this post was submitted on 01 Sep 2023
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Everyone has something they can't stop themselves from nerding out over - but often it's hard to find people to talk to about it. So go ahead, share your interests, and tell us about them!

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[–] [email protected] 7 points 1 year ago (2 children)

The original moon landing programs at NASA. I massively nerd out over Mercury, Gemini, and Apollo.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 1 year ago (1 children)

How about a selection of your favourite facts on this topic? :)

[–] [email protected] 4 points 1 year ago (2 children)

The Gemini 8 mission was very nearly a disaster if it weren’t for Armstrong’s exceptional piloting skills. Gemini 8 was scheduled to rendezvous with an unmanned Agena rocket and dock in Earth orbit. The Agena had been a problematic vehicle so the default if anything went wrong was to assume it was the Agena and to decouple. In this case, after Gemini docked successfully, both craft started gyrating in an unexpected manner. Armstrong decouples from the Agena and the movement gets worse (a maneuvering thruster was stuck open) and the Gemini starts to violently spin, which ultimately would have been fatal to Armstrong and Scott. Armstrong realizes they’re in danger and fires the reentry retros, slowing the Gemini craft and aborting the mission early but saving both himself as well as astronaut David Scott.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 year ago

I remember this scene being depicted in From The Earth to the Moon. Really awesome mini series.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Oh man, that's scary! I'd guess that one scene in Interstellar was inspired by this event?

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 year ago

I honestly couldn’t say but I know what scene you’re talking about! NASA has Col. John Stapp to thank for a lot of knowledge about the effects of acceleration on the human body. The “fastest man on Earth” was a career Air Force flight surgeon who worked on Project Manhigh. He often put himself into the rocket sled they used to observe how acceleration and deceleration affected the human body, surviving a 38g deceleration. He was temporally blind for some time after that because of bleeding into his retinas.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 year ago

I feel ya. Space exploration in general is my jam, why aren't people as excited as me about how there's theoretically more water on some of Jupiter's moons than there is on earth??