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Apollo 14 50th anniversary images find Alan Shepard's ball and how far he hit it

bbc.com

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Re: Apollo 14 50th anniversary images find Alan Shepard's ball and how far he hit it

#21

Post by ra88it »

maxerickson wrote: post #13
yannk wrote: post #10

video of the shots: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t_jYOubJmfM

Funny that the video contradicts the article, showing him hitting 3 shots. He also has little trouble with the mechanics of the shot that he is able to take with the suit on.

I thought that was odd too. Maybe the middle one was a practice swing?

edit - I watched it again more closely. Looks like he threw down the second ball and the middle shot was either a practice swing or he missed it altogether and it wasn't counted (which I think is fair given he was wearing a thick space suit in low gravity swinging one handed with a fishbowl on his head).

edit 2 - Just seeing child post. Guess I gotta watch it again :)

edit 3 - Yep, child post is correct. It's sort of weird how confusing this short video is. The second ball kind of appears out of nowhere, as if he was doing a practice swing and dropping the ball at the same time.

Re: Apollo 14 50th anniversary images find Alan Shepard's ball and how far he hit it

#22

Post by RandallBrown »

jamestimmins wrote: post #9

I wonder if things like this would ever happen now. The original Mercury and Apollo astronauts were Air Force test pilots, a group known for picking and choosing which rules they wanted to follow. Sneaking a golf club aboard, not to mention the possibility of falling and tearing his suit, is a non-trivial risk. It's hard to imagine that culture of risk taking still exists, but at the same time, that culture may be wh…

I believe he had approval from NASA. https://www.usga.org/content/usga/home-page/articles/2019/02...

Re: Apollo 14 50th anniversary images find Alan Shepard's ball and how far he hit it

#23

Post by maxerickson »

ra88it wrote: post #21
maxerickson wrote: post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Funny that the video contradicts the article, showing him hitting 3 shots. He also has little trouble with the mechanics of the shot that he is able to take with the suit on.

I thought that was odd too. Maybe the middle one was a practice swing? edit - I watched it again more closely. Looks like he threw down the second ball and the middle shot was either a practice swing or he missed it altogether and it wasn't counted (which I think is fair given he was wearing a thick space suit in low gravity swinging one handed with a fishbowl on his head). edit 2 - Just seeing child post. Guess I go…

A ball is clearly visible at 46s. Watching it again, he swings 4 times. I don't see a ball for the second swing, but they are clearly visible for the other 3.

I imagine the analyst found where 2 landed and the write up misunderstood that to be the number of shots.

Re: Apollo 14 50th anniversary images find Alan Shepard's ball and how far he hit it

#24

Post by [deleted] »

ra88it wrote: post #21
maxerickson wrote: post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Funny that the video contradicts the article, showing him hitting 3 shots. He also has little trouble with the mechanics of the shot that he is able to take with the suit on.

I thought that was odd too. Maybe the middle one was a practice swing? edit - I watched it again more closely. Looks like he threw down the second ball and the middle shot was either a practice swing or he missed it altogether and it wasn't counted (which I think is fair given he was wearing a thick space suit in low gravity swinging one handed with a fishbowl on his head). edit 2 - Just seeing child post. Guess I go…

[deleted]

Re: Apollo 14 50th anniversary images find Alan Shepard's ball and how far he hit it

#25

Post by russellbeattie »

bpodgursky wrote: post #15
jamestimmins wrote: post #9

I wonder if things like this would ever happen now. The original Mercury and Apollo astronauts were Air Force test pilots, a group known for picking and choosing which rules they wanted to follow. Sneaking a golf club aboard, not to mention the possibility of falling and tearing his suit, is a non-trivial risk. It's hard to imagine that culture of risk taking still exists, but at the same time, that culture may be wh…

It's also important to note how much a bit of goofing around got the public engaged in the missions. It wasn't a dry, clinical, scientific expedition — real humans were on the moon, and took the opportunity to... be actual humans. Hitting golf balls. Jumping around. Those antics, even if they had nominal risk, are part of what got millions of people (especially young people) excited about manned spaceflight.

What in the world are you talking about?? That is actually completely opposite of what happened!

As cool as this was to many of us, public support plummeted after seeing NASA "fooling around", and golf especially was seen as an elitist white man's activity. In the wake of the Civil Rights Act, this only highlighted NASA's cultural bias. Political support, which was already waning, immediately fell off a cliff as well.

Had NASA not allowed this, the landings would have continued for at least a few more years.

Re: Apollo 14 50th anniversary images find Alan Shepard's ball and how far he hit it

#26

Post by jerf »

sebmellen wrote: post #2

For those who want the TLDR: > "We can now fairly accurately determine that ball number one travelled 24 yards, and ball number two travelled 40 yards," says Cheshire-based Saunders, who has been working with the United States Golf Association (USGA) to mark the anniversary. > "Unfortunately, even the impressive second shot could hardly be described as 'miles and miles and miles', but of course this has only ever bee…

"Is 40 yards impressive?"

It's the world record, which has stood for 50 years.

Hopefully it won't stand another 50.

Re: Apollo 14 50th anniversary images find Alan Shepard's ball and how far he hit it

#27

Post by schoen »

mandevil wrote: post #16
jamestimmins wrote: post #9

I wonder if things like this would ever happen now. The original Mercury and Apollo astronauts were Air Force test pilots, a group known for picking and choosing which rules they wanted to follow. Sneaking a golf club aboard, not to mention the possibility of falling and tearing his suit, is a non-trivial risk. It's hard to imagine that culture of risk taking still exists, but at the same time, that culture may be wh…

I suspect that it's more a generational thing than an occupational one. I've met a couple of test pilots from the '90's and '00's and they were the some of the most by-the-book people I've ever met, they were meticulous and followed their steps precisely, even for quotidian things like making breakfast or pitching a tent. As for risk, Jim Lovell was asked, before he left for his second trip to the moon (Apollo 13), i…

> And war (for Americans and the rest of the world) is a lot less deadly than it used to be, in large part because it got more professionalized.

This seems plausible, but I wonder if what you calculated is the best way to measure it.

First, since you mentioned "Americans and the rest of the world", does the same trend hold for the people on the other side of these conflicts? At least in the past 20 years' examples, the U.S. military wasn't fighting adversaries who were equipped nearly as well as it was.

Second, the number of people who fought in each of these wars is also pretty different. Isn't a more direct comparison something more like "deaths per combatant per month" rather than "deaths per month"? (I don't know how that comparison would come out.)

Re: Apollo 14 50th anniversary images find Alan Shepard's ball and how far he hit it

#28

Post by gumby »

jerf wrote: post #26
sebmellen wrote: post #2

For those who want the TLDR: > "We can now fairly accurately determine that ball number one travelled 24 yards, and ball number two travelled 40 yards," says Cheshire-based Saunders, who has been working with the United States Golf Association (USGA) to mark the anniversary. > "Unfortunately, even the impressive second shot could hardly be described as 'miles and miles and miles', but of course this has only ever bee…

"Is 40 yards impressive?" It's the world record, which has stood for 50 years. Hopefully it won't stand another 50.

It is indeed the world record...for that world.

Re: Apollo 14 50th anniversary images find Alan Shepard's ball and how far he hit it

#29

Post by ryandrake »

hedora wrote: post #12
jamestimmins wrote: post #9

I wonder if things like this would ever happen now. The original Mercury and Apollo astronauts were Air Force test pilots, a group known for picking and choosing which rules they wanted to follow. Sneaking a golf club aboard, not to mention the possibility of falling and tearing his suit, is a non-trivial risk. It's hard to imagine that culture of risk taking still exists, but at the same time, that culture may be wh…

Your comment reminds me of this book: https://time.com/3910020/the-over-parenting-trap-how-to-avoi... > So imagine how surprised I was to discover among my more affluent, well-connected students a growing number who seemed to be lacking the ability to make their way independently in the world, as, frankly, 18-22 year olds always had been able to do and just as crucially, used to desire to do. I’m deliberately being v…

I don't know if this dean's observation is about helicopter parenting or risk aversion as much as it's about how bifurcated and ultra-high stakes the university/credential-pedigree system has become, and how essential it is to optimize for a certain outcome at all costs.

When I was high school age, the A students went to good universities and generally ended up with a good professional career, the B students went to state schools and had an average life in an office job. The C students went to community college and limped along. The D students went to trade school and at least had a shot at turning things around.

We're moving towards a world where the A++5.0GPA+awards+accolades students will go to the top universities and end up living in relative luxury, the A students maybe will finish college hamstrung with mountains of debt, and the rest? Walmart/Meth if they're lucky, prison if they're not. Competition among students is a complete slug-fest and every parent is doing whatever they can to juice the metrics that universities demand, at the expense of every other part of the student's development/upbringing. You don't want your kid left behind in the dirt.

Re: Apollo 14 50th anniversary images find Alan Shepard's ball and how far he hit it

#30

Post by ryandrake »

mandevil wrote: post #19
throwaway0a5e wrote: post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>I suspect that it's more a generational thing than an occupational one. I've met a couple of test pilots from the '90's and '00's and they were the some of the most by-the-book people I've ever met, they were meticulous and followed their steps precisely, even for quotidian things like making breakfast or pitching a tent. The people who were test pilots in the 90s were people who succeeded under a system of massive…

And test pilots regularly died in the old system, and come home to their children in the current one, so I prefer the current one. The point is that it isn't "they were test pilots, so crazy" it is "in the 1950's and 1960's a lot more death was accepted and because of that, the standards were lower."

There are old pilots and there are bold pilots, but there are no old, bold pilots. Except until recently, Yeager, who passed late last year, RIP.
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