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What did your grandfather do and which astronauts signed the letter?
by sizzzzlerz 8y ago
What did your grandfather do and which astronauts signed the letter?
- hellofunk 8y agoYou can read the letter yourself, which answers all the details.
- swozey 8y agoIt's signed by Ronald Evans of Apollo 17. Both of my grandfathers and a lot of my family worked for nasa for decades, though. We're all space coasters. A few pilots. My grandmother was a typist there for instance. He was some sort of rocket propulsion engineer back then, I'm not sure what the actual title would have been. I asked him to write some memoirs a long time ago but I don't bug him about it. He doesn't seem to think it's very interesting. Guess that happens when it's your day job.
- EvanAnderson 8y agoI certainly wouldn't ask you to bug him, but you might mention to him that there are lots of people who would find anything he has to say about his involvement with Apollo (and the space program in general) fascinating. His stories are important and interesting, even if he doesn't think they are. I wish I had a pointer to somebody who is collecting this history before it's lost. (I wish I had the time and financial freedom to be doing that!)
- japhyr 8y agoYou might be interested in a book called Moondust. The author realized in the early 2000s that at some point soon all of the astronauts who walked on the moon would be gone. He set out to interview each of them about their experiences at the time, and since visiting the moon. It's a mix of space history and personal reflections on the perspective they got, that none of us will likely have. https://www.amazon.com/Moondust-Search-Men-Fell-Earth-dp-0007155425/dp/0007155425/ https://www.amazon.com/Moondust-Search-Men-Fell-Earth-dp-000...
- deleted 8y ago[deleted]
- mpweiher 8y agoCan also recommend. All of them were changed.
- frosted-flakes 8y agoA Man on the Moon by Andrew Chaikin (1998)[0] is also a great read. The author explains in the forward that that was also part of his motivation to write the book. I have the 23 hour audiobook, which is also quite well narrated. [0] https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/896458.A_Man_on_the_Moon https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/896458.A_Man_on_the_Moon
- swozey 8y agoHe's very Feynman-esque. He'll definitely have some fun stories if I can get him a blog or medium going.
- packetslave 8y agoIf nothing else, see if you can get him to sit down and tell YOU the stories while you record them on your phone or a handheld audio recorder. Much lower barrier to entry. It's not widely appreciated that Feynman didn't write either of his famous books ("Surely you're joking, Mr. Feynman" and "What do you care what people think?"). Both were compiled by his friend Ralph Leyton from audio recordings of Feynman sitting around telling stories.
- packetslave 8y agosp: Ralph Leighton
- sizzzzlerz 8y agoPlease try. Even if you don't publish his stories, you'll be glad to have heard them later on. I was fortunate to have lived through that era and watched all the landings. Now, I try and find and read anything by those who were actually there: astronauts, flight directors, flight controllers, and government or contractor personnel. It is a fascinating and important era and it is worth documenting.
- mpweiher 8y agoSeconded. We've heard a lot about the astronauts and The Right Stuff. Would love to hear more about the Right Engineering. :-)
- robotresearcher 8y agoBen Rich's 'Skunkworks' is along these lines, i.e. awesome. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ben_Rich https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ben_Rich
- titzer 8y agoDo an audio interview and record it.
- arethuza 8y agoA video would be even better - there are some superb interviews on YouTube with astronauts e.g. this one with Neil Armstrong from 2011: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KJzOIh2eHqQ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KJzOIh2eHqQ
- titzer 8y agoDepends. A video can be a little intimidating to someone not used to interviews.