Chinese Moon Landing Mission Launched Today
Discussion
That's it! The two British Astronauts would have been MBH and Eric Mc.
MBH would have been recently retired and keen (if that's an emotion he's familiar with) to stifle the boredom, while a bright-eyed Eric would have been just about ready to move on from his fulltime hobby of trainspotting, having recently completed his articles.
MBH would have been recently retired and keen (if that's an emotion he's familiar with) to stifle the boredom, while a bright-eyed Eric would have been just about ready to move on from his fulltime hobby of trainspotting, having recently completed his articles.
Arhur C Clarke's 1950s novel "Prelude to Space" is about a largely British lunar landing.
The British Interplanetary Society published a paper on a possible manned lunar landing mission in the 1930s with a follow up paper just after World War 2.
NASA studied these published papers very carefully when devising Apollo in the early 1960s.
The British Interplanetary Society published a paper on a possible manned lunar landing mission in the 1930s with a follow up paper just after World War 2.
NASA studied these published papers very carefully when devising Apollo in the early 1960s.
You're all way off the mark.
The first british astronaut would have been fred dibnah, chosen for his ability to fix the thing if it wen't wrong.
They also had an eye on budget, and fred could supply his own space suit. All he needed was a couple of laccy bands round tge arms and legs - the blue boilersuit was 95% grease so was gas tight anyway.
The first british astronaut would have been fred dibnah, chosen for his ability to fix the thing if it wen't wrong.
They also had an eye on budget, and fred could supply his own space suit. All he needed was a couple of laccy bands round tge arms and legs - the blue boilersuit was 95% grease so was gas tight anyway.
Two very important elements of the Apollo spacesuit were essentially British designs (which NASA are very happy to acknowledge) - the water coolant system which prevented the astronaut from overheating during an EVA and the soft "Snoopy" helmet which contained the headphones and microphone set.
The former had been developed at Farnborough (a prototype of the cooling garment is on display at the FAST Museum) and the communications helmet had been developed in the 1950s for the V Bomber crews. USAF pilots who had been seconded to the RAF in the 50s and 60s had sent back very favourable reports on the British "hat" and recommended that NASA look at the design for wearing under the helmet of a space suit. They still use a version of it today.
Here's Buzz Aldrin suiting up on the morning of the Apollo 11 launch wearing his Snoopy Hat -
The former had been developed at Farnborough (a prototype of the cooling garment is on display at the FAST Museum) and the communications helmet had been developed in the 1950s for the V Bomber crews. USAF pilots who had been seconded to the RAF in the 50s and 60s had sent back very favourable reports on the British "hat" and recommended that NASA look at the design for wearing under the helmet of a space suit. They still use a version of it today.
Here's Buzz Aldrin suiting up on the morning of the Apollo 11 launch wearing his Snoopy Hat -
The question about who the British astronauts would have been was actually a serious one - presumably they'd have been the top test pilots of the day. Who were the likely candidates in, say, 1960? Would we have had Cunningham, Duke (not Charlie but Neville) and Brown, instead of Armstrong, Aldrin and Collins (all made redundant when the Apollo program was scrapped)?
A British moon landing would have consisted of a titled officer and his batman. There would have been seperate compartments for officers and enlisted men in the LM. Capt. Sir Fortesque-Smyth would have done all the important flag planting and posing for photos, while Sgt Baldrick would have generally skivvied for him and done all the difficult technical stuff.
Gassing Station | Science! | Top of Page | What's New | My Stuff