Cosmonaut Exhibition - Science Museum
Discussion
They were all snapped quickly on my phone. 
I was conscious of the signs saying no pics, so sneakily took them. However, there were plenty of other people blatantly taking pics right next to the stewards. So after a while, I didn't really care.
I found the lunar landing module to be quite fascinating. It has such presence and even though it seems quite large in real life, I guess when you consider the fact that someone would spend days in it, it isn't that big.
As you say Eric, it's like a capsule bolted to some legs.
The Venus visitor was interesting too (the ball with the parachute extended out of it). The fact that it got there and survived for a little while was great. You can look at Venus now and note that there is a little bit of Russian technology dissolved into the atmosphere.
It was all very interesting really and anyone who is thinking about it should go.
Other highlights included the Mir toilet and the capsule with three seats in. They must have been extremely cramped in there!
I was conscious of the signs saying no pics, so sneakily took them. However, there were plenty of other people blatantly taking pics right next to the stewards. So after a while, I didn't really care.
I found the lunar landing module to be quite fascinating. It has such presence and even though it seems quite large in real life, I guess when you consider the fact that someone would spend days in it, it isn't that big.
As you say Eric, it's like a capsule bolted to some legs.
The Venus visitor was interesting too (the ball with the parachute extended out of it). The fact that it got there and survived for a little while was great. You can look at Venus now and note that there is a little bit of Russian technology dissolved into the atmosphere.
It was all very interesting really and anyone who is thinking about it should go.
Other highlights included the Mir toilet and the capsule with three seats in. They must have been extremely cramped in there!
The three seat Voshkod was a "rush job". Kruschev demanded that Korolev launch a three seat spacecraft well ahead of America's just announced two seat Gemini. Korolev told Kruschev that he WAS developing a sophisticated three seater which would be called Soyuz but would not be ready for launch until late 1966 at the earliest. Kruschev said that this was too long as it would mean Gemini and possibly Apollo (a genuine three seater) would fly first, which to Kruschev was not an option.
Korolev instead took a spare single seat Vostok, stripped out any "unnecessary" equipment, including the large ejector seat, and shoehorned in three smaller couches. In order to fit them in they had to be placed across the capsule instead of front to back. If you looked inside at the exhibition, you could see that the (minimal) instrument panel was to the left of the Commander's couch, rather than directly ahead of the crew. This meant that only the commander could work and monitor the instruments.
What would have been nice would have been an information board beside each capsule explaining what the instrument panel buttons, dials and displays were for.
Korolev instead took a spare single seat Vostok, stripped out any "unnecessary" equipment, including the large ejector seat, and shoehorned in three smaller couches. In order to fit them in they had to be placed across the capsule instead of front to back. If you looked inside at the exhibition, you could see that the (minimal) instrument panel was to the left of the Commander's couch, rather than directly ahead of the crew. This meant that only the commander could work and monitor the instruments.
What would have been nice would have been an information board beside each capsule explaining what the instrument panel buttons, dials and displays were for.
I read a little something about the seating plan and the way they had to crane their necks to see the instruments. But, as you say, there wasn't much more than a bit of text about the capsule.
Did the Russian moon rover (next to the lunar lander) actually make it to the moon? I can't remember if it stated it had. If so, I wonder where the pictures it took are.
Did the Russian moon rover (next to the lunar lander) actually make it to the moon? I can't remember if it stated it had. If so, I wonder where the pictures it took are.
funkyrobot said:
I read a little something about the seating plan and the way they had to crane their necks to see the instruments. But, as you say, there wasn't much more than a bit of text about the capsule.
Did the Russian moon rover (next to the lunar lander) actually make it to the moon? I can't remember if it stated it had. If so, I wonder where the pictures it took are.
TWO of those rovers were landed - Lunokhod 1 in 1970 and Lunokhod 2 in January 1973. They each took thousands of photos and also returned live TV images. Indeed. the TV images were vital as the TV cameras were essentially the eyes which allowed the earth based controllers to operate the rovers remotely. Although many images were taken, not that many were released or shown in the West mainly because the Apollo pictures were so much better. Here's one picture of the Lunokhod's own tracks. Did the Russian moon rover (next to the lunar lander) actually make it to the moon? I can't remember if it stated it had. If so, I wonder where the pictures it took are.
bloomen said:
I really couldn't get over how absolutely tiny the three man capsule was.
That's because it wasn't really a three man capsule. It was in reality a one man Vostok hastilly stripped down to squeeze ion three occupants - all to satisfy the political desire of Nikita Kruschev to upstage the Americans, before they had a chance to fly the genuine two man Gemini.Sergei Korolev was designing a genuine three man craft - the Soyuz - but he was forced to put that on hold whilst he adapted the Vostok to carry three and later to adapt it to allow a two man crew and an airlock for spacewalking.
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