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Collier's Space Fight Series April 30 1954
Today marks an important date in space flight. It was 50 years ago
(April 30, 1954) that the last issue of the Collier's von Braun, et al. series came to an end. That issue had the articles Can We Get to Mars? and Is There Life on Mars. It was also a visual realization of von Braun's amazing Das Mars Projekt, brought to life by artists Chesley Bonestell, Fred Freeman and Rolf Klep. The series spanned the years 1952 to 1954. This series had a profound effect on a whole generation of young people who went on to space flight in their adult life. I have added to the article I wrote about this series : http://home.flash.net/~aajiv/bd/colliers.html |
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Al Jackson wrote: I have added to the article I wrote about this series : http://home.flash.net/~aajiv/bd/colliers.html Speaking of which, whatever became of David Sander's MCS project? I haven't heard anything much on that since the computer crash. Pat |
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Mike Flugennock wrote: That Bonestell cover art is really intense (and I don't even recall that particular one); it's incredible how he nailed the appearance of Earth from orbit. He's got the color, the cloud patterns, the horizon, everything damn' near perfect, almost like any Earth observation shot from Mercury or Gemini. And what a great staging view. The actual hardware turned out to be way different, of course, but that staging view is damn' near dead-nuts-on. I dug out my copy of that book, and you are right; that is a _very_ good representation of the Earth as seen from orbit. The staging view got criticized by von Braun in that it showed the engine nozzles on the spent stage glowing red after shutdown. WvB assured him that no good engineer would let that happen. Of course when the Saturn V staged, the first stage engine nozzles would glow for a few seconds after shutdown. Pat |
#5
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In article ,
Pat Flannery wrote: The staging view got criticized by von Braun in that it showed the engine nozzles on the spent stage glowing red after shutdown. WvB assured him that no good engineer would let that happen. Of course when the Saturn V staged, the first stage engine nozzles would glow for a few seconds after shutdown. That was leftover propellants burning, rather than the nozzles themselves glowing. However, the old Ariane nozzles glowed from shortly after ignition to a little while after cutoff... The Viking engines, unusually for large rocket engines, were not regeneratively cooled. -- MOST launched 30 June; science observations running | Henry Spencer since Oct; first surprises seen; papers pending. | |
#6
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Henry Spencer wrote: However, the old Ariane nozzles glowed from shortly after ignition to a little while after cutoff... The Viking engines, unusually for large rocket engines, were not regeneratively cooled. I should have known better than doubt WvB! :-[ I remember that shot that Ariane used in one of their ads where you can see the motor nozzles glowing as the strap-ons are jettisoned (the photo was taken by a camera mounted in one of the strap-ons.) The Delta II's second-stage motor nozzle glows in this footage taken by a Rocketcam: http://www.spaceflightnow.com/delta/...6onsep_qt.html Pat |
#7
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Pat Flannery wrote:
Speaking of which, whatever became of David Sander's MCS project? I haven't heard anything much on that since the computer crash. I'm still alive and working hard. Too hard, actually - things like (for example) a) the website; and b) having something of a life (including frequenting s.s.h.) have become far lower priorities than the job in hand (and now my doctor says I should take a month off and go on a cruise to better my health - har har .... pity he didn't want to pay for it). As it stands, the drive crash set me back about 6 months and somewhere between $60,000 and $70,000 in R&D and finished material, not counting my time. Even if an insurance company paid for it, no amount of money could bring back the stuff that's gone, so worrying about it is a waste of time and energy. I'm battling on, is all that matters. MCS is making haste slowly, simply because it is going through the process of chasing backing. The drums are beating, and quite a number of proposals have been sent out and meetings taken place. By my reckoning, we're about halfway through the process, though any one of the interested parties could phone me tomorrow and say "we're going for it". In the meantime, I'm furnishing co-producers with whatever they need, speaking to whomever I can, and agitating as much as I can while trying to maintain all the mundane place-to-live and food-on-the-table responsibilities. Stuff is still getting made, all the material that doesn't require people is still being worked on, and I'm filling external hard after external hard drive with material. Yes, I've missed anniversaries of particular events, and I must confess to being a little disappointed in that, but I don't want to rush this thing through only to produce something half-arsed that is going to be a disappointment for people. There actually *will* be a fairly reasonable website update within the next few weeks, as I spent a little time just the other day going through it (making sure just enough was there for the sake of a prospective interest group), and thinking that some more stuff could stand to be released. David -- per aspera ad astra |
#8
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Incidentally, someone is working on implementing the Collier's ships
in Orbiter: http://orbit.m6.net/v2/read.asp?id=15341 At the moment you can fly to orbit, dock with the station, transfer to the lunar ship, fly a loop around the Moon and return, undock the ferry from the station, re-enter and land. Hopefully the lunar landers and Mars ships will join them before long. Mark |
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