Latest / Made of Stars / American Hero Brigadier General David R. Scott

Transcript

American Hero Brigadier General David R. Scott · Made of Stars

0:00
Speaker 1: Warning. The following podcast contains an entertaining look at astronomy, physics,
0:04
Speaker 1: and space news throughout the known universe. Listeners have been
0:07
Speaker 1: known to learn about astronomical phenomenon, the scientific method, and
0:10
Speaker 1: expanded vocabulary to include terms like quasar asterism and uranus. Listen,
0:15
Speaker 1: that's your own risk.
0:16
Speaker 2: Go ahead. When made of stars, made them stars, made sizes.
0:29
Speaker 2: When made of stars, you could be from high they
0:35
Speaker 2: would New Mexicomus.
0:39
Speaker 3: Where a stars? When we are made of stars.
0:56
Speaker 4: I'm Wes Carol, joined by my good friend doctor Sean
0:59
Speaker 4: Cruising from Columbus State Universities, Coca Cola Space Science Center.
1:03
Speaker 2: Morning Shawn, Good morning Wes. It's very good to be
1:05
Speaker 2: here today.
1:06
Speaker 4: This is our third of July episode of Mat of Stars.
1:12
Speaker 4: We mentioned this just for the purposes a couple of episodes.
1:16
Speaker 4: The fact that I am as this is like dropping
1:20
Speaker 4: as the kids say, you drop it on the podcast,
1:23
Speaker 4: and as it's been released, I'm Overseas.
1:25
Speaker 3: I'm in Australia.
1:26
Speaker 4: We're recording this a little bit early, so this is
1:28
Speaker 4: kind of my chance since when Independence Day rolls around,
1:33
Speaker 4: I will be in a country that does have the
1:35
Speaker 4: fourth of July. But doesn't have Independence Day, so while
1:38
Speaker 4: I'll be celebrating on the inside, this is my chance
1:41
Speaker 4: to celebrate it a little bit early here while I'm
1:43
Speaker 4: still stateside. So that's what we're doing. And we thought,
1:45
Speaker 4: what a great opportunity to celebrate a like a legendary
1:52
Speaker 4: American hero here right before Independence Day.
1:56
Speaker 2: Exactly. It's a star spangled tribute to to one of
2:00
Speaker 2: our favorite astronauts in NASA's very storied history of creating
2:06
Speaker 2: unbelievable astronauts making great achievements. And today we're going to
2:12
Speaker 2: be talking about General David R.
2:15
Speaker 4: Scott, and we have a few reasons, I mean Independence
2:19
Speaker 4: Day and celebrating him as an American hero. This is
2:23
Speaker 4: following up last week's show where we put our interview
2:28
Speaker 4: from you know, more than a decade ago with Al Warden,
2:31
Speaker 4: who flew with Dave Scott. So we're kind of doing
2:34
Speaker 4: a little back to back. I don't want to I
2:35
Speaker 4: don't want to discount the hero of Al Warden as well.
2:38
Speaker 4: But as we get into this conversation about Dave Scott
2:44
Speaker 4: and you guys have something that we'll be talking about
2:46
Speaker 4: at the end that's going on, and anybody who's been
2:48
Speaker 4: listening to meta stars here lately knows that you guys
2:51
Speaker 4: have something special going on compliments of the Scott family,
2:56
Speaker 4: But we just really wanted to take some time to
2:58
Speaker 4: talk about this career of this American hero.
3:04
Speaker 2: Yeah, so let's just be clear about both Dave Scott
3:07
Speaker 2: and Al Warden. They were true bona fide American heroes
3:12
Speaker 2: before they ever joined the space program. Both of these
3:16
Speaker 2: guys were United States Air Force aviators, fighter pilots, test pilots,
3:24
Speaker 2: and that's how they were selected into the Astronaut Corps.
3:28
Speaker 2: So once again, they served their country nobly and with
3:32
Speaker 2: great skill before they were ever selected for America's space program.
3:36
Speaker 2: And then oh yeah, by the way, they also went
3:38
Speaker 2: to the Moon. So that's that's a thing right there. Right,
3:42
Speaker 2: So Dave and Al and their friend Jim Irwin all
3:46
Speaker 2: went to the Moon together on A fifteen.
3:49
Speaker 4: So you're saying they're just as much astronauts as Katy
3:51
Speaker 4: Perry and Gail King, Is that what you're saying. I mean,
3:55
Speaker 4: at least I don't know that the I don't know
3:58
Speaker 4: that the Katy Perry jokes will get old. They just
4:00
Speaker 4: seem like they'll always survive on't they They're like cockroaches.
4:03
Speaker 2: They're always gonna be hear, not to derail this very
4:07
Speaker 2: noble show. But the funniest thing that you reminded me
4:10
Speaker 2: of was that she was taking selfies rather than looking
4:13
Speaker 2: out the window when they only have six minutes in space.
4:16
Speaker 3: That's right.
4:17
Speaker 2: That when you pointed that out to me, you pretty
4:20
Speaker 2: much cracked my nut there.
4:21
Speaker 5: I was.
4:22
Speaker 2: I was kind of supporting Katy Perry until you pointed
4:24
Speaker 2: that out and I actually went and looked and it
4:26
Speaker 2: was like, oh, yeah, she really was doing that.
4:28
Speaker 1: Wow.
4:28
Speaker 4: Yeah, because you know, you have this vantage point that
4:32
Speaker 4: very few people have had the opportunity to have in
4:36
Speaker 4: in all of our lifetimes collectively, and you're looking at.
4:40
Speaker 3: The camera part of your phone.
4:42
Speaker 4: So you know, that's that's what was important, right, I.
4:46
Speaker 2: Mean, I don't think I don't think that Dave Scott
4:50
Speaker 2: and Jim Irwin took any selfies. Now, they did take
4:53
Speaker 2: pictures of each other. I don't know if that counts.
4:57
Speaker 2: They didn't have a selfie stick, so they shot picked
5:00
Speaker 2: of each other saluting the flag on the moon. I mean,
5:03
Speaker 2: I don't know, you know, but that was that was
5:04
Speaker 2: kind of a NASA requirement. I mean, I think and
5:06
Speaker 2: that's a differences to ask them, Hey, make sure you
5:08
Speaker 2: take some pictures saluting the flag. We were on the move.
5:11
Speaker 4: Photos needed to be taken documenting what they were doing.
5:14
Speaker 4: I think there were plenty of cameras rolling for Katy
5:16
Speaker 4: Perry at that particular juncture of things. But anyway, so, yes,
5:22
Speaker 4: already heroes to begin with.
5:24
Speaker 2: And yeah, yeah, A graduate of the United States Military
5:30
Speaker 2: Academy at West Point, a graduate of the Massachusetts Institute
5:34
Speaker 2: of Technology and the University of Michigan, aeronautical engineer, air
5:39
Speaker 2: Force test pilot. That's David R. Scott, and so all
5:43
Speaker 2: of those things. Accomplished a great career of military service
5:47
Speaker 2: before being selected into the third group of astronauts in
5:50
Speaker 2: nineteen sixty three. So he wasn't one of the original
5:55
Speaker 2: Mercury seven astronauts. It wasn't part of the second round either,
5:58
Speaker 2: but did join in nineteen sixty three in that third
6:00
Speaker 2: round when America was preparing to battle Russia in the
6:04
Speaker 2: Space Race. We were already battling Russia in the space Race,
6:07
Speaker 2: but preparing to actually take the steps to go to
6:09
Speaker 2: the Moon, and so Dave Scott got to participate in
6:13
Speaker 2: some very historic firsts for the American space program and
6:17
Speaker 2: help propel our Apollo program to the service of the
6:21
Speaker 2: Moon in a very amazing and interesting way.
6:25
Speaker 4: So let's jump ahead to Gemini eight nineteen sixty six.
6:31
Speaker 4: He is part of this two person crew and the
6:36
Speaker 4: other member of that crew you might have heard of.
6:40
Speaker 2: Yeah, he's got some name recognition, just.
6:42
Speaker 4: A little bit. He's not the guy that you cheated
6:46
Speaker 4: and won the Tour de France several times, but similar name.
6:51
Speaker 2: They might be cousins. I don't know, Yeah, it could be.
6:56
Speaker 4: The difference is one of them is still seen as
6:58
Speaker 4: an American hero.
7:04
Speaker 2: So yeah, all apologies to Neil anyway. So Dave Scott
7:08
Speaker 2: first flew to space in March March sixteenth of nineteen
7:13
Speaker 2: sixty six as a member of that two person crew.
7:15
Speaker 2: West just described. That's the Gemini program. Gemini is the Twins.
7:19
Speaker 2: The eighth mission was the first of the Gemini missions
7:22
Speaker 2: to take human beings to orbit. Neil Armstrong was who
7:27
Speaker 2: accompanied David Scott on that mission. Now here's what was
7:31
Speaker 2: going to happen. The goal of the Gemini eight mission
7:34
Speaker 2: was for them to perform the first ever docking of
7:38
Speaker 2: two spacecraft in orbit. That's the important part of the
7:43
Speaker 2: story Gemini eight was. The mission involved two spacecraft. One
7:49
Speaker 2: was the actual capsule that the astronauts were in, the
7:51
Speaker 2: Gemini capsule. The other one was an Aegina spacecraft, which
7:55
Speaker 2: was basically a robot ship or a drone ship. Their
7:58
Speaker 2: mission was to go up, fly to space, find that
8:01
Speaker 2: drone ship in orbit, catch up to it, which already
8:06
Speaker 2: required some pretty interesting flying, and then when they got
8:09
Speaker 2: near to it, they had to perform a series of
8:11
Speaker 2: maneuvers to dock those two vehicles together. Friends, no one
8:16
Speaker 2: had ever docked two vehicles together in orbit. This would
8:21
Speaker 2: be the first time that a human spacecraft would dock
8:23
Speaker 2: with another spacecraft in orbit around the Earth. And then
8:29
Speaker 2: the rest of the mission was going to be that
8:31
Speaker 2: Dave Scott would pop out and do a spacewalk after
8:35
Speaker 2: the team had performed some maneuvers of the joined spacecraft,
8:39
Speaker 2: then they would undock and come back home. All right,
8:41
Speaker 2: So that's the setup. Here comes the pitch. Shortly after
8:44
Speaker 2: they performed their successful docking of the two vehicles, something
8:48
Speaker 2: went wrong. Something started to happen that was unexpected, and
8:52
Speaker 2: they started having a malfunction of one of what they
8:55
Speaker 2: call the maneuvering thrusters, the little rockets attached to the
9:00
Speaker 2: side of the vehicle that can spin the vehicle around
9:03
Speaker 2: into different orientations. So one of those controls thrusters just
9:07
Speaker 2: started firing. It was stuck in the on position, and
9:10
Speaker 2: this began to at first roll the vehicles, the joined vehicles,
9:15
Speaker 2: and then because it was kind of an asymmetric force,
9:17
Speaker 2: it began to tumble the two vehicles. So now you
9:20
Speaker 2: have a three axis tumbling motion of those two vehicles,
9:24
Speaker 2: something that is not only very dangerous, but it's also
9:27
Speaker 2: very hard to recover from. And so now these astronauts
9:31
Speaker 2: are in trouble. So the other part of the unfortunate
9:35
Speaker 2: timing was it happened in a period of time where
9:38
Speaker 2: they were going around the backside of the Earth and
9:41
Speaker 2: they were out of communication with the United States of
9:44
Speaker 2: America at that time. Now, we didn't have a satellite
9:47
Speaker 2: network for them to continue to be able to continue
9:50
Speaker 2: broadcasting communications back to the ground, so they were in
9:54
Speaker 2: a radio quiet zone and could not speak with a
9:58
Speaker 2: ground team back in Houston. So they didn't know exactly
10:01
Speaker 2: what the telemetry was, so they weren't exactly sure what
10:04
Speaker 2: was wrong. So here's what they decided to do, hey,
10:06
Speaker 2: we got to get out of here. We got to
10:08
Speaker 2: undocked from this jem, from this Agena vehicle because it's
10:11
Speaker 2: causing us to have some big problems. So they undocked
10:15
Speaker 2: their capsule from that robot ship, and it was at
10:17
Speaker 2: that moment that they realized that the thruster that was
10:21
Speaker 2: stuck was not one of the orbiting maneuver or orbital
10:24
Speaker 2: maneuvering thrusters on the robot ship. It was actually on
10:28
Speaker 2: their own capsule. And because they had undocked from the Agena,
10:32
Speaker 2: they suddenly had a lot less mass, so that thruster
10:36
Speaker 2: was more effective, and it was causing them to spin
10:40
Speaker 2: while it was misfiring in a dangerous tumble. Their rotation
10:44
Speaker 2: rate at the tumble increased to two hundred and ninety
10:48
Speaker 2: six degrees per second, which is almost a complete rotation
10:51
Speaker 2: every second thousand and one thousand, two thousand and three.
10:56
Speaker 2: Imagine that you're spinning around at that kind of rate.
10:59
Speaker 2: At that rate, these two astronauts began to have tunnel vision.
11:05
Speaker 2: They knew that what was imminent was a blackout. They
11:09
Speaker 2: could not black out because in this tumble, because if
11:12
Speaker 2: they did and that rocket that thruster kept firing, that
11:16
Speaker 2: blackout would be fatal, and so they had to act fast. So,
11:20
Speaker 2: in this extremely stressful circumstance, that guy Neil Armstrong, the
11:25
Speaker 2: commander of this mission, reached up and powered down the
11:28
Speaker 2: control thruster system and just shut it off. And what
11:34
Speaker 2: he realized he needed to do, based on training but
11:37
Speaker 2: also based on his great pilot instincts, was to fire
11:41
Speaker 2: up a secondary set of thrusters that would be the
11:44
Speaker 2: re entry thruster system. Now here's the thing about the
11:47
Speaker 2: re entry thrusters. They're not necessarily made to control the
11:51
Speaker 2: vehicle and get it out of big tumbles. They're made
11:54
Speaker 2: to come back and go through the atmosphere. And they
11:57
Speaker 2: still have to do that. So they have to preserve
12:00
Speaker 2: enough fuel in those re entry thrusters in order to
12:03
Speaker 2: make it back through the atmosphere. This is a tough situation, Wes.
12:08
Speaker 2: They were up against it. The next thirty minutes was
12:15
Speaker 2: a wild ride because it took them a half an
12:19
Speaker 2: hour of battling Neil Armstrong using the re entry thruster
12:24
Speaker 2: system instead of the maneuvering thrusters trying to get control
12:27
Speaker 2: of this vehicle. And there was an episode of the
12:31
Speaker 2: PBS program called Nova where Dave Scott would later say
12:34
Speaker 2: this about Neil Armstrong. Quote, the guy was brilliant. He
12:40
Speaker 2: knew the system so well, he found the solution, he
12:43
Speaker 2: activated the solution, and under extreme circumstances, it was my
12:48
Speaker 2: lucky day to be flying with him. Unquote. That's Dave
12:52
Speaker 2: Scott commenting on the flying acumen of Neil Armstrong, one
12:58
Speaker 2: of America's greatest pilots but also astronauts.
13:03
Speaker 3: And it's it's interesting too.
13:05
Speaker 4: And you know, we're we're talking about Dave Scott and
13:09
Speaker 4: on today's show, but we're really just sort of celebrating
13:12
Speaker 4: the space program in general, and obviously Neil Armstrong is
13:16
Speaker 4: such a huge part of that. But as being the guy,
13:23
Speaker 4: I mean, being the guy who was the name, the face,
13:26
Speaker 4: everything associated with, you know, the first foot on the moon.
13:34
Speaker 4: Also knowing and we're not really getting into this particular story,
13:37
Speaker 4: but what he had to do just to save the
13:40
Speaker 4: mission of them being able to return home when they
13:43
Speaker 4: landed on the moon. Armstrong was known for these quick decisions,
13:47
Speaker 4: his ability to make these quick decisions and make the
13:51
Speaker 4: right quick decision. That's the other anybody can make a
13:53
Speaker 4: quick decision, right, You got to make the right quick
13:56
Speaker 4: decision in these moments and to hear and know those
14:00
Speaker 4: words from Dave Scott about just saying it was as
14:02
Speaker 4: lucky today to be flying with Armstrong and you can
14:05
Speaker 4: understand that.
14:07
Speaker 2: Yeah, So it was no accident that Neil Armstrong was
14:11
Speaker 2: chosen to be the first human being to set foot
14:13
Speaker 2: on the surface of the Moon. And this Gemini eight
14:16
Speaker 2: moment and that episode played a large part in it
14:20
Speaker 2: because NASA got to see in a real emergency situation,
14:25
Speaker 2: how Neil would be able to handle himself and how
14:28
Speaker 2: you would be able to handle the vehicle. And this
14:31
Speaker 2: was one of three different moments where Neil Armstrong saved
14:35
Speaker 2: his own life as well as the life of other astronauts.
14:40
Speaker 2: One on Gemini eight that we just described. Another time
14:44
Speaker 2: when he was flying a simulation of the Lunar Lander
14:47
Speaker 2: out in the desert and that thing started to go
14:50
Speaker 2: awry and he was able to eject and get him off,
14:52
Speaker 2: get himself off safely. And then on the Apollo eleven
14:56
Speaker 2: landing itself, he started to come down in a place.
15:00
Speaker 2: He recognized that they were coming down in a place
15:02
Speaker 2: that was not going to be suitable for landing. He
15:05
Speaker 2: overrode the computer controls grabbed manual control and flew that
15:09
Speaker 2: vehicle safely to an unplanned location where he was able
15:14
Speaker 2: to put the vehicle down safely on the surface of
15:16
Speaker 2: the Moon without landing in a boulder field and tipping
15:19
Speaker 2: over where they would have no chance to get back
15:22
Speaker 2: off the surface. So Neil Armstrong again, as you said,
15:25
Speaker 2: we're celebrating Dave, but we concur with Dave that he
15:29
Speaker 2: was lucky that day to be flying with Neil Armstrong,
15:32
Speaker 2: because Neil is just one of the greatest astronaut pilots
15:36
Speaker 2: in the history of humanity, quite honestly, but certainly in
15:40
Speaker 2: the National Aerononyx in Space administration.
15:43
Speaker 4: Let's jump ahead about three years to sixty nine and
15:47
Speaker 4: Apollo nine.
15:49
Speaker 2: So Apollo nine, think about this now, think about this,
15:53
Speaker 2: Dave and Neil were tied together historically because of Gemini eight.
15:58
Speaker 2: Now we're in the fire final countdown of being able
16:02
Speaker 2: to get to the Moon before John F. Kennedy's deadline
16:07
Speaker 2: of the end of that decade of the nineteen sixties. Right,
16:09
Speaker 2: it is nineteen sixty nine. We have to hurry. We
16:12
Speaker 2: got to go. So but there was a lot of
16:14
Speaker 2: things that we hadn't tried yet that we're going to
16:16
Speaker 2: be necessary to dock and land on the surface of
16:20
Speaker 2: the Moon. So it on March third of nineteen sixty nine,
16:24
Speaker 2: David Scott, along with James mcdivott, who was the commander
16:28
Speaker 2: of Apollo nine, and Rusty Schweikert, launched a space on
16:32
Speaker 2: Apollo nine to go into Earth orbit. But they spent
16:37
Speaker 2: some very important time there testing everything that would need
16:41
Speaker 2: to be done by the Apollo eleven crew in the
16:45
Speaker 2: orbit around the Moon, and there were all kinds of
16:48
Speaker 2: first There were things they just hadn't tested yet. So
16:50
Speaker 2: think about this, friends, It's March of nineteen sixty nine.
16:54
Speaker 2: The Apollo eleven mission went in July, just four months
16:59
Speaker 2: and thirteen days later, so this is like cramming for
17:04
Speaker 2: the exam right on Apollo nine, it was the first
17:08
Speaker 2: time that both the Command module and the commanded Service Module,
17:13
Speaker 2: which is the spacecraft that stayed in orbit around the Moon,
17:17
Speaker 2: and the Lunar Module, which is the spidery looking vehicle
17:20
Speaker 2: that went down and landed on the surface. That was
17:22
Speaker 2: the first time that those two had been flown together
17:25
Speaker 2: with a crew on board. Was in March on Apollo nine.
17:30
Speaker 2: Another first was it was the first time that they
17:34
Speaker 2: had docked the two vehicles. The first manned docking of
17:38
Speaker 2: an Apollo spacecraft happened on Apollo nine in March ahead
17:43
Speaker 2: of the July trip to the Moon. The first time
17:46
Speaker 2: that the propulsion system for the Service module had ever
17:50
Speaker 2: been fired and maneuvered, the first time that an undocking.
17:56
Speaker 2: If you docked the two vehicles, you gotta undock them
17:57
Speaker 2: to come back home. The first time they ever undocked,
18:00
Speaker 2: and the first manned Lunar Module and Command Service module docking.
18:05
Speaker 2: The first time we ever docked the two vehicles that
18:09
Speaker 2: were going to be necessary in lunar orbit and going
18:11
Speaker 2: down to the lunar surface. We had to dock those
18:13
Speaker 2: two vehicles. It was the first time. It was March
18:17
Speaker 2: of sixty nine. Apollo eleven went in July of sixty nine,
18:23
Speaker 2: So without the Apollo nine mission with Dave Scott on board,
18:30
Speaker 2: Neil Armstrong would not have been flying to the service
18:34
Speaker 2: of the Moon in July. It had anything major gone
18:38
Speaker 2: wrong on the Apollo nine mission, they would not have
18:41
Speaker 2: been poised to successfully go to the Moon before the
18:45
Speaker 2: decade was out. Just like Kennedy had said, really it
18:49
Speaker 2: was a very very important mission and David Scott got
18:52
Speaker 2: to help pave the way for Neil Armstrong to then
18:55
Speaker 2: become the first human being to ever set foot on
18:58
Speaker 2: the service of the Moon.
19:00
Speaker 3: I'm after a quick break.
19:01
Speaker 4: We're going to jump ahead to Apollo fifteen and there
19:05
Speaker 4: we'll have Dave Scott with Al Warden. We'll do that next,
19:24
Speaker 4: all right. Last week's show, we talked we had our
19:27
Speaker 4: interview with al Warden from more than a decade ago
19:30
Speaker 4: when he came to Columbus, another hero in our series
19:35
Speaker 4: here as we get closer to Independence Day, and Dave
19:39
Speaker 4: Scott and al Warden flew together Apollo fifteen and there
19:44
Speaker 4: also was a.
19:45
Speaker 2: Car on board. Yeah. So, first of all, if you're
19:49
Speaker 2: if you're listening to this podcast and you haven't heard
19:51
Speaker 2: the al Warden interview, al Warden, in addition to being
19:56
Speaker 2: a fantastic pilot and a great astronaut, was just a
19:59
Speaker 2: whole human being. He was very very funny, very witty,
20:04
Speaker 2: kind of gritty. We really enjoyed talking with al Warden,
20:08
Speaker 2: and we really enjoyed Al's visit here to the co
20:10
Speaker 2: Cola Space Science Center. And yes, he accompanied David Scott
20:13
Speaker 2: along with James Irwin on the Apollo fifteen landing. Which
20:17
Speaker 2: was the first ever landing on the Moon to have
20:21
Speaker 2: a car on board. The Lunar Roving Vehicle, the LRV.
20:27
Speaker 5: We called it the moon rover, I think is how
20:30
Speaker 5: I grew up knowing it, the moon buggy. It was
20:32
Speaker 5: sometimes called, I remember the phrase, the moon buggy. That
20:36
Speaker 5: thing looks like a moon buggy. Anyway, So the.
20:39
Speaker 2: Lunar the Lunar roving vehicle was driven for the first
20:43
Speaker 2: time on the surface of the Moon by the Apollo
20:45
Speaker 2: fifteen crew, and specifically by David Scott. David Scott became
20:50
Speaker 2: the first person in history to ever drive a car
20:53
Speaker 2: on the surface of another world during the summer of
20:58
Speaker 2: nineteen seventy one and the Apollo fifteen mission, of which
21:02
Speaker 2: he was the commander. All Right, so here's what happened.
21:05
Speaker 2: They were flying to the Moon. Their destination was the
21:10
Speaker 2: Hadleyrial region of the Moon. If you don't know that
21:14
Speaker 2: much about lunar geography, Hadley Ril is right near the
21:18
Speaker 2: Apennine Mountain range. In other words, this was the most
21:22
Speaker 2: dangerous landing location yet for any of the Apollo missions.
21:28
Speaker 2: And we've heard earlier in this podcast, even the Apollo eleven,
21:32
Speaker 2: which was supposed to be a fairly, fairly flat, straightforward
21:35
Speaker 2: place to land ended up being a little bit dicey
21:37
Speaker 2: as they came back in, and Neil Armstrong had to
21:40
Speaker 2: make some quick last minute decisions about where to put
21:42
Speaker 2: the vehicle down. Well, also on the Apollo fifteen mission,
21:46
Speaker 2: they had to be very very careful in this rocky
21:49
Speaker 2: and treacherous environment about where they were going to actually
21:53
Speaker 2: land the vehicle, but they did get it down safely.
21:56
Speaker 2: They dropped that car out from underneath the lunar lander,
22:00
Speaker 2: and they drove it around for over seventeen miles on
22:04
Speaker 2: the lunar surface, which that doesn't sound that doesn't sound
22:09
Speaker 2: like very far to you. Remember that they don't have roads, friends, right,
22:15
Speaker 2: you're just driving this vehicle over the rough terrain of
22:17
Speaker 2: the Moon. They managed to cover seventeen miles. And because
22:22
Speaker 2: two factors happened on this mission. Number One, the astronauts
22:27
Speaker 2: themselves had been trained by actual field geologists, so they
22:33
Speaker 2: had more geological training than any Apollo crew to that
22:37
Speaker 2: point in history. And because they had the lunar roving
22:40
Speaker 2: vehicle and could have a much broader range, they brought
22:44
Speaker 2: back a fantastic sample of lunar geology. They brought back
22:49
Speaker 2: over one hundred and seventy pounds of lunar rocks and
22:52
Speaker 2: soil samples, and that included a very very famous rock
22:56
Speaker 2: now which is known as the Genesis Rock. They were
22:59
Speaker 2: a because of their training to identify that this sample
23:03
Speaker 2: was a little bit different than the copious amount of
23:07
Speaker 2: lava rocks that were laying around on the surface of
23:09
Speaker 2: the Moon. This piece was actually a piece of a
23:12
Speaker 2: North a Site rock that was considered to be part
23:15
Speaker 2: of the Moon's primordial crust. In other words, it's like, hey,
23:19
Speaker 2: that's not lava rock, that's something different. Well that they
23:24
Speaker 2: were able to recognize that thanks to the geological training
23:27
Speaker 2: that they had attained before they had gone up to
23:31
Speaker 2: the Moon, and so they were able to identify that
23:33
Speaker 2: it ended up being a four billion year old lunar
23:38
Speaker 2: rock part of the original Moon's surface. They brought that
23:42
Speaker 2: back home because they had a car to get there,
23:45
Speaker 2: and because they had done all that geological training. So
23:49
Speaker 2: a lot of times, the Paul fifteen is referred to
23:51
Speaker 2: as the first real science mission to the Moon. The
23:55
Speaker 2: other missions were making sure we could get there, and
23:57
Speaker 2: yes they did do some science, and yes they important discoveries,
24:01
Speaker 2: but this was the first full on science mission done
24:04
Speaker 2: on the surface of the Moon with a high level
24:06
Speaker 2: of training, deployment of many scientific instruments, including panoramic cameras,
24:12
Speaker 2: gamma ray spectrometers, mapping cameras, and something called something called
24:18
Speaker 2: the LRR, which was a mirror that they have reflected
24:21
Speaker 2: laser light from to measure very accurately the surface of
24:26
Speaker 2: the Moon it's distance from the Earth. So they fired
24:30
Speaker 2: a laser from the Earth at the mirror. The laser
24:32
Speaker 2: light returns back to Earth off the mirror, and they
24:35
Speaker 2: know exactly how far away the Moon is. That mirror
24:37
Speaker 2: is still up there and functioning today. We still use
24:40
Speaker 2: it to do ranging to make sure we understand how
24:43
Speaker 2: far away the Moon is all the time, so which
24:46
Speaker 2: is very interesting. Right, So this was a pioneering mission,
24:50
Speaker 2: all kinds of very interesting geological accomplishments for that crew,
24:55
Speaker 2: and they really helped influence the future of space missions
24:59
Speaker 2: because they proved that a rover, a wheeled vehicle could
25:03
Speaker 2: work on the surface of another planet.
25:05
Speaker 4: All right, we're recording this early. We mentioned at the
25:08
Speaker 4: start of the show that this is our show for
25:11
Speaker 4: the third of July Independence Day, but we're recording this
25:15
Speaker 4: much closer to June sixth, which was the ninety third
25:19
Speaker 4: birthday for Dave Scott, Worth mentioning on that as well.
25:22
Speaker 4: So let's talk about post space career for Dave Scott.
25:28
Speaker 2: Yeah, Dave Scott one of only four Apollo astronauts still
25:32
Speaker 2: with us as of the recording of this show, and
25:35
Speaker 2: we're very very thankful that he's still in very pretty
25:38
Speaker 2: good health and hanging out. His brother Tom just flew
25:41
Speaker 2: down there to have the birthday with him last week,
25:44
Speaker 2: so really excited for them that they got to get together.
25:48
Speaker 2: Dave's career after being an astronaut, he still served in
25:52
Speaker 2: the Air Force, retiring from the Air Force in nineteen
25:55
Speaker 2: seventy five. He also served as NASA's director for the
26:00
Speaker 2: Dryden Flight Research Center out there at Edwards Air Force
26:03
Speaker 2: Base in California, from April of nineteen seventy five through
26:07
Speaker 2: October of nineteen seventy seven. Dave Scott was awarded many honors,
26:12
Speaker 2: including two NASA Distinguished Service Medals, the NASA Exceptional Service Medal,
26:17
Speaker 2: two Air Force Distinguished Service Medals, the Air Force Distinguished
26:21
Speaker 2: Flying Cross, and the Air Force Association's David C. Shilling
26:25
Speaker 2: Trophy for Outstanding Pilots, and so he was also a
26:29
Speaker 2: fellow of the American Astronautical Society and the Society of
26:34
Speaker 2: Experimental Test Pilots. So these are all accomplishments of Dave Scott.
26:38
Speaker 2: In twenty twenty four, Dave Scott was promoted to the
26:41
Speaker 2: rank of brigadier general for his meritorious service to the
26:46
Speaker 2: United States of America. And of course that's an honorary
26:49
Speaker 2: promotion that he received just last year. We're very proud
26:52
Speaker 2: of him for all of these accomplishments. We're proud of
26:54
Speaker 2: our association with Dave, his brother Tom, and the exhibit
26:59
Speaker 2: that we get to put on both here at Space
27:01
Speaker 2: Science Center and just down the street at the bo
27:05
Speaker 2: Bartlett Center for the Arts here at Columbus State University.
27:09
Speaker 2: From now until August the second, you're gonna be able
27:13
Speaker 2: to go down to bo Bartlett and see this great
27:16
Speaker 2: exhibit of images taken by Dave and of Dave that
27:21
Speaker 2: we're actually in Dave's collection. So this is directly from
27:24
Speaker 2: the David Scott collection through his brother Tom, donated to
27:28
Speaker 2: us here at Columbus State University at the Coca Cola
27:31
Speaker 2: Space Science Center for the preservation and exhibit of these
27:34
Speaker 2: important pieces of American memorabilia, and there are just so
27:39
Speaker 2: many of them we don't have room to put them
27:40
Speaker 2: all up in our gallery simultaneously. So we're collaborating with
27:43
Speaker 2: our friends at the bo Bartlett Center here at Columbus
27:46
Speaker 2: State University. They have that on display in their art
27:49
Speaker 2: gallery again now until August the second. They are open
27:53
Speaker 2: on Tuesday through Saturday from eleven am to four pm,
27:57
Speaker 2: and you can actually book a guided tour if you
28:00
Speaker 2: would like to have that. What you have to do
28:02
Speaker 2: is you have to you have to call the folks
28:04
Speaker 2: down there at the bow Bartlett Center. Their number is
28:07
Speaker 2: seven oh six five zero seven eight four three two.
28:11
Speaker 2: That's seven oh six five zero seven eight four three two.
28:16
Speaker 2: Or you can email them at bo Bartlett Center at
28:20
Speaker 2: Columbustate University dot edu. Bo Bartlett Center at Columbustate University
28:25
Speaker 2: dot edu. If you wonder how to spell it, just
28:28
Speaker 2: just google it. You'll find it out there. Check it out.
28:31
Speaker 2: You can send them an email at that location and
28:33
Speaker 2: they will if you have a group of people that
28:35
Speaker 2: want to come down and see it simultaneously, they will
28:37
Speaker 2: book a tour for you and you can have a
28:39
Speaker 2: special custom tour of these amazing artifacts down at the
28:44
Speaker 2: bo Bartlett Center.
28:45
Speaker 3: Sean and I.
28:46
Speaker 4: Thank you for listening, and we will do this.
28:48
Speaker 3: Again next week.
28:56
Speaker 4: Overhead Door Company of Columbus has all of your garage
28:59
Speaker 4: door need covered, Residential and commercial service and repairs. If
29:04
Speaker 4: you need a new garage door, or you're just looking
29:06
Speaker 4: to upgrade or repair your current door, Overhead Door Company
29:09
Speaker 4: of Columbus has you covered. Plus they've got your emergency
29:12
Speaker 4: repairs or service covered as well. Seven oh six three
29:16
Speaker 4: five eight forty five hundred seven oh six three five
29:19
Speaker 4: eight forty five hundred Odccolumbus dot com