[cmeisenzahl]

Newhouse News Service - Apollo 12 Trailer Resurfaces At Fish Farm
"HUNTSVILLE, Ala. — The U.S. Space & Rocket Center has landed a prize catch at a west Alabama fish farm.

Museum officials found a long-lost Airstream trailer that was used to quarantine Apollo 12 astronauts returning from the moon in November 1969.

The trailer has logged a circuitous route since being sold by NASA as surplus and has spent the last two decades at an aquatic research farm in Marion.

"What kind of find is it? It's like finding a Rembrandt in a yard sale. There aren't going to be any more of these,'' said Al Whitaker, Space Center spokesman. Officials plan to retrieve the artifact and display it in the new Davidson Saturn V Center to open in January.

The Mobile Quarantine Facility essentially sat in obscurity until an observant director recognized the resemblance."
Newhouse News Service - Apollo 12 Trailer Resurfaces At Fish Farm

[DakarÊ’]

I don't understand why this stuff gets sold in the first place.

[turtle777]

Originally Posted by DakarÊ’ 

I don't understand why this stuff gets sold in the first place.

Budget constraints.

-t

[DakarÊ’]

I can't imagine it pulls that much cash in.

[turtle777]

Originally Posted by DakarÊ’ 

I can't imagine it pulls that much cash in.

Does that matter ?

People sell things to pawn shops for 10 cents on the dollar all the time. Why would the government be excempt from that kind of behaviour ?

-t

[DakarÊ’]

Originally Posted by turtle777 

Does that matter ?

Well, yeah, I think it'd would.

Originally Posted by turtle777 

People sell things to pawn shops for 10 cents on the dollar all the time. Why would the government be excempt from that kind of behaviour ?

-t

That doesn't make it reasonable.

[voodoo]

Coincidentally, the Apollo 13 trailer also just resurfaced in some backwater place

V

[turtle777]

Originally Posted by DakarÊ’ 

Well, yeah, I think it'd would.

That doesn't make it reasonable.

I was not making a case for reasonability, but rather, that it is not an uncommon thing.

-t

[DakarÊ’]

Originally Posted by turtle777 

I was not making a case for reasonability, but rather, that it is not an uncommon thing.
-t

Alright, but I wasn't really asking about how common it was.

Originally Posted by voodoo 

Coincidentally, the Apollo 13 trailer also just resurfaced in some backwater place

V

My first thought when I read the title was somewhere along those lines.

[IceEnclosure]

This image was taken in January, 2007. Why is it news now?

DSCF9094 on Flickr - Photo Sharing!

[DakarÊ’]

I still think those Airstream look better than anything manufactured today.

[ghporter]

Originally Posted by DakarÊ’ 

I don't understand why this stuff gets sold in the first place.

It costs a significant amount of money to store and maintain something like these trailers, even if they just sit there. That "extended cost," plus the fact that there was no projected need for them, means that it was actually cheaper to dispose of the trailers than to keep them. It's how government budgets work, unfortunately-no thought for what the item might mean in the future, just what it might to do the very next budget.

[DakarÊ’]

Ok, that puts it in perspective.

Of course, my next question is, why don't they donate it to a museum (or why doesn't a museum want it at that time)?

[design219]

Originally Posted by cmeisenzahl 

It's like finding a Rembrandt in a yard sale.

This statement seems like quite a stretch. There are tons of space-race related materials floating around.

Old Airstreams are cool, but hardly as rare, unique and beautiful as a Rembrandt.

[ghporter]

They left a perfectly functional Saturn V system (everything but a functioning Apollo Command/Service Module system) OUT IN THE ELEMENTS IN HOUSTON FROM 1973 UNTIL LAST YEAR. NASA was not tasked with considering historical significance or preserving materials for the future. As it stands now, without reverse engineering that (now recently restored) Saturn V that sat in front of JSC all those years, it would be impossible to build a Saturn V-or any part of it-today because the design and blueprints were not retained by NASA, and the companies that built the hardware have morphed, been bought, disappeared, and so on. Their job was "get to the moon," not "build a museum to record what you're doing right now."

[DakarÊ’]

I didn't ask them to build a museum, I asked them to donate it to one. Again, no one would have been interested in the piece back then?

[turtle777]

Originally Posted by DakarÊ’ 

I didn't ask them to build a museum, I asked them to donate it to one.

So freaking what ?

You asked, and nobody listens. What's your point ?

-t

[DakarÊ’]

God you're moody.

[turtle777]

Originally Posted by DakarÊ’ 

I didn't ask them to build a museum, I asked them to donate it to one. Again, no one would have been interested in the piece back then?

Originally Posted by DakarÊ’ 

God you're moody.

No, you just came across freakin' arrogant.

"I didn't ask them to build a museum, I asked them to donate it to one."

Say what ?

-t

[DakarÊ’]

Originally Posted by turtle777 

No, you just came across freakin' arrogant.

"I didn't ask them to build a museum, I asked them to donate it to one."

Say what ?

-t

Their job was "get to the moon," not "build a museum to record what you're doing right now."

And yes, I know you don't like me. I post too many "one-liners"

[scaught]

Was there an aeronautics and space museum back then? Would they have wanted to have exhibit space filled with an airstream trailer?

[Laminar]

Originally Posted by DakarÊ’ 

And yes, I know you don't like me. I post too many "one-liners"

At least you don't overdo the smiles like...some...people.

[DakarÊ’]

That's what I wonder. Maybe they already had a trailer from a previous Apollo mission?

[analogika]

Originally Posted by DakarÊ’ 

That's what I wonder. Maybe they already had a trailer from a previous Apollo mission?

Well, like...from the FIRST moon landing, Apollo 11?

And by God, so it was! TFA mentions that they kept the Airstream from Apollo 11 due to its historical significance.

I don't really see the whoop-de-doo about this one. It's nice that it turned up. But it's not directly connected to the historical landmark that the first one was.

[analogika]

Originally Posted by IceEnclosure 

This image was taken in January, 2007. Why is it news now?

DSCF9094 on Flickr - Photo Sharing!

Um. That's the trailer from the USS Hornet exhibit in Alameda, CA, which, according to TFA is the airstream from Apollo 14.

[analogika]

Originally Posted by DakarÊ’ 

I still think those Airstream look better than anything manufactured today.

We just went for a weekend on a trailer/tent-camping ground on a North Sea island, and I kept pointing out to my wife how obnoxiously ugly every single trailer and camper van is (the specially built ones, not the after-market conversions).

Why do they ALL look like 1970's kitchen appliances or washing machines? Fugly white or beige plastic, with brown or light grey "highlights", and filled with tacky veneered plastic and plush vileness inside...

Great trip, nonetheless, but you have to wonder.

[DakarÊ’]

Originally Posted by analogika 

I don't really see the whoop-de-doo about this one. It's nice that it turned up. But it's not directly connected to the historical landmark that the first one was.

That's what I'm beginning to wonder. But the article certainly makes find the item sound really important.

Originally Posted by analogika 

Fugly white or beige plastic, with brown or light grey "highlights", and filled with tacky veneered plastic

Yes! My thought precisely.

[finboy]

Originally Posted by scaught 

Was there an aeronautics and space museum back then? Would they have wanted to have exhibit space filled with an airstream trailer?

Back then the space museum was the lobby of the old redbrick Smithsonian in DC. Stuff was thrown in there haphazardly, and there weren't many private museums either. There was little interest in seeing the capsules, etc. believe it or not. The National Air and Space Museum was still a few years (and Mike Collins as director) away, and so there wasn't much of a push to keep stuff.

The Saturn V that's down here was in horrible shape a couple of years ago, but now they've at least covered it and restored it. In my opinion, part of the incentive to do that was so that they COULD reverse-engineer some things. I haven't been able to get anyone at the aerospace companies to admit to that much, though.

[Big Mac]

Can anyone tell me why NASA cannot pull of a single clean launch of the shuttle now?

[DakarÊ’]

Because they're using technology older than half the people on the forum?

[Railroader]

Originally Posted by DakarÊ’ 

Because they're using technology older than half the people on the forum?

I'd expect better performance from 13 year old equipment.






ZING!!!

[Brass]

Kind of off-topic, but only a bit...

Why do astronauts get quaratined AFTER return? How is any human pathogen going to infect them in space, that's not already on earth?

[analogika]

Originally Posted by Brass 

Kind of off-topic, but only a bit...

Why do astronauts get quaratined AFTER return? How is any human pathogen going to infect them in space, that's not already on earth?

RTFA.

They didn't quarantine them for pathogens of earthly origin.

D'oh.

[ghporter]

Originally Posted by analogika 

I don't really see the whoop-de-doo about this one. It's nice that it turned up. But it's not directly connected to the historical landmark that the first one was.

NO moon mission was "routine" or commonplace. They were all hazardous and fraught with perils that simply could not be predicted. Apollo 12 not only had to land on a different area on the moon, they had to not goof up anything at all-Conrad, Gordon and Bean had a seriously hard act to follow. And of course look at the very next mission-we almost had a space disaster with Apollo 13.

Space travel never has been trivial-and it still isnt.

[Brass]

Originally Posted by analogika 

RTFA.

They didn't quarantine them for pathogens of earthly origin.

D'oh.

Sorry if I don't speek 'geek', but what's RTFA stand for? 'Please read the article' I suppose?.

Anyhow, I never suggested anything about earthy origins. I did mention human pathogens (ie, pathogens that can infect humans), and whether it would be possible to have such a thing that didn't exist on earth (ie, the only place that humans exist).

How are human infecting pathogens going to live on the moon without humans? If they did, how would they get there, if not from earth?

I see from the article (which I did read, by the way), that they gave up the idea later anyhow.

[analogika]

Originally Posted by ghporter 

NO moon mission was "routine" or commonplace. They were all hazardous and fraught with perils that simply could not be predicted. Apollo 12 not only had to land on a different area on the moon, they had to not goof up anything at all-Conrad, Gordon and Bean had a seriously hard act to follow. And of course look at the very next mission-we almost had a space disaster with Apollo 13.

Space travel never has been trivial-and it still isnt.

I didn't mean to suggest it was. I know this. I was (and still am, to a lesser degree) an avid fan and follower of developments in space travel.

But back when these trailers were surplussed, the public expectation was still that space travel would have the quality of a busride to an exotic destination by the 90s.

Plus, historical significance and desirability *always* increase over time, and with enough people doing the hindsight thing.

[analogika]

Originally Posted by Brass 

Sorry if I don't speek 'geek', but what's RTFA stand for? 'Please read the article' I suppose?.

Anyhow, I never suggested anything about earthy origins. I did mention human pathogens (ie, pathogens that can infect humans), and whether it would be possible to have such a thing that didn't exist on earth (ie, the only place that humans exist).

How are human infecting pathogens going to live on the moon without humans? If they did, how would they get there, if not from earth?

They didn't *know* that.

BSE, for example, is just a tiny snippet of genetic material that originally was thought to only affect cattle.

Turns out it causes a variant of Creutzfeld-Jakob's disease in humans.

We don't know that there aren't "snippets" of life drifting through the universe, and how they might possibly affect any earthly organisms should we come in contact with them. So until it became obvious that the moon was completely and utterly dead dust and rock, they were rather safe than sorry.

Apart from that, there might have been odd chemical (rather than biological) hazards picked up at some point.

[DakarÊ’]

Originally Posted by Railroader 

I'd expect better performance from 13 year old equipment.

Damn you. Straight to hell.

[ghporter]

Originally Posted by analogika 

BSE, for example, is just a tiny snippet of genetic material that originally was thought to only affect cattle.

Turns out it causes a variant of Creutzfeld-Jakob's disease in humans.

Even more dangerous, the agent that causes BSE is a prion-which doesn't have any genetic material at all. It's a protein complex, nothing more. Specific mechanisms of action are unknown, but it's believed that these agents alter existing proteins such that they fail in their normal function.

A long time ago CJD was believed to be caused by something called a "slow virus" because it seemed to have a very slow rate of progression. Current thought is that in this case there is no viral action at all, and that the progression is due to the slow deterioration of neural tissues due to the effects of these prions. (Other maladies caused by "slow viruses" do seem to have an actual viral component, but that virus-or the immune reaction to it-may release prions that do the actual damage.)

NOBODY knew anything about prions in the 1960s, but there were enough theories about what "might be out there" that it was considered prudent to isolate the astronauts so that they couldn't bring back anything-at least nothing that we didn't have a clue about. On the other hand, there was also thought to what we were leaving on the moon. Just about everything that went up was as scrupulously clean as possible, and it was thought that the chance of anything infectious being left by us was very, very small.

[abe]

Originally Posted by turtle777 

Does that matter ?

People sell things to pawn shops for 10 cents on the dollar all the time. Why would the government be excempt from that kind of behaviour ?

-t

Completely different operative dynamics are involved in either decision.

I've been in both situations.

[Kerrigan]

Conspiracy, most likely.

[abe]

Originally Posted by voodoo 

Coincidentally, the Apollo 13 trailer also just resurfaced in some backwater place

V

That's why I didn't visit this thread til now. I thought they were talking about a DOCUMENTARY FILM TRAILER.

[Brass]

Originally Posted by analogika 

We don't know that there aren't "snippets" of life drifting through the universe, and how they might possibly affect any earthly organisms should we come in contact with them. So until it became obvious that the moon was completely and utterly dead dust and rock, they were rather safe than sorry.

Safe? Not if another snippet of life happens to drift through the universe at the same time they do! I will not now feel safe until they re-introduce these quarantine restrictions!!!

:-)

[design219]

Originally Posted by Brass 

I will not now feel safe until they re-introduce these quarantine restrictions!!!

Be afraid. Be very afraid.

[turtle777]

Originally Posted by design219 

Be afraid. Be very afraid.

I am, I very am.

-t

[mitchell_pgh]

Interesting... yes, but there are amazing soviet space shuttle literally wasting away.

The

English Russia » Where is Buran Now?

The Buran is an amazing piece of history...

[analogika]

Originally Posted by mitchell_pgh 

Interesting... yes, but there are amazing soviet space shuttle literally wasting away.

The

English Russia � Where is Buran Now?

The Buran is an amazing piece of history...

Yes, that's just depressing.

That one is a test vehicle (one of six), used for atmospheric and systems tests.

Two of them were spaceworthy, one of which, the original "Buran", was destroyed in a hangar collapse. The other, "Pitchka", is intact, nearly completed, in a hangar somewhere (Edit: Google Earth tells me it's in building 112A).

Google Earth marker for this one: http://bbs.keyhole.com/ubb/download.php?Number=552336

[Mithras]

Originally Posted by analogika 

Why do they ALL look like 1970's kitchen appliances or washing machines? Fugly white or beige plastic, with brown or light grey "highlights", and filled with tacky veneered plastic and plush vileness inside...

Clearly, Apple needs to break into the trailer business.
I wonder what it would make? An anodized aluminum thing like the Airstream, except only 3 feet wide? Or white plastic? Or go retro iMac with five candy colors?

[DakarÊ’]

You're right, the aluminum would be back for sure. Apple logo on roof that can be seen from the air.

[analogika]

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