Kruegon
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- Joined
- May 20, 2014
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My wife and our kids are from Pensacola, FL and I just moved them up here with me this past August. They've never had the opportunity to visit some of the fine locales of Alabama. Yesterday I began work on correcting that. Took a little trip, roughly 1 hour, north of where we live in Gardendale, AL. They had no clue where we were going. At least not until the massive visage of the Apollo Saturn V came into view. The U.S. Space and Rocket Center, Huntsville, AL.
Turns out that we chose a great weekend to try this. This past weekend was their Space Camp Alumni celebration weekend. Former Space camp members, Astronauts, and NASA personnel, were all in attendance. And, after all, our hobby IS rocket science. So what could make a rocketeer's trip to the center more incredible than such an event? How about over an hour of one on one conversation with a NASA engineer! Mike Pessin freely spent all that time engaged in conversation about the construction materials and methods used for the Saturn V. This led to the conversation about the variations of materials used for the construction of the Shuttle external fuel tank. And the welding methods, repair methods, stress issues, and so on and so forth. I learned the alloys used. We discussed the engines and drives. Future methods for long range space exploration. And I even got an in depth lesson on the upcoming Orion SLS.
This was one day that will live in my memory for ever.
Turns out that we chose a great weekend to try this. This past weekend was their Space Camp Alumni celebration weekend. Former Space camp members, Astronauts, and NASA personnel, were all in attendance. And, after all, our hobby IS rocket science. So what could make a rocketeer's trip to the center more incredible than such an event? How about over an hour of one on one conversation with a NASA engineer! Mike Pessin freely spent all that time engaged in conversation about the construction materials and methods used for the Saturn V. This led to the conversation about the variations of materials used for the construction of the Shuttle external fuel tank. And the welding methods, repair methods, stress issues, and so on and so forth. I learned the alloys used. We discussed the engines and drives. Future methods for long range space exploration. And I even got an in depth lesson on the upcoming Orion SLS.
This was one day that will live in my memory for ever.