Mastodawn

@Trilobyter PS congrats on the Artemis II. thus far, other than a small crapper incident, it looks mighty successful. Thank you for your contribution.

@Lizette603_23 thanks, yeah from the conversation I heard they didn’t sufficiently “prime the pump” needed for water flow so it triggered warning lights. Was rectified quickly once they understood the cause. But they’re also having issues with the overboard waste water venting due to freezing, it does have heaters that are supposed to prevent but they are additionally going to roll the Orion so the vent is in the sun & hopefully that will thaw it. But they also have backup baggies if needed.

@Trilobyter better prepared than most of us at home! Is it okay if I badger you with questions from time to time?

Trilobyter

@Lizette603_23 well I suddenly find myself with all sorts of spare time, right now I’m just sitting on the front porch with one of the dogs & my camera (never know what’s going to turn up, with the flowers starting to bloom the butterflies & bees & hummingbirds are starting to appear - and a hawk just zoomed by about 2 feet off the ground but I didn’t catch it) waiting for the rain that’s promised today (my garden needs it) so sure, ask away, anytime.

@Trilobyter You're the best, and I will try to accrue a list rather than 50 million randoms! I used to keep my camera on my knee with my finger on the trigger when sitting in the woods. Or even walking....once a full buck burst out of the woods behind me as I crossed a trail and it happened so fast, but my hand was ready on the camera at my side...raised it clicked and got him midair all feet together! What a thrill.

@Trilobyter My first question is about how you found yourself on the Artemis project

@Lizette603_23 so the longish version, I grew up around the Johnson Space Center, my dad work on Apollo from its early days. So I more or less followed in his footsteps, started working Space Shuttle in the late ‘80s in JSC’s Shuttle Avionics Integration Laboratory (SAIL), which was a high fidelity engineering & test simulator, what is called an “iron bird” - basically a complete set of Shuttle computers, avionics, cockpit, middeck, payload bay, laid out in a warehouse sized building.

@Trilobyter I'm envisioning it all. I was that star struck kid watching the first launches.
I've wondered if recent "space" tv show and movies have any valid representation of fact or even lingo. I certainly recall just about everything you wrote here from a few of them, so I guess that means someone consults with them who has expertise. I don't suppose you do that do you?
Was your dad a good teacher?
Wow, and entire shuttle RIGHT THERE

@Lizette603_23 no I’ve not done any such consulting but the better “space” shows do use them. It’s sometimes difficult for me to suspend disbelief & enjoy if it’s a show that is trying to be realistic but (for me at least) failing to do so. The more fantasy type sci-fi space shows are often easier to swallow in that regard. My dad, well he was from that emotionally minimalist/taciturn WW2/Korean War generation, but I know he was pleased I ended up working in the space program.

@Trilobyter My dad was also from the WW2 era....Navy man, taciturn to a fault. I get that. I'm sure his emotions were very real and stayed where he put them.
I love anything to do with space that isn't insulting to my intelligence, especially if it's intentionally silly. That's big fun. Takes some of the scarey what if's out of space exploration. Yeah, I would think that those shows or movies that try to depict accurately are frustrating for you to watch, knowing what you know.

@Trilobyter I used to live just up the road from JPL

@Lizette603_23 In the SAIL we tested the electronics & software, ‘flying” full mission simulations, often with astronauts in our cockpit. The final step of systems integration testing done before each mission flew. So then the Columbia tragedy happened and in the aftermath they decided to bring the Shuttle program to an end - though it kept flying for many more years. But with that there was the initiation of the Constellation program and the Orion spacecraft was the crew-carrying part of that.

@Trilobyter wow. you "flew"!!!!!!!!!!

@Trilobyter In an entirely different context I spent a few weeks working next to a retired astronaut or two, and their approach to everything seems quite different than the average Joe. Did you find that part easy or not so easy? I'm not mentioning names, I'm just curious how it is to work with people who are involved in something you know the inner workings of so intimately in one way and they in another.

@Lizette603_23 it was certainly intimidating to work with them, at least in my early years on Shuttle. I’ll never forget the first time I had to go up & very nervously present to one a detailed analysis & explanation of a failure that occurred in one of the SAIL tests. Of course they were all different in personality but one common aspect, they were all very intensely focused & serious at work. But I also attended parties with a few of them when they really “let their hair down”.

@Lizette603_23 one story about an astronaut - Mario Runco. He was a particularly intense person to work with when he was the assigned astronaut to fly the SAIL, but he was also one of its biggest advocates. When the program ended they were going to tear-down & scrap the SAIL, but there was a counter-push to preserve it and make it part of the JSC visitors tour (it’s very cool to see). Mario was part of that push back and I think that was a key reason they went with preservation.

@Lizette603_23 forgive if this verges into gossipiness, but another thing about Mario was his strikingly Vulcan-like personality & appearance. Once in our operations room someone posted a doctored photo of him with pointy ears to complete the look. I haven’t seen him for years but recently & sadly, one of my SAIL colleagues passed away and Mario was at the memorial, barely recognizable as his previous short haircut is now way past his shoulders in length. Our Vulcan has turned into a hippie 😁.

https://spaceflightblunders.wordpress.com/2017/03/31/ov-095-the-orbiter-without-a-body/

Trilobyter 23h ago

@Lizette603_23 just FYI here’s a good article on the SAIL, I think one or some of my former colleagues put this together.

OV-095: The Orbiter Without a Body

The most complex spacecraft ever flown were supported by an orbiter that flew every Space Shuttle mission without ever leaving the ground. In a building at the Johnson Space Center in Houston is th…

Spaceflight Blunders & Greatness

@Trilobyter of thank you!!!! I'm so glad I've met you here!

@Trilobyter awwwwwhahshaha

Chris Vreeland 23h ago

@Trilobyter @Lizette603_23 I really need to go tour Johnson again. I did the Canaveral visitor’s center with the kid a couple years ago, and it was amazing.

@Trilobyter how wonderful that it happened that way

@Trilobyter I would assume it could be tense, to say the least

@Lizette603_23 In 2006 after Lockheed Martin was awarded the Orion contract I and some of my other SAIL colleagues were recruited to help develop a similar facility for the Orion. I worked on both initially but after a year or so I became full time on Orion, and kept going till my retirement this week. Of course during those years the Constellation program was cancelled but the Orion part remained in development, and eventually became part of the lunar-focused Artemis program.

@Trilobyter Were you inclined more toward the Orion work or is that just how it happened?

@Lizette603_23 well at that point I knew the Space Shuttle was coming to an end so I happily & gratefully jumped at the opportunity to start on Orion & stay employed. Many of my colleagues from Shuttle had to retire or go do other things when the program ended in 2011. Plus when I started on Shuttle it was already a mature program, in more of a sustaining engineering mode. With Orion I got to get in at the very beginning and work initial design & development, which is catnip for engineers.

logickal 22h ago

@Trilobyter @Lizette603_23 I just want to jump in and say that I’m really glad I saw this convo in my feed. I’m a lifelong space geek, and SAIL is one of the neatest parts of Shuttle operations to me. Just the other night I was looking at one of the later iterations of the DPS Dictionary document, which I’m sure has some bearing on some of the work you did!

@logickal @Trilobyter my new friend here makes me smile because he's right here! Wow!

@Trilobyter omg it sounds incredible! Write a book!