“Houston, We've Had a Problem” (1975)

#1

Post by skbohra123 » Sat, Jun 06, 2015, 3:53 AM UTC

“Houston, We've Had a Problem” (1975)
hq.nasa.gov

Re: “Houston, We've Had a Problem” (1975)

#2

Post by tantalor » Sat, Jun 06, 2015, 5:02 AM UTC

Do people put these background patterns behind text expressly to hamper legibility?

Re: “Houston, We've Had a Problem” (1975)

#3

Post by mholt » Sat, Jun 06, 2015, 5:14 AM UTC

tantalor wrote: post #2

Do people put these background patterns behind text expressly to hamper legibility?

First thing I did was open inspector tools and delete that background attribute.

Yes, it's an attribute - not a CSS property. We're talkin' early space age stuff here, remember.

Re: “Houston, We've Had a Problem” (1975)

#4

Post by im3w1l » Sat, Jun 06, 2015, 5:15 AM UTC

tantalor wrote: post #2

Do people put these background patterns behind text expressly to hamper legibility?

According to a comment in the source, the page seems to be from 2001, when people didn't know better. Also look at that tell-tale footer!

Re: “Houston, We've Had a Problem” (1975)

#5

Post by perfTerm » Sat, Jun 06, 2015, 5:22 AM UTC

I didn't particularly notice the background pattern but cycling through that story was really a great read. To put yourself in those shoes really had me going. Absolutely amazing what these young men did.

Re: “Houston, We've Had a Problem” (1975)

#6

Post by gpvos » Sat, Jun 06, 2015, 6:01 AM UTC

im3w1l wrote: post #4

tantalor wrote: post #2

Do people put these background patterns behind text expressly to hamper legibility?

According to a comment in the source, the page seems to be from 2001, when people didn't know better. Also look at that tell-tale footer!

That footer is really 1995 style.

Re: “Houston, We've Had a Problem” (1975)

#7

Post by progers7 » Sat, Jun 06, 2015, 6:03 AM UTC

If you enjoyed this story, I recommend "The Martian" by Andy Weir. It reads like it was written by an engineer (it was) and is a thoroughly researched, fun read.

Re: “Houston, We've Had a Problem” (1975)

#8

Post by tdicola » Sat, Jun 06, 2015, 6:15 AM UTC

Although 13 was quite a near-disaster, I'm surprised that there isn't just as much attention to how much 11 very nearly was a disaster too.

During 11's descent to the moon the LEM's computer was overloaded and started throwing alarms. In addition Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin realized the craft overshot its intended landing spot and was heading for a field of rocks and boulders where landing would be impossible. What saved them is Neil taking manual control of the LEM, finding a smooth landing spot, and touching down the LEM with only seconds of fuel to spare.

Neil's landing is in my mind just as amazing as the recovery of 13. There was no way Neil could have really prepared for a manual landing in the low gravity of the moon. In fact when they tried to test it on Earth, it very nearly killed him (see https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QDI8SQ2fmLA). It was purely Armstrong's intelligence and attitude under pressure that got 11 on the moon safely.

And if you learn more about Armstrong you'll see it was no fluke how he performed on 11's landing. When testing the X-15 rocket plane he lost control and skipped off the top of the atmosphere but was still able to save the flight. Or during Gemini 8 when a thruster got stuck he aborted the docking attempt and fired the re-entry thruster to regain control (all of this while the craft was spinning more than once a second! http://news.discovery.com/space/history-of-space/neil-armstr...). There's a great write-up here with more details on his amazing performances under pressure: http://www.wired.com/2012/08/neil-armstrong_test-pliot/

Without Neil Armstrong Apollo 11 very likely would have ended with Richard Nixon reading this somber message to a devastated nation: http://watergate.info/1969/07/20/an-undelivered-nixon-speech...

Re: “Houston, We've Had a Problem” (1975)

#9

Post by srathi » Sat, Jun 06, 2015, 6:24 AM UTC

tantalor wrote: post #2

Do people put these background patterns behind text expressly to hamper legibility?

I use the following bookmarklet for this purpose. [1]

[1] https://www.squarefree.com/bookmarklets/zap.html#zap_colors

Re: “Houston, We've Had a Problem” (1975)

#10

Post by venomsnake » Sat, Jun 06, 2015, 6:26 AM UTC

tdicola wrote: post #8

Although 13 was quite a near-disaster, I'm surprised that there isn't just as much attention to how much 11 very nearly was a disaster too. During 11's descent to the moon the LEM's computer was overloaded and started throwing alarms. In addition Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin realized the craft overshot its intended landing spot and was heading for a field of rocks and boulders where landing would be impossible. Wha…

I have read the selection process that was described in Lost Moon (the book of appolo 13). The NASA were literally recruiting superhumans back then. The smartest, healthiest, toughest and on on ...

So I am not at all surprised that he managed to pull it off.

https://www.countbayesie.com/blog/2015/2/18/hans-solo-and-ba...