Good advert

nicholas bonham-carter

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=Y5hc8l_VPdk

BobC

My old landlord worked on the Bolder Dam (now called the Hoover Dam) during the depression, I worked on the Apollo Project, what is the country is working on now?

Bob

ChrisJ

BobC said:

My old landlord worked on the Bolder Dam (now called the Hoover Dam) during the depression, I worked on the Apollo Project, what is the country is working on now?

Bob

Going by the condition of our highways, roads and bridges I'd say falling apart.

FranklinD

I am a HUGE fan of the space program in general, but the Apollo Program specifically. I own just about every documentary made about that period in history.

It has always amazed me that our country was able to come together and work SO hard to achieve a goal, whether it was space flight, dams, the highway system, the industrial build-up and logistics of WWII, and so on. Just seems like nowadays any of those things would be an utter impossibility.

@BobC, what did you do during the Apollo Program? To be alive during those days...I was born in 1982 so I missed all the great early achievements. The Apollo Guidance Computer has always fascinated me...rope-style core memory, the advent of priority processing, and so on. Just amazing stuff. I recently rewatched a very good documentary on the construction of the Apollo space suit by ILC and the life support backpack by another company...a fantastic documentary.

Andy

BobC

@FranklinD I worked for a small power supply company and we supplied the power supplies that powered the onboard computer. You would not believe the environmental tests that unit had to pass.

While I was putting the supply through it's paces at the environmental test lab the were testing an H bomb in the next bay (the trigger mechanism was NOT installed. They were some upset when they found me watching them mount it on the shake table.

I'm glad to report the power supply and the H bomb passed - after a few on site modifications.

It was a very small part of the project but a very important one.

Bob

FranklinD

@BobC - That is really cool. I've built a few small power supplies and battery chargers over the years but of course nothing like that.

I can imagine the environmental tests would be 'extreme' to say the least...since they would open the hatch for EVA's, anything inside the capsule would be subject to the same conditions as a component mounted outside or in the service module. Obviously you and your company did a great job, as I don't believe there were ever any computer failures, even when Apollo 12 was struck by lightning (twice!) during liftoff.

The documentary on the AGC was fascinating... integrated circuits were still relatively new at the time - the freon-dipping to check for bad IC's was a pretty interesting way to test them.

Did you ever get to witness a Saturn V launch in person (from any distance)? The statistics on power and fuel consumption for the first stage are so ridiculous that I can't even picture the quantities (or anything analagous) in my mind. I've seen some videos on YouTube from cameras mounted in the LOX tanks (to study fuel slosh during liftoff) and it's incredible.

Sorry for my obvious enthusiasm...just absolutely fascinating stuff to hear about from someone that worked on the program. Thanks for indulging me.

Andy

BobC

@FranklinD IC''s were reliable because you put all the parts on a substrate and that was encased in a ceramic package that made it pretty much immune to anything but a hammer.

High reliability gear had to be tested at -65C, 25C, and 85C and some of the tolerances were very tight. Next was a humidity test to make sure the circuitry would not be affected by high humidity levels. Then the supply would go into vibration testing where it was mounted on a shake table and was swept through a frequency range to find any resonant points, we would stop and dwell at the resonant points and shake it for an extended period of time to find any weaknesses. One of the last tests was the explosive atmosphere chamber, the unit would be run in a chamber with an optimum gasoline vapor concentration and put through it's paces. You spot the failures by the very load bang and the 20 pound pressure relief hatch banging back and forth

IC's were just being made available on a commercial basis when I worked at Analog Devices, we did not make any mil versions but some of the products were used because nobody else made an equivalent mil speced part. In reality industrial grade components meet a lot of the military requirements.

Later with that power supply company I can remember bread boarding a switch mode power supply control section with 555's and LM301's because there was no available switch mode control IC available. The the SG 3524 was released it revolutionized the whole industry.

I never got near any kind of a launch, the best I did was to go aboard a navy cruiser to solve a systems issue that had the navy stumped. That ended up being a badly written specification, once I realized what was going on the fix was pretty simple but it led to some red faces in Washington when my report lande don their desks.

Bob

Paul48

WARNING: STRONG LANGUAGE AND ADULT CONTENT

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=73_ds1xQmD4

Paul48

You have no idea how it tears me apart to watch that. I apologize for the language, I didn't even hear it, within the context of what was being said.

Fred

Wow, That should open up multiple dialogs on many many levels. Will it?

BobC

We have not been a great country since the middle 70's. We ignored Eisenhower's advice and allowed the military industrial complex to take control of the government and run things for their own gain. The lobbyists on K street are just money changers in the temple, I think we all know what should be done with them.

At the time of our revolution we had more newspaper published in the colonies than ALL OF EUROPE. Just about everybody read several newspapers every week, they wrote to friends and relatives in other colonies to exchange views on what was going in the colonies and the world. The citizens of this country were among the best informed on the PLANET.

In short they gave a ****, Ben Franklin was asked as he left the constitutional convention "what kind of government have we?" His answer was "A republic if you can keep it."

http://www.larouchepub.com/other/2009/3607franklin_right.html

i don't agree with everything in that article but they are pretty close to the mark. The point is if people don't start paying attention to what is done in their name we wn't be keeping that republic much longer.

It's a very sad commentary that people pay more attention to Twitter, Pokemon and sports teams than they do to what is going on in government. When I was in Korea I used to have the Boston Globe mailed to me, after I was finished with it the other 5 GI's on that site would read that paper. We also got Newsweek and the Army Times every week (sent by the company because we were an isolated site).

People have to put down their phones and read a newspaper, if you don't like what you read then investigate further, don't stop till you uncover the truth. Most of the news on TV is slanted to mesh with somebody's agenda so watch it with a jaundiced eye.

Bob

Canucker

@BobC I wouldn't let the newspapers off the hook, or any media really. I love the last paragraph in your statement, I would just remove the"on TV" part. They all seem to have an agenda these days

Paul48

When the White House releases a story to the media, it is reported as fact. There is no attempt to ascertain whether it is truth, or not. They report things, such as uprisings in countries. The media in countries that are allies of the U.S., are including the fact that the weapons for the uprising are being supplied by the CIA. It has to stop.

BobC

@Canucker I agree a lot of papers are pretty biased, maybe it's best to take what the liberal and conservative papers have to say and divine a middle path - to often they have an agenda and the truth gets lost in the mix. I've found some of the foreign papers are a lot more even handed with our news.

You have to vet whatever they say and be careful to separate opinion from fact.

Bob

Jamie Hall

@BobC -- another Apollo person! I was part -- a very small part -- of the team that created the maps of the moon which were used, and some of the guidance material. Those were the days...

SWEI

I grew up in SoCal during the 1960s and 1970s surrounded by engineers and technicians who worked in the aerospace industry. In that community, engineering school was just what you did if you were of a certain mindset. I'll never forget sitting in the Apollo 8 Command Module as a kid when they brought it back.