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Michael Collins, Apollo 11 astronaut, has died

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Re: Michael Collins, Apollo 11 astronaut, has died

#71

Post by jbrnh »

japhyr wrote: post #39

For anyone interested in the story of the astronauts who went to the moon, Moondust is a great read. In the early 2000s (if I remember right), the author traveled around the world to visit each of the living men who had set foot on the moon. He asks them about their experiences, both on the moon and in the time since the moon missions ended. Some of them treat him like any interviewer, but toward the end as they real…

A similar concept, it seems, Andrew Chaikin's "A Man on the Moon" is a fantastic read.

Re: Michael Collins, Apollo 11 astronaut, has died

#73

Post by vkou »

mandevil wrote: post #54
HDMI_Cable wrote: post #45

Earlier quoted context omitted.

To be fair, the pure scientific impact of the robotic missions is probably much higher than human ones (besides advances in medical/bioscience). But, placing people on the moon probably brings more funding for NASA than robots. Edit: Both are still extremely cool though

To compare the scientific return of robots and people, we can compare the results of the only space rock both have visited: the Moon. The six manned Apollo missions brought back much much much more scientific return than all of the contemporary robotic missions. Apollo brought back 382 kg of moon rocks. Three Soviet probes (first one, Luna 16, between Apollo 12 and 14) brought back a total of 326g. While it's a bit f…

Bear in mind that the Luna missions were done with 1960s Soviet robotics technology... And were only a side-show to their goal of a manned landing, which was hamstrung by repeated launcher problems. (And as soon as they lost the moon race, interest in this immediately dried up on the Soviet side - the sample return in the 70s was an afterthought.)

If your goal is to plant a flag and ship back ~400 Kg of moon rocks, you could do it today, using robots, for a tiny fraction of a manned mission's budget. The thing is, bringing back 400 Kg of moon rocks is not 400 times more valuable than bringing back 1 Kg of moon rocks.

Re: Michael Collins, Apollo 11 astronaut, has died

#74

Post by Animats »

Stratoscope wrote: post #60
slg wrote: post #29

Collins' role in Apollo 11 is often minimized in the public conciseness, but I find it particularly fascinating from a human perspective. In certain ways it seems even scarier than Armstrong's and Aldrin's jobs. They at least had more direct control over their success in landing on the moon. Collins was largely powerless to help if something went wrong. If that did happen, he would have been faced with the choice of…

I read an article some time ago about the opposite scenario. I searched for the article just now but didn't find it; would be curious if anyone has a link. I remembered it something like this (but see soarfourmore's reply for a correction): what if the command module pilot became incapacitated but was still alive? The lunar module could still dock with the command module, but the astronauts would not be able to get i…

What if the command module pilot became incapacitated but was still alive?

That's why one of the mission planning decisions was that the astronaut tasked with operating the orbiter must have previous time in space.

Re: Michael Collins, Apollo 11 astronaut, has died

#75

Post by mumblemumble »

slg wrote: post #59
bishnu wrote: post #47

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I mean, a few guys stayed in orbit on subsequent lunar missions, but you're right, Collins was the first.

>he was truly alone in a way that no other person had ever been in human history The "had" there was meant to imply it was true up until that point in history. Other people have either nearly matched or slightly exceeded him depending on the specific details of the later Apollo mission lunar orbits. However it is mentally easier to be the second person to do something dangerous once you see the first person succeed s…

For the sake of clarifying further:

At least according to usage that I'm familiar with, if the phrase were, "no other person has ever been", that would be talking about before or since. But "no other person had ever been" is only talking about history up until that point. "Has been" is the present perfect tense, and "had been" is the past perfect tense.

Re: Michael Collins, Apollo 11 astronaut, has died

#76

Post by sp3000 »

pornel wrote: post #40

I love the photo he took, where in the frame there was literally every human who was alive and has ever lived, except Michael Collins himself: https://nssdc.gsfc.nasa.gov/imgcat/html/object_page/a11_h_44...

“How isolated, how lonely those two space supermen appeared! But they had each other for companionship; and through television, they were held in the thoughts of viewing millions of men and women. To be really isolated, to fully experience loneliness, you must be alone. From Armstrong’s and Aldrin’s spectacular movements, my mind shifted to Collins’s lunar orbiting. Relatively inactive and unwatched, he had time for contemplation, time to study both the nearby surface of the moon and the distant moonlike world. Here was human awareness floating through universal reaches, attached to our earth by such tenuous bonds as radio waves and star sights. A minor functional error would leave it floating forever in the space from which, ancestrally, it came.”

Charles Lindbergh's forward in Carrying the Fire.

Re: Michael Collins, Apollo 11 astronaut, has died

#77

Post by Zickzack »

slg wrote: post #29

Collins' role in Apollo 11 is often minimized in the public conciseness, but I find it particularly fascinating from a human perspective. In certain ways it seems even scarier than Armstrong's and Aldrin's jobs. They at least had more direct control over their success in landing on the moon. Collins was largely powerless to help if something went wrong. If that did happen, he would have been faced with the choice of…

> Collins was largely powerless to help if something went wrong. If that did happen, he would have been faced with the choice of abandoning his crewmates to die on the moon and fly back to Earth himself.

He would have died in orbit then, just a little bit closer to the rest of mankind. There was no was way for him to return to solid Earth unless the lunar module came back. He was dependent on the outcome of the Lunar mission and he was not even allwed to set his foot onto Moon. One of my heros since childhood...

Re: Michael Collins, Apollo 11 astronaut, has died

#78

Post by pbourke »

pacetherace wrote: post #70
slg wrote: post #29

Collins' role in Apollo 11 is often minimized in the public conciseness, but I find it particularly fascinating from a human perspective. In certain ways it seems even scarier than Armstrong's and Aldrin's jobs. They at least had more direct control over their success in landing on the moon. Collins was largely powerless to help if something went wrong. If that did happen, he would have been faced with the choice of…

Sorry to correct you. But the first person alone in lunar orbit was John Young during the Apollo 10 mission

Young also commanded STS-1, the first shuttle launch mission.

Re: Michael Collins, Apollo 11 astronaut, has died

#79

Post by mulmen »

Zickzack wrote: post #77
slg wrote: post #29

Collins' role in Apollo 11 is often minimized in the public conciseness, but I find it particularly fascinating from a human perspective. In certain ways it seems even scarier than Armstrong's and Aldrin's jobs. They at least had more direct control over their success in landing on the moon. Collins was largely powerless to help if something went wrong. If that did happen, he would have been faced with the choice of…

> Collins was largely powerless to help if something went wrong. If that did happen, he would have been faced with the choice of abandoning his crewmates to die on the moon and fly back to Earth himself. He would have died in orbit then, just a little bit closer to the rest of mankind. There was no was way for him to return to solid Earth unless the lunar module came back. He was dependent on the outcome of the Lunar…

Wait really? I never knew that. I thought the CSM had guidance and the main engine, why did he need the LEM to get home?

Re: Michael Collins, Apollo 11 astronaut, has died

#80

Post by 16bytes »

pacetherace wrote: post #70
slg wrote: post #29

Collins' role in Apollo 11 is often minimized in the public conciseness, but I find it particularly fascinating from a human perspective. In certain ways it seems even scarier than Armstrong's and Aldrin's jobs. They at least had more direct control over their success in landing on the moon. Collins was largely powerless to help if something went wrong. If that did happen, he would have been faced with the choice of…

Sorry to correct you. But the first person alone in lunar orbit was John Young during the Apollo 10 mission

While that's true, during Apollo 10 didn't the LEM and CM stay on the same side of the Moon?

The "loneliest" anecdote is based on how far away Michael Collins was from the next closest people. Since the LEM was on the other side of the moon once per orbit, Collins was much further away from other people than John Young got.

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