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koshkin
MODERATOR Dark Lord of Optics Joined: June/15/2004 Location: United States Status: Offline Points: 13181 |
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Also, keep in mind, that the space program was one of the major things that bankrupted Soviet Union. That is worth something (to me, at least).
ILya
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budperm
Optics Retard show me your sheep!! Joined: January/01/2009 Location: Pennsylvania Status: Offline Points: 31710 |
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I didn't know that.... interesting...
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"Peace is that brief glorious moment in history when everybody stands around reloading".
--Thomas Jefferson |
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NW425
Optics Apprentice Joined: May/16/2015 Location: NH Status: Offline Points: 56 |
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How did you get this tour? Is it offered to visitors or did you need certain clearances etc?
I agree, while the space program has costs more dollars than all of us combined will ever earn, the benefits have been astronomical (get it, I was being punny).
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RifleDude
MODERATOR EVIL OPPRESSOR Joined: October/13/2006 Location: Texas Status: Offline Points: 16337 |
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The tour is open to everyone. Just pay for entry (around $25 or so). There are 2 parts, the visitor center, which has some museum displays, souvenir shop, and food, and the actual "working" part of NASA, where employees do their research, training, etc. The latter is accessible only by 2 different tram tours. I took the one that stopped at the astronaut training facility. The other tram tour goes to Mission Control. I didn't take that one because I had to be somewhere later that afternoon and ran out of time.
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Ted
Money can't buy happiness... but it's much more comfortable to cry in a Porsche than on a bicycle. |
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cheaptrick
MODERATOR Joined: September/27/2004 Location: South Carolina Status: Offline Points: 20844 |
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Step right this way, Mates.....Now..take your protein pills and put your helmets on... Edited by cheaptrick - June/09/2015 at 07:57 |
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If at first you don't secede...try..try again.
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RifleDude
MODERATOR EVIL OPPRESSOR Joined: October/13/2006 Location: Texas Status: Offline Points: 16337 |
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You've really made the grade And the papers want to know whose shirts you wear Now it's time to leave the capsule if you dare This is Major Tom to Ground Control I'm stepping through the door And I'm floating in the most peculiar way And the stars look very different today Here am I floating around my tin can Far above the world Planet Earth is blue And there's nothing I can do..." |
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Ted
Money can't buy happiness... but it's much more comfortable to cry in a Porsche than on a bicycle. |
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RifleDude
MODERATOR EVIL OPPRESSOR Joined: October/13/2006 Location: Texas Status: Offline Points: 16337 |
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Resurrected this thread because I visited NASA Johnson Space Center - Houston again last week. Some of my engineer co-workers visited from corporate, they'd never been there before and wanted to go.
Here's a photo I took of the business end of the Saturn V rocket Stage 2. I thought all the details of the J-2 engines, the wiring and piping associated with it, along with the contrasting textures was interesting. I didn't have a wide angle lens with me at the time and didn't have enough room in the building to back up further and get more of the rocket in the frame as i did in earlier pics in this thread 2 years ago. As it turns out, I think this close up detail view turned out pretty cool. I started to use it for this month's photo contest ('technology" theme), but chose a different photo instead. |
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Ted
Money can't buy happiness... but it's much more comfortable to cry in a Porsche than on a bicycle. |
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Kickboxer
MODERATOR Moderator Joined: February/13/2008 Status: Offline Points: 23679 |
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Great photo. I wish the current advances in commercializetion had been made many years ago… still the "final frontier":
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Opinion,untempered by fact,is ignorance.
There are some who do not fear death... for they are more afraid of not really living |
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RifleDude
MODERATOR EVIL OPPRESSOR Joined: October/13/2006 Location: Texas Status: Offline Points: 16337 |
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I just noticed something odd with the above photo that I think is worth discussing since we're in the photography forum. In digital photography, there's an aberration known as "moire" that can sometimes occur in photos of objects containing lots of fine, repetitive details. Moire is the tendency of a photo or television screen to display abnormal wavy patterns on top of repetitive geometric patterns or textures of an object.
Here is an explanation of what causes moire, with photo example: https://photographylife.com/what-is-moire/ In my photo above, take a look at the side of the rocket engine thrust chamber nozzle, inside the exhaust nozzle and on the ribbing in spots on the fuel delivery plumbing. Note the curved, wavy lines on top of the straight ribbing. This is moire. Whether you can see it or not has a lot to do with your screen resolution, but I can see it when viewing this thread on both on my laptop and my cell phone. To combat moire patterns, digital cameras often feature an "optical low pass filter" or "anti-aliasing" filter to slightly soften the image before it reaches the sensor to reduce or eliminate the effect. Some cameras lack an OLPF with the goal of maximizing resolution/sharpness, since most scenes you're likely to take photos of won't contain patterns that induce moire...the tradeoff being that camera sensors without a OLPF can pick up the moire effect when taking photos of things like architectural details, fabrics, etc. The odd thing about this photo is not the presence of moire, as that's not uncommon. What's odd is the moire is completely absent in my original photo, as well as the reduced size photo I used to upload to my post. Only when I uploaded to the OT server did the moire appear.
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Ted
Money can't buy happiness... but it's much more comfortable to cry in a Porsche than on a bicycle. |
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Steelbenz
Optics Jedi Knight ROLL TIDE ROLL Joined: January/03/2006 Location: Heart of Dixie Status: Offline Points: 5153 |
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That's awesome Ted, I have seen this effect but didn't really understand it I assumed it was a lighting issue. Learned something today and I haven't even finished my first cup of coffee! 👍🏼 Gonna be a great day!
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"Don't argue with a fool! From a distance you can't really tell who's who!"
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Dogger
Optics Jedi Master Joined: January/02/2007 Location: Ontario, Canada Status: Offline Points: 8904 |
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I am continually amazed at how such complex machines can be engineered and built by man and work so incredibly well. I am still in awe of the Space Shuttle flights - there were some significant issues along the way to be sure but when you look at the brutal conditions these things operated in they were indeed marvelous machines.
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God save the Empire!
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RifleDude
MODERATOR EVIL OPPRESSOR Joined: October/13/2006 Location: Texas Status: Offline Points: 16337 |
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What's equally amazing to me is the number of contractors involved in building the whole assembly, the number of people involved in each component's design, engineering, and manufacturing, and yet except for an electrical glitch on Apollo13, everything worked as planned, despite its enormous complexity!
Just off the top of my head, the Saturn V rocket assembly in Apollo mission config involved major components built by Boeing, North American Aviation, Douglas Aircraft, IBM, Grumman, Rocketdyne, Rockwell, and undoubtedly others. It's even more amazing to me given the technologies available in the 1960's and 70's, and the fact an entire Apollo mission to the moon required only 5mb of computing data. You have to stand next to the Saturn V in full Apollo mission launch config to fully appreciate how enormous that beast really is! The whole thing is 363 ft tall, 33 ft in diameter, weighed 6,540,000 lbs fully loaded with fuel, and the first stage had 7,891,000 lbs of combined thrust from its 5 engines! To date, it remains the tallest, heaviest, and most powerful rocket ever flown. |
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Ted
Money can't buy happiness... but it's much more comfortable to cry in a Porsche than on a bicycle. |
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RifleDude
MODERATOR EVIL OPPRESSOR Joined: October/13/2006 Location: Texas Status: Offline Points: 16337 |
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Again from the first page of this thread... the mighty Saturn V:
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Ted
Money can't buy happiness... but it's much more comfortable to cry in a Porsche than on a bicycle. |
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Dogger
Optics Jedi Master Joined: January/02/2007 Location: Ontario, Canada Status: Offline Points: 8904 |
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The Saturn V was in every way an inspiring machine. Many years ago I stood beside the static display at Canaveral and was suitably amazed. I remember well watching the launch of Apollo 11 on July 16/69 from my parents rec room. One of those unforgettable memories.
Edited by Dogger - March/31/2017 at 13:44 |
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God save the Empire!
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supertool73
Optics God Superstool Joined: January/03/2008 Status: Offline Points: 11814 |
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Great pics and an amazing commentary. Truly amazing how much technology we have gained from the space program.
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Lifetime warranty and excellent customer service don't mean a thing when your gun fails during a zombie attack.
"A Liberal is a person who will give away everything they don't own." |
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RifleDude
MODERATOR EVIL OPPRESSOR Joined: October/13/2006 Location: Texas Status: Offline Points: 16337 |
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Yes sir, very awe-inspiring! Remarkable in every way!
I can only imagine the emotions Neil Armstrong felt as he was descending the ladder of the Lunar Module, about to make the first ever human footprint on the surface of the moon! The profundity of that moment had to be almost mind-blowing. Alan Shepherd said "when I first looked back at the earth, standing on the moon, I cried." I think I would have reacted the same way. Just so overwhelming! |
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Ted
Money can't buy happiness... but it's much more comfortable to cry in a Porsche than on a bicycle. |
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RifleDude
MODERATOR EVIL OPPRESSOR Joined: October/13/2006 Location: Texas Status: Offline Points: 16337 |
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Here's something that will blow your mind...
Command Module pilot Michael Collins took this historic photo of the Lunar Module containing Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin, with the earth in the background, during the Apollo 11 mission. A thought then occurred to him... EVERY HUMAN BEING, ALIVE OR DEAD, WHO EVER EXISTED IN THE HISTORY OF MANKIND, IS WITHIN THE FRAME OF THIS PHOTO, EXCEPT ONE -- MICHAEL COLLINS!!!! Just imagine that!!! Whether one died long before this photo was taken or whether one wasn't born yet when this photo was taken, every human being who has ever existed or will ever exist EXCEPT ONE is within the frame of this photo, in one form or another. Since matter cannot be created or destroyed, the materials that make up our physical being is within the frame of the photo!
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Ted
Money can't buy happiness... but it's much more comfortable to cry in a Porsche than on a bicycle. |
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Dogger
Optics Jedi Master Joined: January/02/2007 Location: Ontario, Canada Status: Offline Points: 8904 |
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Exactly! For those that haven't viewed it check Carl Sagan's "Pale Blue Dot", thought provoking.
Edited by Dogger - March/31/2017 at 14:44 |
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God save the Empire!
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RifleDude
MODERATOR EVIL OPPRESSOR Joined: October/13/2006 Location: Texas Status: Offline Points: 16337 |
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Wow! Heavy!
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Ted
Money can't buy happiness... but it's much more comfortable to cry in a Porsche than on a bicycle. |
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sucker76
Optics Journeyman Joined: June/13/2013 Location: Texas Status: Offline Points: 392 |
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I was also recently there with family from out of town. We took the tour to Mission Control and didn't have time for the other tour. We were trammed to the Christopher C. Kraft, Jr Mission Control Center. ON the first floor there were displays with a Rolex watch and patch for, I think, each manned space flight. Please forgive the crummy cellphone shots as that's all I had.
Mission Control is on the 4th floor. 81 total steps up. this is the original room and is now not used except for tours. It is set up like Apollo XI. This is a Nikon F that was used inside Apollo spacecraft for photo documentation of mission events. It's also interesting that in the Saturn V rocket building there were several signs stating that the rocket was owned by the Smithsonian museum and "on loan" to Johnson Space Center. Makes you wonder if they take it back where will they house it? Its HUGE. |
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Stamp collecting since 2015
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