Who remembers...

[geosname]

I remember it well.... or at least some of it...... it amazes me that mankind can achieve that with equipment now considered prehistoric with the advances in technology today...... and yet we can't get the trains to run on time

[RailwayRowdy]

2 hours ago, For Us All said:

I remember staying up to watch this unforgettable moment with my mum and dad before struggling into work a few hours later.

I've always felt sorry for Michael Collins for not being able to watch the moon landing live despite being up there.

I used to think the same thing. So near, yet so far !

However, if the propulsion on Eagle failed (and it was far from certain that it would work) at least Collins had a chance of getting home, whilst Armstrong & Aldrin we’re stranded.

Still, I suspect that given the chance, Collins would rather have been “walking on the moon one day” rather than viewing from not so afar.

Or was that line from another mission ? 

[For Us All]

3 hours ago, geosname said:

I remember it well.... or at least some of it...... it amazes me that mankind can achieve that with equipment now considered prehistoric with the advances in technology today...... and yet we can't get the trains to run on time

We have NASA to thank for many of the advances in technology we experience today.Things like credit-card swipes,cat scanners,joysticks,scratch resistant lenses,marathon blankets,freeze- dried foods etc.

 

[RailwayRowdy]

Whilst I confess to being a space exploration nut, it must be remembered that this was all happening at the height of the so called “Cold War”

I doubt that NASA’s and intimately the USA government’s plan was to explore space but more as to try and control space and intimately have the opportunity to knock out the USSR’s plan for inter continental missile attack. This was s big issue at the time. 

However, as a science mad 10 year old the whole “space race” was an insatiable experience I just couldn’t get enough of ! I didn’t understand the political connotations, I just loved the whole situation ! And even today, 50 years after the event, I still get tingles down my back recalling it !

 

[For Us All]

13 minutes ago, RailwayRowdy said:

Whilst I confess to being a space exploration nut, it must be remembered that this was all happening at the height of the so called “Cold War”

I doubt that NASA’s and intimately the USA government’s plan was to explore space but more as to try and control space and intimately have the opportunity to knock out the USSR’s plan for inter continental missile attack. This was s big issue at the time. 

However, as a science mad 10 year old the whole “space race” was an insatiable experience I just couldn’t get enough of ! I didn’t understand the political connotations, I just loved the whole situation ! And even today, 50 years after the event, I still get tingles down my back recalling it !

 

The guidance computer in the command module had a memory of 64KB?

Unbelievable.

[RailwayRowdy]

So FUA this has always made me think what we could achieve in space exploration with today’s technology !

Obviously with the fall of the Iron Curtain the urgency for space domination has diminished, but why has the importance for space exploration diminished ?

We still have unmanned expeditions, but to me space exploration seems to have receded somewhat. Still fantastic, but no where near exciting as human participation !  

  

 

[Fosse69]

45 minutes ago, RailwayRowdy said:

So FUA this has always made me think what we could achieve in space exploration with today’s technology !

Obviously with the fall of the Iron Curtain the urgency for space domination has diminished, but why has the importance for space exploration diminished ?

We still have unmanned expeditions, but to me space exploration seems to have receded somewhat. Still fantastic, but no where near exciting as human participation !  

  

 

Isn`t distance the problem and associated risk? Money a problem too, cross funding from defence difficult to justify.

[Heatwave]

20 hours ago, Fosse69 said:

Isn`t distance the problem and associated risk? Money a problem too, cross funding from defence difficult to justify.

Because it takes place outside of Earth's atmosphere, space exploration requires technology to keep the explorer alive. That requires money. And if you're not the likes of Elon Musk or Jeff Bezos you've got to go to a national government for funding. There's no political imperative from a government standpoint to explore space unless it's to stop your competitor powers from getting ahead of you. It's as valid an argument today as it was in the 1960s.

[RailwayRowdy]

I hear what previous contributors say.

However, if we are not prepared to agree to invest into more expansive space exploration, what is the point of continuing to fund Skylab etc ? 

The shuttle project for example was funded for decades without expanding our knowledge of potential deep space travel, so if further advancement of space exploration is not seen as a necessary requirement, why bother with earth orbital investigation at all ?

We cannot allow 70 odd years of space exploration to go down the dumper. We MUST continue to invest and explore. If politicians disagree, then simply discard the so called “space programme” totally and spend all the fiscal savings on education, human resources etc.

sadly, neither will happen.

 

[Paul6754]

Shouldn't forget or underestimate the breakthroughs that can be applied in the real world which often come from pushing the boundaries of science and engineering. 

[geosname]

On 20/07/2019 at 19:09, For Us All said:

The guidance computer in the command module had a memory of 64KB?

Unbelievable.

I remember buying a 6GB hard drive and the guy saying "You will never use all that space"

[Aussie Rules]

On ‎20‎/‎07‎/‎2018 at 17:18, RailwayRowdy said:

On the conspiracy theory, apparently someone once asked Buzz Aldrin face to face had he really been to the moon ? Aldrin quite calmly punched him in the face and put him on the floor!...

Wasn't that more to do with the person making a snide reference that Buzz had come from his mother whose maiden name was Moon?

[Aussie Rules]

10 hours ago, Paul6754 said:

Shouldn't forget or underestimate the breakthroughs that can be applied in the real world which often come from pushing the boundaries of science and engineering. 

Perhaps Paul, perhaps.

Some things haven't changed for the better. The world as we know it is still in a mess.

When America's songwriter/entertainer - John Stewart - ask Australia's songwriter/entertainer - Reg Lindsay - to cover his tribute to Armstrong back in 1970 he did so knowing it would struggle to chart in the USA.

Lindsay (country music) was reluctant at first, but only because it was not about his beloved Australia and its people. His family persuaded him to it; Stewart was well pleased.

The irony was not lost in the land down under as to why 'Armstrong' failed to chart in the land of the star spangled banner.     

 

[geosname]

It seems odd to me that countries with millions of people in poverty spend billions in space.

Especially when they get millions in aid.

[Aussie Rules]

30 minutes ago, geosname said:

It seems odd to me that countries with millions of people in poverty spend billions in space.

Especially when they get millions in aid.

So very true Geo, and so very sad.