I got to work at the Bluebonnet Airshow on the 10th because the Civil Air Patrol helps out the Commemorative Air Force. It was a very exiting day. For the most part some other cadets and I helped make sure the crowd stayed behind the line all day, while watching the planes. My most favorite part of the airshow was either the Extra 300 aerobatic performance of the A-10 West Coast Demo Team. Here is a little history of both:
The Extra 300 was designed in 1987 by Walter Extra. It was built out of welded steel tubes for the framework and covered with fiberglass and cloth. It was built extremely light for optimum aerobatic performance. During the airshow, it performed amazing aerobatic maneuvers, including a square loop and a tail slide.
The A-10 was designed in the early 70's by Fairchild Republic. It was designed for Close Air Support (CAS), by shooting at tanks, armored vehicles and other unlucky ground targets. It has excellent Aerobatic capabilities at low speeds. It was designed with special "skin" that can survive direct hits up to 23mm. It was built around the GAU-8 Avenger, a heavy automatic cannon that can fire 4,200 rounds a minute using 30mm rounds. The pyrotechnics were amazing!
I had fun and learned a lot. I hope to come back next year!
Yesterday I went to UT, where I got to listen to a lecture by former NASA astronaut George Nelson. I had fun and learned a lot. He talked about the space race, his personal life and where we are headed.
George Nelson received a bachelor’s degree in physics from Harvey Mudd College in California and later earned a master’s and doctorate in astronomy from the University of Washington.
He said he started his space career when he saw a NASA flyer that said that it needed astronauts for the shuttle missions. He realized that he had all the prerequisites so he filled in the form and sent it in. A couple months later he found out that he had been selected, along with several hundred others, to have a week-long psychological test. NASA would single out a few to become astronauts. One of the tests, as Nelson recalled was "They zipped you up in a three-foot cloth sphere, with your own personal rebreather. They left me in for a long time, I don't know how long because I fell asleep :). I think they were testing me for claustrophobia."Nelson was one of the few that got selected.
He flew STS-41C, STS-61-C (the mission before the Challenger accident) and STS-26 (the mission directly after the Challenger accident) On his first mission he was the first person to do an EVA untethered. He logged 411 hrs in space, 10 of them EVAs.
In his lecture he was talking abouut where the American Space Program is going. As far as he can tell- nowhere. “I’m a bit nervous about where the space program is going at the moment,” Nelson said. “Do we need another Sputnik to kick us in the rear and inspire us to do something?”
Here is a really neat video on Nelson's first mission (STS-41C) with a commentary by the astronauts of this mission:
On October 4th 1957 something happened that rocked the world - the first man-made object was intentionally launched into space- the launch of Sputnik1. What rocked the world most about it was that it was made by the Russians, not the Americans. That one launch ingnited (literally) a series of events called the Space Race in which America and Russia were competing over space exploration.
Sputnik 1 was a metal sphere about 23" in diameter with 4 long antannae. The heat shield was 1 mm thick and made of made of aluminum-magnesium-titanium. It released a signal that could be picked up by amature radio operators around the world. It also collected data from the atmosphere, which it sent back by radio signal. It identified the upper atmosphere density and provided data on radio-signal distribution in the ionosphere. It continued to send out signals for 22 days, then it's battery ran out. It finnally fell to earth and burned up in the atmosphere on the 4th of January 1958
The launch of sputnik was an important milestone in history. It put pressure on Americans to win the space race and inspired many rocket scientists such as Homer Hickam.
Edwin Hubble was an American astronomer who totally changed our perspective on the universe. As a young man he got a Rhodes scholarship in law from Oxford and spent a year as a lawyer. He soon found out that he was bored with law so he served in the army during WWI rising to the rank of major. Afterwards he studied hard at Yerkes Observatory of the University of Chicago and got a PhD in astronomy. He then got a job at the Mount Wilson Observatory where he discovered many things. Edwin Hubble’s discoveries:
There are other galaxies besides ours
Hubble’s Law- the universe is expanding
Classification system for stars
Discovered the asteroid 1373 Cincinnati
Had Edwin Hubble not died in 1953, he would have received the Nobel prize for physics. Hubble will always be remembered as the “Father of Observational Cosmology”.
Jules Verne (8 February 1828 – 24 March 1905) was a famous author.He wrote famous adventure stories, some of which you probably have heard before.To name a couple there is "Journey to the center of the earth" and "2000 leagues under the sea" The books inspired many famous rocket scientists, such as Robert Goddard and Homer Hickam. Two of his most influential books were a two- part series called “From the earth to the moon” and “Around the Moon”. The story consists of a crew of three members, who were shot to the moon via a giant cannon. The capsule they rode in looked like a giant bullet and was named the “Columbiad”. It is interesting to note that he was the first to write about zero gravity, though they experienced it for a few minutes while they were between gravitational pull of the moon and the earth. Jules Verne lived in a time period wher the idea of sending a man to the moon was preposterous. But Jules Verne believed in the impossible. As he said in "From the earth to the moon": "It has often been asserted that the word "impossible" is not a French one. People have evidently been deceived by the dictionary."
Sincerely, Space Cadet
On March 16, 1926 Robert Goddard became the first person to succesfully launch a liquid-fueled rocket. It was fueled with Liquid Oxygen and Gasoline. It flew to 41 feet and crashed. The flight lasted 2.5 seconds. He was often ridiculed for his theories about space travel. Because people rejected his work, he moved to Roswell, New Mexico where he could work in secret. His record altitude for his rocket was the one he launched on March 26, 1937 which flew to 8000 - 9000ft and lasted 22.3 seconds. Unfortunately he died August 10, 1945- only 24 years before man set foot on the moon.
Daniel Bernoulli was another important influence in the development of airplanes. He developed what is called the Bernoulli Principle that is used by engineers today in the creation of an airfoil- the wing in an airplane- which keeps the plane aloft in the sky.
The Extra 300 was designed in 1987 by Walter Extra. It was built out of welded steel tubes for the framework and covered with fiberglass and cloth. It was built extremely light for optimum aerobatic performance. During the airshow, it performed amazing aerobatic maneuvers, including a square loop and a tail slide.
The A-10 was designed in the early 70's by Fairchild Republic. It was designed for Close Air Support (CAS), by shooting at tanks, armored vehicles and other unlucky ground targets. It has excellent Aerobatic capabilities at low speeds. It was designed with special "skin" that can survive direct hits up to 23mm. It was built around the GAU-8 Avenger, a heavy automatic cannon that can fire 4,200 rounds a minute using 30mm rounds. The pyrotechnics were amazing!
