Word: commandants
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: during 1960-1969
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
...take Astronauts Neil Armstrong, Edwin Aldrin and Michael Collins on their epic journey have been aptly named. The lunar module that will land on the moon's surface has been christened Eagle because, Armstrong said, it is "representative of the flight and the nation's hope." The command module that will carry the astronauts back to earth has been dubbed Columbia, a close approximation of Columbiad, the name that Jules Verne gave to his lunar craft in his 1865 novel, From the Earth to the Moon. Prophetically, Verne launched Columbiad from a site in Florida and brought...
...this point, Astronauts Armstrong and Aldrin will hastily check out the LM for any damage suffered in the landing. Should they discover any serious problems, such as leaking fuel or falling pressure in the cabin, they will abort the mission, blasting off immediately to rejoin Collins in the orbiting command module. If all is well, they will have a brief snack, sleep for four hours and eat a leisurely dinner. Only then will they struggle into their bulky space suits, visored helmets, boots and gloves. With their Portable Life Support System (PLSS) backpacks, which supply air conditioning and enough oxygen...
...Monday, after another 4-hr. sleep period sandwiched between two meals, Armstrong and Aldrin will fire the LM's ascent engine, using the four-legged descent stage as a launch pad. If all goes well, they will rendezvous with Collins and transfer to the command module, taking their precious rocks with them in sealed boxes and leaving the LM in orbit around the moon. From that point on, they will again follow the path of Apollo 10. After firing themselves into an earth-bound trajectory, they will splash down in the Pacific Ocean some 1,160 miles southwest of Hawaii...
Other scientific benefits will flow immediately from the instruments that the astronauts will leave behind on the moon. As soon as Astronaut Aldrin sets up a seismometer on the lunar surface, for example, a command radioed from earth will activate it by releasing four suspended weights. In the future, whenever a quake or a meteor disturbs the lunar surface, the seismometer's frame will vibrate, while the suspended weights remain immobile. The seismometer, sensing the relative motion between the frame and the weights, will express it as digital data and transmit it to earth. The instrument is so sensitive that...
...sounds like a knockabout mob at work, no-class cannons. It is all a damn shame; it used to be beautiful to watch two stalls frame a mark at the command "Turn John in for a pit" and see the poke come out. A good whiz mob could do it in three seconds without the mark rumbling...