🚀 go-pugleaf

Hello again, I've been off the 'net for a while.

As a direct result of Eugene Miya's gracious posting last December concerning
summer jobs with NASA I am now working for Lockheed Engineering and
Sciences Company at NASA'a White Sands Test Facility.  Thanks Eugene.

In a few days I shall have more info., but right now I'm not sure what I'm
allowed to post concerning White Sands.  We do rocket engine testing
(though not right now).  We also do materials testing, tests for offgassing
and stuff, for everything that flies on the shuttle.  Pens, mascara, toothpaste,
flight coveralls, etc. etc.  There's even a painting in one of our lobbies
that will be flown for one of the astronauts.
We also do H2 O2 combustion research to determine their properties of
combustion.  This is to know what would happen if the shuttle blows up on
the pad and also to have a good characterization of those and other fuels
such that they can be better used and more safely handled.
  Materials research also includes testing valves and other parts for
performance under odd condidions: high pressure, pneumatic impacts, etc.
I don't have all the details because I (a physicist by academic study) am
in their computer department (and I've never taken a CS course, and don't
plan to -- that's the government).
   Lastly they have a hypervelocity gun to simulate micrometeroid impacts
in order to determine what would be the best shielding for the space station.

Last Thursday all site employees were encourage to go and see two movies during
working hours in one of our conference rooms.  One was on Apollo 11, the
other was on Apollo 17.  Both were pretty good and were produced at the time
of their respective flights.

Friday we saw a 30 minute new movie on Apollo 11,  some really good footage
of Saturn V take off.

Question:  after the engines fired, some very large structures swung up and
away from the base of the Saturn V, like an oil well pump arm swinging up.
What were those?  Were they clamps used to hold the Saturn V to the crawler?

We also saw a 60 minute taping of a press conference with Armstrong, Aldrin,
and Collins taped last March.  Some of the questions were sort of sticky.
Things like: why haven't you done anything to encourage support for NASA since
'69?  or How do you justify NASA spending over social programs?

I liked Collins answer the best.
(paraphrasing) 'Jamestown and the other colonies were squalid places, a lot
worse off than many of our cities today, and yet we did not endeavor to make
them 100% perfect, but expanded westward.  In the same way, we still have
problems here at home but must continue to expand outward.'  He also said
something about space helping us solve our Earthly problems.

Their answers to questions concerning the future of NASA were interesting.
They said that NASA should go on to Mars and maybe Titan.
When asked about Bush and budgetary appropriations they were clearly
discomfited.  They never said it outright, but they all seemed to strongly
wish that the U.S.'s involvement in space greatly increase and speed-up and
had no faith in the current administartion actually doing anything of the
sort.

  Bush's lack of details concerning timelining of goals and budgetary 
apportioning has not made me or any co-workers any more hopeful.

  In summary, I found the Apollo films quite depressing, not because the
films were depressing, but because it made me think about where NASA has not
gone since then.  NASA is like an airplane which was pulled up to go into
a stall; in 1969 the plane was at the peak of the stall, and lost all lift
after that.  I'm waiting for stall recovery.

(Yes, I'm currently working on my pilot's license.  Next is IFR, then
multi-engine, then jet engine, then high altitude and high performance
jets, then a space shuttle :-) )

Any queries concerning White Sands Test Facility address to me.

The views presented here are not those of my employer, but are solely
mine.  -Leif S. Kirschenbaum, Technical Associate, Lockheed Egineering