Scientific tourist #81 — the business end of a Saturn V
With the 40th anniversary of the Apollo 11 landing coming up in just a few days, I thought this would make an appropriate subject for this week’s image:
I took this shot at the Johnson Space Center (JSC) “rocket park,” on the south end of the Houston metro area. The display isn’t as fancy as what you get at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida, but you can get in to see this for free. Either way, it’s still an impressive piece of technological history.
Philds wrote,
Continuing from: Scientific Tourist #79 — comparative rocketry
Thanks for clearing that up for me.
I It is a shame though that the Saturn V can’t be used anymore as a stop gap measure until the Ares’s are built.
Looking at http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/constellation/ares/ares_naming.html I’m struck by how top heavy Ares 1 looks.
Link | July 18th, 2009 at 08:47
Sam Wise wrote,
So true — it’s a pity that at least the Saturn 1Bs didn’t stay in production. But the thought at the time was that the shuttle would be cheap and reliable, so leaving the Saturns behind was viewed as being the equivalent of moving on past the Model T.
As for Ares 1, you’re right — getting it flying will be a challenge from the sound of things.
Link | July 18th, 2009 at 15:43
Philds wrote,
One thing that struck me about the Ares program. is that they seem to want to use the booster rockets and a slightly modified external tank (for Ares 5) of the space shuttle. On the one hand I understand that reusing already engineered parts might make sense, but on the other hand I wonder if it doesn’t create major problems because you have to design the other parts to fit existing stuff that was not designed for that role to begin with. Could it be that they go that way because it was easier to go to congress to get funding if they could say that half of the rocket was already designed instead of having to say that they would start from scratch? Even though that maybe it cost more adapting shuttle technology for a role it wasn’t created for.
Link | July 19th, 2009 at 07:36
Sorting Out Science » Blog Archive » The scientific tourist #107 — the F-1 rocket engine wrote,
[...] course, this shot also had its own scientific tourist post a while [...]
Link | January 11th, 2010 at 13:38