Moon Landing 40th Anniversary thread
- Thread starter SinisterMinisterX
- Start date
I have a degree in history, and I've always been a space geek.
pilau said:
US history, I guess.
Hah, I used to study that quite thoroughly. But my interests have changed...broadened is more of an accurate term.
Cornfed Hick
Ancient Mariner
I enjoyed LC's essay, but I was disappointed to see no reference to the astronauts' gigantic balls. To quote the film, The Right Stuff:
"You think a monkey knows he's sittin' on top of a rocket that might explode? These astronaut boys they know that, see? Well, I'll tell you something, it takes a special kind of man to volunteer for a suicide mission, especially one that's on TV." (Attributed to Chuck Yeager)
"You think a monkey knows he's sittin' on top of a rocket that might explode? These astronaut boys they know that, see? Well, I'll tell you something, it takes a special kind of man to volunteer for a suicide mission, especially one that's on TV." (Attributed to Chuck Yeager)
Massive, huge, gigantic balls. Sitting on a rocket what you've seen 20 copies of blow up.
Every person who has volunteered to be strapped to a rocket has been one of the bravest persons who ever lived.
Every person who has volunteered to be strapped to a rocket has been one of the bravest persons who ever lived.
I recently finished reading the entire Space Odyssey series by Arthur C. Clarke, I suppose in some celebration of the anniversary. It is very dissappointing how no significant advances in space exploration have been made since 1969. By all accounts, we should have a base on the moon and have manned flights to Mars. While Clarke was maybe a bit optimistic with his date for interplanetary space travel by the human race, space exploration has come virtually to a stand still after the moon landings. It was a race, as others have said on this thread, primarily of a political nature and what really mattered was who won. But instead of building on the victory, the US did (next to) nothing. Basked in glory and that was that. So really in retrospect I think I can say that nobody won the space race. Because if you're not going to use the technology, use the knowledge, the experience, all of that, for the betterment of your society (super bowl transmission doesn't count) then what have you done? Nothing. It's like a brilliant inventor inventing something for a competition, he wins the competition, and then chucks the brilliant design. An absolute waste. The new technology designed for space could very well help us with the problems facing Earth, amongst them population growth, and finding clean and efficient fuel. I almost wish a monolith would pop up somewhere between Earth and Mars, as it's about high time humankind gets off its arse, see's past the petty differences between nations, and reaches for the stars again.
pilau
Nomad
Natalie, I couldn't agree with you more on what you said about putting aside the past and ignoring the differences between nations. This is one of the main reasons, if not the main reason for the inadequacy of humanity. If we had been integrated and united a long time ago I bet you there homes on Mars already.
While I wish the US had kept going to the moon, and built on those successes, it should be noted that the five successful lunar landings after 11 did teach us things and do things that have affected the world since then, and wasn't entirely pointless. But of course, Natalie is right, because the conquest of space will teach us to help ourselves on earth.
Which is what I said.
Which is what I said.
"Space, the final frontier". True, still today. Anyone ever read Lucifer's Hammer, by Larry Niven? Basically, it says all of those things. Earth has all its 'eggs in one basket'. We do have problems here, hunger, ecology, fuel, etc. However, one small catastrophe (the wrong volcano, an asteroid, whatever) and we would all be back in the stone age. We feel civilized and advanced, but that could all be gone quickly, without something outside our atmosphere to back it up.
Yes, but having a real backup is incredibly difficult. We can build all the moon bases we want, but there's nothing up there but dust and rock. No food, and negligible water. A few crystals of ice frozen at the poles won't support a population. Any moon base is permanently Earth-dependent.
Mars holds slightly more hope, but not much. Mostly, it's nothing but desert.
Europa is moon of Jupiter with massive amounts of water. It's covered in ice 60 miles thick, and thought to have a liquid water ocean under that. It's a crucial part of getting a real 2nd home for humanity.
It's likely that an off-Earth population would still need to rely on multiple worlds. Grow food on Mars, irrigating the desert with water from Europa. Mine the asteroid belt, which is full of metal. The key technology will end up being transportation. We need to be able to produce a monster space fleet to make it work.
Mars holds slightly more hope, but not much. Mostly, it's nothing but desert.
Europa is moon of Jupiter with massive amounts of water. It's covered in ice 60 miles thick, and thought to have a liquid water ocean under that. It's a crucial part of getting a real 2nd home for humanity.
It's likely that an off-Earth population would still need to rely on multiple worlds. Grow food on Mars, irrigating the desert with water from Europa. Mine the asteroid belt, which is full of metal. The key technology will end up being transportation. We need to be able to produce a monster space fleet to make it work.
