My husband has been a very proud member for many years now, and I use his log in to listen to ALL the shows. Love Right Angle! We are praying for Bill’s recovery as he is very dear to us. This past weekend my husband shared The Apollo podcast with our 17 year old son and some of his friends. I’ll let him tell it in his words, as sent to Bill in an email:
This past weekend, I had the pleasure of taking my 17 year old son to visit WPI, an engineering college that he’s very interested in attending. Along the way, I replayed the first part of your “What we Saw: The Apollo Mission”. My son, a highly motivated mechanical engineer who is quite interested in nuclear reactor design, was transfixed.
The next day, I took my son AND four of his robotics/engineering friends to the PAX East Expo in Boston, which is about an 1:15 minutes drive. Along the way, a motley collection of mechanical engineers, software engineers and one industrial engineer were educated on what we were like in the 60s and 70s (I was 4 when we landed on the moon. Our neighbor wrapped himself up in foil to look like a Gemini astronaut, which is the only part that I actually remember) and what it took to put a man on the moon and what it was like in 1969 when it seemed like we were launching every week.
One the way home, the collective crowd of boys demanded that we keep listening and we finished part 3 in the car. I emailed them all the link to part 4.
And somewhere along the ride home on Route 93 in NH, a car full of smart, driven, ambitious young engineers from all sorts of projected pursuits became a carload of Steely Eyed Missile Men. To a man (and sadly, they are all now men), they expressed some real interest in changing their college study from their planned course to courses in aerodynamics, astro-physics and rocketry. My son, especially, as growing up in our house, he’s very taken with patriotic pride.
So maybe we will all get to see some of these young men and women waving on a monitor from Mars. And maybe one or more of them will have started that journey just because somebody took the time to explain about the extraordinary men and women of the Apollo missions.
Thank you.
Andrew Wharton
3 replies on “About The Apollo Series”
I work with Civil Engineers at my municipality. 3 are women, and one of them has a son that is an Aeronautical Engineer at General Atomics out by Bill. I sent the series to her and she has sent it to him. She retires tomorrow, and I hope to find out if her son has shared the series with his colleagues.
Always good to have a reminder that the rising generation has just as much potential as the past ones–needs a bit of inspiration and guidance, that’s all.
Stirring! Thank you, Mr. and Mrs. Wharton.