Apollo 11 - congratulations America!

[canuck750]

I have been watching the documentaries on the Apollo 11 mission, I was just 9 years old at the time and clearly remember staying up late to watch the landing. My uncle had given me the Mercury, Gemini and Apollo rocket models for Christmas presents for years as the race to the moon accelerated. In 1967 my family drove across Canada to Montreal for Expo 67 to celebrate 100 years of Canadian confederation. My strongest memories of Expo 67 are the American and Soviet pavilions with their extensive space craft displays. Of course the American display of Mercury, Gemini and Apollo where the best!!

Now 50 years later I want to thank the United States of America for undertaking and achieving mans' greatest engineering and exploration achievement! I remain in awe at what the United States achieved.

To all my American friends down south, pat yourself on the back and God Bless!

[Bulldog9]

We live just about 7 miles South of the National Mall, rode the MGX into town to see the display. Truly an impressive production and celebration of an important part of all our history.  Great to see so may people out on the National Mall, almost as many as on the 4th. A special night as my grandfather was an Engineer at Grumman and helped build the telemetry nave units for the LEM at the Grumman Hangar in Calverton. Was 5 when A11 was launched, can still remember it like it was yesterday. Litle B&W TV on a stand and all.

 

[bad Chad]

It’s amazing how we lost our mojo.  Half a century and we’re still years from going back.

[Lannis]

It’s amazing how we lost our mojo.  Half a century and we’re still years from going back.

It was quite an unusual time. 

We went to the moon, we can't do that any more.
We went to the bottom of the Marianas Trench, we can't do that any more.
We built and flew SR71 Blackbirds, we can't do that any more.

I went to the Huntsville Redstone rocket museum, and was amazed standing in front of a Saturn 5 main booster engine, looking at the 6 fuel feed pipes to the combustion chamber, realized that each of the pipes flowed 3 tons of fuel PER SECOND.   How do you even have the cojones to start on something like that, much less sit on top of it .... ?

Lannis

[Gliderjohn]

From Lannis:

How do you even have the cojones to start on something like that, much less sit on top of it .... ?

I would say for the Navy guys it was possibly a relief. I am guessing that they started out on first generation jets on aircraft carriers. Was a scary time as those jets were quite underpowered and had terrible throttle lag.
GliderJohn

[Huzo]

Yes, congrats to the Americans..
And good old Werner von What’s his name from Germany.
And the blokes who loaned their dish in Canberra and Parkes in Oz.
And the countless Ph D’s from around the globe, who combined to bring the Earth to a standstill on that (for me) cold winter morning.
But no one can deny, that without the devotion and dollar outlay of the Yanks, it’d have been a very different story.

[hauto]

How right you guys are.Now all we can do is obstruct and worry about people that aren't even citizens.

[Aaron D.]

We can still do it. No one wanted to pay for it.

[Huzo]

We can still do it. No one wanted to pay for it.

Didn’t Gene Kranz famously say “we lost the technology..?”

[Rough Edge racing]

Didn’t Gene Kranz famously say “we lost the technology..?”

 In that time period vehicles had points ignitions and phones had wires and hand dialing. Hand held calculators were the stuff of science fiction and many surgical procedures that have saved or improved the lives of some of you here were still experimental...The technology is lost because it belongs to the past..
 There is new and better technology but as mentioned, who wants to pay for space exploration?

[Darren Williams]

In that time period vehicles had points ignitions and phones had wires and hand dialing. Hand held calculators were the stuff of science fiction and many surgical procedures that have saved or improved the lives of some of you here were still experimental...The technology is lost because it belongs to the past..
 There is new and better technology but as mentioned, who wants to pay for space exploration?

Musk?

And, it's a lot of fun watching the Indians evolve their moon project. Go India!   

[Lannis]

Musk?

And, it's a lot of fun watching the Indians evolve their moon project. Go India!   

The India space program just sort of proves that it's not a "money" issue; it's a priority issue.   Half their country doesn't even have clean water and yet they're going to the moon.   Not saying it's a bad thing, but just saying our program ISN'T dead because of a lack of money.

Lannis

[bad Chad]

There is water on the moon, quite a lot of it frozen in the shadows of the polar regions that Never see sunlight.  That water is a game changer for human exploitation of the solar system. It will be FAR less costly to access that water than get it any other way.   Exploration of lunar resources is essential if we plan to expand beyond earth.

[Huzo]

The India space program just sort of proves that it's not a "money" issue; it's a priority issue.   Half their country doesn't even have clean water and yet they're going to the moon.   Not saying it's a bad thing, but just saying our program ISN'T dead because of a lack of money.

Lannis

Yeah, I was watching something on TV last night and saw some of the living conditions across something called the “rust belt”..?
Sure as hell wasn’t the Sea of Tranquility.

[Rough Edge racing]

Yeah, I was watching something on TV last night and saw some of the living conditions across something called the “rust belt”..?
Sure as hell wasn’t the Sea of Tranquility.

 Raise the shields and energize the Fazers, we are entering the hostile political zone............... ........

[Huzo]

Raise the shields and energize the Fazers, we are entering the hostile political zone............... ........

Not necessarily..
But you can’t blindly accept a statement like..”lack of money isn’t the reason we stopped our moon missions”.
If you can’t afford a wall, you can’t afford a Saturn 5..

[Lannis]

Clearly, the technology to do scientific work without the need to risk people has advanced tremendously since 1969.  It does continue.  There is no need to repeat (or continue) the Apollo program any more than there is a need to repeat Magellan's exploration (for which the technology has been lost, in any case).

Well, some of that may be true, but it's sort of like saying that you could run the Indy 500 with automated cars, or that there's no need to have anything but robots on board IOM racers, and why on EARTH would anyone free-climb El Capitan when some sort of mechanized rope-suspended crawler could do it better ....?

For some things, people still need to be involved.

Lannis

[Lannis]

Yeah, I was watching something on TV last night and saw some of the living conditions across something called the “rust belt”..?
Sure as hell wasn’t the Sea of Tranquility.

I was watching something on TV last night too, this guy named Anakin jumped out of a flying car, fell half a mile, and landed DIRECTLY onto another moving flying car and beat up the driver.

It's just AMAZING the things you can learn from TV!

Lannis

[Stevex]

The India space program just sort of proves that it's not a "money" issue; it's a priority issue.   Half their country doesn't even have clean water and yet they're going to the moon.   Not saying it's a bad thing, but just saying our program ISN'T dead because of a lack of money.

Lannis

India sends rockets into space whilst the British are to give £98Million in overseas aid to them over the next 2 years.
Meanwhile an estimated 230 million Indians live in poverty.
Tell me the world hasn't gone mad.

[Huzo]

Tell me the world hasn't gone mad.

Why would we lie to you Stevex ?

[Rough Edge racing]

Not necessarily..
But you can’t blindly accept a statement like..”lack of money isn’t the reason we stopped our moon missions”.
If you can’t afford a wall, you can’t afford a Saturn 5..

 I have your opinion, and this is mine... All the "space"  technology and money should be spent on development of  artifical limbs, sight  devices for the blind and mobility for the paralyzed...
  Then shoot for the stars....

[Huzo]

I have your opinion, and this is mine... All the "space"  technology and money should be spent on development of  artifical limbs, sight  devices for the blind and mobility for the paralyzed...
  Then shoot for the stars....

Thanks mate..
I also have your opinion, well said.

[fotoguzzi]

But wow all that restored film is fantastic.. I'm glad that didn't get lost or half of you would be saying it didn't happen.

[bad Chad]

 I hear this argument all the time.   But I’m pretty sure it’s flawed.  NASA budget for 2018 was just over 19 billion dollars, about equal when adjusted for inflation as 1963.

The US defense budget is over 700 billion! 
Why would it be wise to plunder a science department, that only pulls the cost of maybe two super carriers???

If you really feel more money should be spent trying to figure things out here, (and I don’t disagree with you) wouldn’t it be smarter to chip off 20 billion from the defense contractors instead?  Sort of a have your cake and eat it too?   The US could pound anyone into the ground for 2/3 what were spending.

[Gliderjohn]

I am going to stick my neck out, but in the spirit of Dusty's moderation, I feel this thread is getting a bit over the political line. Please think through in that vain before posting. My 2.5 cents worth.
GliderJohn

[Lannis]

I am going to stick my neck out, but in the spirit of Dusty's moderation, I feel this thread is getting a bit over the political line. Please think through in that vain before posting. My 2.5 cents worth.
GliderJohn

"Vein"  with an "e", "fellahs" with no "h" ....  Wait a minute, this post isn't valid .... 

[Huzo]

But wow all that restored film is fantastic.. I'm glad that didn't get lost or half of you would be saying it didn't happen.

Yes mate.
The Apollo 12 stuff is fantastic, they learned a lot in a few short months..!

[Griso8V]

All I know is that as a kid I was fascinated with everything "space".  I am certain that I watched almost every blast off from the Cape Kennedy, Gemini and Apollo.   
I remember staying up late with my parents and watching Neil step out of the LEM, grainy, black and white scene, watching Walter Cronkite choking up with emotion.  My parents reaction; my dad and mom born in 1915 & 1925 respectively in a small villages in Italy, saying they never thought that they would live to see something like that.  We were all emotional like Walter.  And my mom and dad saying this proves that the USA is the greatest country in the world.  My dad said that only the USA could do something like that, and I agree. 
Enough said, it was an awesome achievement, no matter what your opinion on how we should spend our money.   

[bad Chad]

Great point Griso8!  Space exploration, of which maned missions need play apart, have an impact that seemly no other endeavor can.

[Huzo]

All I know is that as a kid I was fascinated with everything "space".  I am certain that I watched almost every blast off from the Cape Kennedy, Gemini and Apollo.   
I remember staying up late with my parents and watching Neil step out of the LEM, grainy, black and white scene, watching Walter Cronkite choking up with emotion.  My parents reaction; my dad and mom born in 1915 & 1925 respectively in a small villages in Italy, saying they never thought that they would live to see something like that.  We were all emotional like Walter.  And my mom and dad saying this proves that the USA is the greatest country in the world.  My dad said that only the USA could do something like that, and I agree. 
Enough said, it was an awesome achievement, no matter what your opinion on how we should spend our money.

I’m bloody glad we were on your side during the war..
We’da’ been rooted otherwise.