If he’s serious, I’m outraged at the level of (apparently willful) ignorance he’s displayed.
One “gun” that some Gemini (and perhaps later non-lunar EVA missions, but not, I think, Apollo) included, and used, was to help the astronauts maneuver their own bodies during spacewalking – by “firing” the gun in the opposite direction you wanted your body to move. Apparently, it worked rather well, according to one of the very few people who used one: Michael Collins (as recounted in his wonderful book, Carrying the Fire .)
JKellyMap:
One “gun” that some Gemini (and perhaps later non-lunar EVA missions, but not, I think, Apollo) included, and used, was to help the astronauts maneuver their own bodies during spacewalking – by “firing” the gun in the opposite direction you wanted your body to move. Apparently, it worked rather well, according to one of the very few people who used one: Michael Collins (as recounted in his wonderful book, Carrying the Fire .)
Hand-Held Maneuvering Unit (Wiki)
Photos of Ed White with HHMU (NASA)
zoid
September 9, 2010, 2:41pm
104
I love this image!
“Hah, bow before Zoid puny earthlings!”
punch, smash, wham
“Aggghhh, run away, run away!”
Damn straight!Soup ? I thought it was Disposable Hero ?!
I fixed the quote coding for you, zoid. The problem was that Disposable Hero ’s post was mis-coded, and you carried that through when you quoted his.
That is some serious outrage.
Kobal2
September 9, 2010, 8:40pm
108
Why strange ? From a realpolitik standpoint, beyond their stated goals the shuttle missions were also a way to tell the world “We could put anything we want up here”. Least, that’s how the Russians saw it - they were certainly concerned the shuttles were used to covertly put up spy sats. The Russkis could have simply been replying “And FYI we could shoot them down” in their own way.
In any case, it doesn’t appear to be 100% that either (cite ) :
"In 1981 the United States carried out the first launch of the Shuttle spacecraft. This naturally drew the attention of the country’s government and Ministry of Defense leadership. On being launched from the U.S. Air Force Western Space and Missile Center (Vandenberg), the Columbia and then the Challenger manned orbiter stages would pass over middle latitudes of the USSR from east to west, primarily in hours of daylight. This is 8 out of 14 revolutions per day, coinciding with our country’s time zones. Orbital altitude was 300-400 km and there was total conformity with the sequence of passage of U.S. reconnaissance spacecraft.
"In those days I was preparing a detailed report for the Minister of Defense on means being used to track the Shuttle flight and on results of Outer Space Monitoring System operation. Then, some time in the autumn of 1983, Marshal of the Soviet Union D. Ustinov called me on the Kremlin phone [kremlevka]: I have before me your report on work on the Shuttle. Tell me, why hasn’t the experimental laser complex of General Designer Nikolay Ustinov been used?’ Dmitriy Fedorovich was excited over his son’s creation. At that time a team of 300 specialists was performing modifications on the complex, and I reported this to the Minister of Defense. And the experiment took place on 10 October 1984, during the Challenger’s 13th flight, when its orbital revolutions were passing in the vicinity of the National Air Defense Troops state range near Lake Balkhash, with the laser unit operating in a detection mode with minimum emissive power. The craft’s orbital altitude at that time was 365 km and the slant range of acquisition and tracking was 400-800 km. A precise target designation was issued to the laser unit by General Designer Grigoriy Kisunko’s Argun radar measurement complex.
“The Challenger crew later reported that as they were flying over the vicinity of Balkhash, communications on the craft suddenly shut down, malfunctions appeared in operation of gear, and the astronauts themselves did not feel quite well. The Americans began to investigate and soon realized that the crew had been subjected to some kind of artificial effect from our side and lodged an official protest with the USSR. Based on humane considerations, the laser unit as well as a portion of the range’s radiotechnical complexes having a high energy potential subsequently were not employed to track the Shuttles. ”
(emphasis mine) So it seems they were trying to keep track of the shuttles using ground lasers, but stopped when they realized it had harmful effects. Or, if you’re a cynic, when they realized those effects could be used as casus belli . Either way
