--- In sliderule@y..., Larry Stewart <larrys@m...> wrote:

> Greetings all!
>
> Last night during the new episode of "Enterprise" (the episode
> called "Shuttlepod One") Commander Tucker tells Lieutenant Reid

to "look

> out at the stars, figure out where we are and set a course for Echo

1".

> Reid in frustration replies: "You haven't got a sextant with you by
> chance, have you?" Tucker replies: "No I don't. I left it at home

with

> the Slide Rule!"
>
> Perhaps they should learn from that mistake for the next time
> they're marooned in a small shuttlecraft where everything is
> malfunctioning and they're only a few days from dying. Buzz Aldrin

had

> it right! :-)
>
> Cheers all! Larry Stewart, Ottawa. Canada.
>
> P.S. They survived....just.

Larry,

This is why the Apollo astronauts had slide rules aboard (Pickett
N600s, I think), and the early shuttle flights had HP-41Cs with the
back-up retrofire calculation program!!!

Would be interesting to know if they have a HP-48 or -49 or (gasp) a
TI-89 for that function now. Ooops, sorry, this isn't a calculator
board.....

Roger Huffmaster