APOD: To Fly Free in Space (2017 Dec 31)

[APOD Robot]

To Fly Free in Space

Explanation: What would it be like to fly free in space? At about 100 meters from the cargo bay of the space shuttle Challenger, Bruce McCandless II was living the dream -- floating farther out than anyone had ever been before. Guided by a Manned Maneuvering Unit (MMU), astronaut McCandless, pictured, was floating free in space. McCandless and fellow NASA astronaut Robert Stewart were the first to experience such an "untethered space walk" during Space Shuttle mission 41-B in 1984. The MMU worked by shooting jets of nitrogen and was used to help deploy and retrieve satellites. With a mass over 140 kilograms, an MMU is heavy on Earth, but, like everything, is weightless when drifting in orbit. The MMU was replaced with the SAFER backpack propulsion unit.

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[Ann]

Click to view full size image

Tintin saving an unwilling, drunk and free-floating Captain Haddock.
Source: http://www.thejournal.ie/tintin-comic-s ... 2-Nov2016/

Anyone who really wants to float free in space must either have a death wish, or have imbibed too much!

Of course, the view must be beyond spectacular!

Bruce McCandless II made it to 80. I salute him!

Ann

[E Fish]

I would love to float free in space, of course, with the knowledge that I'd easily get back.

An amazing photo!

[heehaw]

It's lonely at the top!

[owlice]

I love this APOD and was glad to see it today.

[Chris Peterson]

Anyone who really wants to float free in space must either have a death wish, or have imbibed too much!

Do you really mean that? How is this different from a million other things people do where they are dependent upon their own skill and the quality of their equipment? Mountain climbing, scuba diving, skydiving.

I don't think the astronaut here was in much danger. The dangerous part about space is mainly in getting there and getting back, not being there.

[heehaw]

Anyone who really wants to float free in space must either have a death wish, or have imbibed too much!

Do you really mean that? How is this different from a million other things people do where they are dependent upon their own skill and the quality of their equipment? Mountain climbing, scuba diving, skydiving.

Reminds me that for a few years (a few years ago) at my university we had a Dean who had a horror of black holes. It seemed to come up in every talk she gave. I was startled; it was interesting psychology!

[Ann]

Anyone who really wants to float free in space must either have a death wish, or have imbibed too much!

Do you really mean that? How is this different from a million other things people do where they are dependent upon their own skill and the quality of their equipment? Mountain climbing, scuba diving, skydiving.

I don't think the astronaut here was in much danger. The dangerous part about space is mainly in getting there and getting back, not being there.

That's horrible enough for me!!!

Ann

[Ann]

Anyone who really wants to float free in space must either have a death wish, or have imbibed too much!

Do you really mean that? How is this different from a million other things people do where they are dependent upon their own skill and the quality of their equipment? Mountain climbing, scuba diving, skydiving.

Reminds me that for a few years (a few years ago) at my university we had a Dean who had a horror of black holes. It seemed to come up in every talk she gave.

Well... this is the first time I've mentioned any fear of floating free in space, I think.

I'm not afraid of floating free in space, because I trust the gravity of good ol' Earth not to let go of me!

I think the root of whatever fear I may have of the thought of floating free in space harks back to 1969, when I first saw 2001: A Space Odyssey. One of the astronauts in the ship that is on course for Jupiter falls out, and I realized that he would be falling and falling and falling and falling forever in the black emptiness out there. (Today, of course, I would say that he'd be orbiting the Sun.)

David Bowie's video Blackstar spoke pretty strongly to me. Bowie sang about his own imminent death, and he portrayed himself as a jewel-encrusted cranium inside a space helmet, and as a skeleton falling into the Sun. Those images resonated with me.

(And now, when I watched that video again, the scene with the skeleton falling into the Sun was gone. Well, it was there before.)

Ann

[ta152h0]

Did not have to read the descript to know instantly it was Bruce McCandless ( RIP ) bpoldly going where no man has gone before

[Boomer12k]

Awesome.... and when they got back in, the Nitrogen was used to cool a couple of "TALL ONES".... no doubt....

:---[===] *

[Boomer12k]

Do you really mean that? How is this different from a million other things people do where they are dependent upon their own skill and the quality of their equipment? Mountain climbing, scuba diving, skydiving.

Reminds me that for a few years (a few years ago) at my university we had a Dean who had a horror of black holes. It seemed to come up in every talk she gave.

Well... this is the first time I've mentioned any fear of floating free in space, I think.

I'm not afraid of floating free in space, because I trust the gravity of good ol' Earth not to let go of me!

I think the root of whatever fear I may have of the thought of floating free in space harks back to 1969, when I first saw 2001: A Space Odyssey. One of the astronauts in the ship that is on course for Jupiter falls out, and I realized that he would be falling and falling and falling and falling forever in the black emptiness out there. (Today, of course, I would say that he'd be orbiting the Sun.)

David Bowie's video Blackstar spoke pretty strongly to me. Bowie sang about his own imminent death, and he portrayed himself as a jewel-encrusted cranium inside a space helmet, and as a skeleton falling into the Sun. Those images resonated with me.

(And now, when I watched that video again, the scene with the skeleton falling into the Sun was gone. Well, it was there before.)

Ann

Ann... Frank Poole does not "fall" off of the Discovery...he is SHOVED by HAL...his oxygen tube is severed, and he frantically tries to get it reconnected...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-3m-Zu3 ... MA%20CLIPS
And...he does not "fall forever", as Dave Bowman goes out and gets him... so, nothing to fear.....EXCEPT HAL!!!!!

:---[===] *

[ta152h0]

hmmmm, nitrogen can be used to cool down a couple liquid in a bottle things ?

[Ann]

Do you really mean that? How is this different from a million other things people do where they are dependent upon their own skill and the quality of their equipment? Mountain climbing, scuba diving, skydiving.

Reminds me that for a few years (a few years ago) at my university we had a Dean who had a horror of black holes. It seemed to come up in every talk she gave.

Well... this is the first time I've mentioned any fear of floating free in space, I think.

I'm not afraid of floating free in space, because I trust the gravity of good ol' Earth not to let go of me!

I think the root of whatever fear I may have of the thought of floating free in space harks back to 1969, when I first saw 2001: A Space Odyssey. One of the astronauts in the ship that is on course for Jupiter falls out, and I realized that he would be falling and falling and falling and falling forever in the black emptiness out there. (Today, of course, I would say that he'd be orbiting the Sun.)

David Bowie's video Blackstar spoke pretty strongly to me. Bowie sang about his own imminent death, and he portrayed himself as a jewel-encrusted cranium inside a space helmet, and as a skeleton falling into the Sun. Those images resonated with me.

(And now, when I watched that video again, the scene with the skeleton falling into the Sun was gone. Well, it was there before.)

Ann

Ann... Frank Poole does not "fall" off of the Discovery...he is SHOVED by HAL...his oxygen tube is severed, and he frantically tries to get it reconnected...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-3m-Zu3 ... MA%20CLIPS
And...he does not "fall forever", as Dave Bowman goes out and gets him... so, nothing to fear.....EXCEPT HAL!!!!!

:---[===] *

Thanks, Boomer!

I was just telling you what my 14-year-old and extremely impressionable self thought of that scene.

Thanks for the info!

Ann

[JohnD]

This picture was an "In Memoriam" for Bruce McCandless, who died just before Christmas, but many in this thread seem to have missed that.
An appreciative obituary appeared today in the UK national newspaper the Gaurdian:
https://www.theguardian.com/science/201 ... s-obituary

John