1st Moonshot yesterday...
Hello All,
I would have posted this yesterday (when it occurred *60* years ago), but I just got my computer back after a long stint in the local repair shop: On August 17, 1958, the first attempt to reach the Moon was made, when a Pioneer probe was launched from Cape Canaveral aboard a Thor-Able vehicle. This mission is often referred to as Pioneer 0 (see: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pioneer_0 ), because it failed just over a minute after liftoff when the Thor exploded due to a turbopump bearing failure. The next--and the most successful--of these three Thor-Able Pioneer lunar orbiter attempts, Pioneer 1, was undertaken by the infant NASA on October 11 of that year, and reached a record-breaking 70,712 mile distance from the Earth (see: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pioneer_1 ). Pioneer 2 only achieved an ICBM-like suborbital flight because the launch vehicle's third stage failed to ignite. |
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Ah...that's an apropos large-format, "patina-ed" picture of the first-ever--and NASA's first--deep space probe. As a "vanity/historic recreation" project, it would be interesting to launch a Pioneer 0/1/2 replica, complete with the infrared spin-scan TV scanner, into lunar orbit, as a "hitch-hiker" payload (the Atlas V, whose Centaur stage has already demonstrated the capability to dispose of itself in solar orbit from a near-polar orbit, could easily carry such a replica lunar orbit probe as a secondary payload).
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That big pic was of the Pioneer 1 attempt. Pioneer 0 launches into history atop Thor Able 127 in this pic:
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I know--that famous night shot of Pioneer 1 on the pad shortly before launch is iconic. Pioneer 0 was launched during the day, and Pioneer 2 also went at night (see: http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/F...I_Pioneer_2.png ). After it "fizzled," the U.S. Army and NASA got two additional tries, using Juno II rockets and the much smaller, conical JPL lunar flyby Pioneer spacecraft, on December 6, 1958 and March 3, 1959 (see: http://www.google.com/search?q=Pion...iw=1440&bih=794 ), and:
They had originally been intended to make figure-8 loops behind the Moon to photograph the far side, radioing back the pictures when near the Earth again. A film camera/developer/"flying spot of light" picture scanner was developed for these Pioneers, but when Pioneer 1's radiation data showed that radiation shielding for the film would be too heavy (the tiny ~13 pound probes were all the Juno II could boost to the Moon!), JPL started developing a spin-scan TV camera, but it wasn't ready in time. (The deployable "wizard's cap" conical low-gain antennas on the Ranger 3, 4, and 5 probes [the Block II series that carried the hard-landing seismometer capsules] were re-purposed Pioneer 3/4 rod-and-cone, off-center-fed dipole antennas.) As well: Pioneer 3 suffered a fate similar to Pioneer 1, rising about 63,000 miles before falling back to Earth after the stretched Jupiter first stage cut off slightly early, returning more radiation data. Pioneer 4 achieved escape velocity, returning radiation data out to 407,000 miles after passing about 37,000 miles from the Moon. Between the Pioneer 3 and 4 launches, the Soviet Union's Luna 1--an intended lunar impact probe--had been launched on January 2, 1959, and had missed the Moon by 3,725 miles (see: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Luna_1 ) before entering solar orbit, making Pioneer 4 an "also ran." |
Did you ever replace your computer like you were planning to a few years back?
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Not to go OT on your post, but I know money is tight for you. Windows 7 is a great OS. I use it myself still. But, it won't be supported my Microsoft after January 2020. That means no more security updates leaving you vulnerable when on the internet. You may want to consider getting Win 10 on the laptop. The learning curve isn't nearly as bad as Win 8 was when it came out. |
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It would have been around that time frame. you were concerned about moving files from the old to the new. Windows XP was a really good OS and I was sorry to see them let it go. I wonder if some third party provider could provide updates to old o/s's just to update online protocols and security. I would assume Microsoft would squash such an attempt. |
One thing to consider is switching to Linux. The laptop I am using right now is over 10 years old (Compaq dual core AMD with 2GB RAM with 256GB hard drive) and running Linux Lite 64. I use the Firefox web browser. LibreOffice works well for any writing I need to do. A little slow to boot up, but once up and running she is very workable. Plus it stays updated and I get to decide when to update (unlike Windows 10). Now I'm not going to be doing any video editing on this thing, but for typical day to day use it works just fine.
Something to think about.... |
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