Spaceaholic
journeyman
Reged: 12/25/07
Posts: 7
Loc: Sierra Vista, Arizona
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Any others on forum other then myself who are actively engaged in collecting items from the U.S. Space Program? In my case I am focused on actual spacecraft components and launch propulsion systems. If so would love to hear from you...
Much of my collection is displayed on my website.
Best Regards..
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Scott Schneeweis
url http://www.SPACEAHOLIC.com/
PRESERVING U.S. SPACE HISTORY FOR FUTURE GENERATIONS
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LivingNDixie
TSP Chowhound
Reged: 04/23/03
Posts: 17757
Loc: Trussville, AL
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Very impressive website, when I have time I would like to add it to our links page for this forum if you don't mind?!?!
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Preston
Meade 10in LX200R GPS UHTC
blog (updated 02/15/2013)
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Shadowalker
Apocaloptimist
Reged: 11/23/04
Posts: 10857
Loc: Carriere, Mississippi, USA
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Interesting topic. I have pieces (scrap steel) of the launch pads of Mercury Redstone, Mercury Atlas, Gemini, and Apollo 1 & 7. All are in serious disrepair at Cape Canaveral.
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"The truth rarely gets in the way of a good story. ~ R. Woods
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Spaceaholic
journeyman
Reged: 12/25/07
Posts: 7
Loc: Sierra Vista, Arizona
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Not a problem and happy to reciprocate. All of the artifacts on the site have an interesting story to tell - many were recovered from aerospace salvage, some from trash bins, a few via action. The key thing is that a majority of early US Space History, independant of that which was offered by NASA to the National Air and Space Museum, was pretty much disposed of buy the contractors who produced these items. As we run up on the 50th anniversary of our manned programs, its perhaps more applicable then ever that these artifacts be used to support advocacy for manned space, in particular Project Constellation (Ares/Orion/Altair) which will hopefully return us for a sustained robust presence to the Moon and onto Mars.
The other important point relative to Proj Constellation and artifact preservation is that in the case of Ares (the analog to the Saturn Launch Vehicle), a great deal of the Apollo technology is being reserected for the upper stage (which will use the J2X engine) and the CEV Orion (Analog to the Apollo Command Service Module). The downside is that because not much in the way detailed documentation or the memories of engineers who participated in the Saturn program were preserved, a lot of back-engineering is going on. There is a very interesting segment on WIRED SCIENCE that aired last week which addresses this issue..and infact a number of the S-IVB (Saturn V Third Stage valves) that you see being opened up for examination on the segment by the Marshall Spaceflight Center (MSFC) staff are also valves that are resident within my collection. A very interesting video of the Wired Science segment (Entitled SPACE JUNKYARD) is here:
http://www.pbs.org/kcet/wiredscience/story/95-space_junkyard.html
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Scott Schneeweis
url http://www.SPACEAHOLIC.com/
PRESERVING U.S. SPACE HISTORY FOR FUTURE GENERATIONS
Edited by Spaceaholic (12/26/07 02:48 PM)
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Sid-W
super member
Reged: 09/29/05
Posts: 170
Loc: UK
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Aren't you ever tempted to try and fire some of that stuff up ?  If I had a surplus rocket motor it wouldn't be long before I bolted it to a go-kart or a motorbike
I reckon I would start with the Gemini thruster though, and work my way up to the J-2
Seriously, as an Apollonut myself, that is an awesome collection.
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127mm F10 generic Chi-Com refractor
Any amount of unfinished projects from the Wile E Coyote school of amateur telescope making
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Dipole
sage
Reged: 12/21/06
Posts: 398
Loc: Right behind you
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My late uncle worked at McDonald Douglas from late 50s through the late 70s. As a project manager he was involved in designing modules for the space program and worked on many X plane projects. His basement was full of awesome stuff! Unfortunately his two daughters didn't think any of it was worth keeping and it was all discarded after he passed, including a clear acrylic model of the Apollo 13 module with a piece of the heat shield embedded into it.
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Spaceaholic
journeyman
Reged: 12/25/07
Posts: 7
Loc: Sierra Vista, Arizona
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Sid...the engines while all fire-able entail the use of some nasty propellants (storable liquid propellants like aerozine 50-50 which are heavily hydrazine based are carcinogenic and caustic)...it takes some special kit to handle them..but I am seriously considering for the 50th anniversary of Apollo working with some cryogenics experts and turning on one of the Apollo Fuel Cells (requires both a working knowledge of fuel cell technology and access to the reactants - cryo hydrogen/oxygen)...and I have already been successful at powering up one of my Lunar Module panels (Panel 3) with 400hz AC...have not yet enabled the LUNAR CONTACT light but will also attempt using DC voltage..will likely be the first time this light has been activated since the last lunar landing in 1972...my website has images of the Electroluminecent lighting being energized ..just go to the LEM/SATURN section of the website..
Dipolo - your situation with your uncle is a very sad but unfortunately common reality. There has been some much historically significant material disarded it makes me loose sleep thinking about the missed opportunities hence the urgency to go out and gather whats remaining (before the residual material meets a similar demise)...
Scott
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Scott Schneeweis
url http://www.SPACEAHOLIC.com/
PRESERVING U.S. SPACE HISTORY FOR FUTURE GENERATIONS
Edited by Spaceaholic (12/28/07 01:48 PM)
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Sid-W
super member
Reged: 09/29/05
Posts: 170
Loc: UK
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Turning on the fuel cell would be an amazing achievement Scott, good luck with that.
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127mm F10 generic Chi-Com refractor
Any amount of unfinished projects from the Wile E Coyote school of amateur telescope making
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Spaceaholic
journeyman
Reged: 12/25/07
Posts: 7
Loc: Sierra Vista, Arizona
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I have updated my website with images of newly acquired Lunar Receiving Laboratory (LRL) tools used for processing lunar samples after return by the Apollo 11 and 12 crews (after Apollo 12, the technology changed a bit and these items were retired). The direct link to the LRL page is http://www.spaceaholic.com/lrl.htm
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Scott Schneeweis
url http://www.SPACEAHOLIC.com/
PRESERVING U.S. SPACE HISTORY FOR FUTURE GENERATIONS
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