Website review: NASA - Moondust and Duct Tape
TapwaterJ discovered this in Science/Tech
•4 reviews since Apr 22, 2008
science, duct-tape
•science.nasa.gov/headlines/y2008/21apr_ductta...
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TapwaterJ discovered 3 months ago
Moondust and Duct Tape Dr. Tony Phillips, NASA "At this year's Great Moonbuggy Race in Huntsville, Alabama, Prof. Paul Shiue of Christian Brothers University was overheard joking that duct tape was his team's "best engineering tool." Others felt the same way. The sound of gray tape being torn from rolls practically filled the race course as dozens of college and high school student engineers busily assembled and repaired their homemade moonbuggies. Little did they know, this was in the finest tradition of lunar exploration. Turning back the clock 36 years reveals the key roll of duct tape in NASA's Apollo program. The date was Dec. 11, 1972. Astronauts Gene Cernan and Jack Schmitt had just landed their lunar module Challenger in a beautiful mountain-ringed valley named Taurus-Littrow on the edge of the Sea of Serenity. Mission planners chose the site for its geological variety: the ground was covered by a mix of giant boulders, hardened lava, orange glass beads (a sign of ancient volcanic fire fountains) and, of course, ubiquitous moondust. Within hours the two astronauts were down the ladder loading a raft of geology tools and experiments onto their Lunar Roving Vehicle or "moonbuggy." Everything was going smoothly until Cernan brushed against the rover; a hammer in the shin pocket of his spacesuit caught the buggy's right rear fender and tore half of it off. Cernan: "Oh, you won't believe it. There goes a fender." Schmitt: "Oh, shoot!" Now, a moonbuggy in Alabama can go just fine without a fender, but in Taurus-Littrow a missing fender was a potential disaster. The reason is moondust." The Duck Tape Club Will Bullas ~ ~ ~
- sillydog2112 rated 3 months ago
- Look at the first picture in this article. Doesn't the cold and lack of atmosphere makes it look like a studio out there but, more so? I wonder how they exposed that. I'd assume with a wide aperature, but who knows when there's quite literally no atmosphere -- just dust that takes 6x as long to settle and travels 6x as far. How to account for an atmosphere like that? Those Kodak folks must have done their job very well. Those would be fun variables to account for in your project. No wonder so many people wanted to work for NASA. Just think -- thousands of talented vets in good paying jobs that utilized the military investment in their training and education (a reasonable amount of time since the GI Bill. The 1960s had to be the time to start a space programme. I wonder if Kennedy thought of it that way -- that he was uniquely suited with that particulur combination of generational archetypes to accomplish such an engineering feat. Is this photo the outcome of a massive government comitting itself to an artform that someone made up out of science, in the guise of documentation? Regardless, I love it. I just thought I out to share that with someone. Oh, and the duct tape article is a hoot. My first thought was that the cold would keep the duct tape from working, but I guess it just gets hard and takes time and moisture to become really brittle. The dust can be tamed with static and molded with microwave. I'm actually very keen on the whole moonbase thing, though I know it's just going to be military and mining for a long time -- sort of like Alaska, but more so. How do you get to be the moon photographer? I'll bet I went to the wrong damn school. ;) Earth space has its challenges, too.
- cameronh1403 rated 3 months ago
- Just like the Force, has a light side, a dark side and holds everything together..
- SeanRyan420 rated 3 months ago
- Duct tape saves the day!
