
The last known unidentified marking on the Saturn V S-IC - yanowitz
https://apollosaturncom.blogspot.com/2018/05/solved-last-known-unidentified-marking.html?m=1
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dingaling
> I posted some images in the Saturn Rocket History group on Facebook

It saddens me that Facebook has become this big, opaque data hole in the
Internet. Even searching for that group name only returns one reference back
to it.

All that accumulated recorded knowledge that exists only so long as Facebook
determines that Groups have financial benefit. All that knowledge that can't
be archived for the greater Internet.

~~~
SmellyGeekBoy
Not to mention that, depending on how active the group is, after a few days /
weeks / month the content will be impossible to find even through Facebook
itself.

~~~
glenneroo
Some groups are so large and post so frequently that it's not even possible to
find postings from the same day (happens sometimes when I'm reading on my
phone and want to reply afterwards on my PC).

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Mister_X
That... was a tough read, nay, more of a plod, it never came to a solid
conclusion after a laborious build up, BAH! And I'm a space/tech geek too,
with an appreciation of the arcane, but it needs to be easy to read for those
who may not have all the details the author clearly does. My father worked on
the A-12 (OXCART), several space probes, Mariner, Pioneer, etc., Project
Gemini and Project Apollo. He used to bring me green Anole Lizards that he'd
find on the Pad at the Cape and he shot 8mm family movies most times he went
down for a launch. Sadly, no cameras allowed in the block house, so I never
saw the inside and no home movies of the launches, because he was busy in the
block house with the launch. The Saturn 5 on the crawler slowly headed for the
Pad was always my fave movie reel, but also the rain storm inside the assembly
building when it's clear outside, that was a trip.

~~~
howard941
> My father worked on the A-12 (OXCART)

The most beautiful airplane ever built.

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WalterBright
I watched a history of the Saturn V on Amazon last night. Unfortunately,
frustratingly little of it was about the technical details of it, which is
mostly what interests me. The only good bit was an explanation of the pogoing
problem, the rest was just the usual stuff seen on every "failure is not an
option" Apollo documentary.

Reminds me of the locomotive buffs who are interested in every detail of
markings on the locomotives, their routes, schedules, and paint colors.
Whereas there's very little about the engineering evolution of those
locomotives. Sigh.

For example, I'm interested in the transition between trial-and-error seat of
the pants engineering and mathematically based engineering.

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rjsw
> For example, I'm interested in the transition between trial-and-error seat
> of the pants engineering and mathematically based engineering.

It is difficult to know how best to document this kind of thing, the people
who know about it probably don't want to write books or create their own
websites.

My grandfather was responsible for part of the engineering side of the early
British radar equipment, Wikipedia only really describes the scientific
experiments that led up to it. I have plenty of stuff that I could add that he
told me when teaching me electronics when I was a kid, but I would expect it
to get deleted if I can't point at an external source.

~~~
nikanj
Post the extra stuff to your blog, then cite that blog on Wikipedia.

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maaark
Then you'll just need to get a newspaper to write an article on it, so you can
have an 'authoritative' citation. /s

~~~
shifter
Paging Steele...

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dmix
I can imagine him trying to explain his excitement about finding this to his
wife, then her patting him on the head and her saying "that's nice honey".
Underscoring the amount of effort involved in such a seemingly trivial things
that nerds enjoy digging into.

~~~
xevb3k
I’m confused by this comment. Do you know this is specifically know that John
Duncan has a wife and that this is how she’d react? Or does this mean
something else?

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macinjosh
It is a hypothetical that means there are very few people in the world that
would share the unique obsessions of Saturn V model makers who care about
every detail. So his hypothetical wife, who likely doesn't share the same
obsessions, wants to be supportive but doesn't feel the same excitement that
he does.

~~~
xevb3k
If this is correct, it doesn’t seem very healthy.

While quite possibly statistically likely, it doesn’t seem very healthy to
make these assumptions for the purposes of a joke.

Might have been better to just say “a friend” rather than “wife” which makes a
number of assumptions...

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tntn
Meh?

Basically no one is as into the markings on the Saturn V first stage as this
guy, so I don't see how assuming his wife (if he is married) wouldn't be super
into it is offensive.

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dmix
Also if I had said 'partner' or 'friend' instead of 'wife' the comment would
probably have been less humorous, as it plays on a cliche situation. I'd
rather not live in a world where I'd have to neuter such a statement in the
name of absolute correctness over common sense.

~~~
xevb3k
The cliche draws upon a stereotype. It’s not a great stereotype to perpetuate
in my opinion. Better to just not make the joke than to perpetuate a
stereotype.

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macinjosh
What stereotype? Sounds to me like you are the one making negative assumptions
here.

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xevb3k
That men in tech all have wives and that their wives are not interested in
technical things that interest them.

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mysterypie
It looks like a metal ruler glued or welded to the surface of the rocket.
After all that build up in his story, I wish he explained what it was, and a
bit more about what it does, even if it seems obvious to him.

~~~
Yetanfou
It is referred to as an 'alignment mark', the print on it being in reverse
because the instruments used to check said alignment might have an odd number
of mirrors which would cause the image to be non-reversed. I'd say the purpose
of the strip to be to align the stage either in relation to the other stages
or to the launching platform.

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xt00
I mean I’m pretty into space stuff and I read the article.. maybe it’s a bit
niche for me.. :)

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Jaruzel
I'm into space stuff, and I could just feel his excitement in his words. It's
always nice to see people really enjoying their hobby I think. If you have any
level of OCD then this sort of article would appeal to you.

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thomasfedb
This is not what OCD is. I wish people would use the term appropriately.

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Jaruzel
I wish people would use the terms Depression, Anxiety, and Suicidal
appropriately, but they don't do that either.

Apologies if I offended you/anyone with my use of the term OCD. If he can
ignore it and move onto something else then it's clearly not OCD. However, the
author is obsessed with finding out everything he can about Saturn V, to the
extent he travels across the country to look at a sticker on one of parts that
on display. Some people would call that an unhealthy level of obsession.

~~~
thomasfedb
I'm not offended, I'm just perplexed why people (and not just you) use "OCD"
when "obsessive" expresses their meaning better, and without involving a
medical diagnosis that they're not actually referring to.

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iammiles
Thank you. I always appreciate reading the tales of those who are so deeply
passionate about an extremely niche hobby.

