Abramovich's $300M Trip to Moon

http://www.themoscowtimes.com/stories/2007/04/23/015.html

Have $300 million, want to go to the Moon?
- LRK -

Have $100 million, want to go to the Moon?

Step right up, get your tickets now.

Read more below. (maybe too much below, sorry, just didn't want you to
miss the flight)

Thanks for looking up with me.

Larry Kellogg

Web Site: http://lkellogg.vttoth.com/LarryRussellKellogg/
BlogSpot: http://kelloggserialreports.blogspot.com/
RSS link: http://kelloggserialreports.blogspot.com/atom.xml
Newsletter: https://news.altair.com/mailman/listinfo/lunar-update

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http://www.themoscowtimes.com/stories/2007/04/23/015.html
Monday, April 23, 2007. Issue 3642. Page 4.
Abramovich's $300M Trip to Moon
The Moscow Times

KOROLYOV, Moscow Region -- The Federal Space Agency is prepared to send
Chukotka Governor Roman Abramovich on a trip into space for $300
million, Itar-Tass reported Saturday.

Commenting on media reports that the billionaire governor was ready to
pay $300 million for a trip around the moon, agency head Anatoly
Perminov said: "It's a good sum; we like it. And if Mr. Abramovich
agrees to pay, we'll send him," Itar-Tass reported.

Perminov said his agency was "not considering a waiting list of tourists
after 2009 for the time being" because the crew of the international
space station was expected to be increased to six from that time.

Many professional cosmonauts and astronauts will fly into space, and
seats for tourists on Russian spaceships will be made available only if
their trips do not disrupt the work of professional crews, Perminov said.

� Copyright 2006. The Moscow Times. All rights reserved.

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http://www.dailypilot.com/articles/2007/04/22/news/dpt-astronaut22.txt
Astronaut foresees a lunar future

Man who has orbited Earth and been to the moon thinks we will someday
live and work on the moon.

By Amanda Pennington
Reader Feedback
<http://www.dailypilot.com/articles/2007/04/22/news/dpt-astronaut22.txt#blog>
- Currently 0 Comments

NEWPORT BEACH � John Young doesn't idly dream about living or working on
the moon. The six-time space traveler thinks it's an imminent reality.

Young spoke to about 60 people Saturday morning at the Radisson Newport
Beach about not only his journeys to the moon and in Earth's orbit, but
also the technologies that could allow people to live and work on the moon.

His talk was in honor of Earth Day, but came on the heels of Jeffrey
Roth's film "The Wonder of It All" screening at the Newport Beach Film
Festival.

In the film, Young and other astronauts share their experiences in space.

"The moon is really important for the future of people on this planet,"
Young said as he showed the audience slides of his trip to the moon.

Snip

A U.S. space tourist landed Saturday after spending two weeks in space
at the Russian space station. Hungarian-born Charles Simonyi paid $25
million for preflight training and the flight, the Associated Press
reported.

But Orange County residents aren't necessarily ready to spend that kind
of cash yet.

"It's scary," La Habra resident Roy Kyle said Saturday after Young
rushed off to catch a plane. "It may happen though. I hope it happens in
our lifetimes."

Snip

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Check out this article at the Cosmos Magazine. - LRK -
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http://www.cosmosmagazine.com/node/1163
Magazine feature

Children of Apollo

Issue 12 of Cosmos, December 2006

by Wilson da Silva

Inspired as children by the Moon missions, a new breed of entrepreneur
is bringing the dreams of youth and business smarts to the next frontier.

It was Christmas Eve 1968. Three men � Frank Borman, James Lovell and
William Anders � were coasting 100 km above the Moon, the first
astronauts to ever circle it. From inside their tiny Apollo 8 command
capsule, they pointed a TV camera toward Earth, showing millions of
viewers back home what no one had ever seen before. They snapped a
famous picture � Earthrise � of our blue world ascending above the lunar
horizon. And then they read aloud the story of creation according to the
Book of Genesis.

Back home, a record TV audience was watching. When transmission ended 17
minutes later, an announcer broke the reverie to breathlessly report
that Juan Trippe, the founder of Pan American � one of the world's
largest airlines at the time � had announced that Pan Am would start
taking reservations for commercial passenger flights to the Moon.

Snip

But it's not just about joy flights and holidays in space. Today's space
entrepreneurs see a huge market in launching satellites for
communications and remote sensing. Then there's the opportunity to
slowly take over the launch and space station resupply work of
bureaucratic space agencies and large aerospace contractors, the latter
having lost creative momentum and grown slow while living off fat
government contracts. These lean and hungry start-ups see themselves
'doing space' faster, cheaper and more efficiently than ever before.

Ultimately, the advances will trickle down to all of us and change air
travel forever. One day, sub-orbital travel will be commonplace, and you
will be able to board a flight that will take you from Sydney to London
in two hours. It will take off from a runway like a regular plane, rise
above the clouds, roar into sub-orbital space and, mere hours later,
begin descending to land on a runway at Heathrow in London.

It's a world that's probably closer than most people think. In the next
20 years, we are likely to see a boom in the development of the high
frontier of space. And like the flowering of progress that gave birth to
the airline industry in the 1920s, the age of commercial space travel
will be created by the private sector.

------------------------------------------------------------------------
Wilson da Silva is the founding editor of COSMOS, and one of the first
100 passengers due to fly on Virgin Galactic�s sub-orbital spaceliner
service in 2009.
http://www.cosmosmagazine.com/node/1163
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WHAT THE MIND CAN CONCEIVE, AND BELIEVE, IT WILL ACHIEVE - LRK

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AGC - Apollo Guidance Computer

A question was asked, "What is AGC?"

Well having worked with communication equipment I probably would have answered, "Automatic Gain Control", but the question was in reference to the Apollo Moon Landings.

A better answer would then be , "AGC - Apollo Guidance Computer."

Pause......

What is an "Apollo Guidance Computer?"

Something that warns you when it is overloaded with data from the RADAR Altimeter when you are trying to land on the Moon.
- LRK -
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http://history.nasa.gov/alsj/a11/a11tcdb.html*
The Apollo 11 Technical Crew Debriefing July 31st 1969*
Snip
*Aldrin*
There are no discrepancies noted in any of the systems that were checked throughout the first 4 minutes. The RCS was surprisingly high in its quantity indications. The supercritical did tend to rise a little bit after ignition and then it started back down again. I don't recall the maximum value that it reached. I guess the first indications that we had of anything going wrong was probably around 5 minutes, when we first started getting program alarm activities.

*Armstrong*
We probably ought to say that we did have one program alarm prior to this; sometime prior to ignition, that had the radar in the wrong spot. In any case, as I remember, we had a 500 series alarm that said that the radar was out of position, which I don't have any way of accounting for. Certainly the switches were in the right positions. They hadn't been changed since prelaunch. But we did, in fact, go to the descent position on the antenna and leave it there for a half a minute or so, and then go back to AUTO and that cleared the alarm. After 5 minutes into descent, we started getting this series of program alarms; generally of the series that indicated that the computer was being overloaded. Normally, in this time period, that is, from P64 onward, we'd be evaluating the landing site and checking our position and starting LPD activity. However, the concern here was not with the landing area we were going into, but rather whether we could continue at all. Consequently, our attention was directed toward clearing the program alarms, keeping the machine flying, and assuring ourselves that control was adequate to continue without requiring an abort. Most of the attention was directed inside the cockpit during this time period and in my view this would account for our inability to study the landing site in final landing location during final descent. It wasn't until we got below 2000 feet that we were actually able to look out and view the landing area.

Snip
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Alright, that wasn't fare.
Check out the information at Wikipedia link.
- LRK -

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http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apollo_Guidance_Computer
Apollo Guidance Computer
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The *Apollo Guidance Computer* (*AGC*) was the first recognizably modern embedded system , used in real-time by astronaut pilots to collect and provide flight information, and to automatically control all of the navigational functions of the Apollo spacecraft . It was developed for the Apollo program by the MIT Instrumentation Laboratory under Charles Stark Draper , with hardware design led by Eldon C. Hall . Based upon MIT documents, early architectural work seems to come from J.H. Laning Jr., Albert Hopkins , Ramon Alonso ,^[1] and Hugh Blair-Smith .^[2] The actual flight hardware was fabricated by Raytheon , whose Herb Thaler ^[3] was also on the architectural team.

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Check the External links section near the bottom of the page as well. - LRK -
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I watched a show on TV this week where they showed the ladies doing the wiring on the computer modules. To hard-wire the logic, two ladies worked together, one person on the front, one at the back, with a tape controlled indexer that positioned a ring to put a needle through that pulled the wire through. After looping around the correct post the ring was indexed again for the lady on the receiving side to pass the needle back through the next spot to the person on the front side. After the wire lacing was done, the wires were stripped of insulation at the posts and spot welded. Then the whole module was run through a logic tester to check for the correct response.

This was back at the beginning of integrated circuits with only a few transistors on each chip.

I have module from a UNIVAC Digital Trainer I got to resurrect from surplus back in the early 70's and these little modules had only two NOR gates made from two transistors, some resisters and some diodes.

Many of these modules were put in a line to make up a register for holding instruction words. I gave the trainer back to surplus when I left the training command but kept one of the modules. Here is a web shot of the module.




- LRK -
http://ed-thelen.org/comp-hist/BRL64-u.html
Example of an oldie.
- LRK -



Thanks for looking up with me.

Larry Kellogg

Web Site: http://lkellogg.vttoth.com/LarryRussellKellogg/
BlogSpot: http://kelloggserialreports.blogspot.com/
RSS link: http://kelloggserialreports.blogspot.com/atom.xml
Newsletter: https://news.altair.com/mailman/listinfo/lunar-update

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http://archive.computerhistory.org/search/
Search for "APG" or Apollo Guidance Computer.
Should show some of the logic modules.
- LRK -
Snip
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http://www.computerhistory.org/corphist/view.php?s=refs&id=223&PHPSESSID=23990d493c9ac123ddc1b5ccd9aa65b2
*Title:* Fairchild Micrologic in the Apollo Guidance Computer
*Author:* Eldon Hall, et al.
*Created:* 1965 ca.
*Publisher:* Various
*Cataloguer:*
*Copyright:*

Snip
*Reference:* The decision by MIT's Instrumentation Laboratory in 1962, to design the Apollo Guidance Computer using integrated circuit logic devices was critical to the AGC success and a key moment in the history of computing.

Eldon Hall's book "Journey to the Moon" recounts this decision process:
"Journey to the Moon:The History of the Apollo Guidance Computer" (1996)
AIAA (American Institute of Aeronautics & Ast) ISBN:156347185X
http://www.amazon.com/gp/reader/156347185X/ref=sib_dp_pt/102-5159419-4410516#reader-link

Snip
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http://www.klabs.org/history/history_docs/mit_docs/1716.pdf

A Case History of the ACG Logic Integrated Circuits
http://www.klabs.org/history/history_docs/mit_docs/1716.pdf

This pdf is a case history of the integrated circuit used for the logic in the Apollo Guidance Circuit written by Eldon Hall in December 1965. Achieving the required goals of low weight, volume, and power coupled with extreme high reliability necessitated the use of one single, simple integrated circuit for all logic functions. A brief description of the evolution of the computer design is given along with a general discussion of some of the engineering and design problems which arise with the use of a standardized semiconductor monolithic integrated circuit.
Note: The f i r s t prototype computer was operating in July 1963 with the Raytheon built flight computer operating in January 1964.

The page notes that MIT/IL had placed an order with Texas Instruments for 64 ICs at $1000 each in 1959. They were the Kilby mesa process Solid Logic devices. That TI order was not delivered until late 1962. The document also shows copies of purchase orders placed with TI, Westinghouse, Transitron and Motorola for alternate source devices.

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http://www.klabs.org/richcontent/Misc_Content/AGC_And_History/PartsAnalysis/PartsAnalysis.htm

NASA Office of Logic Design

A scientific study of the problems of digital engineering for space
flight systems,
with a view to their practical solution.

------------------------------------------------------------------------

Apollo Guidance Computer

Block 2 Parts Analysis

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You may find reading the comments under this post interesting and informative. - LRK -
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http://www.bautforum.com/showthread.php?t=1422
Bad Astronomy and Universe Today Forum
Snip
I was reading JayUtah's post (CosmicDaves 32 Questions) regarding AGC code, and in my desperate impatience to see some, did some Google work. I drummed up the following link:
http://verdade.no.sapo.pt/moon/landing_hoax.html
Lists some info regarding the AGC, and also has a (rather scruffy) Jpeg of a tiny portion of code. This appears to be part of a larger hoax site I've not seen before, and discusses other conspirasist (sp?) theories. Unfortunately I cant find a way back to a 'main' page [img]/phpBB/images/smiles/icon_frown.gif[/img]

Jay, please post any code you can! If anyone else has more info regarding the computer systems used, please post here also...

Cheers,
widoxm

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WHAT THE MIND CAN CONCEIVE, AND BELIEVE, IT WILL ACHIEVE - LRK

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One more time - Earth Second Moon or "Other Moon"

Well something like this has happened before.

Remember the Apollo 12 booster stage that visited us?
http://www.newscientist.com/article.ns?id=dn2790
- LRK -

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<http://skytonight.com/news/Earth_Second__Moon.html>
Earth's "Other Moon"
April 17, 2007
by Roger W. Sinnott
Last September, when a tiny asteroid drifted into Earth�s vicinity, our
planet�s gravity captured it. The meter-size object, designated 6R10DB9,
is now making its third wide swing around Earth. It was quite faint,
magnitude 19.3, when discovered September 14th with the 0.68-meter
(27-inch) Schmidt telescope of the Catalina Sky Survey
<http://www.lpl.arizona.edu/css/> in Arizona, and it won�t get much
brighter than that.

�Certainly 6R10DB9, with a geocentric eccentricity less than 1, is
currently orbiting the Earth ,� says Gareth V. Williams of the Minor
Planet Center <http://cfa-www.harvard.edu/iau/mpc.html>, �although it
will leave the Earth-Moon system after next June�s perigee.� Williams�s
calculations show that prior to capture 6R10DB9 was in a low-inclination
orbit around the Sun with a period of about 11 months. That�s typical of
the paths followed by spent rocket boosters left over from space
missions of the 1960s and 70s.
Snip

When 6R10DB9 makes its final and closest pass in June, �threading the
needle� and dipping just inside the Moon�s orbit, astronomers will get
their best view of it for years to come. Spectroscopic studies with
large telescopes, for example, could help to reveal its true nature.
Snip
==============================================================

So that is at least two visitors that have been caught aah, �threading
the needle�.
Check out the link and see the expected loop de loops.

Then consider what one might be able to do if you could just do some
slight vector adjustments and circularize the orbit and do some mining
if this is an asteroid.

Also consider what will happen to the booster stages of the upcoming
lunar launches to the Moon.

Put them into orbit around the Sun, crash them into the Moon, or let
them fall back to Earth to burn up.

Hmmmm, as a kid I shot an arrow into the air. Came back on our shingle
roof. Dad wasn't happy.
Hope we do a better job of shooting arrows into the air in the future.

Thanks for looking up with me.

Larry Kellogg

Web Site: http://lkellogg.vttoth.com/LarryRussellKellogg/
BlogSpot: http://kelloggserialreports.blogspot.com/
RSS link: http://kelloggserialreports.blogspot.com/atom.xml
Newsletter: https://news.altair.com/mailman/listinfo/lunar-update

==============================================================
http://www.newscientist.com/article.ns?id=dn2790
Orbit shows "second Moon" may be Apollo junk

   * 16:10 12 September 2002
   * NewScientist.com news service
   * Will Knight

A mystery object recently found orbiting the Earth is more likely to be
a used rocket booster from an Apollo spacecraft than a tiny second Moon.

NASA scientists have now analysed the object's orbit, which "indicates
that it could be a leftover Saturn V third stage from one of the Apollo
missions, most likely the Apollo 12 mission, launched on 14 November 1969".

The computer simulations were carried out by Donald Yeomans and Paul
Chodas at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory. They show that the object's
orbit is consistent with a booster that circled the Earth in the 1960's
or 1970's, was then captured by the Sun and finally returned to Earth
orbit in April 2002.

The object was spotted on 3 September by an astronomer in Arizona and
was initially thought to be an asteroid passing the Earth. But further
observations revealed that a 50-day Earth orbit at an altitude rising
from 300,000 to 800,000 kilometres.

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WHAT THE MIND CAN CONCEIVE, AND BELIEVE, IT WILL ACHIEVE - LRK

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