Things that gave you space fever waaay back.

[Moach]

what do you mean "back then"?

one thing that gives me space fever now (and pretty much always has): http://orbit.medphys.ucl.ac.uk

not sure if you may have heard about it - it's a SPACE FLIGHT SIMULATOR :blink: :lol:
what kinda genious comes up with such things?

:j/k::LOL!:

 

[ky]

I've tried Celestia it's not that bad but orbiter is better

 

[mode1bravo]

what do you mean "back then"?

one thing that gives me space fever now (and pretty much always has): http://orbit.medphys.ucl.ac.uk

not sure if you may have heard about it - it's a SPACE FLIGHT SIMULATOR :blink: :lol:
what kinda genious comes up with such things?

:j/k::LOL!:

I guess it's a very relative thing, being older forgetting that there are orbinauts here in their early 20's or younger that always had something on a computer to fiddle around with. For us older Orbinauts when we were younger there was no space or flight sims period, no home computers no internet. Where does a young kid get his space fix then? Rarely on broadcast TV 12 channels only if that, or the library. Books at the library back then say 60's or 70's even today are few and far between on space, and even then never show a person in detail how orbital mechanics work. That's why orbiter and the forum are a treasure trove of information.

As far as waxing nostalgic about 1960's 70's era spaceflight having a certain charm to it compared to now, it's like what sailing on an old clipper ship versus a modern cruise ship is. Or flying in a say 767 compared to a Douglas DC-3. Or watching and hearing a Supermarine Spitfire flyby compared to say a F-18.

 

[iamwearingpants]

A clear night sky. I remember I freaked out my brother by making him point at the sky, and then saying "There might be aliens there" :rofl:

 

[Istochnikov]

One man: Dr Franklin Chang Díaz:

 

[T.Neo]

- A trip to Kennedy Space Center when I was very young. It was hot, and I was very irritatable, but it made an impression on me nontheless. I do remember a large rocket on its side (presumably the Saturn V they have up there on display) and a distant launch pad (obviously one of the LC-39 pads). Whenever I hear about that place, or I fly from it in an Orbiter simulation, the back of my mind knows, 'I've been there'. Such a pity I didn't pay more attention, I might have had a more vivid memory of it.

- Armageddon.. I know, I know, I really don't want to admit it, but it made an impression on me when I was a kid- fortunately I was young enough to miss all the bad, bad science. :shifty:

- Very vivid children's books about space. They really got my imagination going. One of them was The Big Book Of Space by Robin Kerrod. Pity there don't seem to be any images up on the 'net of the cover, it gives a good sense of the content of the book. Had images of STS in particular, that I found pretty interesting.

- Perhaps to a lesser extent, spaceflight events such as the construction of the ISS, the MER mission, and[ame="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mark_Shuttleworth"]Mark Shuttleworth's[/ame] flight to space. I had the oppurtunity to watch the Soyuz TM-34 launch at school.

- Possibilities of other planets and alien life somewhere else in the cosmos, of interesting possibilities, and alien parallels to our reality.

- The idea of standing on another world, the idea that such places are so different from our own planet, but still real and tangible, if distant.

 

[Izack]

Or watching and hearing a Supermarine Spitfire flyby compared to say a F-18.

I've not seen a Spitfore before, but I have stood in the propwash of a Wildcat as it taxied by, and watched/heard it fly overhead. There is a thrill in hearing the sound of old aircraft engines that modern turbofans/jets/props just cannot recreate. The same applies to spaceflight. The old images from space, both the drawings (versus today's lifeless CGI) and the grainy photographs of grinning young men trying not to look awkward in their 'primitive' shiny spacesuits that stirs life in the viewer that today's routine high-res imagery and recreation can't compete with. I'm only ~20 years old, but I can agree with you 100% that those were the days!

I just wish I had lived those days. No wonder interest in spaceflight has waned -- it's not new anymore.

 

[Scav]

I just wish I had lived those days. No wonder interest in spaceflight has waned -- it's not new anymore.

I agree.

For me, it was first seeing "The Dream Is Alive" in an IMAX theater.

. . . and getting scared out of my wits by witnessing the zipline shot from the rapid egress sequence. Of course, I just HAD to sit front-row.

Secondly . . . was when a representative from NASA came to my elementary school asking us to brainstorm ideas for the name of the new Space Shuttle (which ended up being named Endeavour).

Third . . . my dad's business trip to Houston when I was eleven. We went to Johnson Space Center, of course, but I was too young/uneducated at the time to really appreciate everything I was seeing.

I really should have been an astronaut.:huh:

 

[DanM]

There isn't really one thing in my case, but this is as good as I can explain it.

I remember when I was really little (preschool) just being generally interested. Another memory I have is when John Glenn flew on Discovery. I also remember seeing a Mary Kate and Ashley episode where they went to Space Camp and they solved a mystery with Woodpeckers in the Shuttle's ET. I had this one book, too, which had a picture of the Shuttle's cockpit and panels. It was a very large, cardboard book. I would always open it to that page, then balance it and pretend to be an astronaut.

I also remember going to the Museum of Science and Industry in Chicago when I was in second grade. I saw an Imax film on the ISS, the Apollo 8 CM, a LM mockup, the Aurora 7 capsule, and a mockup of the front of the Shuttle. I had an intense interest in space for a few months after that.

A little over two years later, I got space fever again. My elementary school had a library, and I remember getting an earlier edition of this book. For the next two and a half years, I was completely obsessed. In Spring of '05 (the year I read that book), I found Orbiter. That summer, I remember a trip to Washington where I was extremely excited to see the Air & Space Museum and NASA's Wallops Flight Facility. The two summers after that, I went to Space Camp in Huntsville, Alabama.

I got interested again in late June/early July of 2010. I was very bored one day. I had been exploring different interests, and I kinda just latched on to space after starting to fly Orbiter again.