5 ms·

The Story Behind Upcoming Film “Spacesuit” (2013)

79 points by cromulent 13y ago

gdubs 13y ago
"Moon Machines" -- an incredible series if you haven't seen it, with episodes on building the flight computer, etc -- has an excellent episode on the story behind the spacesuit: http://www.dailymotion.com/video/xxxikn_moon-machines-2008-part-5-the-space-suit_tech http://www.dailymotion.com/video/xxxikn_moon-machines-2008-p...
- hcrisp 13y ago
  A good companion book is "How Apollo Flew to the Moon", by W. David Woods. It fills in a lot of the technical detail that other Apollo space program books omit, without forgetting the human dimension. Amazing effort by a man who is not an engineer, nor affiliated with the original Apollo program. He just had an interest that grew over the years until he was encouraged to put his knowledge into a book. He wrote it like he was explaining Apollo to a friend at his day job.
- kahirsch 13y ago
  Thanks, that's a very good video.
- AYBABTME 13y ago
  Just finished watching the whole series after your comment 6h ago. Was very nice, and gave perspective to engineering practices, notably testing, time management, complexity management. All kinds of things we have to deal with in the immaterial software world, they had to deal with at such large scale, with little room for error. Also the episode about the guidance software was all the more relevant.
  - gdubs 13y ago
    Great way to spend a Sunday! Yes, the guidance software episode is particularly relevant; it was the first one I watched. Puts today's software engineering in perspective.
efiftythree 13y ago
There really needs to be more, very public, displays of stories like this one. Whenever I hear someone ask why we should invest in missions to Mars and/or the Moon this is the kind of thing I think about. How many amazing things that we take completely for granted were created in order for us to send humans to the moon and live in space? Setting our sights on harsh and distant destinations creates a massive vacuum of technological innovation. I firmly believe that solutions to energy, hunger, conservation/human impact on ecosystems can be found on our journey to the further reaches of space.
- philwelch 13y ago
  Why don't we make energy, hunger, and conservation the moonshots themselves instead of trying to make a literal moonshot and hope that we solve those problems as a side effect?
  - ars 13y ago
    Because those things are incremental things, not all at once things. We slows transition to nuclear power, not all at once. We slowly provide inorganic fertilizer and irrigation water to everyone, not all at once. We slowly increase living standards so that people have extra energy and money to care about pollution.
    - philwelch 13y ago
      So is space exploration, but you can set concrete goals (i.e. produce all of Germany's energy from sustainable sources) that work as moonshots and put the kind of energy and resources behind them that you would put behind a moonshot, and at the end, you have just as much incidental technological development as you would from an actual moonshot, plus sustainable energy production for a G7 country instead of a pointless flag on the moon.
      - ars 13y ago
        That just brings up another problem and that is defining your goals. Germany is not using sustainable energy, Germany thinks they are, but they are actually importing their energy from China. But to get back to the main topic, in a moonshot you need to research and then implement, but here the research is done, it's the implementation that is left - it makes for a very different type of thing. One is exciting and dramatic, the other is slow and plodding.
ars 13y ago
According to Wikipedia this article isn't really very accurate. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ILC_Dover https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ILC_Dover They lost the contract because the suit didn't work, not because of bureaucracy. The company that made it was already making pressure suits for the Navy and Air Force, they were not a bra maker (a sister division did make bras, but the parent was primarily a latex company not a bra company, they made life rafts, canteens etc). This article is basically the Hollywood version of the story: i.e. just a small resemblance to reality, but mostly story, little fact.

79 points by cromulent 13y ago

gdubs 13y ago

"Moon Machines" -- an incredible series if you haven't seen it, with episodes on building the flight computer, etc -- has an excellent episode on the story behind the spacesuit: http://www.dailymotion.com/video/xxxikn_moon-machines-2008-part-5-the-space-suit_tech http://www.dailymotion.com/video/xxxikn_moon-machines-2008-p...

hcrisp 13y ago
A good companion book is "How Apollo Flew to the Moon", by W. David Woods. It fills in a lot of the technical detail that other Apollo space program books omit, without forgetting the human dimension. Amazing effort by a man who is not an engineer, nor affiliated with the original Apollo program. He just had an interest that grew over the years until he was encouraged to put his knowledge into a book. He wrote it like he was explaining Apollo to a friend at his day job.
kahirsch 13y ago
Thanks, that's a very good video.
AYBABTME 13y ago
Just finished watching the whole series after your comment 6h ago. Was very nice, and gave perspective to engineering practices, notably testing, time management, complexity management. All kinds of things we have to deal with in the immaterial software world, they had to deal with at such large scale, with little room for error. Also the episode about the guidance software was all the more relevant.
- gdubs 13y ago
  Great way to spend a Sunday! Yes, the guidance software episode is particularly relevant; it was the first one I watched. Puts today's software engineering in perspective.

efiftythree 13y ago

There really needs to be more, very public, displays of stories like this one. Whenever I hear someone ask why we should invest in missions to Mars and/or the Moon this is the kind of thing I think about. How many amazing things that we take completely for granted were created in order for us to send humans to the moon and live in space? Setting our sights on harsh and distant destinations creates a massive vacuum of technological innovation. I firmly believe that solutions to energy, hunger, conservation/human impact on ecosystems can be found on our journey to the further reaches of space.

philwelch 13y ago
Why don't we make energy, hunger, and conservation the moonshots themselves instead of trying to make a literal moonshot and hope that we solve those problems as a side effect?
- ars 13y ago
  Because those things are incremental things, not all at once things. We slows transition to nuclear power, not all at once. We slowly provide inorganic fertilizer and irrigation water to everyone, not all at once. We slowly increase living standards so that people have extra energy and money to care about pollution.
  - philwelch 13y ago
    So is space exploration, but you can set concrete goals (i.e. produce all of Germany's energy from sustainable sources) that work as moonshots and put the kind of energy and resources behind them that you would put behind a moonshot, and at the end, you have just as much incidental technological development as you would from an actual moonshot, plus sustainable energy production for a G7 country instead of a pointless flag on the moon.
    - ars 13y ago
      That just brings up another problem and that is defining your goals. Germany is not using sustainable energy, Germany thinks they are, but they are actually importing their energy from China. But to get back to the main topic, in a moonshot you need to research and then implement, but here the research is done, it's the implementation that is left - it makes for a very different type of thing. One is exciting and dramatic, the other is slow and plodding.

ars 13y ago

According to Wikipedia this article isn't really very accurate. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ILC_Dover https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ILC_Dover They lost the contract because the suit didn't work, not because of bureaucracy. The company that made it was already making pressure suits for the Navy and Air Force, they were not a bra maker (a sister division did make bras, but the parent was primarily a latex company not a bra company, they made life rafts, canteens etc). This article is basically the Hollywood version of the story: i.e. just a small resemblance to reality, but mostly story, little fact.