Space Forum / Space History / January 2004

"[This morning] the spacecraft sent [20 minutes of] limited data in a proper
response to a ground command, and we're planning for commanding further
communication sessions later today."
              - Mars Exploration Rover Project Manager Pete Theisinger.

What kind of pants did the Apollo 1 astronauts wear?
       Charred-Ash Jeans
What did the Apollo 1 astronauts and Burger King Whopper have in common?
       They are both flame broiled.

This is an odd topic, I guess but I'm curious.  Did astronauts
who went to the moon ever associate any smell to the dust
on their suits once they were exposed to atmosphere with the
dust?  Who would be surprised to hear that it was similar to

Mitrokhin Dead at 81
MOSCOW (MT) -- Vasily Mitrokhin, the former chief archivist of the KGB's
foreign intelligence arm who fled Russia with thousands of copies of
classified documents, has died in London, The Times of London reported

Boeing designs for the Crew Exploration Vehicle:
http://boeingmedia.com/images/search.cfm?product_id=1525
Delete the words "Crew Control Module" "Resource Module" and "Crew
Escape Sysytem" and insert the words "Command Module" "Service Module"

Mars Global Surveyor photographs Spirit lander on Martian surface:
http://www.msss.com/mars_images/moc/2004/01/23/index.html
- Rusty Barton

I think the whole complaint about faster/cheaper is somewhat misguided. the
beagle crew was operating within a very limited set of contraints. that they
got the thing built at all, with a credible design is an accomplishment
worth noting.

Are the reports on the news tonight true that the Bush Administration
has left the US budget with a half trillion dollar deficit?
Is it true that the State of the Union address recently made no
reference to anything space related?

Since I've become addicted to eBooks on my Palm, I've taken to
converting publicly available titles to eBook format -- specifically,
the Palm Reader format. Despite the name, versions of this reader are
available for Palm OS, PocketPC, Windows and Macintosh (alas, no version

Our local PBS station ran a special tonight on the MER spacecraft and
their rovers design, testing, and launch (as well as the successful
landing of #1)
The show was chock-full of info on the rovers and what they can do;Which

9 days to get off the lander ??...Isn't it time to giddyup and get some
actual roving underway before the Great Martian Ghoul (Who's obviously been
on Xmas vacation) comes back with a vengeance ??
I understand the need to check things out and yes, there is a very expensive

For Bushes new space plan are we better off building a NEW version of the
saturn 5 or assembling everything in modules with a delta heavy?
It would be costly to resurrect a saturn 5 type booster but look at ISS
launched in fewer larger modules it might be more efficent.

... maybe NASA/JPL used a beta version of Windows for Rovers(Mars version)
on Spirit; hopefully Opportunity has the alpha version.  hmmm????

Moon rock for sale
www.e-guns.net
Bay On-line

All of the talk about manned lunar missions reminds me of the lunar
dust.  As I recall:
1. The Apollo suits degraded significantly in the few hours they were
outside.