|
Post by brotherofthemoon on Feb 20, 2012 6:46:39 GMT -4
Well, I suppose a lot of it comes down to bad editing and lowering standards in children's books. The illustration in the OP was created in 1997 for Incredible Everything, which was created for the same age group as Into The Unknown. At the time, Biesty was working for Dorling Kindersley and let Richard Platt handle the captions on his illustrations. Ironically, some people criticized his work at the time as being too complicated for fourth graders to understand.
Silly as it may seem to nitpick something intended for kids, it's a shame this material doesn't hold up well compared to his older stuff. The spacesuit bit was just a throwaway part on the Saturn V artwork, but the proper terminology was used that time around, and he showed the CWG being worn directly to the skin. Not gonna blame Stephen Biesty this time around, but whoever did the callouts needs a new day job.
|
|
|
Post by brotherofthemoon on Feb 19, 2012 22:10:49 GMT -4
Was in the library yesterday when I stumbled across a fairly new book titled Into The Unknown: How Great Explorers Found Their Way by Land, Sea, and Air by Stewart Ross, and illustrated by Stephen Biesty. The last chapter is about Apollo 11, and features some nifty gatefold artwork showing cutaways of the LM, CM, and Saturn V, and a 22 x 11 inch poster depicting each step of the mission. Unfortunately, this bit of the book is riddled with errors that the book's target audience will probably miss. Here's some I noticed: The service module carried "food and water for three weeks." The VAB "had its own weather inside -including clouds." Apollo 8 flew around behind the moon, giving it's crew "a view of the dark side." The Apollo 10 LM was not fitted with landing gear, so the crew "were not tempted to go any further." SWC described as "checking for lunar wind." CM described as 18 feet in diameter. There's a couple of bits of space jargon that have been dumbed down for the third-grade crowd, but I'm not sure how those gaffes got in there. Still, the rest of the book is nicely done - lots of detailed cutaways and maps, including the Trieste, Piccard's gondola, David Livingstone's Ma Roberts, and the HMS Endeavour, just to name a few. I just hoped the Apollo 11 part would stand up to closer scrutiny. Poor Stephen Biesty couldn't resist drawing a crater under the LM; not a giant, charred crater, but still a crater nonetheless. At least he got the size of the S-IC's LOX tank right this time! Here's Biesty's take on the lunar suit: Nice detail for a kid's book, but 15 minutes of fact-checking the text would have gone a long way.
|
|
|
Numbers
Jul 22, 2011 21:20:38 GMT -4
Post by brotherofthemoon on Jul 22, 2011 21:20:38 GMT -4
So, to summarize Fattydash's posting tactics: "Well, maybe I'll just have to try the same thing again to see if it works..." (Creates sockpuppet account) "Good try! I'll try a slow, straight-in approach, just to keep them on their toes!" (Creates sockpuppet account) "Three strikes, and I'm almost there!" (Creates sockpuppet account) "Ha! I'm getting through to them! They'll never suspect it's me again!" (Creates sockpuppet account) "SUCCEEEESS!!!!
|
|
|
Post by brotherofthemoon on Jul 16, 2010 16:36:06 GMT -4
Its completely obvious that Jarrah had hidden his camera behind something. How do we know that Jarrah didn't film Andy in close-up, and then put a black mask around the lens to make it look like he was on the other side of the room? That's what BS would say! ;D
|
|
|
Post by brotherofthemoon on Jun 18, 2010 18:52:44 GMT -4
what gets me is that Neil Armstrong had a serious accident with some machine (it was supposed to be Moon friendly) The water dispenser accidentally sprayed hot water on his hand? The moon toaster made his bread too dark? An oxygen tank exploded? Seriously, the authoritative vagueness of this statement befuddles me.
|
|
|
Post by brotherofthemoon on Apr 5, 2010 18:47:22 GMT -4
Besides the whole antenna/antennae issue, the only thing that really grates on me about this illustration is the size of the S-IC. It's been heavily truncated here compared to the real thing - look at the gap between the American flag and the "USA" on the first stage. Biesty's take of the Saturn V gives it LH2 and RP tanks of roughly equal proportions, when the LH2 tank was really more than a third larger in volume and quite a bit longer. I also noticed he sorta cheated on the overall length of the stage by having the F-1s, thrust structure, and heat shield suspended from the base of the stage and in "exploded view." Besides that, his depiction of the internal arrangement of the three stages and the IU are spot-on.
Yeah, I know it's kind of pointless nitpicking the technical accuracy of an illustration drawing in a children's book, but considering Biesty's usually fastidious attention to detail, the S-IC sizing does annoy me.
|
|
|
Post by brotherofthemoon on Apr 3, 2010 17:33:09 GMT -4
Next time a HB makes yet another gaff I'll point him (they are always male, aren't they?) to this. Kids can know this stuff. Why can't you?Yeah, isn't it amazing how a book for pre-teens shows the parachutes AROUND the CM's access tunnel? Seriously though, the thing that impresses me about Stephen Biesty is that he illustrates for kids, but has a fastidious attention to technical and historical detail that makes him appealing for adults. Before you even get to the actual Saturn V, I notice he included the crushable ribs that were part of the Earth Impact System, accurately depicted the arrangement of the SM RCS's fuel and oxidizer tanks (which is something that Scott Sullivan didn't do in Virtual Apollo!), and does an excellent job overall showing how the CM and SM were laid out and assembled. All little things a 10 year old wouldn't notice - but an adult Apollo "nutter" would get a big grin out of.
|
|
|
Post by brotherofthemoon on Apr 2, 2010 9:20:21 GMT -4
|
|
|
Post by brotherofthemoon on Mar 6, 2010 8:03:38 GMT -4
Gentlemen, It certainly has been some interesting, Well ? acumen, to say the least, to hold the young children up to look through the THICK glass. ...Chess... Wave your hand and say Bye Bye! Scratch another kamikaze HB.
|
|
|
Post by brotherofthemoon on Feb 18, 2010 20:23:21 GMT -4
Finally, I have an excuse to break out my copy of Virtual LM. Pages 194 and 195 feature some interesting 3D models depicting the ascent stage's "passive" thermal control system. For the most part, the crew cabin, thermal blanket, and micrometeorite shield never actually came into contact with one another. As shown in these diagrams, they were mounted on supports which kept it at least two inches from the structure. A simple, ingenious system - which explains why HBs can't seem to understand it!
|
|
|
Post by brotherofthemoon on Feb 15, 2010 21:22:01 GMT -4
I'm not gonna pretend to be a rocket scientist, but look at this way:
The LM DPS was generating 3,000 pounds of thrust on landing. The area of the DPS nozzle extension at it's exit is around 2,300 square inches. So, the nozzle pressure would be about 1.3 PSI. This is about the same amount of pressure applied to the ground by someone weighing around 200 pounds. Factor in the fact that the engine shut down six feet about the lunar surface, and was operating in a vacuum, and the surface isn't going to be disturbed a whole lot. Actually, I'm surprised by how much it's disturbed in some photographs.
|
|
|
Post by brotherofthemoon on Feb 10, 2010 18:50:29 GMT -4
I remember this. This is when Von Braun personally collected 842 pounds of lunar meteoroids, including numerous 10-foot deep core samples, and each one displayed billions of years of micrometeorite pitting, no signs of having been exposed to Earth's atmosphere, and showed no signs of having entered Earth's atmosphere at thousands of feet per second, right?
Sorry folks. Sometimes I'm just a snarky bastard who loves taking the piss out of the HB party line.
|
|
|
Post by brotherofthemoon on Jul 23, 2009 20:18:07 GMT -4
Well, that explains all of the perfectly symmetrical photographs, slow pans, icy stares, and horrifying choral music in the Apollo records.
|
|
|
Post by brotherofthemoon on Jul 21, 2009 11:40:19 GMT -4
At what altitude in the scorching radiation hell of the lunar vacusphere does the alleged "concept" of pounds-per-square-inch begin?
|
|
|
Post by brotherofthemoon on Jul 20, 2009 20:29:14 GMT -4
A couple more images from Virtual Apollo that might be useful.
|
|