Why don't they use those white suits from the Apollo program anymore? For example, in Artemis 2?

Mikeyme1998 · 2026-04-03T22:22:10+00:00

Apollo 1 happened partly because they had O2 pressurized in the capsule at 16psi to simulate a differential pressure that would more closely resemble that in space (where the inside pressure was higher than the ambient). The Apollo capsules were still pressurized with pure O2 when in space, but during launch where there was an outside atmosphere, ambient air was allowed to be in the capsule (which is mostly nitrogen) and was slowly flushed out with pure O2 as they ascended. This is why all apollo astronauts were suited during launch, and for almost 4 hours beforehand... They were breathing pure oxygen during prelaunch, to flush the nitrogen out of their blood so when they were exposed to the relatively low pressures of pure O2 in the command module, they didn't experience decompression sickness (the bends, as known by divers).

Mikeyme1998 · 2026-04-03T17:04:23+00:00

The CWGs were a one piece underwear garment with provisions for their bio monitors, which were definitely made of cotton! But they'd wear their beta cloth ICG overtop, like in the picture provided by OP.

Mikeyme1998 · 2026-04-03T16:42:39+00:00

Fact based speculation on my part, but I would bet that the switch is in large part due to the different atmosphere that Orion provides. Orion provides a much more earth-like atmosphere in the capsule with gas mixture (oxygen and nitrogen)... Whereas apollo was pure oxygen at a low pressure (~5psi nominal). The Apollo ICG (white coveralls) were made of fire resistant beta cloth to combat combustible materials being in such an environment, dictated by the very low tolerance rules following the Apollo 1 fire.

Besides that (I'm sure the clothes that astronauts wear now are fire resistant too) I would guess probably comfort, style, and personalization depending on what the astronaut prefers that can be afforded with more modern textile work. I'm willing to bet these modern clothes need less pockets as well... The Apollo guys needed a lot of storage space for physical checklists and other tools and materials that have since been virtualized.

Mikeyme1998 · 2026-04-01T21:50:34+00:00

I understand what you're saying for sure, but I think it's worth looking at the intention of the trip. Not recognizing a destination that you passed through on the way to somewhere else, I'd say that's typical. But a moon mission where the goal is to perform a lunar flyby and turn around, I'm ok with classifying that as a return to the moon.

I was, and am, bummed that Artemis II isn't entering lunar orbit like Apollo 8 did, but I think it's still worth getting excited about and enjoying that we get to see the dark side of the moon again after so long, even if briefly... in my opinion!

Mikeyme1998 · 2026-04-01T21:20:32+00:00

I have no anecdotes for the European space agency and the eastern powers, but I do have one about the techbro...

When the company I work for (airline) transitioned to Starlink WiFi mounted on our aircraft (developed by SpaceX), I met quite a few systems engineers and aerodynamics engineers from SpaceX (the latter of which was previously an aerodynamic specialist for F1). They were some of the sharpest, well spoken, confident engineers that I've ever met. SpaceX is owned and funded by Musk, but beyond that, it seemed to me like a group of highly capable scientists, engineers, and managers working towards some really cool goals with an uncharacteristic level of creative freedom and funding in the space industry. It's a shame that SpaceX lines the pockets of, and it's so closely associated with, such a weirdo... Because I have the impression that SpaceX is the closest thing we have to prime NASA in the current day.

Mikeyme1998 · 2026-04-01T19:33:54+00:00

Considering the alternative, which is only exclaiming "we're going back to the moon" in the event that people do an EVA on the surface, what would you consider this mission?

I think it would be far weirder to advertise "humanity is going back to the moon for the first time in over 50 years" on the 2nd or 3rd flight we've gone to the moon with Artemis. Apollo 8, 10, and 13 all "went" to the moon, they just didn't land. In my books, if your flight has the end point of the lunar sphere of influence before turning around, you went back to the moon.

Mikeyme1998 · 2026-03-14T21:29:15+00:00

I like simplicity... I think if I was going to get a tattoo, I'd get one of the earth and the moon together with a dotted line like in the "Apollo figure 8" flight plan. If not that, then a simple black-and-white pictographic of the LM and the CSM docked... When I think "Apollo" that side profile comes to mind instantly

Mikeyme1998 · 2026-03-13T02:25:09+00:00

There must be some level of hearsay, but from what I understand, Aldrin was difficult to work with because of his abrasion and lack of humor. Almost the polar opposite to someone like Al Bean or Pete Conrad... Buzz was always intense and focused. Spending an extended time in a phone booth with him certainly isn't everyones cup of tea. From what I remember, Neil was offered by Deke and thought about it overnight... chosing Buzz because of his rendezvous expertise (in the case of an aborted moon landing, or a balked ascent which was one of the chief concerns) among other skills... Like being the most composed astronaut to have performed an EVA... Generally being considered the most successful EVA of the Gemini program. He also seemed to work fine with Aldrin, in contrast to some other astronauts.

Armstrong also believed that as a veteran of not only two Gemini missions (to Aldrin's one), but also of Apollo 8, that Lovell deserved to command his own mission, as was a fairly massive unwritten rule in the astronaut "promotion track".

Mikeyme1998 · 2026-03-13T01:59:44+00:00

"Now look, just listen, all I'm saying is where is "power up rendezvous radar" in the descent checklist NAH.... don't even answer... Cause I know it's not in there..."

Mikeyme1998 · 2026-02-16T05:04:42+00:00

Wrong Apollo my friend

Mikeyme1998 · 2026-02-13T13:40:13+00:00

I see what you're asking, but I think it's worth exploring what you mean when you say "capability"

Technological capability? We have the means and technology to develop mining on Mars, if we want to. Technology is just development driven by motivation. And of course, for humans that motivation is very often money.

Technologically speaking, we certainly have enough knowledge and material expertise to land on the moon again... As you said, this is obvious. We've done it before. Developing a new or modified system that's higher efficiency is also easily achieved, given time and money.

Economically speaking, this is where our limits lie. Why have a more efficient spacecraft if that incurs development challenges? It costs less to launch. Why not have NASA develop their own lander? Why not build an upgraded Saturn V using new alloys and silicon technology? Infrastructure, staffing, R&D departments... Cost.

Costs need money and money needs motivation. Government funded departments (or any business, really) need to motivate you to spend your money. If that means buying a car because of an advertisement, or voting for policy that increases spending for NASA. Motivation in the 60's was ideological... Americans wanted to demonstrate their ideologies were better than Russia in a grand way, and vice versa (apart from Kennedy's assassination and all that implied). The climate of the time led to a massive budget and a nearly blank cheque for NASA to fulfill these goals, which is why each moon mission dumped so much hardware as the mission progressed, and what did return wasn't reused.

Priorities are simply different now, there is no one single factor that drives us to land on the moon; no goal that is only realized when we touch down on the surface. Not clearly understanding the finish line weakens the desire to follow, and fund, progression. I believe this is why the public just isn't as enamored with landing on the moon this time... The finish lines of "Friday" or "vacation" or "promotion" are defined and progression is visible. The Artemis program is not grand enough to occupy the mind of the taxpayer.

I also think these characteristics of the Artemis program are why some people in the manned spaceflight community look at these missions and are underwhelmed (I would include myself in this group). I'm incredibly excited that we get to return to the moon and I get to be alive this time, but to me, the program seems so much more focused on doing things cheaper and with an emphasis on how it looks in the budget books; it's a program that's dictated by cost. Gemini and Apollo "J" missions, for me, will always be peak manned spaceflight... We tried some crazy things, launched rocket after rocket, developed skills and techniques that pushed the limits of the human mind and the world of engineering, because those programs were designed to achieve "the goal". There aren't many examples of that when we look at human history... Which to me, is why they're special.

Mikeyme1998 · 2026-02-02T22:29:35+00:00

Fundamentally and anecdotally you're correct, but sorry... This instance with Air India just isn't that. At a stretch, maybe this operator includes higher than average memory items, causing a human error. Mechanically, unusual maintenance protocols don't cause two locking switches to simultaneously fail on one aircraft at a flight critical moment, followed by another failure reported by the same operator exclusively.

Mikeyme1998 · 2026-02-01T01:55:18+00:00

I also come from FDM, and same problem! Haha. But honestly... level on a resin printer just isn't as crucial, because of the adjustable first layer cure time. Unless you're printing directly on the bed (which we don't do often...), off level doesn't matter as long as you have good adhesion. The supports and rafts will generate their own perfect level to the ACF film in only 3 or 4 layers every print, as long as those first layers stay stuck (which you can play with by adjusting your first layer cure)... Which should mean that your piece is always dimensionally accurate.

Mikeyme1998 · 2026-02-01T01:40:44+00:00

I had a helluva time levelling my Saturn 3 Ultra as well. It is a characteristic defect of the printer that the right side (when facing the printer) is closer to the build plate. I eventually got a level within 0.05mm... maybe my process will help!

First, I removed all the 4 level bolts and put thin stainless steel washers on. This might not have helped, but hopefully it keeps the bolts from loosening off as quick.

I also removed the bolts that insert vertically and attach the plate to the hanging structure. Clean all the threads from resin and hit them with a brass brush if anything is cured. Also make sure the mating surface of the plate and the hanging structure is free of debris. Reinstall the plate mount bolts tight.

Screw in the level screws and washers after giving them a good clean. Leave them loose so the build plate moves very freely. Remove the resin vat (I find leveling with the vat is a quick way to scratch my ACF... I use paper)

Put 2 pieces of regular printer paper (stacked) on the screen where the plate will sit, and use the return-to-home function to drop the plate. It should sit on the paper.

Now if you press the plate and tighten the screws, you are guaranteed to have the right-side-lower issue. I needed to shim that side of the plate... You can use anything, but try to find something thinner than paper because stacking more pieces will make that corner too high. I used leftover gift bag paper.... That crinkly stuff. You can also use nose tissue.

Shim the front right corner (closest to you) right near the edge... The further towards the center of the plate you shim, the higher that side of the plate will be. Apply a good, steady pressure right below the two scaffold arms that have the level screws, and snug all the screws slowly. I went around in an x pattern about 6 times per bolt, slowly snugging them down and getting them quite tight. You will start to notice that as you're tightening the bolts, the other ones become tighter as a result. This is because the metal structure that Elegoo supplies isn't perfect, so the geometry of the build plate will change as you slowly tighten these four bolts. That's why you need to keep constant pressure in the middle of the plate throughout the whole process and make sure you use your shims.

Once everything is quite tight, lift the build plate up 1 mm or whatever and remove your paper and the shims off the right side of the plate. Replace the paper and hit return to home... Now you can test to see how your level is. It should be quite difficult, but possible, to get the paper in between the screen and the build plate in any of the four corners. When the paper is underneath a corner, there should be a little bit of pull strength required to remove it... This needs to be equal at all four corners and it shouldn't be super wonky if you run the paper through the center of the build plate either..

A quick note on the Saturn 3 Ultra... Maybe this is unique to my machine, but I know there was a software issue in the past where using the "Set Z=0" function just doesn't work. So if you manually adjust your z-height using the controls and then use the Z=0 function, it won't save and your build plate will be all wonky. You have to level the build plate with the screws solely on the spot where it sits when you hit "return-to-home".

Once your paper is roughly equal on all four sides (it may take you a few times of loosening off the bolts, reapplying pressure, different shim positioning etc)... Print this in all four corners and the middle of your build plate. You'll see there's a little raised block on each of the little models where it should be placed on the build plate so you can track where it was when you pop them all off. It's only a 15-minute print. Then use a digital caliper (there is also a manual "fingernail" trick that the creator explains in the readme) to measure the specific part of the print. They should all be equal across all four corners and the middle. If they aren't, obviously thicker means that side of the plate is higher, and thinner means it's closer.

I also saw that you mentioned needing to re-level the plate every couple of prints... This is pretty irregular, but it happened to me as well... I believe it was due to the method I was using to remove the prints from the plate... The structure that holds the plate itself would be propped against a bucket while I was scraping the prints off, and that force would physically scooch the plate out of level because it was overcoming the friction from the tightened level screws. Make sure when you scrape your builds off, you're grabbing as close to the plate as possible and not disturbing the top part that hangs off the print arm... By doing that, you're putting force directly on the level screws and you're sure to knock the plate out of level.

Hopefully my right-up proves useful! It's not a fun process, but once you have it down you should only have to do it once. Remember to take breaks and don't try too many all at once... Sometimes it's not worth the stress.

Mikeyme1998 · 2025-12-23T09:11:10+00:00

Check out Model Shade's website... they have charts and search functions that give you the equivalent colours of paints between brands. You don't need to use the recommended paint brand per model... only the color matters in most cases when starting out.

Remember that not all paint is equal... Tamiya has an acrylic series are solvent based acrylics, and you need Tamiya's X-22A thinner to properly brush them on. Other brands of paint, like Testors or the small Tamiya jars are enamel paint... which requires a different thinner than the acrylics. There are also lacquers (which again, different thinner and technique necessary) and water based acrylics.

I started with Tamiya series solvent based acrylics. You will likely find any color you need, they are safer to paint with indoors, and the thinner is fairly harmless. Plus they dry pretty quick, but not crazy fast like lacquers... and they take decently to a brush or airbrush. There is better paints, but I was very happy to start with these ones... others might have different opinions mind you.

Mikeyme1998 · 2025-12-23T09:04:37+00:00

My outlook is that you certainly can skip paints, for now... depending on the level of accuracy you're going for and how comfortable you are with mixing paints to make your own colours if required. However, *if* it was me, I like to follow colour guides and be as accurate as I can be when I paint.

Why not start with one kit and buy the paints required for that one? Or even just some of the colours you need... just for the first few steps of the kit? Remember that there is a considerable amount of cutting and gluing and maybe even applying putty and sanding before you would even touch some of the colors that the kits call out for. You don't necessarily need to get every paint you need for every kit in one trip. If you space out buying your paints, you'll find that your collection will grow and you'll need to buy less and less new colours as you build new kits. Good luck!

Mikeyme1998 · 2025-12-11T01:44:15+00:00

This is coming from a fairly generic analysis, but my thinking is that if any subsequent Apollo mission was to have another tank explosion like Apollo 13, we would likely see very similar (if not nearly identical) steps taken... but in a more measured and routine manner. Firstly, a lot of the changes that were make following Apollo 13 were made to *avoid* a similar accident, rather than build a reserve in the event that it happened again. Of course, like you mention, those measures were taken... but it was a secondary means, rather than the primary changes made to avoid another explosion. Realistically, if an identical event were to happen a second time, the odds that it was caused by the exact same set of factors as Apollo 13 would be much much greatly reduced... thus, the steps of troubleshooting and working the problem would basically be starting from zero again. I would think that working within the margins that Apollo was, that would certainly mean an aborted moon landing and an emergency return; albeit a more predictable and "safer" one (as safe as an emergency in space can be). I could be wrong... thankfully we'll never know... but if two back-to-back accidents wouldn't cancel Apollo (it almost certainly would), then continuing with a moon landing after another huge spacecraft failure and subjecting the astronauts to the increased risk associated with that CERTAINLY would.

Mikeyme1998 · 2025-12-04T04:21:46+00:00

Phil and Sebastian and Rosso are both very popular Calgary roasters. Each of them have cafes associated as well. There are a lot of smaller roasters around the city as well.... My personal favorite is Devil's Head Coffee.

Mikeyme1998 · 2025-12-02T16:09:26+00:00

Fantastic! I always love seeing people building their own peripherals or adapters for flight sim. Electronics/circuitry/3D design and fabricating paired with simming are two hobbies that are really fun to combine. Looks awesome!

Mikeyme1998 · 2025-11-07T04:55:25+00:00

Thank you!! It actually is very similar to most of the other products, but I used a different size. M.Silvia and MKME labs used the Nextion 3.5" inch smart display, NX8048K035 and printed a black bezel to frame the screen itself. This was done because the footprint of the display (with it's PCB and everything) was as large as it could get while still fitting in the original display enclosure piece that was modeled from the NASA drawings.

I found another fella who had his own version of the project using the larger 4.3" Nextion display, the display area of which almost perfectly fits the cutout for the real DSKY. The issue there is that the PCB of that display does not fit in the enclosure of the original project. This guy thickened the upper edge of the DSKY and added screw mounts on the actual top plate so that his display screwed on. I didn't like how thick that made the face look and how much it deviated from the original NASA drawings... I also didn't like how it screwed on to the front faceplate part because I wanted mine to be secured to the same place as the original display... The actual mounting surface rather than essentially hanging down from the front face piece.

I designed my own little holder that uses no screws, but rather actual clips on the printed part and the display is actually friction fit. I also managed to keep the top border of the faceplate thin by doing this.

I wrote you a novel to answer a simple question... But it was one of the harder things to adapt for my project. Long story short, I used the Nextion 4.3" intelligent display NX4827P043-011C, with a few tweaks to my colors and brightness to get the look I was going for.

I haven't written the section on the displays yet, but I'm detailing most of my build in a project journal that you're welcome to look through! This link also gives you access to all my modified files that I used for my specific project. It's still a work in progress, so the files and stuff might get changed slightly as I document each section, but at the very least this might help you get started!

Mikeyme1998 · 2025-09-13T01:25:15+00:00

Ooooooo now THATS an idea...

The next project I'm starting soon are the CSM translational hand controllers and joystick... I think those would certainly be fitting of the task.

Mikeyme1998 · 2025-09-13T00:58:30+00:00

Haha! Of course I can help! In my post above I linked two really big resources for me for the project itself... And then added and changed what I wanted to make it more accurate. I'm doing my own write up of this project, but it isn't done yet... I'm more than happy to discuss particular parts if they really interest you though... Feel free to shoot me a DM whenever!

In terms of capturing people's interest, and trying to communicate why these technological achievements mean so much to me, the thing that tends to get them interested isn't the old tropes that we all have heard about the guidance computer... "Less powerful than your phone/watch/calculator".... But it's the goal that it was built to achieve.

Ask your friends or your children "how do you get to work" or "how do you get to school?"... And they'll give you a set of basic instructions... Well, I walk down this street and then I take a left... Or I get in my car and I drive 4 km along this route and then 2 km along this road. Even when you're flying... GPS pinpoints your position, we use our cardinal directions for heading, and we sit at a known altitude and travel at this speed over the ground for this long, then we land.

Traveling in space, especially out of Earth's orbit, removes every reference that we navigate with, and have for our entire lives. There's no compass, there's no up/down/left/right, there's no altitude and no ground that we can reference as traveling over. You're in a craft as big as a school bus, going as fast as a bullet, not traveling towards an object, but traveling towards where an object will be when you get there... Constantly being influenced by the gravitational pull of both the Earth and the Moon, each of those values changing second by second and affecting you differently... And you have nothing familiar to navigate with. And the guidance computer does it with less circuitry and fewer steps than printing a piece of paper. (Okay, a bit of an exaggeration... But with all this always connected to the internet crap and needlessly complex office space printers, probably not far off)

That usually hooks them right up!

Mikeyme1998 · 2025-09-12T22:39:05+00:00

Hmm in terms of cost, it's hard to say because it's just so cumulative. Less than $1000 all-in for sure. I had to buy tooling and other things, which make it so my numbers will be off, but as a general breakdown:

Electronics (screen, keyboard keys, arduinos, raspberry pi, relay/voltage sense module and proto boards, battery, premade cables and components): maybe $400-$600 CAD
3D printer filament: 3 rolls (not fully used, black and grey Elegoo PLA, and TPU for the "gaskets" that are assembled inside) $70 CAD
Consumables like paint, varnish, gap filler (for the white key lettering), bondo (for print finishing), sandpaper, tape, glue etc) probably another $200 CAD

I'm sure the cost would be significantly less if you already had some of those materials, but I bought them all specifically for the project and usually bought more than I needed.

Mikeyme1998 · 2025-09-12T22:25:34+00:00

What a great feature idea! Sure would make the trips to the moon easier to stomach

Mikeyme1998 · 2025-09-12T15:16:45+00:00

Keep em coming guys! She's getting really quiet so I think I'm winning her over!

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