<\/p>\n
\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0In the final run up to the first manned Moon landing in 1969, NASA was still working on the final configuration of the Apollo spacecraft.\u00a0 The orbiting Command Module (CM) was in fine shape but there were things that needed to be tweaked on the Lunar Module (LM) that would land on the surface.\u00a0 Weight was a prime consideration for the craft that would carry two men to the Lunar surface.\u00a0 The final dress rehearsal flight, Apollo 10, took astronauts Gene Cernan and Tom Stafford within fifty thousand feet of the surface before they separated their ascent module from the descent stage and flew back to rendezvous with the CM.\u00a0 Some speculated that the two might try to land anyway, but everyone at NASA, including the two astronauts, knew the LM was still too heavy to land on this practice run.<\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Clear communication between all parties involved was always a huge part of the simulations used to train the crew and mission control teams, yet even on Apollo 10, they learned yet another valuable lesson.\u00a0 While flying above the surface and close to some fairly lofty mountains, Cernan switched on the radar unit they would use for navigation on their closest approach.\u00a0 Stafford had missed Cernan\u2019s move and when he went to switch on the same unit, he actually turned it off.<\/span><\/p>\n The minutes of panic this miscommunication cost nearly caused them to form a new crater on the surface.\u00a0 A quick analysis of the problem and some deft flying by Stafford brought them out of a deadly tumble.\u00a0 They were able to reunite with the CM as planned with Cernan later commenting, \u201cHe [Stafford] do know how to fly!\u201d\u00a0 Cernan and Stafford certainly proved that communication isn\u2019t just \u2018nice\u2019 in space flight, it is absolutely \u2018necessary\u2019.<\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0In Chris Kraft\u2019s book <\/span>Flight – My Life In Mission Control <\/span><\/i>(Dutton Press – 2001), he relates a story about the discussion to include a TV camera on board the LM for the first manned landing mission, Apollo 11.\u00a0 For some reason, George Low, the head of the Apollo Program Office, decided the addition of television wasn\u2019t necessary on the flight even though just about everyone else involved thought otherwise.\u00a0 According to Kraft, \u201cLow didn\u2019t think it was really important [to have a TV camera on board].\u00a0 It would add extra weight and would take some of the astronauts\u2019 valuable Moon time to set up.\u201d\u00a0 Some of the scientists with instruments slated for the flight agreed that, \u201cTelevision didn\u2019t add much to their research, and if they weren\u2019t against it, they told Low that they couldn\u2019t really justify it either.\u201d\u00a0 Low told Kraft he wanted, \u201cThe TV thing resolved,\u201d to which Kraft replied, \u201cWe can settle it by just keeping the camera.\u201d\u00a0 This was not good enough for Low so he scheduled a meeting to gather more input about it.<\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Kraft did not exactly stack the deck, but he made sure every department who wanted the TV camera on the Moon to capture this moment in history was represented.\u00a0 The Public Affairs people were especially concerned;\u00a0 if the camera got nixed, they would have to explain it to all the networks who were already making plans to air the broadcast coming from the Lunar surface.\u00a0 A large crowd, including the Apollo 11 crew of Neil Armstrong, Buzz Aldrin, and Michael Collins, packed the largest conference room at the Space Center.\u00a0 Everyone was given a chance to air the pros and cons of the idea.\u00a0 Ed Fendell, Kraft\u2019s lead communication engineer, was slated to make the last presentation.\u00a0 Kraft was totally surprised when Fendell wrapped up his portion of the program by stating that television was a \u2018nicety\u2019 and should be left behind!<\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Kraft\u2019s first thought was, \u201cMy <\/span>own guy!\u201d <\/span><\/i>before he took his turn to address the group.\u00a0 The room grew quiet (no doubt just from the look on Chris\u2019s face) as he said, \u201cI can\u2019t believe what I\u2019m hearing.\u201d\u00a0 When Max Fagat, another mission designer, echoed Kraft\u2019s remark, he changed Chris\u2019s comment to, \u201c<\/span>We<\/span> can\u2019t believe what we\u2019re hearing.\u00a0 We\u2019ve been looking forward to this flight – not just us, but the American taxpayers and in fact the whole world – since Kennedy put the challenge to us.\u00a0 Now you\u2019re willing to exclude the people of Earth from witnessing man\u2019s first steps on the Moon?\u00a0 I don\u2019t believe it, and if you think about it, I don\u2019t think you\u2019ll believe it either.\u201d\u00a0 A murmur of agreement rippled across the room with Neil Armstrong\u2019s \u201cYes\u201d adding an exclamation mark to the meeting.\u00a0 The camera issue was solved and the world got to witness history because Chris Kraft was not about to let the public\u2019s participation be left as a \u2018nicety\u2019.<\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0The first black and white images from the Moon\u2019s surface were a bit blurry but overall, the world sat transfixed as Armstrong uttered,\u201d One small step for man, one giant leap for mankind.\u201d\u00a0 The pro TV folks at NASA were elated, but couldn\u2019t help but feel like it could have been done, for the lack of a more descriptive word, better.\u00a0 By not bypassing the chance to share the history of this momentous achievement with the world, they also set the wheels in motion to make it better for the next landing.\u00a0 By the time Apollo 12 flew, engineers had essentially redesigned TV camera technology to make the camera for the second Moon landing a lighter unit that broadcast in color.\u00a0 The same innovations were soon available to private companies on Earth and quickly became affordable for households on just about any income level.\u00a0 A \u2018nicety\u2019 that may have still come along in the future, but who’s to say how long it would have taken before color TV to become commonplace?<\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Armstrong needed a way to practice landing on the Moon.\u00a0 The LM was a rocket that flew more like a helicopter but the Moon\u2019s gravity is only one sixth of the Earth\u2019s.\u00a0 To simulate these conditions, a vehicle called the Lunar Landing Training Vehicle (LLTV) was built.\u00a0 For all the world, it looked like a giant bedstead with a small ice fishing shack mounted near the front.\u00a0 A jet engine pointing down was mounted in the center – this negated five sixths of the LLTV\u2019s weight.\u00a0 The one thing that could not be simulated on the Earth was the lack of an atmosphere on the Moon.\u00a0 At one point, Armstrong had to punch out of the vehicle, ejecting only five tenths of a second before it crashed after it lost attitude control.\u00a0 Another was built, but it too suffered a similar fate with a different test pilot on board.\u00a0 Kraft and Bob Gilruth (his boss) both hated the LLTV and tried to convince Armstrong to not fly it.\u00a0 He refused saying, \u201cYes, it is [dangerous].\u00a0 I know you\u2019re worried but I have to support it.\u00a0 It\u2019s just darn good training.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Kraft and Gilruth reluctantly let the astronauts continue to train with the LLTV but held their breath with each flight.\u00a0 Every astronaut who landed on the Moon trained with one.\u00a0 Upon returning to Earth, Kraft grilled them about performance, looking for any reason to stop using the LLTV for training.\u00a0 Every returning astronaut said the same thing as Armstrong:\u00a0 Dangerous or not, it was essential for them to train in the LLTV in order to land safely on the Moon.\u00a0 In this case, Kraft did not think the LLTV was a nicety – he thought it was dangerous.\u00a0 Armstrong and the other astronauts held a different view – it was an essential\u00a0 and necessary part of their training.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Consider whatever handheld device you use to make phone calls, take pictures, surf the internet, or browse social media.\u00a0 They kind of remind me of the communicators Captain Kirk and the Star Trek crew would flip open back in the late 1960s (especially when flip phones were in vogue).\u00a0 The truth is, these were futuristic props representing how far along technology would be by the Twenty Third Century – Star Trek Enterprise future.\u00a0 Who knew that it would only take a couple of decades (not centuries) for technology like this to exist?\u00a0 The mobile phone truly was a luxury (nicety?) when it first came out and the earliest models hardly resembled the handheld units in use today.\u00a0 In fact, the first mobile phones reminded me of World War II era walkie-talkies more than phones.\u00a0 Again, we can trace our current level of computerized technology to the space program.<\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0The movie <\/span>Hidden Figures <\/span><\/i>(2017) takes us back to the time when \u2018computers\u2019 at NASA were humans crunching numbers.\u00a0 Astronomers throughout the ages have used human computers to compile tables, charts, and data bases of their observations.\u00a0 Orbiting a satellite, sending humans to the Moon, and probes to other planets takes a considerable amount of math.\u00a0 When NASA started to transition between human and electronic computers, it took quite a bit of cross checking to see if the \u2018new\u2019 computers could be as accurate as the \u2018old\u2019 ones.\u00a0 In the end, it turned out the only real difference between the two was the speed at which the electronic ones could spit out numbers.\u00a0 Many of the (mostly) women who performed these duties were shifted into data input and handling with the new electronic computers.\u00a0 The Apollo program needed computers on board to help with navigation to get to the Moon, orbit it, and then return to the Earth.\u00a0 The only problem?\u00a0 Computers of that time period were nearly as big as the Apollo Command Module itself.<\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Again, it became a matter of \u2018essential equipment\u2019 vs \u2018yes, it would be nice to have a computer on board but we can do without it\u2019.\u00a0 Cooler heads knew that the \u2018essential\u2019 side of the equation trumped any other considerations, so NASA and its contractors set about on a crash course to build computers that would fit in a spacecraft.\u00a0 Then they had to write the software needed for them to operate.\u00a0 By the time Apollo flew, it had four computers on board (three plus a back up) that were similar in size to the first desktop computer tower we all owned back in the day.\u00a0 The Lunar Module also carried one called the Apollo Guidance Computer (AGC), a twin to the one on board the CM.\u00a0 As with the phone technology mentioned above, the development of these units for the space program put computers in our homes and offices (at more affordable prices and on a quicker timeline than they would have been with no space program to drive it).\u00a0 We might be able to argue that early computers were \u2018nice to have but not a necessity\u2019 but very few would make that claim today.\u00a0 If you don\u2019t believe me, put down your electronic device of choice for one day and see if it makes you break out in a cold sweat.<\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0With a couple of years of teaching Jr High Science under my belt, I took my first field trip to the Shiras Planetarium in Marquette.\u00a0 Growing up only three blocks from its location (it was attached to the south side of the new Marquette Senior High School which opened in 1964-65), I was a frequent visitor from Grade six through my college graduation.\u00a0 Astronomy was one of the things I taught from the get go so it seemed to be a trip well worth the time and effort to put together for my students.\u00a0 Over the next forty years, my classes took a fall field trip to the planetarium.\u00a0 With a limited number of seats (66) and classes numbering more than 100, we scheduled two showings so one group could eat lunch at the Marquette Mall while the other group was at the program.\u00a0 When the class sizes dropped enough, we began scheduling one program per trip and added a second stop at the newly opened Michigan Iron Industry Museum located halfway between Marquette and Negaunee.<\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Over the years, I got some good natured ribbing about these trips (\u201cGee, I wish I could have a day off like you get!\u201d) but taking a field trip took time and planning.\u00a0 Trips including four hours of travel by bus also meant a longer than usual day, often with us returning well after school was out.\u00a0 On a couple of occasions, I had to defend why we were spending the time and money to take field trips in the first place.\u00a0 From day one, we never asked the school to pay for the transportation.\u00a0 We simply told students, \u201cIf you want to go, it will cost \u2018X\u2019 amount.\u00a0 If you do not want to pay to go, then you will be expected to be in school.\u201d\u00a0 We also made sure everybody understood these trips were not just \u2018jaunts for the fun of it\u2019.\u00a0 There would always be tie ins to what we were learning in the classroom.\u00a0 It was not always stated, but one of the most important benefits of these trips may have been a more social educational goal.\u00a0 We teachers learned a lot about the kids and they learned a lot about us.\u00a0 Yes, these were all \u2018nice trips\u2019 but the paybacks, in my mind, were essential to the educational well being of my Jr High students.<\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0On one occasion, a short timer principal in the district told me, \u201cYou can only go if you take all of the students because we are not going to babysit the ones who don\u2019t go.\u201d\u00a0 Past experience told me dragging kids somewhere on a bus who don\u2019t want to be there can cause unnecessary trouble, so I refused.\u00a0 I was then informed, \u201cOkay, then you tell the ones who do not go to stay home!\u201d\u00a0 Again, I refused because the job of telling a student to stay home was way out of my purview.\u00a0 This became obvious when I told the principal, \u201cThat would be your job\u201d and it was his turn to refuse.\u00a0 After he again invoked the \u2018all must go or no trip\u2019 edict, I gave him a sense that I would comply (although it was a purposely false option I knew he would not take):\u00a0 \u201cOkay, but you will need to come to my three classes and announce that we can not go and why.\u201d\u00a0 The subject was dropped and we continued taking our normal field trips in this manner during the rest of my years teaching sixth, seventh, and eighth grade.\u00a0 Did the kids who did not choose go on the trip stay home?\u00a0 I have no idea because the rest of us were on the road having a good time all day.<\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0In a world of trade-offs, we constantly play the risk \/ benefit game.\u00a0 In deciding if something is \u2018nice or necessary\u2019, we are engaging in a similar form of negotiation.\u00a0 Personally, I would rather err on the side of \u2018necessary\u2019 rather than have hindsight prove that not doing something just because it was dubbed \u2018nice but not necessary\u2019 resulted in a pile of regret.\u00a0 Sometimes it just takes a stubborn approach to a problem to make sure we err on the beneficial side of things.\u00a0 \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Top Piece Video:\u00a0\u00a0You Need Love<\/em> – in the world of NICE or NECESSARY, Love would have to qualify in both categories!\u00a0 Just ask Styx<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0In the final run up to the first manned Moon landing in 1969, NASA was still working on the final configuration of the Apollo spacecraft.\u00a0 The orbiting Command Module (CM) was in fine shape but there were things that needed to be tweaked on the Lunar Module (LM) that would land on the surface.\u00a0 […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11,8,12,9],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3519","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-education","category-from-the-vaults","category-humor","category-woas"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.woas-fm.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3519","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.woas-fm.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.woas-fm.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.woas-fm.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.woas-fm.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=3519"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.woas-fm.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3519\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3522,"href":"https:\/\/www.woas-fm.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3519\/revisions\/3522"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.woas-fm.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3519"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.woas-fm.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3519"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.woas-fm.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3519"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}