The All New All New Groundspeak UK Pub Quiz

[+mellers]

I know there's at least one as there has been a cache on the ISS. When I last looked at it (some months ago), it hadn't been found) so my guess is 1.

[Team Noodles]

This is easier than it appears. How many cachers do we know who've been into orbit..?

Lord British?

[+Simply Paul]

This is easier than it appears. How many cachers do we know who've been into orbit..?

Lord British?

aka Richard Garriott, aka Richard Garriott de Cayeux: Ding! I note he found his second-ever cache just last month. Over to Team Noodles.

[Team Noodles]

Cool!

 

Alrighty, easy one:

 

What is the name of the capsule that SpaceX put in orbit last Friday which successfully docked with the ISS 2 days later?

[+Simply Paul]

I left this until the following day so it doesn't become quiz tennis, but couldn't resist now it's Friday: Dragon.

[Team Noodles]

I left this until the following day so it doesn't become quiz tennis, but couldn't resist now it's Friday: Dragon.

 

your serve

[+Simply Paul]

Thanks. *Twok* Since the Space Shuttles were retired in 2011, NASA have been working on a replacement but it's a very interesting development that private enterprise is making a real inroad into space. Going back a generation, Shuttle missions were all named STS and then numbered, eg STS-31 to launch the Hubble space telescope, and STS-61, to fix it. But what does STS stand for?

[+Beach_hut]

Space transport service?

[+Cache on Wheels]

At last one I know thanks to James May. Lego as we know it was 1st produced in 1949, but the company that makes it started making wooden toys 1932 and changed its name to Lego in 1934 (cant remember what it was called before).

In which country?

 

Denmark - we've driven passed the factory when we visited Lego land in Denmark last year! also got a couple of caches (and a souvenir now) whilst we were there

[+Simply Paul]

Space transport service?

Oh, very close!

[+Betelgeuse]

Space Transportation System.

[+Simply Paul]

Space Transportation System.

Advantage, Betelgeuse. Ding! The Space Transportation System was intended to be a whole set of modular craft, including a space tug (designed to be left in orbit and crewed and refilled as necessary) for inter-orbital work, a replacement for Apollo which would be good for setting up a moon base and a reusable 'space truck' which became the Shuttle. With the success of Apollo 11 and the winning of that phase of the Space Race, Nixon and Congress decided not to fund a Mars trip in the 'post-Apollo era', and as the final three planned moon landings were pulled, it was clear budgets were only going south. NASA's grand plans for fleets of nuclear-powered ships, stations - including a Luna-orbit Skylab - and bases were shelved, along with promising technology such as NERVA high-ISP nuclear engines. A good book on 'what might have been' is Stephen Baxter's Voyage. Which he wrote about 10 miles from my home, in Great Missendon. Small world

[+Beach_hut]

Space transport service?

Oh, very close!

 

I know, I googled afterwards

 

*Awaits betelgeuse's question*

[+Betelgeuse]

America's space shuttles were retired from service in 2011 - or were they?

 

America still has three shuttles in service. For the DING! Can you tell me either:

 

Their flight designation OR the manufacturer and model?

 

If you can answer both then expect a black helicopter or two overhead.

[+Simply Paul]

I suspect you mean the X-37B micro-shuttle, reusable orbital drone thingies. There's one up there now but the USAF (they're not NASA craft) is keeping very tight-lipped on what it's doing. They're built by Boeing I think?

[+Betelgeuse]

That'll get you the DING!

 

Boeing X-37B is correct. The USAF have 3 of them in service - they were intended to be launched from the NASA shuttle originally, but it was decided that it wasn't an economical launch system and so they are now strapped to an Atlas V. They're unmanned and designed to stay in orbit for up to 270 days at a time.

 

The flight designation is OTV (Orbital Test Vehicle) 1, 2 and 3.

[+Simply Paul]

That'll get you the DING!

Thanks very much. Due to lack of forward planning, I'll let someone else set the next question as I may not be online as much as I'd like for the next few days; busy busy!

[+Simply Paul]

No takers? Well, ok then. I'm currently working on a pub quiz for my 10th caching anniversary event in May. Here's a question from it. In which year was iTunes launched?

[+TheOldfields]

Absolutely no idea but I'll take a guess at 2003.

[+Simply Paul]

Absolutely no idea but I'll take a guess at 2003.

Sometimes a guess is all it takes. Ding!

[+TheOldfields]

Splendid.

 

Winnie the pooh's name derives from which city?

Edited March 14, 2013 by TheOldfields

[+civilised]

Splendid.

 

Winnie the pooh's name derives from which city?

 

Winnipeg ?

[+TheOldfields]

Would be a ding. Interesting background to the story available here: http://www.just-pooh.com/history.html

[+civilised]

Would be a ding. Interesting background to the story available here: http://www.just-pooh.com/history.html

 

Thanks for the info.

 

What was Adolf Hitler's mother's first name ?

[+Beach_hut]

Would be a ding. Interesting background to the story available here: http://www.just-pooh.com/history.html

 

Thanks for the info.

 

What was Adolf Hitler's mother's first name ?

 

[deletes stupid wrong answer]

Edited March 16, 2013 by Beach_hut

[+Capt. Grimbeard]

I think it was Klara.

[+civilised]

I think it was Klara.

 

That's a ding to you !

[+Capt. Grimbeard]

OK, a nice simple one: What was the name of Blackbeard's ship?

[+Simply Paul]

OK, a nice simple one: What was the name of Blackbeard's ship?

Bit of a guess. Was it Queen Anne's Revenge?

[+Capt. Grimbeard]

It was indeed. Over to you.

[+Simply Paul]

I have applied to be on the next series of Pointless. Thanks very much.

With a recorded fatality rate of around 85% (since 1940), what's probably the world's most hazardous competition?

[+MTH]

Becoming pope?

[+Simply Paul]

Becoming pope?

That's only (usually) fatal to the winners, not the other contenders...

[+martin&lindabryn]

a friedfrende of mine films the Dakar Rally and he suggest that this is the most dangerous, legitimate sport

Edited March 21, 2013 by martin&lindabryn

[+TheOldfields]

If 'hazardous' includes broken bones and not just death in blazing fireballs, then I'll have a guess at Gloucester cheese rolling.

[+Simply Paul]

It's not exactly a sport as such, although it was a competition born of a sport. There's no prize for winning except a place in the history books. A man who owned a bear has won it. Not on sand or Cooper's Hill though.

[+TheOldfields]

Have to admit that I completely missed the bit about 85% fatality rate. That would have to be some nasty gruyere.

 

With the cheese excluded, how about trying for the land speed record?

[+martin&lindabryn]

How about speed boat racing, they always have big crashes

[+MartyBartfast]

I'll have a guess at some sort of free diving record.

[+Simply Paul]

Two very close suggestions, but no Ding yet. The bear had a name. Indeed, it still does.

[+martin&lindabryn]

Two very close suggestions, but no Ding yet. The bear had a name. Indeed, it still does.

taking a hint from you last comment I will try water speed record,

don't know the bears name though

Edited March 22, 2013 by martin&lindabryn

[+Simply Paul]

Two very close suggestions, but no Ding yet. The bear had a name. Indeed, it still does.

taking a hint from you last comment I will try water speed record,

don't know the bears name though

A Ding for the water speed record (inspired by the previous boat question), but a small raspberry for not knowing Mr Whoppit, a rare stuffed toy with its own Wiki page

[+martin&lindabryn]

thanks for the Ding hears one to get you thinking

 

As the last question was about boats, hears a two part question about launches.

 

Part 1. what was launched on 5 September 1977? As Elvis was topping the UK chart with Way Down.

Part 2. On the 25 August last year it left the influence of what object?

[+Betelgeuse]

That would be Voyager 1 and it's said to have left the influence of the Sun although that's a statement that's being argued at present. The evidence for this is a sudden decrease in solar particles and a corresponding increase in cosmic rays. If it hasn't already, then it'll exit the region of the heliopause some time soon.

 

Voyager 2 is still within the influence of the Sun but is also at the heliopause. The missions of both are expected to last until around 2025 when the radiothermal generators that power them will finally stop producing sufficient power to maintain operation of the transmitters. Fantastic stuff really.

[+martin&lindabryn]

That would be Voyager 1 and it's said to have left the influence of the Sun although that's a statement that's being argued at present. The evidence for this is a sudden decrease in solar particles and a corresponding increase in cosmic rays. If it hasn't already, then it'll exit the region of the heliopause some time soon.

 

Voyager 2 is still within the influence of the Sun but is also at the heliopause. The missions of both are expected to last until around 2025 when the radiothermal generators that power them will finally stop producing sufficient power to maintain operation of the transmitters. Fantastic stuff really.

 

That’s a ding. Thought that may have lasted longer than that

[+Betelgeuse]

Too many space geeks in here for a question like that to last.

 

Staying with Voyager 1 for a while longer, it's mission trajectory was altered to take it out of the plane of the ecliptic and it's 'grand tour' of the solar system terminated leaving Voyager 2 to complete that part of the mission.

 

Why was the trajectory altered?

[+Capt. Grimbeard]

To investigate a comet or meteor?

[+Betelgeuse]

Good guess, but I'm afraid not.

[+MTH]

To visit Titan?

[+Betelgeuse]

To visit Titan?

 

That will get you the DING!

 

A year before Voyager's encounter with Saturn, Pioneer 11 had detected a thick atmosphere around Titan and the mission controllers decided that it was too good an opportunity to miss - they were in the unusual position of having two craft and being able to 'sacrifice' one to perform some important science on this strange moon. They knew that the encounter would impart a gravitational slingshot effect and propel it out of the plane of the ecliptic effectively ending its planetary mission.