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13 Minutes to the Moon
- Thread starter The_CornTorch
- Start date
Great find! I kind of wondered regarding the title and didn’t realize it was audio only. So a very good exploration of the events in the “radio” (audio only) format.
I listened to the interview with Aaron. What a team they had t NASA at that time, and what a job they did on saving 13. I plan to return to it and listen to a few more of the interviews. Thanks for putting that up for everyone to see.
A very good series. I have listened to all episodes and the supplemental sessions.
I guess what really distinguishes this from most everything I have ever read (going back to 1960's) and the many 50th anniversary programs is that this is was a much deeper dive into the Mission Control operators and the whole command and control structure.
Also, they get into real deep detail on the bespoke computers and systems. One very interesting point early in Season 1 was that the paucity of RAM was not really that significant. Most of the memory was "hard wired" purpose built storage. They pointed out that your high powered lap top from today, would have a hard time keeping up with all that the Apollo (& LM) computers were doing.
I loved Season 1 covered from Apollo 1 fire, Apollo 7, Apollo 8 & finally Apollo 11. They did leave a lot out regarding 9 & 10, but I guess the deep dive was great and most of the subject matters were covered more succinctly.
I guess what I thought was strangest, was the lack of any sort of discussion of return to earth for either Apollo 8 or 11. The narrow window with bad outcomes if missed was always a major drama item covered in the media. The answer became "it is covered very deeply in Season 2 with Apollo 13." It was worth the wait. They also tied together the navigation computers & complexity and how they had to manually navigate (and under adverse conditions).
The John Aaron interviews and discussion of some of his work was also very good. One thing I didn't realize until the lack of mention and I had to google was that the LM did not have fuel cells. So the only power Apollo 13 had were the CM batteries the LM batteries. They never did bring in the charging the CM batteries with the LM batteries, some coverage ultimately in the Aaron supplement.
I was also surprised to learn the degree to which Mission Control thought they had a data problem and not a total catastrophic failure on Apollo 13. A classic control room problem (in Three Mile Island, the control operators got the problem wrong, distrusted readings and made the exact wrong decisions). This also happens a great deal in aviation and industrial accidents.
I guess what really distinguishes this from most everything I have ever read (going back to 1960's) and the many 50th anniversary programs is that this is was a much deeper dive into the Mission Control operators and the whole command and control structure.
Also, they get into real deep detail on the bespoke computers and systems. One very interesting point early in Season 1 was that the paucity of RAM was not really that significant. Most of the memory was "hard wired" purpose built storage. They pointed out that your high powered lap top from today, would have a hard time keeping up with all that the Apollo (& LM) computers were doing.
I loved Season 1 covered from Apollo 1 fire, Apollo 7, Apollo 8 & finally Apollo 11. They did leave a lot out regarding 9 & 10, but I guess the deep dive was great and most of the subject matters were covered more succinctly.
I guess what I thought was strangest, was the lack of any sort of discussion of return to earth for either Apollo 8 or 11. The narrow window with bad outcomes if missed was always a major drama item covered in the media. The answer became "it is covered very deeply in Season 2 with Apollo 13." It was worth the wait. They also tied together the navigation computers & complexity and how they had to manually navigate (and under adverse conditions).
The John Aaron interviews and discussion of some of his work was also very good. One thing I didn't realize until the lack of mention and I had to google was that the LM did not have fuel cells. So the only power Apollo 13 had were the CM batteries the LM batteries. They never did bring in the charging the CM batteries with the LM batteries, some coverage ultimately in the Aaron supplement.
I was also surprised to learn the degree to which Mission Control thought they had a data problem and not a total catastrophic failure on Apollo 13. A classic control room problem (in Three Mile Island, the control operators got the problem wrong, distrusted readings and made the exact wrong decisions). This also happens a great deal in aviation and industrial accidents.
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