Beagle 2 found in Kingswood, Bristol !

[John]

Visited Kingswood Heritage Museum in Bristol today (avoiding bank holiday crowds) and was pleased to see a section on Professor Colin Pillinger and the Beagle 2 mission. Prof Pillinger was born and grew up in Kingswood.

The section includes a nice full scale model of Beagle 2 set in a martian diorama (sand, sandstone chunks and a suitably painted cardboard background). The model is on loan from Judith Pillinger. The gold foil covered section is just under a metre in diameter.

I was also pleased that the exhibition included images from the Mars Reconnaisance Orbiter captured in 2015 which shows that Beagle 2 did indeed get to the martian surface and just a few miles from the intended landing site.

Interesting local museum and well worth the £3 entrance fee. It also has a tea room and 2nd hand book shop as further temptation. Here is it's website:

http://www.kingswoodmuseum.org.uk/

I've attached a photo of the Beagle 2 at Kingswood and the mug which I could not resist !

[emadmoussa]

Very nice. 

Last April, I visited the space museum in Washington D.C. I have to say, some places are a lot more impressive on paper than they are in reality. Free admission, though. 

[JOC]

6 minutes ago, emadmoussa said:

Very nice. 

Last April, I visited the space museum in Washington D.C.

The Udvar Hazy air and space museum?  I've been there too.  It was a choice between the zoo to see the pandas or the Udvar Hazy to see a space shuttle.  The latter won.  I stll haven't seen pandas, but I have seen a space shuttle!  ?  I also unexpectedly came across Baumgartners capsule that he jumped from the edge of space from and most profoundly Enola Gay, I still don't know what I made of her, but she provoked an emotional response from me quite unlike anything else I have ever experienced.  FWIW I thought Udvar Hazy was quite a good day out.  It was virtually deserted whilst we were there too, which I found quite refreshing.  The only drawback of the place was literally the only food outlet was Macdonalds, so for the first and I hope only time I was forced to spent cash there.  I ordered a salad rather than  dreaded buger though.

[Louis D]

Been to the National Zoo in D.C.  Very disappointing.  The pandas were hiding in their enclosure, parking was $14 (IIRC) despite free admission, and the entire park sits on a hill making for a rather tiring time.  I've been to so many much better zoos in the U.S. that I would never recommend it to a foreign visitor.

By far the best air and space museum I've been to is the National Museum of the US Air Force in Dayton, Ohio.  It is absolutely huge with many one of a kind airplanes and some missiles and capsules.  It takes 4 to 6 hours to walk the whole thing.  Highly recommended to all.

48 minutes ago, JOC said:

dreaded buger

booogaer (said with a menacing accent), seems fitting.  However, there are worse chains in the US.  Hardees/Carl's Jr. serves squishy gray patties that made me vomit halfway through.  It was the only place to eat at the Ohio Turnpike service plaza.  Big mistake.

[Gfamily]

56 minutes ago, JOC said:

The Udvar Hazy air and space museum?  I've been there too.  It was a choice between the zoo to see the pandas or the Udvar Hazy to see a space shuttle.  The latter won.  I stll haven't seen pandas, but I have seen a space shuttle!  ?  I also unexpectedly came across Baumgartners capsule that he jumped from the edge of space from and most profoundly Enola Gay, I still don't know what I made of her, but she provoked an emotional response from me quite unlike anything else I have ever experienced.  FWIW I thought Udvar Hazy was quite a good day out.  It was virtually deserted whilst we were there too, which I found quite refreshing.  The only drawback of the place was literally the only food outlet was Macdonalds, so for the first and I hope only time I was forced to spent cash there.  I ordered a salad rather than  dreaded buger though.

Although the food outlet was McD, you can get Pizza there too - or at least you could when we were there in 2015.

Agreed, Udvar Hazy is well worth a visit, but the National Air and Space Museum on the Mall is a must-see if you're in the area. 

Both of those lived up to expectations, but we were significantly impressed when we visited the Neil Armstrong Air and Space Museum in Wapakoneta in Ohio (about 90 minutes out of the State capital, Columbus). The museum is really interesting - very much about the man himself of course, and the shop has got a very good range of goods on sale; including a great range of NASA material. I'd say the Museum shop has a better range of goods than does the Smithsonian for people who are interested in space flight. 

[ollypenrice]

9 hours ago, JOC said:

 and most profoundly Enola Gay, I still don't know what I made of her, but she provoked an emotional response from me quite unlike anything else I have ever experienced.  

Similar thing for me when I visited a motor museum outside Lyon. They have one of Hitler's processional Mercedes convertibles with a handle in the middle of the upper windscreen surround whose plating was worn thin where his hand held it. This made my blood run cold.

Sometimes an object can have tremendous power over the imagination which, I guess, is what museums are all about.

Olly

[Alan White]

Kings wood museum, sounds interesting John.

Did the museum have any Douglas Motorcycle displays ? As the factory was once in Kingswood.

[John]

1 hour ago, Alan White said:

Kings wood museum, sounds interesting John.

Did the museum have any Douglas Motorcycle displays ? As the factory was once in Kingswood.

There was a whole room dedicated to Douglas Alan. Some beautiful machines

 

[ollypenrice]

1 hour ago, Alan White said:

Kings wood museum, sounds interesting John.

Did the museum have any Douglas Motorcycle displays ? As the factory was once in Kingswood.

Before I was born my father had a flat twin Douglas with torsion bar rear suspension. When he had a broken centre stand repaired he told the garage not to let the torch heat the torsion bar but they didn't listen and ruined it, so he sold it I never got to meet it!

Olly

[Alan White]

2 hours ago, John said:

There was a whole room dedicated to Douglas Alan. Some beautiful machines

 

In that case John, two reasons for a visit to Bristol and the museum when next down a West.

 

[Macavity]

14 hours ago, John said:

I was also pleased that the exhibition included images from the Mars Reconnaisance Orbiter captured in 2015 which shows that Beagle 2 did indeed get to the martian surface and just a few miles from the intended landing site.

Yes, the evidence that Beagle 2 may have (at least) partly deployed is
enigmatic and moving. So near, yet so far! Perhaps they should have
put the antenna at the top of the "stack" (my understanding) though? ?  

[Louis D]

10 hours ago, ollypenrice said:

They have one of Hitler's processional Mercedes convertibles with a handle in the middle of the upper windscreen surround whose plating was worn thin where his hand held it. This made my blood run cold.

I got that feeling descending into and walking around the abandoned WWII bunkers beneath Obersalzberg, Germany's Hotel zum Türken.  No tour guide, just folks on their own.  One lady was so overwhelmed she couldn't go any further and turned around.

[John]

3 hours ago, Louis D said:

I got that feeling descending into and walking around the abandoned WWII bunkers beneath Obersalzberg, Germany's Hotel zum Türken.  No tour guide, just folks on their own.  One lady was so overwhelmed she couldn't go any further and turned around.

Similar feelings when I took my children to visit the V1 and V2 blockhouses at d'Eperlecques in northern France http://www.leblockhaus.com/en/

It was not so much the immense bunkers or the potential that the rockets had for destruction that were the most moving but the bleakness of the existance of the slave labour that was used to construct the place. A place of great impact in what is now a very peaceful setting.

I degress from the original topic although the WWII rocket technology did find it's way into much more positive achievements in space exploration in due course.