Apollo Trivia Question

jonathan wrote:

I'm wondering if the elaborate and expensive quarantine was more for
public consumption. I mean all that effort when the capsule hatch was
wide open when it was in the sea waiting to be retrieved.

I used to wonder about the same thing. I don't have the specific
citation handy, but I've since read the detailed rationale for the
Apollo quarantine process. Suffice it to say that it was extremely well
thought out. (The jist: After a few days of circulating cabin air
through air filters, the amount of airborne material that could escape
when the hatch was opened was almost nil.)

--
Dave Michelson

Dave Michelson wrote:


(The jist: After a few days of circulating cabin air
through air filters, the amount of airborne material that could escape
when the hatch was opened was almost nil.)


Which is just fine until Buzz and Neil keel over at the dinner table in
the isolation chamber, as the Giant Moon Maggots start burrowing their
way out from their innards.
There's no salvation for those who've inhaled Giant Moon Maggot Spores
which are everywhere in the lunar soil around The Sea Of Tranquility.
Once the Giant Moon Maggots are free of their human hosts and grow into
full-blown Giant Moon Calves there'll be hell to pay.
This is what real Mad Cow looks like:
http://members.fortunecity.com/ymir1...n/1stmn004.jpg
Our only hope then? The McDonald's Moonburger:
http://members.fortunecity.com/ymir1...n/1stmn012.jpg ;-)

Prof. Cavor

I think its funny when people talk of mars quarantine The multi month
trip home should be enough to answer that question, no need for
extended stay at a space station///

I think its funny when people talk of mars quarantine The multi month
trip home should be enough to answer that question, no need for
extended stay at a space station///

I think its funny when people talk of mars quarantine The multi month
trip home should be enough to answer that question, no need for
extended stay at a space station///

wrote:
: I think its funny when people talk of mars quarantine The multi
: month trip home should be enough to answer that question, no need
: for extended stay at a space station///

Actually, their spending the remaining years if any of their Mars
infected and otherwise TBI damaged lives at the LSE-CM/ISS, or perhaps
better yet deep underground on the moon, seems none too safe for our
environment.

The last thing we need is a hybrid Mars microbe running amuck that has
mutated into being radiation proof as well as cryogenic proof.

Of course by then we'll have worse things to worry about, such as
surviving the likes of rising oceans, massive storms and otherwise
extreme droughts, plus WW-III over the last affordable barrels of
Muslim oil. On the good side, the northern transocean passage will
remain open year round.
-
Brad Guth

"Dave Michelson" wrote in message
news:W6rzg.284192$Mn5.131500@pd7tw3no...
jonathan wrote:

I'm wondering if the elaborate and expensive quarantine was more for
public consumption. I mean all that effort when the capsule hatch was
wide open when it was in the sea waiting to be retrieved.

I used to wonder about the same thing. I don't have the specific
citation handy, but I've since read the detailed rationale for the
Apollo quarantine process. Suffice it to say that it was extremely well
thought out. (The jist: After a few days of circulating cabin air
through air filters, the amount of airborne material that could escape
when the hatch was opened was almost nil.)

Perhaps, but remember how many moon germs escaped into the air and water
when the capsule was opened on the water.

What *should* have been done is the capsule be picked up, crew onboard, and
lowered into an enclosure which was fully closed *before* the seal on the
capsule was cracked. Throwing in containment garments sounds nice, but if
there were any germs, they got all over the outside of the suits and passed
out into the air. The helicopter crew would also have been contaminated.

Of course, we know there were no germs, and the quarantine facility did a
great job. However, if there were germs, the contamination would have
occured as soon as the hatch opened, since the germs would have had days to
contaminate the entire interior of the CM.

Pat Flannery wrote:
Dave Michelson wrote:


(The jist: After a few days of circulating cabin air
through air filters, the amount of airborne material that could escape
when the hatch was opened was almost nil.)


Which is just fine until Buzz and Neil keel over at the dinner table in
the isolation chamber, as the Giant Moon Maggots start burrowing their
way out from their innards.
There's no salvation for those who've inhaled Giant Moon Maggot Spores
which are everywhere in the lunar soil around The Sea Of Tranquility.
Once the Giant Moon Maggots are free of their human hosts and grow into
full-blown Giant Moon Calves there'll be hell to pay.
This is what real Mad Cow looks like:
http://members.fortunecity.com/ymir1...n/1stmn004.jpg
Our only hope then? The McDonald's Moonburger:
http://members.fortunecity.com/ymir1...n/1stmn012.jpg ;-)

Prof. Cavor

Or, maybe the moon virus was more subtle. Maybe it infected key NASA
and government officials. Maybe it causes officials to make inept and
shortsighted decisions
when it comes to planning and executing a space program. After 1969, it
all fell apart.

;-)

Rusty

wrote in message
oups.com...
I think its funny when people talk of mars quarantine The multi month
trip home should be enough to answer that question, no need for
extended stay at a space station///


More likely they'll need straight jackets for the return trip
not a quarantine.

They won't be able to answer the question of life on Mars.

On the way home they'll go nuts trying to figure it out and
trying to reconcile their emotions from being responsible for
such a Grand Scientific Failure.

Scott Hedrick wrote:


What *should* have been done is the capsule be picked up, crew onboard, and
lowered into an enclosure which was fully closed *before* the seal on the
capsule was cracked. Throwing in containment garments sounds nice, but if
there were any germs, they got all over the outside of the suits and passed
out into the air. The helicopter crew would also have been contaminated.

Of course, we know there were no germs, and the quarantine facility did a
great job. However, if there were germs, the contamination would have
occured as soon as the hatch opened, since the germs would have had days to
contaminate the entire interior of the CM.




The problem is that the CM brings in outside air as it descends under
its chutes (remember the nitrogen tetroxide contamination during
Apollo-Soyuz?)
Ideally, that valve should also be closed until it's safely contained in
the isolation chamber.

Pat