macksting

He’s not the only astronaut to pass away recently, but Alan Bean has been on my mind.

Alan Bean was an Apollo astronaut, one of the few humans to set foot on another world. While there it became necessary to dislodge a plutonium slug which had welded itself to its shielded container. Bean did not act unilaterally, but eventually nobody had a better solution than his suggestion to hit it with a hammer.

It worked great. They set up the RTG and all was well, as a result of that hammer.

I also know Alan Bean as an artist. I should study him more in general, but his fellow astronauts apparently suggested he take up painting scenes from space. He had a unique talent among the astronauts who had been up there at that point for visual arts, including the lovely picture of Earth taken from Apollo 12.

http://www.alanbean.com/

I’d been sitting on this post for a while, uncertain what to say, but I guess tonight I decided it was time to close the tab on that photograph, which meant posting now or never.