Whereabouts of Thomas E. Dolan (Apollo Project)

Hello everybody,

Does anyone know if Mr. Dolan, the creator of the Lunar Orbit
Rendezvous, is still alive and if so, if anybody would know of how to
get in touch with him?

Regards,

Tjark

You are probably referring to John Houbolt, who recently
was still alive, retired and in declining health, in Williamsburg, Virginia.

"Tjark Nikolai" wrote in message
...
Hello everybody,

Does anyone know if Mr. Dolan, the creator of the Lunar Orbit
Rendezvous, is still alive and if so, if anybody would know of how to
get in touch with him?

Regards,

Tjark

On Fri, 13 May 2005, Jim Oberg wrote:
"Tjark Nikolai" wrote in message
...

Does anyone know if Mr. Dolan, the creator of the Lunar Orbit
Rendezvous, is still alive and if so, if anybody would know of how to
get in touch with him?

You are probably referring to John Houbolt, who recently
was still alive, retired and in declining health, in Williamsburg, Virginia.

I've just noticed-- a friend is graduating from the University of Illinois
at Urbana-Champaign-- that the U of I is awarding John Cornelius Houbolt an
honorary Doctor of Engineering degree this coming Sunday.

He's a U of I grad, and has donated his papers to the library there.

Houbolt was at NASA Langley in 1962 and is usually credited with championing
Lunar Orbit Rendezvous until it was accepted by Apollo planners.

Thomas E. Dolan led a group at Vought Astronautics that suggested a separate
lunar lander in the MALLAR study, around 1959.

I don't know whether he's still around. See the account in *Chariots for
Apollo* http://www.hq.nasa.gov/office/pao/History/SP-4205/ch3-2.html.

--
Bill Higgins | "Get the dinosaurs in, Martha,
Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory | they're predicting comets."
Internet: | --Dr. Barry D. Gehm

Wow, this is worth a news story -- what more can you tell me?


"Bill Higgins" wrote in message
nal.gov...
On Fri, 13 May 2005, Jim Oberg wrote:
"Tjark Nikolai" wrote in message
...

Does anyone know if Mr. Dolan, the creator of the Lunar Orbit
Rendezvous, is still alive and if so, if anybody would know of how to
get in touch with him?

You are probably referring to John Houbolt, who recently
was still alive, retired and in declining health, in Williamsburg,
Virginia.

I've just noticed-- a friend is graduating from the University of Illinois
at Urbana-Champaign-- that the U of I is awarding John Cornelius Houbolt
an
honorary Doctor of Engineering degree this coming Sunday.

In article . gov,
Bill Higgins wrote:
Thomas E. Dolan led a group at Vought Astronautics that suggested a separate
lunar lander in the MALLAR study, around 1959.

A separate lander also featured in some of the BIS moonship proposals of
the late 40s, and some even-earlier Russian writings... although there is
no clear evidence that Dolan -- or Bill Michael at NASA Langley, who seems
to have had the idea around the same time and possibly independently --
were aware of any of the earlier work.

(Such things are slippery, because when it's just a basic idea, even a
vague memory can make a difference. I once had the annoying experience of
coming up with what seemed like a neat, original idea... and then running
across it in a book that I definitely had read earlier, even though I had
no conscious memory of having seen the idea before. Did I *really*
reinvent it independently? I think I did, but I'll never be sure.)
--
"Think outside the box -- the box isn't our friend." | Henry Spencer
-- George Herbert |

I like the job they did about him on that Nova (PBS) series several
years back. I wrote to him concerning feasability of spinning space
stations to generate micrograv but I never heard anything. He's a true
unsung hero.

On Fri, 13 May 2005 13:59:56 GMT, "Jim Oberg"
wrote:

You are probably referring to John Houbolt, who recently
was still alive, retired and in declining health, in Williamsburg, Virginia.

"Tjark Nikolai" wrote in message
...
Hello everybody,

Does anyone know if Mr. Dolan, the creator of the Lunar Orbit
Rendezvous, is still alive and if so, if anybody would know of how to
get in touch with him?

Regards,

Tjark

I keep getting a "page not found" on those URLs.

On Fri, 13 May 2005 19:15:01 -0500, rk
wrote:

Don't forget:

Enchanted Rendezvous: John C. Houbolt and the Genesis of the Lunar-Orbit
Rendezvous Concept (Monographs in Aerospace History, No. 4, 1995). By James R.
Hansen.

http://www.hq.nasa.gov/office/pao/Hi...h4/splash2.htm

And if I'm not mistaken James Hansen is also the writer doing Neil Armstrong's
biography.

Here's a picture of Houbolt (mind the wrap):

Low Res:
http://klabs.org/richcontent/MAPLDCo...l/pictures/GPN
-2000-001274.jpg

Medium Res:
http://klabs.org/richcontent/MAPLDCo...l/pictures/GPN
-2000-001274_med.jpg

Hi Res:
http://klabs.org/richcontent/MAPLDCo...l/pictures/GPN
-2000-001274_high.jpg

Now, for 10 points, who can identify the model on the bookcase behind him?

-- rk

Jim Oberg wrote:

Wow, this is worth a news story -- what more can you tell me?


"Bill Higgins" wrote in message
nal.gov...
On Fri, 13 May 2005, Jim Oberg wrote:
"Tjark Nikolai" wrote in message
...

Does anyone know if Mr. Dolan, the creator of the Lunar Orbit
Rendezvous, is still alive and if so, if anybody would know of how to
get in touch with him?

You are probably referring to John Houbolt, who recently was still
alive, retired and in declining health, in Williamsburg, Virginia.

I've just noticed-- a friend is graduating from the University of Illinois
at Urbana-Champaign-- that the U of I is awarding John Cornelius Houbolt
an honorary Doctor of Engineering degree this coming Sunday.

On Sun, 15 May 2005 09:30:49 -0500, rk
wrote:

They all seem to work fine. Did you "mind the wrap?"

....Well, if you wouldn't post wrap on here, and stick to good old
wrock and wroll, then we wouldn't have this problem, rk.

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

Bill wrote:

I like the job they did about him on that Nova (PBS) series several
years back. I wrote to him concerning feasability of spinning space
stations to generate micrograv but I never heard anything. He's a true
unsung hero.


So what was your viewpoint regarding their feasability?

Pat

Well, it seems that there would be endless stabilization problems but
having 1G in orbit would sure solve some pesky problems with long-term
presence. Personally, I wish we had built a permanent base on the
moon. Other than the long 3.5-day trip, once you have a base on good
old luna firma you could build it mighty solid and sturdy. It seems
that there would be a need for a constantly orbiting transfer ship
though.

On Sun, 15 May 2005 14:22:54 -0500, Pat Flannery
wrote:



Bill wrote:

I like the job they did about him on that Nova (PBS) series several
years back. I wrote to him concerning feasability of spinning space
stations to generate micrograv but I never heard anything. He's a true
unsung hero.


So what was your viewpoint regarding their feasability?

Pat