Path: utzoo!attcan!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!mailrus!tut.cis.ohio-state.edu!gem.mps.ohio-state.edu!apple!bionet!ames!ames.arc.nasa.gov!mike From: mike@ames.arc.nasa.gov (Mike Smithwick) Newsgroups: sci.space.shuttle Subject: Re: An idea Message-ID: <33321@ames.arc.nasa.gov> Date: 10 Oct 89 16:20:52 GMT References: <3743@rtech.rtech.com> <1401.251BA8CC@branch.FIDONET.ORG> <1989Sep26.220340.13871@ziebmef.mef.org> <1989Sep27.110807.2646@jarvis.csri.toronto.edu> <212@v7fs1.UUCP> <1989Sep29.164653.29049@utzoo.uucp> <1511@hiatus.dec.com> Sender: usenet@ames.arc.nasa.gov Organization: NASA - Ames Research Center Lines: 71 In article <1511@hiatus.dec.com> fisher@moon.dec.com writes: >In article <3743@rtech.rtec.com> reb writes: >> In article <1989Sep29.164653.29049@utzoo.uucp> henry@utzoo.uucp (Henry >Spencer) writes: >> >In article <212@v7fs1.UUCP> mvp@v7fs1.UUCP (Mike Van Pelt) writes: >> >>:In the movie ``Marooned'' (circa 1966)... >> >>:Movie buffs can correct me if I'm wrong, but I believe that the rescue >> >>:craft was even a lifting-body vehicle... >> >>Yep, it was an X-20 "Dyna-soar" launched by a Titan... >> >Titan, yes; Dyna-soar, no. It was an "XRV" experimental USAF lifting body. >> >(Dyna-soar had wings.) I don't know offhand whether the "XRV" ever existed; >> >I suspect not. >The book and the movie were significantly different. In the book, it was >a hypothetical Mecury 7 which was stranded, and they rescued it with a >never-before-flown Titan/Gemini. I think they had to pull a boilerplate >Gemini and replace it with a flyable one from the manufacturer, thus giving >the tension. In the movie, it was a Gemini or an Apollo that was stranded >(I think I remember three people), and they sent up some sort of thing which >I always thought was a Dyna-Soar, but I'm willing to be corrected by >reb. > >Burns Fisher As I recall (which isn't saying much), the crew was onboard a Skylab for several months. It was decided to bring them down early due to psycological (?) problems. After undocking, the SPS engine failed, hence no entry. The US had no ability to launch a rescue in time, before the oxygen would run out for the crew of 3. Were there only two astronauts, there might be enough left. One of the crewmen goes EVA to supposedly take a look at the engine, then (pull out the hankies) rips his suit to commit suicide (making it look like at accident) giving his comrades enough oxygen to make it. They end up being rescued by a Soviet cosmonaut in a Vostok, not a Soyuz as Henry said (unless I have a mental parity error, I remember clearly the conical rear of the Vostok re-entry engine, encircled by the small cryo tanks. I said to myself at the time "Why are they using a Vostok?". I was only 13 or so.) I did read the later version of the book that came out with the movie, but don't remember anything about that except the astros comments about re-entry "That was one hell of a kick in the ass!". I think that two of the astronauts were played by Gene Hackman and Richard Crenna. While we're on the subject, anyone see the kids film "Stowaway to the Moon?". In it a 10 year old boy stows away in an Apollo and ends up saving the mission. The CMP came down with the flu in lunar orbit while the LM in on the surface. The kid had to help him during the docking and saved his life when he vomited in his helmet which he was wearing to get extra oxygen to help his sickness. For being a children's film it was very well done, much better than many so-called "serious" movies. They used authentic mockups, not merely control panels decorated with christmas-tree lights like many a sci-fi film. They had a half-way plausible scenerio as to how he was able to get on board and hide (An old man he knew used to own part of the cape area. When the government bought it from him, he was given special access to portions of his old property for fishing. The kid disguised himself as the old man, borrowed his boat, so security let him by. He then donned a hard had, took a tool-box and made up a phoney picture badge that would just look good enough on the black-and-white security cameras on the pad.) *** mike smithwick *** "Los Angeles : Where neon goes to die" [disclaimer : nope, I don't work for NASA, I take full blame for my ideas]