APOD: To Fly Free in Space (2023 May 14)

[APOD Robot]

To Fly Free in Space

Explanation: What would it be like to fly free in space? At about 100 meters from the cargo bay of the space shuttle Challenger, Bruce McCandless II was living the dream -- floating farther out than anyone had ever been before. Guided by a Manned Maneuvering Unit (MMU), astronaut McCandless, pictured, was floating free in space. During Space Shuttle mission 41-B in 1984, McCandless and fellow NASA astronaut Robert Stewart were the first to experience such an "untethered space walk". The MMU worked by shooting jets of nitrogen and was used to help deploy and retrieve satellites. With a mass over 140 kilograms, an MMU is heavy on Earth, but, like everything, is weightless when drifting in orbit. The MMU was later replaced with the SAFER backpack propulsion unit.

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[Ann]

To Fly Free in Space. Image Credit: NASA, STS-41B

---

Oh. Wow.

Credit: Marina Pakhnyusha

---

Have you ever been out in the forest and become overwhelmed by all the majestic trees and green leaves all around you? And you try to take a picture of it all. And it comes out like nothing, because your camera isn't very good. The picture you took doesn't convey the depth of the forest, and it only shows a little piece of what is around you anyway. There is not enough "left and right", not nearly enough "picture" to show how the forest just seems to go on and on until it swallows you.

So, the APOD.

Imagine being Bruce McCandless II and floating free up there. And imagine looking left and right and up and down and back and forth to take it all in.

Take it "all" in. Oh, wow wow wow.

There is a reason why humans live on Earth instead of floating free in space. But for all of that... WOW!!!

Ann

[Chris Peterson]

What would it be like to fly free in space?

Open the pod bay doors, please, Hal.

[Asterisk Seven Oh One]

The picture ist overwhelming, but something looks familar. Seen in a magazine, in TV?
I scratched my head - and found this:
https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap200209.html

Exactly the same. Same Picture, same text, same links.
Did I miss, that the APOD repeats on Sundays?

[Ann]

The picture ist overwhelming, but something looks familar. Seen in a magazine, in TV?
I scratched my head - and found this:
https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap200209.html

Exactly the same. Same Picture, same text, same links.
Did I miss, that the APOD repeats on Sundays?

Indeed it does. You got it.

Ann

[bystander]

The picture ist overwhelming, but something looks familar. Seen in a magazine, in TV?
I scratched my head - and found this:
https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap200209.html

Exactly the same. Same Picture, same text, same links.
Did I miss, that the APOD repeats on Sundays?

You probably also missed ap200209 was itself a repeat.

[orin stepanek]

maneuvering a communications satellite to get it into orbit!

alone with his thoughts!

[Asterisk Seven Oh One]

The picture ist overwhelming, but something looks familar. Seen in a magazine, in TV?
I scratched my head - and found this:
https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap200209.html

Exactly the same. Same Picture, same text, same links.
Did I miss, that the APOD repeats on Sundays?

You probably also missed ap200209 was itself a repeat.

Yes, I missed. In the meantime, no more. Found that APOD 8 times now, probably deserved it really that way.

BTW: In case I gave a different impression: I had really assumed until now that the APOD was a new picture every day. Pure wonderment. I didn't mean there to disparage this image or APODs per se.

asterisk

[Rauf]

To Fly Free in Space

Explanation: What would it be like to fly free in space? At about 100 meters from the cargo bay of the space shuttle Challenger, Bruce McCandless II was living the dream -- floating farther out than anyone had ever been before. Guided by a Manned Maneuvering Unit (MMU), astronaut McCandless, pictured, was floating free in space. During Space Shuttle mission 41-B in 1984, McCandless and fellow NASA astronaut Robert Stewart were the first to experience such an "untethered space walk". The MMU worked by shooting jets of nitrogen and was used to help deploy and retrieve satellites. With a mass over 140 kilograms, an MMU is heavy on Earth, but, like everything, is weightless when drifting in orbit. The MMU was later replaced with the SAFER backpack propulsion unit.

<< Previous APOD

This Day in APOD

Next APOD >>

I wonder, Has SAFER ever been used? I mean, has any astronaut or cosmonaut found himself suddenly untethered during an spacewalk and had to find his back to ISS using SAFER? That's pretty scary.

[MarkBour]

Have you ever been out in the forest and become overwhelmed by all the majestic trees and green leaves all around you? And you try to take a picture of it all. And it comes out like nothing, because your camera isn't very good. The picture you took doesn't convey the depth of the forest, and it only shows a little piece of what is around you anyway. There is not enough "left and right", not nearly enough "picture" to show how the forest just seems to go on and on until it swallows you.

Ann

An apt description of about all of my nature photos ever!

McCandless must have had a really unique feeling. It has to be a record, if we can phrase it properly.

The farthest a (living) human being has ever been from everyone else, is apparently Al Worden during Apollo 15.
https://www.bbc.com/future/article/2013 ... uman-being
but it must have felt different in his spacecraft than McCandless, who must have felt more exposed and free.

I wonder if he had any temptation at all to fly just a little farther away. I don't think I would have. I think I would have been laser-focused on how I was going to get back.

[MarkBour]

I wonder, Has SAFER ever been used? I mean, has any astronaut or cosmonaut found himself suddenly untethered during an spacewalk and had to find his back to ISS using SAFER? That's pretty scary.

Wikipedia replies (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Simplifie ... ty%20Unit.) that it has only been tested 4 times at the ISS. Its real use is "emergency only" and nobody has yet needed to use it. Amusingly, it came loose once for astronaut Piers Sellers on STS-121 and they decided to use a high-tech version of duct tape to hold the latches on it. With a name like Piers Sellers, which makes me think of the Pink Panther, perhaps this could be called the SAFER taper caper.

If you want scary, though, there are a few stories of how tough a spacewalk can get. And they show how super-tough astronauts are when the chips are down. Here's a lovely one that happened at the same time as the photo in this APOD. McCandless' partner, Bob Stewart, was having a very rough EVA:
https://www.smithsonianmag.com/air-spac ... 180977483/

I also like the bit at the end of the article where on his next walk, Stewart turned away from everything for a little while.

[Ann]

Have you ever been out in the forest and become overwhelmed by all the majestic trees and green leaves all around you? And you try to take a picture of it all. And it comes out like nothing, because your camera isn't very good. The picture you took doesn't convey the depth of the forest, and it only shows a little piece of what is around you anyway. There is not enough "left and right", not nearly enough "picture" to show how the forest just seems to go on and on until it swallows you.

Ann

An apt description of about all of my nature photos ever!

McCandless must have had a really unique feeling. It has to be a record, if we can phrase it properly.

The farthest a (living) human being has ever been from everyone else, is apparently Al Worden during Apollo 15.
https://www.bbc.com/future/article/2013 ... uman-being
but it must have felt different in his spacecraft than McCandless, who must have felt more exposed and free.

I wonder if he had any temptation at all to fly just a little farther away. I don't think I would have. I think I would have been laser-focused on how I was going to get back.

I looked up Al Worden. Wow!!!

You can make it back, buddy. Just aim for the Earth!

---

Anyway, when it comes to being "lost in space", my favorite space quote ever is something that was said in the Apollo 13 movie, or I think it was. I don't want to see that movie again and maybe spoil my memory of that perfect little snippet.

So what I think I remember is that that the crew of Apollo 13 had a problem not only with life support but actually by finding their bearings in space. They look out a window and see the Earth sort of swish past. And one of them shouts, Aim for the Earth! Aim for the Earth!

Isn't that perfect? When in doubt, aim for the Earth.

Houston, we have a problem? No problem. Just aim for the Earth.

Ann

Edit: Oh wow, Mark. I just read that article about Bob Stewart's "spacewalk from hell", and how he, on his next (highly successful) spacewalk just two days later, decided to "turn away from everything for a little while", as you put it:

Air & Space Magazine wrote:

“While I was out there looking at the orbiter and looking at Earth, I got to thinking: ‘What would it be like to be the only person in the universe?’ So I turned the MMU to where I couldn’t see the Earth, moon, or sun—I could only see the blackness of space.”

“I only lasted about fifteen seconds, and I thought, ‘Well, let’s just turn around and make sure everything’s still there.’ That was an interesting feeling that I did not expect.”

Let's just turn around and see that everything is still there. Maybe that statement even beats "Aim for the Earth!".

[Rauf]

I wonder, Has SAFER ever been used? I mean, has any astronaut or cosmonaut found himself suddenly untethered during an spacewalk and had to find his back to ISS using SAFER? That's pretty scary.

Wikipedia replies (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Simplifie ... ty%20Unit.) that it has only been tested 4 times at the ISS. Its real use is "emergency only" and nobody has yet needed to use it. Amusingly, it came loose once for astronaut Piers Sellers on STS-121 and they decided to use a high-tech version of duct tape to hold the latches on it. With a name like Piers Sellers, which makes me think of the Pink Panther, perhaps this could be called the SAFER taper caper.

If you want scary, though, there are a few stories of how tough a spacewalk can get. And they show how super-tough astronauts are when the chips are down. Here's a lovely one that happened at the same time as the photo in this APOD. McCandless' partner, Bob Stewart, was having a very rough EVA:
https://www.smithsonianmag.com/air-spac ... 180977483/

I also like the bit at the end of the article where on his next walk, Stewart turned away from everything for a little while.

Very tough job being an astronaut. Thankfully, with the advent of technology spaceflights will get somehow easier.