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"One small slip for a man"
When Buzz Aldrin was descending the ladder he had guidance from Neil.
But the first man on the Moon had absolutely no-one to help him do a very awkward manoeuvre. So what would have happened if he slipped and cracked his visor? Please don't take this wrongly - I'm not being ghoulish and I'm genuinely interested in a situation they must have considered. -- Save the Hubble Space Telescope! Remove spam and invalid from address to reply. |
#3
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"Jonathan Silverlight" wrote in message ... When Buzz Aldrin was descending the ladder he had guidance from Neil. But the first man on the Moon had absolutely no-one to help him do a very awkward manoeuvre. Well, now, judging from the subject line, if he did then whoever was helping Armstrong would have been looking up *his* slip... So what would have happened if he slipped and cracked his visor? He probably would have said something along the lines of "Oh, ****, I cracked my visor!" |
#4
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In article ,
Jonathan Silverlight wrote: When Buzz Aldrin was descending the ladder he had guidance from Neil. But the first man on the Moon had absolutely no-one to help him do a very awkward manoeuvre. So what would have happened if he slipped and cracked his visor? Bear in mind that those visors were polycarbonate, not glass, so they don't crack easily. In fact, I think you would have to work pretty hard to do more than mar the outer surface, especially in 1/6G where you don't hit as hard after a slip. That said, a cracked visor -- leaking air through the crack -- is not that big a deal. One of the design criteria for the backpacks was operation for some modest period of time -- half an hour? -- with a significant air leak, to cover cases like a micrometeorite puncture of the suit. So the answer is... His backpack automatically opens its valves wider to cover the air loss, and sounds the alarm. He spends a moment confirming the problem and probably grabbing a contingency sample of lunar soil, and then heads back up the ladder. They seal the hatch and repressurize the cabin, at which point the time pressure is off, and they and Mission Control can consider options. Given that they've lost redundancy in a number of areas -- Armstrong's suit is now usable only for short periods, which means the suits are no longer available as part of backup plans for various problems -- the answer is probably to abort the mission and head for home with no unnecessary delays. (They would also probably tape over the inside of the crack, to reduce leakage in the event that suit use became necessary, but that wouldn't be something you could trust.) -- MOST launched 30 June; science observations running | Henry Spencer since Oct; first surprises seen; papers pending. | |
#5
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On Thu, 13 May 2004 16:10:05 GMT, (Henry Spencer)
wrote: (They would also probably tape over the inside of the crack, to reduce leakage in the event that suit use became necessary, but that wouldn't be something you could trust.) ....Which begs the question: Scotch Invisible or Duct? OM -- "No ******* ever won a war by dying for | http://www.io.com/~o_m his country. He won it by making the other | Sergeant-At-Arms poor dumb ******* die for his country." | Human O-Ring Society - General George S. Patton, Jr |
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Jonathan Silverlight wrote in message ...
When Buzz Aldrin was descending the ladder he had guidance from Neil. But the first man on the Moon had absolutely no-one to help him do a very awkward manoeuvre. So what would have happened if he slipped and cracked his visor? Please don't take this wrongly - I'm not being ghoulish and I'm genuinely interested in a situation they must have considered. At 1/6 G, a slip would have been pretty gentle. -- Gene Seibel Hangar 131 - http://pad39a.com/gene/plane.html Because I fly, I envy no one. |
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In article ,
OM om@our_blessed_lady_mary_of_the_holy_NASA_researc h_facility.org wrote: (They would also probably tape over the inside of the crack, to reduce leakage in the event that suit use became necessary, but that wouldn't be something you could trust.) ...Which begs the question: Scotch Invisible or Duct? Sounds like a question for Arabian's crew in the back room. :-) If it was me on board and I had to make a snap choice, I'd say both, in that order (the duct tape being wider). -- MOST launched 30 June; science observations running | Henry Spencer since Oct; first surprises seen; papers pending. | |
#8
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"Jonathan Silverlight" wrote
in message ... When Buzz Aldrin was descending the ladder he had guidance from Neil. But the first man on the Moon had absolutely no-one to help him Not quite true. Aldrin guided Armstrong from the right-hand position and this can be clearly heard on the tapes. Go to ALSJ for more. -- Alan Erskine We can get people to the Moon in five years, not the fifteen GWB proposes. Give NASA a real challenge |
#9
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On 13 May 2004 13:08:55 -0700, (Gene Seibel) wrote:
Jonathan Silverlight wrote in message ... So what would have happened if he slipped and cracked his visor? Please don't take this wrongly - I'm not being ghoulish and I'm genuinely interested in a situation they must have considered. ....Someone tell Jonathan that he forgot to include [Stuff4] [/Stuff4] tags in his post :-) At 1/6 G, a slip would have been pretty gentle. ....And would have had to have hit a pretty sharp rock, too. OM -- "No ******* ever won a war by dying for | http://www.io.com/~o_m his country. He won it by making the other | Sergeant-At-Arms poor dumb ******* die for his country." | Human O-Ring Society - General George S. Patton, Jr |
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