moon, and return to Low Lunar Orbit after spending 24 hours on the lunar surface. All 7 astronauts land 4 times each at 28 locations around the moon. The Falcon 1e Second Stage then returns the entire system back to Earth, where the capsule is recovered and reused. The Falcon 9 FT Stage 2 which places the assembly on its journey to the moon, is 3.66 m (12 ft) in diameter and 12.6 m (41.4 ft) long.

In 1958, the year after Sputnik 1, Krafft Ehricke, then with General Dynamics' Convair Division, designed a four-man space station known as Outpost. Ehricke proposed that the Atlas ICBM being developed by Convair could be adapted as the station's basic structure. The Atlas, 3 m in diameter and 22.8 m long, was America's largest rocket at the time.

The Upper Stage of the Atlas Heavy, is large enough to house 7 comfortably, and executes this 60 year old concept!

http://spaceflight101.com/spacerockets/falcon-heavy/

Type Falcon 9 FT Stage 2
Length* 12.6m (41.4 ft)
Diameter 3.66m (12.0 ft)
Inert Mass* 4,000kg (8,800 lbs)
Propellant Mass* 107,500kg (236,500 lbs)
Fuel Rocket Propellant 1
Oxidizer Liquid Oxygen
LOX Mass* 75,200kg
RP-1 Mass* 32,300kg

[Fred J. McCall]

William Mook <mokme...@gmail.com> wrote:

>On Tuesday, January 17, 2017 at 11:38:11 AM UTC+13, snidely wrote:
>> Gene Cernan is no longer leaving footsteps.
>>
>> Among the places reporting his death is NPR, which shows pictures from
>> then (1972) and nearly-now (2016).
>>
>> "My dad always used to say, 'Just go out and do your best. You're not
>> going to be better than everyone at everything.' And he was right,"
>> Cernan said, "I wasn't. But he was also right one other time when he
>> said, 'Someday you're going to surprise yourself. Just do your best and
>> someday you're going to surprise yourself.' "
>>
>> <URL:http://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-way/2017/01/16/505928876/gene-cernan-last-man-to-walk-on-the-moon-dies-at-82>
>>
>> /dps
>>
>> --
>> The presence of this syntax results from the fact that SQLite is really
>> a Tcl extension that has escaped into the wild.
>> <http://www.sqlite.org/lang_expr.html>

Another MookJacking of a thread.

>
>I remember Eugene Cernan's Gemini flight where he attempted to use a back pack to fly around in space.
>

How nice for you.

>
>Now, the EMU was an interesting test because of the possibility of using a rocket pack to land on the moon and return to orbit without a LEM, which would have put us well ahead of the Russians and saved a lot of money besides;
>

Nobody sane ever considered such a thing.

<snip MookSpew>

Jesus, Mook, if you want to spew loony START YOUR OWN BLOODY THREADS.

--
"Ordinarily he is insane. But he has lucid moments when he is
only stupid."
-- Heinrich Heine

[Jeff Findley]

In article <15caca6d-9815-4063...@googlegroups.com>,
mokme...@gmail.com says...

>
> On Tuesday, January 17, 2017 at 11:38:11 AM UTC+13, snidely wrote:
> > Gene Cernan is no longer leaving footsteps.
> >
> > Among the places reporting his death is NPR, which shows pictures from
> > then (1972) and nearly-now (2016).
> >
> > "My dad always used to say, 'Just go out and do your best. You're not
> > going to be better than everyone at everything.' And he was right,"
> > Cernan said, "I wasn't. But he was also right one other time when he
> > said, 'Someday you're going to surprise yourself. Just do your best and
> > someday you're going to surprise yourself.' "
> >
> > <URL:http://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-way/2017/01/16/505928876/gene-cernan-last-man-to-walk-on-the-moon-dies-at-82>
> >
> > /dps
> >
> > --
> > The presence of this syntax results from the fact that SQLite is really
> > a Tcl extension that has escaped into the wild.
> > <http://www.sqlite.org/lang_expr.html>
>
> I remember Eugene Cernan's Gemini flight where he attempted to use a back pack to fly around in space.

And then you go and ruin what could have been a nice tribute to Cernan
by spewing your usual drivel, which I've deleted from this follow-up.
You really can't control yourself, can you?