Space(!) Shirt, Bracket Contest Comment Count

Brian

It has been a long journey through the desert but finally there is a t-shirt that says "Space, Bitches!" in commemoration of Michigan's killer Apollo PSA. Yea, and it came down from the mountain and it was good:

apollo-15In commemoration, we'll make this MGoBlog Yahoo tourney bracket an officially sponsored thing. Top five get a freebie Space shirt and the winner gets a bonus of his or her choosing.  Group #36042, password "mgoblog." Get to thy brackets.

Comments

JeremyB

March 15th, 2010 at 3:27 PM ^

Not to be that guy, since this is 100% Pure Colombian Awesome, and this is how it is in the ad too... but the CSM is orbiting Earth in the wrong direction.

MGoShoe

March 15th, 2010 at 4:33 PM ^

See this National Air and Space Museum page that allows you to see the details of the Apollo 11 flight path.

As per JeremyB: upon launch and entry into outer space, the spacecraft followed the typical prograde (west to east) orbit, but it appears the CSM never completed an orbit by itself. On the outbound leg, it separated from the Saturn rocket, drove behind the Saturn, picked up the LEM, then headed to the moon. Upon its return to Earth, the CSM again travelled east to west, but it detached the Command Module (CM) for reentry and neither component actually completed an orbit.

Interestingly, the CSM orbited the moon in a retrograde (or east to west) orbit.

The commercial got it wrong, but it's still an awesome commercial, and this is an awesome shirt, bitches.

Mattinboots

March 15th, 2010 at 7:43 PM ^

My granddad helped compute this.

Not kidding (evidence):

http://www.space.com/peopleinterviews/RichardBattin_profile_991027.html

"In 1958, an MIT design for an unmanned Mars probe featured a new design for a computer that incorporated Laning and Battin's software code for navigating without the aid of ground controllers.

Partly because of that work, NASA awarded MIT the first contract of the Apollo program in 1961 -- the design of the guidance, navigation and control system for the moon ship."

Alton

March 15th, 2010 at 4:38 PM ^

Not to be the guy who is "that guy" in response to that other guy...but how can you tell what direction the CSM is moving on the shirt? I agree that it's going the wrong direction in the ad, but that isn't a problem here.

As mgoshoe points out, the more noticeable problem with the commercial is that there's no S-IVB or LM--just a CSM by itself.

MGoShoe

March 15th, 2010 at 4:44 PM ^

...because the CSM could be travelling west to east and be oriented with its aft end moving forward (i.e., during a turning maneuver). But since it's based on the commercial, it's a good bet that the shirt is meant to depict the CSM in a retrograde orbit.

zlionsfan

March 15th, 2010 at 7:49 PM ^

it's an issue, of sorts, due to the awesomeness of Michigan's engineering programs. Standards to uphold and all that.

Also, we are in a conference that despite the presence of schools like Ohio State (duh) and Indiana (not an engineering school, although it does have a cyclotron) does have schools like Purdue (astronaut awesomeness - no, I'm not an AE) and Illinois (I think there are engineers there). So I think it's perfectly acceptable to discuss the finer points of orbits and such.

Even if graduates of certain other schools would hear "orbits" and think "I gotta get me one of them floatin cars."

SysMark

March 15th, 2010 at 5:08 PM ^

Is there anything on the back? The little brother comment would be nice there, though we don't want to get too literal. Just worried that members of certain student bodies may not get it.

jaster

March 16th, 2010 at 3:16 AM ^

Not to be another "that guy," but isn't David Scott's affiliation with UM a little flimsy? Only attended UM for one year and was given an honorary degree only weeks before the mission in order to give the crew the "all-Michigan" distinction? That said, the only people I've ever heard bring that up are a couple of obnoxious Spartan fans, so screw it. Rock on. Nice shirt!

Mooninites, bitches. Mooninites.

Six Zero

March 16th, 2010 at 8:04 AM ^

to the concept that the module is pointing in the wrong direction, an anonymous source would like to state that yes, it was created to look the same as the TV advert, but also the shirt was designed so that the module points directly to the state of Michigan.

kevin holt

March 16th, 2010 at 10:23 PM ^

I worked on this bracket just for this thing and I didn't realize waiting to register in the group would cause it to close. I literally went on mgoblog at 2:55pm on this day and saw this post very early too.

Short story short: I'm stupid.

white_pony_rocks

March 17th, 2010 at 10:57 AM ^

that shirt will be mine, i can't wait to beat a bunch of douchey mgoblog users..........nah just kidding guys.......about the douchey part, you guys aren't so bad, the shirt will be mine though