" Forbidden Planet" observation

Val Kraut wrote:
The tradition of the Iron works was the planes got shot up and still
brought their pilots home. The LM had a better track record then the
CSM. All successful missions - and the LM-7 lifeboat. The LM-7 crew
came back and walked through the plants shaking hands will the
entire engineering staff. I think the Iron Works is more than a
sturdy vehicle - but a sturdy system that will function with
necessary backups to assure the crew survives. There was a tremdous
committment on the part of the engineering staff that their
component would not loose an astronaut. Many of those guys were
young graduates then and who recently got to contribute to the NGC
Altair effort - and that spirit still survives.

A term I've coined/used in some past contexts might apply "Delicately
robust." Although in this case I think "Robustly delicate" might be
more apt.

rick jones
--
firebug n, the idiot who tosses a lit cigarette out his car window
these opinions are mine, all mine; HP might not want them anyway...
feel free to post, OR email to rick.jones2 in hp.com but NOT BOTH...

In article ,
"Val Kraut" wrote:

Probably true - I have to watch it again. The urban legend on the seats was
some engineers argued the seats would allow the astronauts to survive a
crash landing. The astronaut take was - and then we wait for air sea rescue.

There were two weight reduction efforts - SWIP and Scrape. SWIP was the
Super Weight Reduction Program. This looked for big design changes like
removeing the anti slosh baffles from fuel tanks. Scrape was what it sounds
like. Scraping small portions off of detailed parts to achieve a net savings
on the total vehicle. The story with that was Arnold Wittiger going into
Kelly's office complaining that each LEM part took so much hand owrk that
they weren't getting the parts out of the shop on an acceptable schedule.
The stiffiners on the Descnet Module were chemically milled to remove
thoousands of an inch to reduce weight - pretty extreme



Val Kraut

Bal,

Does the name "Scott MacLeod" mean anything to you?

"
Does the name "Scott MacLeod" mean anything to you?

I know the name - seem to associate it with the consulting pilots that were
involved with LM testing. I don't think we ever met.



Val Kraut

In article ,
"Val Kraut" wrote:

"
Does the name "Scott MacLeod" mean anything to you?

I know the name - seem to associate it with the consulting pilots that were
involved with LM testing. I don't think we ever met.



Val Kraut

Yes -- he headed up the Astronaut Office at Grumman, during Apollo.
Super guy!

" Yes -- he headed up the Astronaut Office at Grumman, during Apollo.
Super guy!

When we had the vehicles in test, the engineers were in the ACE checkout
room and the astronauts (NASA or Grumman substitute) were in the LM in the
clean room, so basically an unknown voice at the other end of the intercom.


Val Kraut