Recent Posts

21

General Discussion / Re: Mobile Device Website Issue

« Last post by bfeist on February 05, 2024, 06:27:08 pm »

My apologies for how sub-par the mobile version of AiRT is. It's entirely due to me running out of time when building the original app. There's work in progress now to redesign/build the whole web experience. This time around, mobile will be given much more consideration.

22

Apollo 13 Moments of Interest / 110:32:09 GUIDO gives the first words on CSM alignment techniques to CAPCOM

« Last post by MadDogBV on February 05, 2024, 09:53:53 am »

This is prompted by a question from Jim Lovell, who wanted to know how the command module will be aligned for re-entry, particularly with the LM still hanging onto it. As far as I know, these are the absolute first ever words spoken over the Flight Director loop regarding the actual techniques involved. It comes across as a somewhat informal conversation, with GUIDO Gary Renick essentially walking through the process and CAPCOM Jack Lousma repeating his own interpretation of the words back to him (off the loop), to make sure that his understanding is correct for when he passes it up to the crew.

There's a lot of background noise on the GUIDO and CAPCOM loops, so for the sake of ease on the ears, this is just the isolated flight director loop.

LINK: https://apolloinrealtime.org/13/?t=110:32:39&ch=50

23

General Discussion / Mobile Device Website Issue

« Last post by RobatRobot on February 03, 2024, 02:00:45 am »

Hi,
For some time I have had an issue with the mobile site layout for Apollo 13. I have tried installing different browsers, and I tried borrowing a friend's phone to check it wasn't an Android/Apple thing. I've also tried changing the default zoom, and switching to desktop mode, but that comes with its own problems which makes having the mobile site all the more valuable. It's hard to describe without a picture, but the biggest issue is that all the buttons to select the backroom loops are beyond the bottom edge of the screen and cannot be accessed. A few years back when I first started using the site, I was able to see the graphical layout of Control below the audio stream and loops graphics, with the various backroom loops represented as a block of buttons below that. I was able to select SPAN for instance. However, for at least a year now I have a large gap between the audio graphic and the control room graphic, with no access to the backroom buttons. One other thing to note: the buttons for the various controllers loops used to be slightly offset from where you had to tap, but this seems fixed since the change. I wondered if there was some imported third party script used in the layout which has been updated and introduced a bug?

24

General Discussion / Re: Other Apollo Missions

« Last post by bfeist on December 01, 2023, 02:20:20 pm »

It's a hangup with the process, not the material. Every transfer is still pending.

25

General Discussion / Re: Other Apollo Missions

« Last post by Naraht on November 30, 2023, 08:58:45 am »

Short answer: NASA is having difficulty getting the historical tapes from the National Archives.

Wow! Are there issues with other missions or just 16?

26

General Discussion / Re: Other Apollo Missions

« Last post by bfeist on November 29, 2023, 03:57:24 pm »

Short answer: NASA is having difficulty getting the historical tapes from the National Archives.

27

General Discussion / Re: Other Apollo Missions

« Last post by Kasper on November 28, 2023, 04:53:39 am »

But why? There most be a good answer to that.
How much have been completed in percentage?)
It was stated here that the goal was to make it by the 50th aniversary of Apollo 16. Now we are approaching the 52nd.

28

General Discussion / Re: Other Apollo Missions

« Last post by Stephen Slater on November 27, 2023, 08:09:47 pm »

Unfortunately it's more likely that I will be selected as an astronaut..... a very long way to go on Apollo 16!!

29

General Discussion / Re: Accurate edition of Apollo 11 (2019) movie?

« Last post by bfeist on November 27, 2023, 04:12:45 pm »

They didn't have much of a keen eye on posterity, we (as historians) got lucky that the data they saved for other purposes could be repurposed for historical insight. The MOCR tapes were recorded for audit purposes in case an event such as an emergency occurred. The MOCR tapes were used in the Apollo 13 congressional investigation; in fact, we were only able to track down the tapes that covered the period of the onboard explosion several years after finding the main body of Apollo 13 MOCR tapes at the national archives. They were stored with the rest of the Apollo 13 investigation material. The same goes for transcripts--these were used to construct the "as flown" version of the flight plan of each mission and therefore inform the planning of subsequent missions. The list goes on.

I work at NASA on the Artemis missions now and am doing my best to ensure that flight information is stored in context--in a way that won't require a group like the Apollo in Real Time team to reconstruct the events 50 years from now. Those future generations won't have typewritten documents to work with. They'll have MS Teams meeting recordings and piles of Sharepoint data all of course in formats that are unreadable to those future generations without tremendous sleuthing.

30

General Discussion / Re: Accurate edition of Apollo 11 (2019) movie?

« Last post by MadDogBV on November 27, 2023, 09:30:18 am »

Documentary authors have to weave a difficult line between being making a film that is appealing and compelling in the narrative sense, which does involve taking creative liberties, versus being as historically accurate as possible. Once upon a time, I thought it was more important to adhere to the latter principle, but I've come to realize that when most film reviewers - be they a professional like Roger Ebert or just the word of a friend whom you trust - scrutineer documentaries about topics such as the space program, they're not so concerned about whether or not the biomed readings were accurate. They are more focused on ensuring that the drama, ambition, wonderment, and scientific innovation of that time period was successfully captured on film so that the viewer can relive an enthralling and engaging if not believable simulation of those pivotal moments in human history.

Frankly, compared to other frequently-espoused historical myths, the implications of that rather pales in comparison to something like the infamous "the two stood eye to eye and the other fellow blinked" in reference to the Cuban Missile Crisis, a myth that persists in popular AND historical media to this day. 😁 I'd say "Apollo 11" gets a pass.

For strictly reliable secondary sources of the events that took place during the Apollo program, the best place to go would probably be the Apollo Flight Journal - and as for primary sources, I would say those would be the MOCR tapes themselves. It's wonderful that NASA had such a keen eye towards posterity particularly in those days.