Technical Mayhem!
Dec. 13th, 2004 09:24 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
rain_gryphonEvery so often, 'Something Awful' rocks:
"With a Soyuz you have a button that says "dock" on it and then you wait until you can see the docking arm and then you hit the dock button. This activates a huge booster that will burn for thirty seconds and you use the reinforced docking hatch on the Soyuz to bend the docking arm until it is locked into place."
*****
Somewhere I prolly still have my old book about Mister Bill landing on the moon. Sluggo was in charge of Mission Control, and in order to beat the Russians to the moon, they turned the lander upside down and fired the descent then ascent engines to get Mister Bill to the surface faster. I love the picture of Mister Bill upside down, screaming, with the ascent engine blazing away, *and* all of the 'up' attitude jets burning for that little bit of extra delta vee. It's the little touches that impress. >:)
*****
There's a movie about Dale Earnhardt now. I suppose that was inevitable. He was a great race driver, but the whole sort of semi-religious cult that's sprung up around him makes me uneasy. It's a lot like Elvis, in a way, and seems to appeal to the same people.
I'm old enough that the concept of really good drivers being killed isn't that alien to me. I recall Clark and Donohue and Senna.
My favourite stock car driver was always big fat sneaky old Junior Johnson. He's from a fundamentally different era of racing, back before the marketing machine took over. He indirectly saved my life one afternoon many years ago when I got a rear-drive car sideways on ice, with a cliff on one side and a rapidly approaching semi on the other side. I knew in theory how to do a 'Junior turn' and get a sliding car under control, and it seemed a very good time to try to translate that theory into practice. No-one was more surprised than I when it actually worked. I was so pumped full of adrenalin that when I realized I'd actually pulled it off I began laughing maniacally. My poor passenger (a guy named 'Crump') was white as a sheet. I don't think he ever got in a car with me again.
"With a Soyuz you have a button that says "dock" on it and then you wait until you can see the docking arm and then you hit the dock button. This activates a huge booster that will burn for thirty seconds and you use the reinforced docking hatch on the Soyuz to bend the docking arm until it is locked into place."
*****
Somewhere I prolly still have my old book about Mister Bill landing on the moon. Sluggo was in charge of Mission Control, and in order to beat the Russians to the moon, they turned the lander upside down and fired the descent then ascent engines to get Mister Bill to the surface faster. I love the picture of Mister Bill upside down, screaming, with the ascent engine blazing away, *and* all of the 'up' attitude jets burning for that little bit of extra delta vee. It's the little touches that impress. >:)
*****
There's a movie about Dale Earnhardt now. I suppose that was inevitable. He was a great race driver, but the whole sort of semi-religious cult that's sprung up around him makes me uneasy. It's a lot like Elvis, in a way, and seems to appeal to the same people.
I'm old enough that the concept of really good drivers being killed isn't that alien to me. I recall Clark and Donohue and Senna.
My favourite stock car driver was always big fat sneaky old Junior Johnson. He's from a fundamentally different era of racing, back before the marketing machine took over. He indirectly saved my life one afternoon many years ago when I got a rear-drive car sideways on ice, with a cliff on one side and a rapidly approaching semi on the other side. I knew in theory how to do a 'Junior turn' and get a sliding car under control, and it seemed a very good time to try to translate that theory into practice. No-one was more surprised than I when it actually worked. I was so pumped full of adrenalin that when I realized I'd actually pulled it off I began laughing maniacally. My poor passenger (a guy named 'Crump') was white as a sheet. I don't think he ever got in a car with me again.
