January 8, 2016 at 12:09 am
Comments posted to this topic are about the item A Bit of History
January 8, 2016 at 4:23 am
That must have been amazing to see, one of those things where you have to actually be there to appreciate it, like an eclipse or the Grand Canyon - pictures and video can't really convey it.
Just standing next to the Saturn V at Kennedy was a big thrill for me, having built a model of it with my dad back in the 70s. I'd love to see an actual launch.
January 8, 2016 at 6:31 am
Cool. We visited KSC this past summer and only budgeted a single day, which was probably a mistake. We saw almost everything but definitely had to rush through a few things. A second full day would have been a much better plan. We did visit the included-in-KSC-admission Astronaut Hall of Fame that's a few miles from the main KSC visitors center on a subsequent day. It's worth checking out if you haven't already.
January 8, 2016 at 6:55 am
No doubt superb activity!
January 8, 2016 at 7:01 am
I was at the Kennedy Space Center last year. It was well worth the trip. My favorite part was the Atlantis Exhibit. I wrote down my thoughts in my blog, with lots of pictures:
http://phil-bythenumbers.blogspot.com/2014/12/visiting-nasa-kennedy-space-center-cape.html
January 8, 2016 at 9:00 am
It was really neat for us. We had 2 1/2 days and that was plenty. We bailed the last day and saw Star Wars instead, which was a treat after the weekend at KSC
January 8, 2016 at 9:23 am
Thanks for sharing this experience. I am old enough to remember the announcement of the Sputnik launch successfully into Low earth orbit. Amazing how far the program has progressed. The years and decades ahead should be filled with incredible discoveries and achievements.
January 8, 2016 at 9:36 am
I have to admit that I was awe struck when I first saw the Saturn Rocket up close during my tour some years back. You don't realize how massive it really is until you stand next to it looking down the length of the hangar.
January 8, 2016 at 10:00 am
Hard to believe mankind trusted their lives with such ancient technologies. Almost 50 years after landing a man on the moon, today businesses today tolerate sloppy code. Why? Why can't we go back to a time where code was tight, high performance, close to the iron and people programmed like lives depended on it because it really did? At times I feel like there is no skin in the game anymore.
/end_of_rant
Glad you had a chance to go! I've been there a few times. Some of my best memories are from the Air Force Space and Missile Museum http://afspacemuseum.org/virtual/
The Space Race was a massive investment of time, money and energy even eclipsing The Manhattan Project. It is also hard to believe that other nations want to become space-faring nations and we have space stuff as museum pieces. Very odd indeed.
Seems crazy to me that both the Space Race and The Manhattan Project were both created before the age of modern computers. People had to use their brains for everything.
January 8, 2016 at 10:08 am
tkleinhans 1851 (1/8/2016)
Hard to believe mankind trusted their lives with such ancient technologies. Almost 50 years after landing a man on the moon, today businesses today tolerate sloppy code. Why? Why can't we go back to a time where code was tight, high performance, close to the iron and people programmed like lives depended on it because it really did? At times I feel like there is no skin in the game anymore./end_of_rant
For the vast majority of applications it's not necessary. I don't expect all code to be perfectly optimized and designed any more than I would expect a mass produced car 50 years ago to be manufactured to the same standards as the space shuttle.
/shrug Maybe I'm just pessimistic.
January 8, 2016 at 10:45 am
It's amazing, and I remember re-solving some of the computing challenges the space program faced early in my career. We were constrained with the same stack/heap space as them.
To be fair, they couldn't do better, and massive amounts of work was done by many people to perform calculations. Today, we can do this with less people, more knowledge, and more computing power. The idea of re-landing a rocket engine is stunning. It's quite a feat.
I also see more and more creative solutions. I think the main issue today is so many people are focused on other things. We have no shortage of people spending brainpower on getting others to click on something rather than getting them to space, or clean water. However, remember, we do have people solving those issues as well.
January 8, 2016 at 7:46 pm
I remember doing everything in 640 KB of memory. When the first 1 MB came out, we all wondered what we would ever need so much memory for. Now the video cards have more CPU power and memory than the whole computers did back then. How far we've come is truly amazing.
The space center sounds like it was phenomenal. I've been to many places, but I've never there. The "less stuff, more memories" is something I try to do myself for my daughter. I guess I'll know if I was successful in about 10 years.
January 11, 2016 at 12:51 pm
Steve,
It's great that you got to see history happen with the Falcon 9 landing. Kennedy Space Center is a great place to visit. I've been there a few times and plan to go again to see Atlantis for a third time. I've saw Discovery at the Smithsonian Air & Space Museum-Udvar Havy Center. Once the California Science Center gets Endeavour stacked for "launch", I'll plan on visiting there. It's great that the three homes for the Space Shuttle will have launch, flight, and landing phases.
I was able to see history happen on July 8, 2011 with Atlantis final launch and July 21, 2011 with the final landing. I was on the NASA Causeway for the launch and as a member of NASA's only tweetup for a landing, I was at the Shuttle Landing Facility, just 200 yards from the runway. I was able to check off a 30 year bucket list item with the launch. For the landing, I can see why residents and tourist call 911 with the twin sonic boom since it sounds like a gun; on TV, the sonic booms are muffled.
Ralph
January 11, 2016 at 4:40 pm
Ralph,
That's cool. Neat you've seen some of those.
The landing was something. We saw it get close, then the flames go out and as everyone on the causeway started to cheer, we got the two sonic booms, and yes, they were like a gun. Quite loud.
January 13, 2016 at 3:30 am
tkleinhans 1851 (1/8/2016)
Hard to believe mankind trusted their lives with such ancient technologies. Almost 50 years after landing a man on the moon, today businesses today tolerate sloppy code. Why? Why can't we go back to a time where code was tight, high performance, close to the iron and people programmed like lives depended on it because it really did? At times I feel like there is no skin in the game anymore./end_of_rant...
Different NFRs. (Non-Functional Requirements)
Gaz
-- Stop your grinnin' and drop your linen...they're everywhere!!!
Viewing 15 posts - 1 through 15 (of 16 total)
You must be logged in to reply to this topic. Login to reply