Tag Archives: space exploration

The Saturn V Rocket

Posted on by August 30, 2019

-by Serena Ingamells-

With the prospect of reusable rockets in the future, a story about a 50 year old system may seem anachronistic, but for people who lived through the triumphs and disasters of the Apollo programme, the mighty Saturn V rocket (pronounced “Saturn five”) holds a special place in history.
In 1969 I did a Greyhound bus trip around the USA and by a quirk of fate happened to be at the right place at the right time. On the 20th July 1969 at the Grand Canyon I was privileged to see a grainy, almost ghostlike video of the first lunar landing. It was only many years later on a visit to the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum in Washington DC that I realised why NASA pipped Russia to the Moon. Statistics between the Saturn V and N1 rockets tell only a small part of the story but in this case size did matter. The Saturn V burned 21 tons of fuel a second – incomprehensible to mere mortals. It remains the largest and most powerful man made vehicle ever built.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saturn_V

SaturnV-N1 comparisonN1-Rocket-EnginesThe Russian N1 rocket was almost as big as the Saturn V, a bit shorter and a bit lighter, but it had more thrust out of the gate – which probably was its downfall. The N1 had a lot of engines – 30 little ones – 24 tightly packed to form a ring around the outside of Block A, the name of the first stage, with six placed in the centre to provide roll control. The thinking was that if one of these small engines was good, then strapping them all together would be great but this went horribly wrong. All four N1 test launches ended in failure. None so spectacularly though, as the second launch attempt: the rocket exploded with the force of seven kilotons of TNT, equivalent to a small nuclear bomb. It remains one of the largest non-nuclear explosions in human history. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/N1_(rocket)

By comparison the Saturn V with only five engines (where the name derived from) had a relatively simple system. It still had six million different parts, yet never resulted in a fatality. The Apollo 1 astronauts were tragically killed, but that was due to a failure in the command capsule oxygen system.

Von-Braun-RocketsMuch of the success of the Saturn V rocket was due to Dr. Wernher von Braun who was the technical director at the rocket research station at Peenemunde, in north-eastern Germany during World War II and later became a citizen of the United States of America in 1955.
http://www.space.com/20122-wernher-von-braun.html

Helde

Posted on by September 28, 2017

–deur Serena Ingamells–
Laika

Die geskiedenis van lugvaart en ruimtereise is vol menslike helde soos Chuck Yaegar , Yuri Gagarin en Niel Armstrong maar daar was ook dierereisigers wat moederaarde verlaat het en ʼn bydrae tot die wetenskap gemaak het.
Alhoewel hulle rolle moontlik as passief beskou kan word bly hulle in my boek, helde.

 

Ham

Sonder hierdie eksperimente sou die mens nooit op die Maan geloop het nie maar wie sou kon dink dat die storie reeds in 1783 begin het toe die Franse broers Montgolfier met een van hulle eerste lugballonne ʼn lewendige skaap, haan en eend die lug ingestuur het? Hierdie eksperiment het voor Koning Lodewyk XVI en Marie Antoinette plaasgevind. Die vlug het 8 minute geduur en ʼn hoogte van 457 meters bereik. Al die diere is veilig teruggebring.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Montgolfier_brothers

Soos met die Montgolfiers was die vroeë ruimtewetenskaplikes bekommerd oor die mens se vermoë om die uitdagings van die ruimte te oorleef. In 1947 is vrugtevlieë met ʼn Amerikaanse V2-vuurpyl die ruimte ingestuur en veilig teruggebring. Sommige van die ander diere wat gevolg het, was minder gelukkig. Tussen die laat 1940’s en vroeë 1950’s is resusape (almal Albert genoem) gebruik om te bewys dis moontlik om ten minste ʼn op en af reis in die ruimte te oorleef. In 1957 was Laika, die pavement special van Moskou, die eerste ware ruimtereisiger aan boord Sputnik 2. Daar was genoeg kos vir ʼn week maar weens ʼn tegniese fout het die kapsule oorverhit en is sy binne
ʼn paar uur dood.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Laika

Vir my is Ham, ʼn manlike sjimpansee, saam met Laika ʼn baanbreker wat dikwels vergeet word. In 1959 het die driejarige met onderrig by NASA begin. Hy is lekkerbek met piesangblokkies beloon as hy instruksie reggekry het en met ligte elektriese skokke aan sy voetsole gestraf as hy die verkeerde hefboom getrek het. Wat hom onderskei van al die vorige diere is dat hy nie bloot ʼn passasier was nie. Sy suksesvolle toetsvlug van 16 minute en 39 sekondes op 31 Januarie 1961, het die pad vir Allan Shepard gebaan, die tweede mens en eerste Amerikaner in die ruimte.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ham_(chimpanzee)

Hierdie dierehelde het die fondament vir menslike ruimtevaart neergelê en ons groot sprong na die volgende avontuur verseker. Ad eundum quo nemo ante iit – to boldly go where no man has gone before – dit het Laika en Ham met lof gedoen.