Name the Geek

[GLS]

Who is this?

Kathryn Sullivan

 

[n0mad23]

Kathryn Sullivan

And we have a WINNER!

GLS - Well done. You've been awarded a reputation point for your effort.

Kathryn Sullivan is our latest Geek.


Any idea who the older chap is?

 

[GLS]

And we have a WINNER!

GLS - Well done. You've been awarded a reputation point for your effort.

Kathryn Sullivan is our latest Geek.


Any idea who the older chap is?

Hey, first post in the fast-rising backup forum and I've already won something.... don't know what but I did!

The pic of the "older chap" looks like it's from the 1960s, judging from those glasses... but it's as far as it goes from here...:unknown:

 

[Zatnikitelman]

I've googled nearly every big scientist name in space I can think of. Now I'm a big fan of subtlety, but that's downright encrypted.
(bonus points if you can tell me where that's from )

 

[n0mad23]

Big clues (in a cryptic sense):

Clue #1: All the Geeks photos have come from the same National Commission on Space (NCOS) document.

Clue #2: The chapter is titled, "______ to Space." If I fill in the blank, it'll be too easy.

 

[Chode]

Ok,

This one's a little more obscure.

Any takers?

William H. Pickering?


Regards

 

[Chode]

Ok, now I've got it, Luis W. Alvarez.

Regards

 

[n0mad23]

And Chode wins the final Geek. That's certainly worth a bump in reputation.

Interesting chap, that Alvarez - Manhattan Project, radar (including the Ground Controlled Approach system (GCA)), the 1968 Nobel in Physics which led to particle accelerators, and asteroid impact theory based on the iridium in the extinction boundary.

He's also the one who came up with "jet-recoil theory" to explain the phenomena that occurred during Kennedy's assassination.

With the final reputation prize awarded, thus ends Name the Geek.

 

[Notebook]

Strange how links flow along... I did some reading about Alvarez, and saw he designed the detonation system for the first nuclear bomb, that linked to an article about the Titan IV and I read this:-

In the early 1980s, General Dynamics planned to use a Space Shuttle to lift a Lunar Module into orbit and then launch a Titan IV rocket with an Apollo-type Service Module to rendezvous and dock – making a moonship for a lunar landing. The plan required the Space Shuttle and Titan IV to use aluminum-lithium fuel tanks instead of aluminum to make a greater payload weight for takeoff. The original plan never came to fruition but in the 1990s both the Shuttle and the Titan IV were converted to aluminum-lithium tanks to rendezvous with the highly inclined orbit of the Russian Mir Space Station. The Titan IVB became obsolete with the advent of the Atlas V rocket and the Delta IV heavy rocket booster launch vehicles in 2005.

Anyone else heard of this plan to launch a Lunar Module via the Shuttle?

N.

 

[NukeET]

He's also the one who came up with "jet-recoil theory" to explain the phenomena that occurred during Kennedy's assassination.

"Back and to the left" motion? :blink:

 

[n0mad23]

For both Notebook and NukeET's observations, it seemed like Alvarez was a good candidate here.

He certainly had his fingers in a lot of theoretical pots. I think I followed some of the same links you did Notebook, and found myself wondering about the difference between specialized thinkers and those with a more expansive view.

I did think his "back and to the left" explanation of JFK's motion after being shot shows that regardless of someone's intelligence, there's always (maybe more?) a possibility of short circuiting in the thinking process.