4 ms·

The maths that made Voyager possible (2012)

32 points by bootload 11y ago

fsloth 11y ago
Thanks! I thought I was well read into space exploration lore but this detail was unknown to me. It seems so very often new breakthroughs happen despite entrenched systems and not because of them, through serendipitous circumstances which allow the work of individual researchers and independent thinkers to enter the production systems of established organizations.
jasode 11y ago
As a related note, it's interesting that we (society) know the name Neil Armstrong more than Richard Arenstorf[1]. Armstrong climbed down a ladder and walked on the moon. His actions were something that could be televised. We could relate. Most of us have climbed down a ladder from a bunk bed or used a ladder to get something from a high bookshelf and then walked around a room. Arenstorf solved a really hard math problem. Showing a person "thinking" or writing equations is not telegenic. I think the number of people on the planet who had the mathematical creativity to simplify the 3-body problem and solve it to enable a Moon mission is less than the number of physically fit pilots that can sit in a rocket ship. In this case, we don't remember what's more rare (Arenstorf type intellects) but what's more telegenic (Armstrong type pilots). History will replay itself with a Mars mission. There are unsolved intellectual problems that the best scientists are working on. However, none of their names will be known as well as the first astronaut to step foot on Mars. [1]https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_Arenstorf https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_Arenstorf
- dalke 11y ago
  How many people like Richard Arenstorf worked on the Apollo project? Tens? Hundreds? Thousands? Myriads? How many equally hard problems in cryogenic zero-gee pumping, combustion dynamics, space suit design, telemetry, computer hardware, etc. were there? Were there no harder problems solved that deserve more public acclaim? 'Showing a person "thinking" or writing equations is not telegenic.' Somehow Einstein, Feynman, and Hawking are all pop culture figures, so it can't simply be that.
- hoorayimhelping 11y ago
  >Armstrong climbed down a ladder and walked on the moon. His actions were something that could be televised. Armstrong attempted one of the most difficult maneuvers in the history of man. The reason Armstrong was the first man on the moon, other than the fact that Gus Grissom died in a fire, was because he was the only person on earth who could land Apollo 11. Did Arenstorf risk his life doing something that had literally never been done before? Did he literally take the first step into a literally unknown world that literally no human had ever been before? No? That's why people know who Neil Armstrong is. I get what you're obliquely saying about how society values what you think are the wrong things. But you're brushing off nearly unfathomable accomplishments (it's easy to take for granted the fact that we landed on the moon when it's been true your whole life) to make a point about how a single person doing math deserves as much credit as the person who successfully landed the multibillion dollar ship built and operated by 400,000 people. Do you know the names of the countless engineers who built new technology on the Saturn V or the Apollo spacecraft then got it to work? Is Arenstorf more essential than they were?

32 points by bootload 11y ago

Thanks! I thought I was well read into space exploration lore but this detail was unknown to me. It seems so very often new breakthroughs happen despite entrenched systems and not because of them, through serendipitous circumstances which allow the work of individual researchers and independent thinkers to enter the production systems of established organizations.

jasode 11y ago

As a related note, it's interesting that we (society) know the name Neil Armstrong more than Richard Arenstorf[1]. Armstrong climbed down a ladder and walked on the moon. His actions were something that could be televised. We could relate. Most of us have climbed down a ladder from a bunk bed or used a ladder to get something from a high bookshelf and then walked around a room. Arenstorf solved a really hard math problem. Showing a person "thinking" or writing equations is not telegenic. I think the number of people on the planet who had the mathematical creativity to simplify the 3-body problem and solve it to enable a Moon mission is less than the number of physically fit pilots that can sit in a rocket ship. In this case, we don't remember what's more rare (Arenstorf type intellects) but what's more telegenic (Armstrong type pilots). History will replay itself with a Mars mission. There are unsolved intellectual problems that the best scientists are working on. However, none of their names will be known as well as the first astronaut to step foot on Mars. [1]https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_Arenstorf https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_Arenstorf

dalke 11y ago
How many people like Richard Arenstorf worked on the Apollo project? Tens? Hundreds? Thousands? Myriads? How many equally hard problems in cryogenic zero-gee pumping, combustion dynamics, space suit design, telemetry, computer hardware, etc. were there? Were there no harder problems solved that deserve more public acclaim? 'Showing a person "thinking" or writing equations is not telegenic.' Somehow Einstein, Feynman, and Hawking are all pop culture figures, so it can't simply be that.
hoorayimhelping 11y ago
>Armstrong climbed down a ladder and walked on the moon. His actions were something that could be televised. Armstrong attempted one of the most difficult maneuvers in the history of man. The reason Armstrong was the first man on the moon, other than the fact that Gus Grissom died in a fire, was because he was the only person on earth who could land Apollo 11. Did Arenstorf risk his life doing something that had literally never been done before? Did he literally take the first step into a literally unknown world that literally no human had ever been before? No? That's why people know who Neil Armstrong is. I get what you're obliquely saying about how society values what you think are the wrong things. But you're brushing off nearly unfathomable accomplishments (it's easy to take for granted the fact that we landed on the moon when it's been true your whole life) to make a point about how a single person doing math deserves as much credit as the person who successfully landed the multibillion dollar ship built and operated by 400,000 people. Do you know the names of the countless engineers who built new technology on the Saturn V or the Apollo spacecraft then got it to work? Is Arenstorf more essential than they were?