[FPSPACE] Speaking of New Mexico...

[John]

Pardon the redirection, but I have to ask if Larry or David or anyone  
else has or knows of a New Mexico connection. I am looking for  
something called only a "Rogallo test vehicle" listed in Jim Gerard's  
"A Field Guide to American Spacecraft" website. This is for a personal  
project to identify and locate all known boilerplates and test  
articles of Gemini capsules. (Not actual spacecraft. Not Mercury. Not  
Apollo. My muse is very specific. )

A few years ago I emailed the Alamagordo museum but they never heard  
of it. Kathy and I stopped by once en route to someplace else but saw  
nothing helpful.

Is there someone who might know something, maybe a retiree?

I have a fantasy about finding a lost Gemini boilerplate, restoring it  
and putting it on display on Gemini Avenue here in Clear Lake.

Anyway thanks for any info, even if it is a dead end.

JBC
(some typos due to iPhone touchpad)

On Oct 28, 2009, at 7:34, David Portree <dsfportree at hotmail.com> wrote:

> Larry:
>
> I certainly do not object.
>
> The ABL reminds me of the metal carrot in one of the Bugs Bunny  
> cartoons; Bugs tries to bite it, drops it, and it opens, extends a  
> flagpole, runs up the flag of Earth, and deploys a brass band that  
> plays an anthem. Then it closes, job done. (And the hulking  
> Neanderthal Bugs eats it later, but never mind.)
>
> It also reminds me of a Swiss Army knife; all kinds of attachments  
> unfolding in different directions.
>
> Incidentally, the new exhibit is already prepared; it opened May 15.  
> I was contacted just as it opened; the ABL had been misidentified as  
> a component of the Voyager outer Solar System mission. It was  
> already on display with a placard to that effect when I was pulled  
> in to confirm its true identity.
>
> If it had remained misidentified, would anyone have noticed? I wonder.
>
> David S. F. Portree
>
> dsfportree at hotmail.com
> dportree at usgs.gov
>
> http://beyondapollo.blogspot.com/
>
> http://astrogeology.usgs.gov/About/People/DavidPortree/
>
>
>
>
>
> From: ljk4 at msn.com
> To: fpspace at friends-partners.org
> Date: Tue, 27 Oct 2009 22:34:52 -0400
> Subject: [FPSPACE] What might have landed on Mars instead of Viking
>
> David, I hope you don't mind my touting your recent Beyond Apollo
> article on the Automated Biological Laboratory (ABL) which might have
> landed on the Red Planet as part of the original Voyager program
> developed in the 1960s.
>
> The New Mexico Museum of Natural History and Science (NMMNHS) [link]  
> in Albuquerque, New Mexico, is preparing a new exhibit on space  
> exploration based
> "in large part on material on long-term loan from the New Mexico  
> Museum of
> Space History in Alamogordo. That material included a 1/4-scale ABL  
> model."
>
> Images of that model with the article are here:
>
> http://beyondapollo.blogspot.com/2009/10/abl-images-from-new-mexico-museum-of.html
>
> The design, especially the metal petals used for uprighting and  
> balancing
> the ABL remind me a fair bit of the Soviet Luna and Mars robot  
> landers.
> Did one group copy the other, or did function follow form?
>
> Thanks for the article and pics, David.  I wonder if something like  
> ABL
> could be used with modern technology for multiple lost-cost solar
> system missions?
>
> Larry
>
>
>
> Windows 7: It works the way you want. Learn more.
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