Monday, April 25, 2005

Charlie Duke

Today Charlie Duke (Astronaut on Apollo 16) came to speak to the class. He was wonderfully engaging and intelligent, and spoke with a soft Texas accent. He also spoke a line I would never have guessed I would hear at MIT or elsewhere: he said he believed the crew of Apollo 16 "holds the record for poops in space." (They had been given extra Potassium pills because the crew of Apollo 15 had experienced some heart problems brought on by a lack of Potassium, and it turns out that Potassium has a laxative effect.)

I have been so impressed by most everybody who has spoken in this class. They are all super-intelligent and down-to-earth (oops..I guess that's kind of funny). In the audience today were Don Isles, who fixed the Apollo 14 LEM bug, and another guidance dude. Pretty dang cool

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