Old, cool, and interesting Stuff
- Thread starter stereofanboy
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NASA astronaut Alan B. Shepard Jr hit two golf balls while on the Moon in 1971… but where did they go? The answer has been revealed for Apollo 14’s 50th anniversary, thanks to 21st century tech.
Clearly, astronauts are hard to control.
Commander Shepard reportedly smuggled a specially-designed golf club into orbit. It comprised “a Wilson Staff Dyna-Power 6-iron head” which could be attached to a “collapsible tool” or scooper intended for collecting rock samples”.
The head traveled to the Moon in a sock. Once Shepard assembled his club, it wasn’t exactly plain sailing. 2 balls received a low gravity whack.
Accounts state he needed 3 swings to hit the first shot. It’s been known for a while that this ball went into a crater. Down in Mission Control, Fred Haise famously quipped: “Looked like a slice to me Al.”
The second was a breeze – not that the Moon has a breeze. However its destination remained a mystery. BBC Sport notes, “there was no ball-tracking technology” half a century ago.
Conditions on the Moon would have created “perfect parabolic” flight for the ball writes Saunders for Golf Journal (republished on the USGA website). That said, low gravity meant the club didn’t swing as it should.
And Shepard had trouble swinging in the first place. A bulky spacesuit affected the Commander’s technique, putting it mildly.
Shepard was left with no option but to wield the club with one hand. Plus the restrictive visor wasn’t player friendly.
Shepard had a sense of humor about the whole deal, claiming his shot carried the ball over of a number of miles. Saunders says this was “a light-hearted exaggeration; something highly competitive astronauts and golfers are prone to.”
Yep, these are pathetic distances, especially for very low gravity.
In 2011 the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter flew over the area with an eager lens. Some stunningly clear images were produced.
Clearly, astronauts are hard to control.
Commander Shepard reportedly smuggled a specially-designed golf club into orbit. It comprised “a Wilson Staff Dyna-Power 6-iron head” which could be attached to a “collapsible tool” or scooper intended for collecting rock samples”.
The head traveled to the Moon in a sock. Once Shepard assembled his club, it wasn’t exactly plain sailing. 2 balls received a low gravity whack.
Accounts state he needed 3 swings to hit the first shot. It’s been known for a while that this ball went into a crater. Down in Mission Control, Fred Haise famously quipped: “Looked like a slice to me Al.”
The second was a breeze – not that the Moon has a breeze. However its destination remained a mystery. BBC Sport notes, “there was no ball-tracking technology” half a century ago.
Conditions on the Moon would have created “perfect parabolic” flight for the ball writes Saunders for Golf Journal (republished on the USGA website). That said, low gravity meant the club didn’t swing as it should.
And Shepard had trouble swinging in the first place. A bulky spacesuit affected the Commander’s technique, putting it mildly.
Shepard was left with no option but to wield the club with one hand. Plus the restrictive visor wasn’t player friendly.
Shepard had a sense of humor about the whole deal, claiming his shot carried the ball over of a number of miles. Saunders says this was “a light-hearted exaggeration; something highly competitive astronauts and golfers are prone to.”
Yep, these are pathetic distances, especially for very low gravity.
In 2011 the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter flew over the area with an eager lens. Some stunningly clear images were produced.
The xray of Tesla’s foot reminded me of the shoe fluoroscope. My mother-in-law was telling my wife and I about how her mother would take her to a shoe store in New Orleans in the 1940’s. She said you would put your new shoes on and stand on the fluoroscope. It had a slot to slip your feet into and three view ports you could see how your feet and toes fit inside the shoes. The view ports allowed you, your parent, and the shoe salesman to all look at the same time. I wouldn’t be surprised if cancer rates for shoe salesmen were high. I did read somewhere that it was attributed to high numbers of basal cell skin cancers on the soles of feet in the UK. Basal cell skin cancer is the most common type cancer and usually caused by exposure to the sun’s rays. I’ve had a couple removed, but soles of your feet is definitely weird place to get it.
The Shields Brothers were plenty tall: Shade Shields was 6 feet 8 inches tall, Guss Shields was 6 feet 9, Frank Shields was 6 feet 10.5, and Jack Shields was 6 feet 11. However, Barnum billed them all as being over seven feet tall. Family members later said they wore lifts in their shoes during showtime. The brothers toured with the circus for over ten years.
