Tuesday, August 07, 2012

space fragments

Seems like 20 years ago but today my mind is slow. I don’t really know. 

I had a job that occasionally put me inside the large aircraft factories of Boeing and Airbus. Being up close to large aircraft in various stages of completion for me was like what some get from going to an art fair. Amazing how these complex machines come together. 

A younger me next to an older specialized Airbus plane:



Hopefully you heard of the recent good news coming from NASA’s Mars Curiosity mission. I was able to stay up and watch mission control on the internet. The landing was complex but went as planned.  They parked a small car sized rover near a mountain on Mars.



Thinking of space and the past, I went back and read an old post about a very curious shop in California. I’ve never been there but would love to look around the place some day.


There’s nothing like a good gimbal. Check out this mini thruster.

Picture copied from Norton Sales CA

13 comments:

BituminousNooner said...

http://goo.gl/obv1a

Joanne said...

Looks like my dad's workshop. He did work on some of those first space flights, but I'm sure he didn't bring anything home.

lisleman said...

That's very interesting. Where did he work? Have you done a post on that story yet?
thanks

bearman said...

Cool stuff happening on Mars. I couldn't stay up that late to watch.

lisleman said...

many cool things up there still to come. Watching it was suspenseful because of all the things that might go wrong and the time delay between Earth and Mars.

unknownmami said...

Does the young woman come with the thruster?

tracismixedbag said...

We don't have cable so we've only heard small bits about the Mars mission. Thanks for making us more curious, we'll have to find out more. Very cool picture in front of the Airbus.

lisleman said...

what thruster? oh excuse me you mean the object she is posing next to.
If you browse through a little of their site you'll see that their salvaged equipment has been used in music videos and movies. I assume some photographer came by one day with a few models and took a few shots. Who knows why. The young model looks cross-eyed.

Oh are you looking for a thruster? Wanting to leap into space?

lisleman said...

thanks that was a very odd plane that was used to haul aircraft pieces. They replaced it with a bigger odd plane.

Barbara Shallue said...

so exciting about the Mars landing!

lisleman said...

thanks - the more you learn about it the greater of a feat of skill it becomes. Going from about 13,000 mph to zero in 7 minutes is not simple.

Frau said...

It's all too exciting the Mars landing....my hubby work in Aerospace. His company won a job with Airbus and that's what brought us to Germany...now he is working with the Military sector I like it's a Boeing plane....it's all over my head....and I glaze over when he talks about planes like I'd talk about shoes!

lisleman said...

That is certainly an industry (like most) with many ups and downs. Boeing is such a huge company. Did you know long long ago, they made furniture. Shoes - all is good as long as they are not flying across the room. thanks

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