Astronauts who are much cooler than any action movie hero
From the translator: Recently, the technical part of space programs has come to the fore. In the network you can find a large number of articles telling about various scientific achievements that help us in space exploration. But do not forget about the astronauts, bravely defying the stars. In this article, the author talks about five cases that make me ever more respectful of these space explorers.
Since humankind has calculated the true distances to the luminous points appearing at night in the sky, it has begun to try to build rockets that can take us to them. And as if space flights themselves are not dangerous enough - given the absence of a chill, the risk of freezing or burning to death, the danger of radiation, the inability to breathe - there were people who could turn these space missions into something much, much more impressive.
')
Many of you have probably heard of Felix Baumgartner, a man who has gotten into news bulletins all over the world after a parachute jump from space. However, few have mentioned that before him a similar trick was performed by none other than Yuri Gagarin - the first person in the world who made a space flight. Generally, being the first astronaut in the world, Yuri Gagarin is the very person who first needs to be remembered, making a list of the most exciting events in space. Or, for that matter, any other list of the most exciting events.
At that time, the pace of the space race was incredibly high. So high that Yuri launched into space before the brakes were invented ... Because of this, despite the fact that the capsule of the ship Vostok had parachutes, the basic principle of the stop was formulated as “the planet will be on the course”. And that is why, at an altitude of 7 kilometers, Yuri was automatically catapulted in order not to be killed to death with the world's first manned spacecraft.
Thus, he outplayed Baumgartner (who, by the way, could even choose when to jump exactly) 8 years before the latter was born. And yet, even having performed this truly incredible trick, Yuri, for the good of the space program, did not begin to talk about it. This little fact shows well how high the level of secrecy was then - think about it, because today many people cannot keep their mouths shut even if they have just eaten a tasty burger. In addition, the Russians believed that the world community would be more impressed with the phrase “he landed in the descent vehicle” than “he jumped out of a rapidly falling space bomb”. What a nuclear weapon that you are! We know that in the Soviet Union such things are being done, and the film “Red Dawn” would be about how obedient Americans learn how to cook breakfast from kasha and butterbrots [sic!] For adored Soviet masters.
By the way, as it turned out later, the International Federation of Aeronautics (Federation Aeronautique Internationale - FAI) would not recognize a record flight in which the pilot did not land in his own ship. What nonsense guys? If your records do not recognize the achievements of Yuri Gagarin, then these same records should not be taken seriously at all!
Gordon participated in Mercury-Atlas 9 - the last of the flights of the Mercury series. The spacecraft used in this program were not designed to be controlled by the pilot - all the equipment was fully automatic. This became a serious problem when electronics failed on Gordon's ship. All. Fully. Neither direction correction, nor engine control, nor even instruments that would show him which way he was flying worked. The only thing that continued to work was the radio, which was connected directly to the batteries, but since there were still six years before David Bowie wrote the song Space Oddity, Gordon had nothing to sing.
When Gordon realized that all the rocket scientists watching the flight from the ground had become as useless as a chocolate thermo screen, he did the work himself. By contacting another astronaut John Glen, Cooper developed a new procedure for entering the atmosphere. He calculated the input parameters, with fewer tools than you currently have - because you had enough air, and the last thing Cooper saw before the electronics turned off was that the capsule began to fill with carbon dioxide.
And while most probably would have spent their last minutes telling everyone (especially electricians) what they thought about, Cooper managed to put the capsule on his own, and in a way that would have seemed too unrealistic if you saw it, for example, the movie. Imagine for a second Apollo 13, whose crew had to hastily assemble an air filtration system from spare parts. Now imagine the following. Orienting the capsule window towards the stars, Cooper put marks on it, and began to control accelerators, reaching for the fuel valves and manually opening and closing them, using his wristwatch to measure the time of their work.
This clock was used for more space computing than the HAL-9000.
While entering the atmosphere - and this is perhaps the most difficult test for the human body - he also had to manually open the braking and main parachutes and the landing pad - despite the fact that each of these actions had only two possible outcomes - “made perfect” and "turned into a cake." And what was the reaction of Cooper himself to this deadly mathematical test?
"... well, this is what we always wanted to try to do. So I just had the opportunity to do what I always wanted."
So if you hear the kids complaining that they will never have to use math in real life, tell them that in this case the life for which they are preparing is lousy.
What can be said about Gemini? If we talk about the sign of the zodiac, then we can perhaps say that it fully reflects the duality of the human race. If we keep in mind the series of controlled space flights, then we can confidently state that they represent one of the most impressive achievements in history.
David Scott and Neil Armstrong flew to Gemeni 8 to see what happened if you put a Gemini capsule on a special target called Agena. It all ended up figuring out what would happen if Gemini tried to kill his crew. After docking, an increasing uncontrollable rotation of the Gemini and Agena ligament began. The undocking of the apparatus did not help - the rotational speed only increased, which proved that the problem was precisely in Gemeni (and the laws of inertia). The device continued to accelerate until the universe outside the window began to rush at a rate of once per second, filling the word “Hertz” with a new meaning.
Due to the large acceleration, astronauts found it difficult to even raise their head or hand. However, instead of losing consciousness, Armstrong manually blocked the boosters of the capsule and started the engines to enter the atmosphere, which saved their lives. Of course, this ruined the flight of Gemini 8 itself, but it can be said with confidence that this was an act of self-defense.
The opposed thumb, thanks to which we can hold various tools in our hands, is, of course, a huge advantage, which we have brought to perfection - from sticks, and ending with ... a space communications satellite. And since catching a satellite with bare hands is what will happen in the Superman movie rather than in real life, Pierre Thout, Richard Hieb and Thomas Akers gave a head start to any action movie that when I have seen the light.
In order to attach an upper stage to the Intelstat VI satellite, the Johnson Space Center developed a special capture that looked like a super-expensive version of a slot machine for catching soft toys. However, the seizure refused to work as intended, and the team, having maneuvered so that it was about a meter from the satellite (which was a four-ton piece of iron rushing in high speed orbit), went into outer space and literally caught the satellite with its own hands.
Polyakov was a cosmonaut, a specialist in space medicine, who wanted to find out what was going on with the human body in space. If you look in the dictionary " people who remained in space long enough to be able to fly to Mars, " you can hardly find anything, but in scientific journals the name Valery Polyakov is synonymous with this phrase. Here it is - a living example of the ability to deliver people to other planets.
He spent 240 days at the Mir station in 1988, and in 1994 he set off on an even longer flight that lasted 437 days. “Close a person in a tin can for more than a year” - doesn’t it resemble the scenario of a psychological thriller? But Polyakov wanted to prove that the human mind is able to cope with this. A long stay in space is also fraught with loss of muscle mass and bone fragility, but a specially developed program allowed Valeria to avoid these unpleasant consequences.
After a year spent in space, it was not easy to return to full aggression - it seemed that it was not Polyakov who was on Earth, but the Earth on it. Yet Valery insisted on getting out of the capsule on his own - to prove what the human body is capable of. His first actions after his return were to show that if humanity really needs something, then people are capable of even the most incredible things.
NASA astronaut Normat Thagard said that Polyakov looked like he “could fight a bear,” which is both a compliment and a truth about how good the Russian space program is.
Most likely, Polyakov will hold the record for the longest stay in space until someone actually flies to the Red Planet. This man flew 300 million kilometers in a tin can - and all in order to spur the human race to start moving forward again.
Many thanks to Zelenyikot for the material found and thesolarempire for reviewing.
Please report inaccuracies, errors and typographical errors to the PM.
Since humankind has calculated the true distances to the luminous points appearing at night in the sky, it has begun to try to build rockets that can take us to them. And as if space flights themselves are not dangerous enough - given the absence of a chill, the risk of freezing or burning to death, the danger of radiation, the inability to breathe - there were people who could turn these space missions into something much, much more impressive.
')
5. Yuri Gagarin
Many of you have probably heard of Felix Baumgartner, a man who has gotten into news bulletins all over the world after a parachute jump from space. However, few have mentioned that before him a similar trick was performed by none other than Yuri Gagarin - the first person in the world who made a space flight. Generally, being the first astronaut in the world, Yuri Gagarin is the very person who first needs to be remembered, making a list of the most exciting events in space. Or, for that matter, any other list of the most exciting events.
At that time, the pace of the space race was incredibly high. So high that Yuri launched into space before the brakes were invented ... Because of this, despite the fact that the capsule of the ship Vostok had parachutes, the basic principle of the stop was formulated as “the planet will be on the course”. And that is why, at an altitude of 7 kilometers, Yuri was automatically catapulted in order not to be killed to death with the world's first manned spacecraft.
Thus, he outplayed Baumgartner (who, by the way, could even choose when to jump exactly) 8 years before the latter was born. And yet, even having performed this truly incredible trick, Yuri, for the good of the space program, did not begin to talk about it. This little fact shows well how high the level of secrecy was then - think about it, because today many people cannot keep their mouths shut even if they have just eaten a tasty burger. In addition, the Russians believed that the world community would be more impressed with the phrase “he landed in the descent vehicle” than “he jumped out of a rapidly falling space bomb”. What a nuclear weapon that you are! We know that in the Soviet Union such things are being done, and the film “Red Dawn” would be about how obedient Americans learn how to cook breakfast from kasha and butterbrots [sic!] For adored Soviet masters.
By the way, as it turned out later, the International Federation of Aeronautics (Federation Aeronautique Internationale - FAI) would not recognize a record flight in which the pilot did not land in his own ship. What nonsense guys? If your records do not recognize the achievements of Yuri Gagarin, then these same records should not be taken seriously at all!
4. Gordon Cooper
Gordon participated in Mercury-Atlas 9 - the last of the flights of the Mercury series. The spacecraft used in this program were not designed to be controlled by the pilot - all the equipment was fully automatic. This became a serious problem when electronics failed on Gordon's ship. All. Fully. Neither direction correction, nor engine control, nor even instruments that would show him which way he was flying worked. The only thing that continued to work was the radio, which was connected directly to the batteries, but since there were still six years before David Bowie wrote the song Space Oddity, Gordon had nothing to sing.
When Gordon realized that all the rocket scientists watching the flight from the ground had become as useless as a chocolate thermo screen, he did the work himself. By contacting another astronaut John Glen, Cooper developed a new procedure for entering the atmosphere. He calculated the input parameters, with fewer tools than you currently have - because you had enough air, and the last thing Cooper saw before the electronics turned off was that the capsule began to fill with carbon dioxide.
And while most probably would have spent their last minutes telling everyone (especially electricians) what they thought about, Cooper managed to put the capsule on his own, and in a way that would have seemed too unrealistic if you saw it, for example, the movie. Imagine for a second Apollo 13, whose crew had to hastily assemble an air filtration system from spare parts. Now imagine the following. Orienting the capsule window towards the stars, Cooper put marks on it, and began to control accelerators, reaching for the fuel valves and manually opening and closing them, using his wristwatch to measure the time of their work.
This clock was used for more space computing than the HAL-9000.
While entering the atmosphere - and this is perhaps the most difficult test for the human body - he also had to manually open the braking and main parachutes and the landing pad - despite the fact that each of these actions had only two possible outcomes - “made perfect” and "turned into a cake." And what was the reaction of Cooper himself to this deadly mathematical test?
"... well, this is what we always wanted to try to do. So I just had the opportunity to do what I always wanted."
So if you hear the kids complaining that they will never have to use math in real life, tell them that in this case the life for which they are preparing is lousy.
3. Neil Armstrong
What can be said about Gemini? If we talk about the sign of the zodiac, then we can perhaps say that it fully reflects the duality of the human race. If we keep in mind the series of controlled space flights, then we can confidently state that they represent one of the most impressive achievements in history.
David Scott and Neil Armstrong flew to Gemeni 8 to see what happened if you put a Gemini capsule on a special target called Agena. It all ended up figuring out what would happen if Gemini tried to kill his crew. After docking, an increasing uncontrollable rotation of the Gemini and Agena ligament began. The undocking of the apparatus did not help - the rotational speed only increased, which proved that the problem was precisely in Gemeni (and the laws of inertia). The device continued to accelerate until the universe outside the window began to rush at a rate of once per second, filling the word “Hertz” with a new meaning.
Due to the large acceleration, astronauts found it difficult to even raise their head or hand. However, instead of losing consciousness, Armstrong manually blocked the boosters of the capsule and started the engines to enter the atmosphere, which saved their lives. Of course, this ruined the flight of Gemini 8 itself, but it can be said with confidence that this was an act of self-defense.
2. Catch the satellite by hand
The opposed thumb, thanks to which we can hold various tools in our hands, is, of course, a huge advantage, which we have brought to perfection - from sticks, and ending with ... a space communications satellite. And since catching a satellite with bare hands is what will happen in the Superman movie rather than in real life, Pierre Thout, Richard Hieb and Thomas Akers gave a head start to any action movie that when I have seen the light.
In order to attach an upper stage to the Intelstat VI satellite, the Johnson Space Center developed a special capture that looked like a super-expensive version of a slot machine for catching soft toys. However, the seizure refused to work as intended, and the team, having maneuvered so that it was about a meter from the satellite (which was a four-ton piece of iron rushing in high speed orbit), went into outer space and literally caught the satellite with its own hands.
1. Valery Polyakov - the king of space
Polyakov was a cosmonaut, a specialist in space medicine, who wanted to find out what was going on with the human body in space. If you look in the dictionary " people who remained in space long enough to be able to fly to Mars, " you can hardly find anything, but in scientific journals the name Valery Polyakov is synonymous with this phrase. Here it is - a living example of the ability to deliver people to other planets.
He spent 240 days at the Mir station in 1988, and in 1994 he set off on an even longer flight that lasted 437 days. “Close a person in a tin can for more than a year” - doesn’t it resemble the scenario of a psychological thriller? But Polyakov wanted to prove that the human mind is able to cope with this. A long stay in space is also fraught with loss of muscle mass and bone fragility, but a specially developed program allowed Valeria to avoid these unpleasant consequences.
After a year spent in space, it was not easy to return to full aggression - it seemed that it was not Polyakov who was on Earth, but the Earth on it. Yet Valery insisted on getting out of the capsule on his own - to prove what the human body is capable of. His first actions after his return were to show that if humanity really needs something, then people are capable of even the most incredible things.
NASA astronaut Normat Thagard said that Polyakov looked like he “could fight a bear,” which is both a compliment and a truth about how good the Russian space program is.
Most likely, Polyakov will hold the record for the longest stay in space until someone actually flies to the Red Planet. This man flew 300 million kilometers in a tin can - and all in order to spur the human race to start moving forward again.
Many thanks to Zelenyikot for the material found and thesolarempire for reviewing.
Please report inaccuracies, errors and typographical errors to the PM.
Source: https://habr.com/ru/post/168937/
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