Comments and questions about the
APOD on the main view screen.
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owlice
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by owlice » Fri Apr 09, 2010 10:55 am
The clouds look (nearly) like tragedy and comedy masks.
Cool shot!
A closed mouth gathers no foot.
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biddie67
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by biddie67 » Fri Apr 09, 2010 1:36 pm
owlice wrote:The clouds look (nearly) like tragedy and comedy masks.
They do!! I didn't see that on my first look - I just saw all the colors so I went back to look again - good imagining!
But I did notice something else - are those antenas on top of the 2 rockets on the right? If so, what are they used for?
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bystander
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by bystander » Fri Apr 09, 2010 1:43 pm
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Chris Peterson
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by Chris Peterson » Fri Apr 09, 2010 1:52 pm
biddie67 wrote:But I did notice something else - are those antenas on top of the 2 rockets on the right? If so, what are they used for?
Those are separate rockets attached above the manned capsules atop these rockets. They were intended to be used as part of a jettisoning system to separate the capsule from the primary rocket in the event of a launch failure. Fortunately, they never had to be used- most analyses suggest that the system probably would not have been able to save the astronauts.
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Chris Peterson
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by Chris Peterson » Fri Apr 09, 2010 2:09 pm
This is a closer view of the escape tower and Mercury capsule. You can see the three thrust nozzles on the solid fuel rocket.
![escape.jpg](./download/file.php?id=216&sid=66f96b6865e6d9059a51ea73e469c8f0)
- escape.jpg (19.51 KiB) Viewed 1479 times
I remember when I was a little kid, building plastic models of all these early rockets and capsules. Those little escape towers, made from cheap styrene, were really fragile!
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biddie67
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by biddie67 » Fri Apr 09, 2010 5:47 pm
Thanks for the info. I'm assuming that the little red solid fuel rocket was susposed to pull the manned capsule away from the primary rocket ?? I'm surprised that the forces involved in the launch didn't twist, torque, bend and/or snap that framework off ..... or even cause some kind of guidance problems.
Was that part jettisoned after the manned capsule was safely away from the primary rocket? I don't ever remember seeing it in any of the pictures of the recovery after the manned capsule returned to earth.
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Chris Peterson
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by Chris Peterson » Fri Apr 09, 2010 5:56 pm
biddie67 wrote:Thanks for the info. I'm assuming that the little red solid fuel rocket was susposed to pull the manned capsule away from the primary rocket ?? I'm surprised that the forces involved in the launch didn't twist, torque, bend and/or snap that framework off ..... or even cause some kind of guidance problems.
Was that part jettisoned after the manned capsule was safely away from the primary rocket? I don't ever remember seeing it in any of the pictures of the recovery after the manned capsule returned to earth.
IIRC the escape tower was meant to be used before launch, or very shortly thereafter. It was jettisoned quite quickly after takeoff.
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Guest
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by Guest » Thu Apr 15, 2010 6:21 pm
the plumes seem more like T-38 contrails than rocket exhaust as the caption states.