Fly Me To The Moon 4/05/18

Northgate RV Travel Park, Athens, Alabama

 

It’s a lovely day, but pretty cool with highs only predicted to reach the upper fifties.  It wasn’t that warm when we set out.  In fact, the Jeep was covered in frost when we got up.

 

It’s about a 30 minute drive to Huntsville where the U.S. Space and Rocket Center is located.  They have a standing Saturn V rocket that Blaine was anxious to see.  Blaine’s been a bit of a space nut since he was a boy.  In fact, he was so excited about it, his parents allowed him to get up at all hours of the night to watch special media coverage of anything NASA was doing.  I find it all fascinating as well, I’m just not quite as excited as he is.  Probably because most of it escapes my working intelligence.  But his enthusiasm is easy to catch!

 

It’s never a relaxing drive here in Alabama, and it’s even more tense since we were rear-ended.  Surely, Alabama’s residents have the highest per capita accident rating of any state in the union.

Our first stop was the Huntsville Visitor Center.  Very nice place with a welcoming, informed hostess!  She mentioned the Huntsville Depot and Museum not too many steps down from the Visitor Center.  You can go in and walk around the grounds for free, but there’s a fee for the museum.

We went to check it out.

 

 

After this, it was time for the visit Blaine had been anticipating!  Crazy driving instructions, as we drove in a square to get there.  We were really thankful for the gps!  But once we were headed in the right direction, it was easy to spot the Saturn V Rocket pointed up into the sky!

 

And before long, we were there.

 

The only entrance and exit to this place is through the gift shop, and it’s one of the largest we’ve ever seen.  Prices seemed about the same as any attraction’s gift shop – little kids’ T-shirts for $25, etc.

They also had some large displays.

 

You have to go all the way through the gift shop to buy your tickets and enter the museum.

 

They actually have 4 IMAX movies you can pick from, and since this was “Blaine’s outing”, I let him choose whichever he wanted.  We watched “Beautiful Planet”.  We didn’t really know what it would entail, but it was very interesting as it focused on the lives of a couple of astronauts who spent time on the International Space Station. We heard them talk about their views of Earth from the “cupola” – a wonderful domed viewing window.  We also learned about how they function up there for all those months – sleeping, showering, eating, exercising, working – all in zero gravity and great danger as they venture outside.  Certainly not for me!  Not even if I’d been gifted with the intelligence to do so!  But Blaine would love it!

 

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Neither of us realized the extent of the importance of Huntsville in the Space Program until we had toured the facility.  (I have pictures later on that, that you can see/read)  There was so much to see, we ended up being there for about 5 hours!  Granted, about an hour of that time was waiting for and watching the IMAX movie, but other than that, it was all walking and learning and enjoying the exhibits!

They also have this activity every Thursday evening that seemed a bit odd to us at first glance.  They hold an Oktoberfest from May through October.  They set up a whole bunch of tables in the middle of the museum, under a rocket and serve a German buffet.  You’ll see pictures later.  It’s hard to imagine that that many people show up, but then we started seeing school groups and wondered if they made up part of the customers.  We wondered at the German part, but later, when we learned about Dr. Wernher von Braun and his history, we assumed it was an attempt to honor him and his team.

 

The following is from the Space Center’s website:

Dr. Wernher von Braun and his team of rocket scientists transformed Huntsville, Alabama, known in the 1950s as the “Watercress Capital of the World,” into a technology center that today is home to the second largest research park in the United States and to the U.S. Space & Rocket Center (USSRC) with its world-class educational program, Space Camp®.

The transformation grew from the smoke and fire that birthed America’s space program. It is here in Huntsville that:

• Rockets were developed that put the first U.S. satellite into orbit and sent men to the moon;
• Propulsion for the space shuttle was developed
• Modules for the International Space Station (ISS) were designed and built;
• America’s next great ship – the Space Launch System – is being designed;
• Science on the ISS is monitored 24/7 at the Payload Operations Center at NASA Marshall Space Flight Center (MSFC).

During the final months that von Braun and his team of scientists were refining the giant Saturn V rocket that sent Apollo astronauts to the moon, he was also preparing to launch another important project: a permanent exhibit to showcase the hardware of the space program. Von Braun was director of MSFC when he approached the Alabama Legislature with the idea of creating a museum jointly with the U.S. Army Missile Command and NASA. The U.S. Army donated land, and the U.S. Space & Rocket Center® opened its doors in 1970. Since then, nearly 17 million people have toured the Center. Many of the more than 650,000 annual visitors are school students on field trips to their future. Dozens of interactive exhibits encourage guest participation, prompting one official to note: “Here, everyone can be an astronaut for the day!”

Home to Space Camp®, Aviation Challenge® Camp, and Robotics Camp the U.S. Space & Rocket Center (USSRC) is the largest spaceflight museum in the world. Its large rocket and space hardware collection is valued in the tens of millions of dollars.

 

I looked up von Braun’s biography and chose to share this small portion.  I’m amazed that America seemed to have so willingly allowed him and 500 of his scientists into this country post WWII, and working on missles no less.  Of course, no one mentions how much security they worked under, or for how long.

By the beginning of 1945, it was obvious to von Braun that Germany would not achieve victory against the Allies, and he began planning for the postwar era.

Before the Allied capture of the V–2 rocket complex, von Braun engineered the surrender of 500 of his top rocket scientists, along with plans and test vehicles, to the Americans. For fifteen years after World War II, von Braun worked with the U.S. Army in the development of ballistic missiles. As part of a military operation called Project Paperclip, he and his rocket team were scooped up from defeated Germany and sent to America where they were installed at Fort Bliss, Texas. There they worked on rockets for the U.S. Army, launching them at White Sands Proving Ground, New Mexico. In 1950 von Braun’s team moved to the Redstone Arsenal near Huntsville, Ala., where they built the Army’s Jupiter ballistic missile.

In 1960, his rocket development center transferred from the Army to the newly established NASA and received a mandate to build the giant Saturn rockets. Accordingly, von Braun became director of NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center and the chief architect of the Saturn V launch vehicle, the superbooster that would propel Americans to the Moon.

 

He also has quite a few really good quotes that are preserved for us that I’ve copied from several websites:

In this modern world of ours many people seem to think that science has somehow made such religious ideas as immortality untimely or old fashioned.  I think science has a real surprise for the skeptics.  Science, for instance, tells us that nothing in nature, not even the tiniest particle, can disappear without a trace.  Nature does not know extinction.  All it knows is transformation.  If God applies this fundamental principle to the most minute and insignificant parts of His universe, doesn’t it make sense to assume that He applies it to the masterpiece of His creation, the human soul?

My experiences with science led me to God. They challenge science to prove the existence of God. But must we really light a candle to see the sun?

Although I know of no reference to Christ ever commenting on scientific work, I do know that He said, “Ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free.” Thus I am certain that, were He among us today, Christ would encourage scientific research as modern man’s most noble striving to comprehend and admire His Father’s handiwork. The universe as revealed through scientific inquiry is the living witness that God has indeed been at work.

I believe in an immortal soul. Science has proved that nothing disintegrates into nothingness. Life and soul, therefore, cannot disintegrate into nothingness, and so are immortal.

It takes sixty-five thousand errors before you are qualified to make a rocket.

We can lick gravity, but sometimes the paperwork is overwhelming.” — Chicago Sun Times, July 10, 1958

“There is just one thing I can promise you about the outer-space program: your tax dollar will go farther.” — Reader’s Digest, 1961

“I am convinced that before the year 2000 is over, the first child will have been born on the moon.” — Taped TV Interview, broadcast on WMAL Washington, Jan. 7, 1972

“Research is what I’m doing when I don’t know what I’m doing.”

“I have learned to use the word ‘impossible’ with the greatest caution.”

 

Between the two of us, we took over 250 pictures today.  Many of them are from information boards.  They’re all in here, so you can read as you will, depending on your time and interest.  : )

 

Up first was a Huntsville Inventors Hall of Fame with a display of 101 inventions that came out of Huntsville, Alabama.  Pretty impressive!  I only took pictures of 15.  If you want to see them all, you’ll have to visit yourself.  : )  By the way – Huntsville is nicknamed “The Rocket City” because  . . .  well, because of the rocket building program here.

 

After this, we put the rest of the museum on hold to go outside.  Blaine was anxious to see the Saturn V, and it was getting a little crowded inside.

 

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Time to go back inside.

The first order of business . . .

 

Now, I’m going to share a time-line with you.  It runs from the Mercury through the Apollo Programs.  And yes, I skipped quite a few boards, but there are still a lot.  The entire room was full of them!  Also note – the blue boards are American advances, the Red are Russia.  It really was a race!

 

 

 

The next two are all they had on Apollo 13, and we had to kinda hunt for these.  Strange.

 

 

 

 

They have some interactive stuff here, including an area where you can stand and sorta feel like you’re witnessing a launch.  I took a bunch of short videos.  : )

 

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That was enough reading for a while.  We went back outside.  First we just stepped outside into and eating area.  They had some tables covered out here, but I can’t imagine that anyone would eat out here tonight.  It’s pretty chilly.  But the view is terrific!

 

This area is more like an Army graveyard.  Most of the signs said something akin to, “No longer in use”.

 

 

 

 

We’re done out here.  Time to go back in and figure out what we’ve missed.

 

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Besides the “normal museum”-type stuff, they also had an art exhibit and a priceless jewelry exhibit.  All based on space stuff, of course.  I didn’t take pictures of many of the art works because they just weren’t displayed well.  Two-thirds of them were way above or way below eye level.  Hard to look at when you’re standing there, let alone take pictures.

 

I don’t know that anyone would wear much of the jewelry, even if they were allowed, but it sure was beautiful! They warned each person that came in that the cases were touch sensitive and so is the floor around them, so no touching or jumping!  This was a bit of a problem because Blaine likes to leave his mark on glass cases, and I like to jump around when excited, but we managed to control ourselves.  Can’t have the Space Police bearing down on us!

 

Dinner was still up in the air.  We decided we were hungry for bbq, but had no idea where to go.  We also wanted to head towards home rather than away from it.  Google and Tripadvisor are great inventions!  Eventually we settled on a place called LawLers.  We’d actually seen several billboards for them, but the clincher for us was when Blaine ran across a review by a chef (and other named accolades) who said this is where she goes when she wants bbq.  And when we arrived, it was obvious that it’s a Christian establishment.  Like Chick-fil-A.

 

There was hardly anyone there.  And you don’t sit until you order – like fast food.  Which turns out is one of their mottos – “Cooked slow – – Served fast”.  We had no idea what we wanted, but the girl behind the counter did her very best to be helpful.  I swear to you, she’s the fastest talking Southerner we’ve ever heard.  She’d make and excellent auctioneer!  But we got the gist of it.

Blaine ordered the pulled pork dinner and a side of ribs (because we just had to taste ‘em!) and I tried the “Stuffie Potato” with pulled pork on it. (you choose from 4 meat choices)  Everything was absolutely excellent!  Including the bbq sauce.  But not the white bbq.  I’m thinkin’ they can keep that in Northern Alabama.  😊

 

We finished the day with a mildly interesting sunset, that started off well, but ended up a dud.

 

TOTAL HIKING MILES:  3

Year To Date:  251.5

Daily Average:  2.67