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Author
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Topic: Faulkes Telescope Project: Searching for Snoopy
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Robert Pearlman
Editor Posts: 23493
From: Houston, TX
Registered: Nov 1999
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posted September 20, 2011 02:50 AM
   
collectSPACE The search for Snoopy: Astronomers and students to look for lost Apollo 10 moduleOkay kids, here's your homework: using robotically-controlled telescopes, search the sky for the only U.S. once-manned moon craft to still be in space: the Apollo 10 lunar module "Snoopy." If that sounds like a challenge, it is because it is. Acknowledging the difficulty, the Faulkes Telescope Project still hopes to enlist hundreds of UK schools to find the spent stage more than four decades after it was left to circle the Sun. Along the way, the astronomers hope to locate other rocket parts as well as perhaps discover new asteroids and comets... |
GACspaceguy
Member Posts: 1011
From: Guyton, GA
Registered: Jan 2006
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posted September 20, 2011 07:21 AM
WOW, what a great idea. This would be a great find as well. It sure would make a great test flight for an asteroid mission. That would make it a test flight vehicle going to rendezvous with a former test flight vehicle. |
Jay Chladek
Member Posts: 1566
From: Bellevue, NE, USA
Registered: Aug 2007
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posted September 20, 2011 09:04 AM
I've been thinking along the same lines for a few years as there are scientific benefits that come from such a mission. If material samples were taken from spent rocket stages and spacecraft like Snoopy, the samples could be returned to Earth to get an idea of what extreme long duration space exposure outside of Earth orbit can do to the hardware. As such, such data could be useful in helping the building of future spacecraft. It would be similar in idea to what the LDEF from the early shuttle days was. LDEF was aloft for about four years and returned a mountain of data. Imagine what 40 to 50 years of space exposure could provide in terms of data. And indeed, it would be a very good test for hardware being designed for an asteroid mission. |
jklier
Member Posts: 11
From: Austin, Tx, USA
Registered: Aug 2007
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posted September 20, 2011 09:35 AM
Here's a previous thread discussing the subject: Apollo 10: Bringing "Snoopy" home |
Space Cadet Carl
Member Posts: 69
From: Lake Orion, Michigan
Registered: Feb 2006
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posted September 20, 2011 03:22 PM
John Young always joked about the fact that his DNA is still orbiting the Sun, residing within a plastic ziplock bag inside LM Snoopy. Apparently at one point, Young had to deficate onboard Snoopy and he left the waste onboard before it was sent into solar orbit. |
Jay Chladek
Member Posts: 1566
From: Bellevue, NE, USA
Registered: Aug 2007
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posted September 20, 2011 04:07 PM
Well, don't tell Hollywood or they might use it as an idea for the next science fiction horror movie (mutated poo comes back to Earth as a lunar module is returned from spending over four decades in orbit around the sun). It could be a monster movie that rivals the Godzilla franchise!  |
Hart Sastrowardoyo
Member Posts: 1508
From: Toms River, NJ,USA
Registered: Aug 2000
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posted September 20, 2011 04:30 PM
Well, there's always recovering it and making it into acrylics... (I'm reminded of the person who found shuttle Columbia's waste tank and intended on keeping it.) |
bwhite1976
Member Posts: 38
From: belleville, IL USA
Registered: Jun 2011
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posted September 20, 2011 05:52 PM
quote:
Originally posted by Jay Chladek:
Well, don't tell Hollywood or they might use it as an idea for the next science fiction horror movie...
Hilarious. Yes, I was thinking the same thing. Maybe when they open the hatch there will be a lifeform that has evolved from dirty skivvies and the Sun's radiation. I am sure the Weinstein brothers will green light the script. |
jklier
Member Posts: 11
From: Austin, Tx, USA
Registered: Aug 2007
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posted September 21, 2011 08:58 AM
quote:
Originally posted by Space Cadet Carl:
John Young always joked about the fact that his DNA is still orbiting the Sun
Perhaps Young was setting things up so he could be cloned a few hundred years down the road! |
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