Cosmonaut Exhibition - Science Museum

Cosmonaut Exhibition - Science Museum

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Discussion

Eric Mc

Original Poster:

122,010 posts

265 months

Tuesday 26th May 2015
quotequote all
This might be worthwhile considering as a PH Science Forum trip?




http://www.sciencemuseum.org.uk/visitmuseum/plan_y...

stuthemong

2,275 posts

217 months

Tuesday 26th May 2015
quotequote all
Seeing some of the Russian stuff in the smithsonian was very interesting indeed, this may well be worth a look.

I'm loathe to.commit to going, but if a Ph crew does descend on the SM, do let me know and if I'm free I'll come! smile

Eric Mc

Original Poster:

122,010 posts

265 months

Tuesday 26th May 2015
quotequote all
It's not until mid September so plenty of time yet. I've made a diary note and will resurrect the thread closer to the date (August sometime).

jmorgan

36,010 posts

284 months

Tuesday 26th May 2015
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Darn it. Not planning any personal trips to the big smoke this year.

LordGrover

33,539 posts

212 months

Tuesday 26th May 2015
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If it's to be a week day I'd need some notice to book time off work.
18-30 September inc. so covers two weekends though.

isee

3,713 posts

183 months

Wednesday 27th May 2015
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Signing up, thanks Eric for bringing it to my attention!

funkyrobot

18,789 posts

228 months

Wednesday 27th May 2015
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Looks good. thumbup

Eric Mc

Original Poster:

122,010 posts

265 months

Wednesday 27th May 2015
quotequote all
They will have a genuine Vostok re-entry module on display. It is the one used on Vostok 6 which carried Valentina Tereshkova into space in June 1963.

isee

3,713 posts

183 months

Wednesday 27th May 2015
quotequote all
Eric Mc said:
They will have a genuine Vostok re-entry module on display. It is the one used on Vostok 6 which carried Valentina Tereshkova into space in June 1963.
Wow! I cannot wait!!

Mojocvh

16,837 posts

262 months

Monday 1st June 2015
quotequote all
Coughs..

www.cite-espace.com/en

I suppose you could be REALLY unlucky and catch rain more like high 30's and glorious sunshine....

Eric Mc

Original Poster:

122,010 posts

265 months

Monday 1st June 2015
quotequote all
I don't understand your point.

France has a permanent space exhibition. That's nice. So does the UK.

I'm not sure what relevance this has to my post about the upcoming special display at the Science Museum.

ecsrobin

17,117 posts

165 months

Sunday 27th September 2015
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So has anyone been yet? I quite fancy going this week.

Eric Mc

Original Poster:

122,010 posts

265 months

Sunday 27th September 2015
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I'll try and get to it before Christmas. It's on until March 2016.

ecsrobin

17,117 posts

165 months

Monday 5th October 2015
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I went Saturday, I left my 2for1 voucher at home frown but it's only £14 anyway so wasn't an issue. It was busy but then it's recently opened and it was the weekend.

It was superb and I would happily view it again, unfortunately no photographs are allowed, but it's interesting to see how advanced the Russians had got with the lunar landers and rover. And seeing all the different space clothing laid out was brilliant.

Simpo Two

85,413 posts

265 months

Monday 5th October 2015
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If the Russians had got their big rocket (forgot the name) I wonder if they'd have got to the moon and back successfully, and if so, would they have got there first?

Eric Mc

Original Poster:

122,010 posts

265 months

Tuesday 6th October 2015
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The answer is they might have. But their large rocket (the N1) was woefully unreliable and had a 100% catastrophic failure rate.

jmorgan

36,010 posts

284 months

Tuesday 6th October 2015
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Not guilty for any lost productivity over this link
http://www.astronautix.com/lvs/n1.htm

XM5ER

5,091 posts

248 months

Tuesday 6th October 2015
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Perfect timing for this thread resurrection. I'm taking the kids to the Science Museum in a couple of weeks, now I'll have to book this as well. smile

ecsrobin

17,117 posts

165 months

Wednesday 7th October 2015
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Eric Mc said:
The answer is they might have. But their large rocket (the N1) was woefully unreliable and had a 100% catastrophic failure rate.
All the equipment was ready and the plan but Eric said the issues with the rocket put a stop to it.

Eric Mc

Original Poster:

122,010 posts

265 months

Wednesday 7th October 2015
quotequote all
They also spread themselves a bit too thinly. Before Apollo 8 managed to orbit the moon in December 1968, the Soviets had a Plan B lunar programme involving using a stripped down Soyuz spacecraft carrying only one cosmonaut which would perform a figure of eight loop around the moon and return to earth.

The rocket to be used was the then relatively new Proton. It is likely that Alexei Leonov would have been the cosmonaut involved.

They actually performed a number of test missions carrying biological subjects (including turtles and plants) which carried out this type of flight in the Autumn of 1968. The missions were labelled Zonds 4 and 5 and were only partially successful. Although both craft returned to earth successfully, they experienced much higher G loads during re-entry than planned so they were concerned that a human passenger might be incapacitated or even killed.

However, once Apollo 8 went around the moon, the manned mission was scrapped as there was no propaganda value to be had by flying it. They, of course, never revealed to the West what the true purpose of Zonds 4 and 5 was until the 1990s.