RIDE THE U2

[Phil]

Some of you may recognise the passenger as James May, one of BBC TV's "Top Gear" team. When not clowning around on Top Gear, May is an enthusiastic and skilled scientist, engineer and mathematician (not the klutz he is depicted as in TG) - but at University he majored in … music. This extract was part of a two-part documentary on the Apollo missions and space travel in general, which was TV at its very best.

Speaking of space travel, the latest staff member of my Faculty at Kingston University is Dr Helen Sharman, Britain's first astronaut (well, technically, cosmonaut). If I can fit her in my suitcase, I'll bring her to the next Dayton AMRAD cookout. Here's an interesting and gross fact about space travel gleaned from her:

Despite all precautions, which include wiping down all surfaces of both spacecraft and cosmonauts with alcohol wipes immediately before launch (which must be interesting!), it is impossible to prevent the interior of the Soyuz spacecraft from collecting some bacterial and fungal spores. On a typical mission to the Mir or ISS space stations, the cosmonauts occupy the Soyuz capsule for over a day on the way up, before docking. They leave the Soyuz with a moist atmosphere from respiration, a mixture of oxygen and carbon dioxide that remains stagnant and unstirred, and unheated. The capsule then goes through a dozen or so heating and cooling cycles per day for a week or more before it brings other astronauts / cosmonauts home. After this period, when the crew enter the Soyuz for descent, many of the surfaces are literally dripping with bacterial and fungal slime, a very good reason to wear one's space suit for the entire return. Even more interesting, this rapid slime growth is subject to considerable cosmic radiation (the Soyuz provides very little shielding) and consequent mutation - it's only a matter of time before it brings a monster back to earth!

It is not known whether this slime has ever been analysed after a mission, as nothing has been published.

Phil M1GWZ


On 25 Jun 2013, at 20:34, William Fenn wrote:

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> From: Norm 
> Sent: Tuesday, June 25, 2013 2:39 PM
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> Subject: Fw: RIDE THE U2
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> Read before clicking on the link below, it will explain and be more interesting. The U-2 is considered the most difficult plane in the world to fly. Each pilot has a co-pilot, who chases the plane on the runway in a sports car. Most of the cars are either Pontiac GTO's or Chevrolet Cameros, that the Air Force buys - American. The chase cars talk the pilot down as he lands on a bicycle-style landing gear. In that spacesuit, the pilot in the plane simply cannot get a good view of the runway. Upon takeoff, the wings on this plane, which extend 103 feet from tip to tip, literally, flap. To stabilize the wings on the runway, two pogo sticks on wheels prop up the ends of the wings. As the plane flies away, the pogo sticks drop off.
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> The plane climbs at an amazing rate of nearly 10,000 feet a minute. Within about four minutes, I was at 40,000 feet higher than most commercial airplanes. We kept going up to 13 miles above Earth's surface. You get an incredible sensation up there. As you look out the windows, it feels like you're floating; it feels like you're not moving, but you're actually going 500 mph. The U-2 was built to go higher than any other aircraft. In fact, today, more than 50 years since it went into production, the U-2 flies higher than any aircraft in the world, with the exception of the space shuttle.
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> It is flying more missions and longer missions than ever before, with nearly 70 missions a month over Iraq and Afghanistan , an operational tempo that is unequaled in history. The pilots fly for 11 hours at a time, sometimes more than 11 hours up there, alone. By flying so high, the U-2 has the capability of doing reconnaissance over a country without actually violating its airspace. It can look off to the side, peering 300 miles or more inside a country without actually flying over it. It can "see" in the dark and through clouds. It can also 'hear', intercepting conversations 14 miles below. The U-2, an incredible piece of history and also a current piece of high technology, is at the center of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan .
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> Enjoy the ride!
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> Click the link below. Go to the lower Right corner of the screen and click the icon immediately to the left of the volume control to bring up the full screen.
> Click Here for a Ride In a U2 - Have Your Sound On
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> -- 
> Jim Bullock
> 416 518-2075
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