Al Johnston
"Cheer up!" they said, "It could be worse!" So I did, and it was.
Posts: 1,453
|
Post by Al Johnston on Oct 8, 2005 7:38:06 GMT -4
Watching Spacecraft Films' The Mighty Saturns - Saturn V it's noticeable that, although there was a general paint scheme used for all the boosters, there were distinct individual variations, particularly of the chequer-board pattern on the S-II/S-IVB interstage. Does anyone have any ideas on the thinking behind this?
(I'm assuming there was some, if only because every pound of paint left in the tin was another pound of payload that could have been carried instead.)
|
|
|
Post by LunarOrbit on Oct 8, 2005 12:29:24 GMT -4
I think the black & white stripe pattern on the Saturn rockets was used to help observers on the ground verify the attitude (pitch, roll, etc.) of the rocket.
|
|
Al Johnston
"Cheer up!" they said, "It could be worse!" So I did, and it was.
Posts: 1,453
|
Post by Al Johnston on Oct 8, 2005 13:45:21 GMT -4
That makes sense, thanks. I did a little digging around after posting ( www.apollosaturn.com is quite handy) and discovered that there were all kinds of small markings for such things as detecting the first motion of the rocket to aligning the stages correctly during assembly. I think you're right about the main pattern though: it turns out that after the first couple of boosters built, it was pretty much standardised.
|
|