An evening with Buzz Aldrin

An evening with Buzz Aldrin

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a boardman

Original Poster:

1,316 posts

207 months

Eric Mc

122,858 posts

272 months

Tuesday 10th May 2016
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Pity it' so far "oop north".

FunkyNige

9,162 posts

282 months

Tuesday 10th May 2016
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Eric Mc said:
Pity it' so far "oop north".
He's off to the South Pole in December if that's any better hehe
His site doesn't list the event in the OP so maybe there'll be a couple more events in the UK not announced yet.

Eric Mc

122,858 posts

272 months

Tuesday 10th May 2016
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Pity he's too far ""dahn saff".

Maybe we can persuade him to drop into Farnborough on the way.

Simpo Two

87,097 posts

272 months

Tuesday 10th May 2016
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It seems very small/obscure venue for such a man. He could do a UK tour...

a boardman

Original Poster:

1,316 posts

207 months

Tuesday 10th May 2016
quotequote all
Simpo Two said:
It seems very small/obscure venue for such a man. He could do a UK tour...
It is a small school theatre seating 550 people.

I went to see Sir Ranulph Fiennes there last year and included a personal signed copy of his heat book.


Eric Mc

122,858 posts

272 months

Tuesday 10th May 2016
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Farnborough is not that silly a venue as you might think because we regularly have talks held here by the RAeS (Royal Aeronautical Society) hosted at BAE System's HQ and the Farnborough Air Science Trust Museum. In fact, this evening I'm off to a talk on the Lockheed U2 hosted by FAST.

Simpo Two

87,097 posts

272 months

Tuesday 10th May 2016
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I couldn't fnd this on a Google search, only http://buzzaldrin.com/latest-buzz/events/

If this event is real why isn't it listed? Is he doing any other events in the UK or just flying all the way from America to talk in a school and flying back again?

Sorry for being cynical but it seems rather odd.

Monty Python

4,813 posts

204 months

Wednesday 11th May 2016
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About 10 years ago Marsha Ivins came to my workplace and gave a talk for a couple of hours - one of the best I've been to.

http://www.jsc.nasa.gov/Bios/htmlbios/ivins.html

CrutyRammers

13,735 posts

205 months

Wednesday 11th May 2016
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I've contacted the school and they've confirmed that it is real. So I'm going smile

Simpo Two

87,097 posts

272 months

Wednesday 11th May 2016
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CrutyRammers said:
I've contacted the school and they've confirmed that it is real. So I'm going smile
I'm actually tempted, though it'd be an overnighter.

How could I find out, seeing as it's not on his website, if he'll be doing any other UK venues maybe closer to Essex?

ralphrj

3,669 posts

198 months

Wednesday 11th May 2016
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According to his website he is doing a show in Oxford the day before.

BLACKWELL’S OXFORD IS PROUD TO PRESENT: Buzz Aldrin at the Sheldonian Theatre in Oxford, United Kingdom on Wednesday, June 1.
Buzz will be discussing his illustrious career in space exploration and the latest book about his life, ‘No Dream is Too High: Life Lessons From a Man Who Walked on the Moon’. A beautiful memento, a thought-provoking set of ideas, and a new opportunity for Buzz Aldrin to connect with the masses of people who recognize his unique place in human history.
Tickets for this very special evening cost just £6 and are limited. The book signing will follow after the discussion.

When:

Wednesday, June 1 7:00pm

Where:

Sheldonian Theatre
Broad St, Oxford OX1 3AZ
United Kingdom

Tickets:

To order your tickets please call or visit @NorringtonRoom 01865 333623/01865 333600

Simpo Two

87,097 posts

272 months

Thursday 12th May 2016
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Thanks Ralph!

Ian974

3,002 posts

206 months

Thursday 12th May 2016
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I'll say thanks to the OP as well for posting this thread, I wouldnt have heard about this if I hadn't looked in here.
I'm down Glasgow way the night before so have booked a ticket for this as well. Looking forward to it!

ncaplin

25 posts

127 months

Monday 16th May 2016
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lost in espace

6,299 posts

214 months

Monday 16th May 2016
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Bath and Oxford sold out :-(

troc

3,859 posts

182 months

Thursday 26th May 2016
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I've had dinner with him a couple of times, very interesting chap and always worth listening to.

Eric Mc

122,858 posts

272 months

Thursday 26th May 2016
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Tell us more, please smile

Simpo Two

87,097 posts

272 months

Thursday 2nd June 2016
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Thnanks to Ralph I met Buzz last night at the lovely Sheldonian Theatre in Oxford. He and his manager do a loose 'interview' format because he struggles a bit getting thoughts together, but when he gets into his stride there's excellent if slightly random detail. It was a slight pity that just as Buzz was getting into some interesting detail the manager would pull him back to something more superficial, and we had to tolerate questions like 'What does the Moon smell like?'

Buzz was particularly lucid on the subject of manned v unmanned space exploration, something that's cropped up here more than once. He talked about two Martian rovers, one that lasted 6 years and one that's still going. Progress was very slow because of the 20-minute time delay in relaying instructions from Earth; apparently the director of the rovers said that if there'd been a man in Mars orbit to control them, they'd have done the same amount of work in a week.

Another snip that I hadn't heard was that Apollo 12 had been scheduled to make the first Moon landing, but the designer of Apollo 11's LEM, LEM 5, had managed to get it light enough to use on Apollo 11. And that von Braun had originally foreseen lunar missions using two Saturn Vs each; only when the idea of a two-part lander and a lunar rendezvous did it become possible with one.

In 1969 I was woken up to see the moon landing on TV, and my father took a b/w photo from the screen which I still have. I took it along with me last night just in case there was a chance to ask Buzz to sign it, but sadly not.

In short there wasn't a great deal of content, but it was a great experience to meet and shake hands with one of the seven remaining moon walkers. Thanks Ralph!

Eric Mc

122,858 posts

272 months

Thursday 2nd June 2016
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Sounds like it was worthwhile.

I saw Buzz on The One Show on Monday night (I know, I know) and he did seem to be slightly out of sync with the interviewers. Having said that, as it was The One Show, that might not be so difficult to understand.

Regarding the various options open to how Apollo would achieve the object of landing a man on the moon, there were actually three options available -

i) Direct Ascent, using a HUGE booster called Nova
ii) Earth Orbit Rendezvous (EOR)- using two Saturn Vs
iii) Lunar Orbit Rendezvous (LOR) - using a single Saturn V

In Direct Ascent and Earth Orbit Rendezvous, it was envisaged that the Command/Service Module (CSM) would take all three crewmen down to the Lunar Surface. Because of the weight of the CSM and its crew and fuel, it was recognised that either a huge booster (Nova) or two Saturn Vs would be needed to lift the craft and all its fuel all the way to the moon.

LOR - combined with a lightweight lander (the Lunar Module) offered huge weight and fuel savings allowing a single Saturn V to be used. Initially, the team proposing LOR had a tough job persuading Von Braun and NASA management that LOR was not only the best option, but really the only option if they wanted to beat Kennedy's "end of the decade" directive.