The Moon 40th anniversary
- 15 July 2009 20:1425602"On July 20, 1969, the human race accomplished its single greatest technological achievement of all time when a human first set foot on another celestial body." _ NASA website
I don't actually remember this event as I wasn't quite born yet. In fact, thinking about it, the event must have inspired some horny reactions as this is approximately the time I was conceived! But alas the Moon landing was a monumental event that I have grown up with and it's hard to believe that it was all so long ago. The space age came and went, giving rise to the digital age, but will it ever happen again?
The whole space race was a side effect to the arms race between the USA and USSR (of the time) during the Cold War, so really these amazing feats of human endeavour were only possible because of the concept of having enemies that could wipe out entire cities at the press of a button. By demonstrating superior rocket power, they also demonstrated a scary ability to deliver a deadly payload with absolute precision.
Global economics has changed, politics has changed, and even war has changed, so will we ever be in such a situation again where we see such tremendous leaps in science and progress? Without major global warfare and destruction to influence the leaders, will such budgets ever be made available again for this type of development work?
NASA and various other space programmes are ongoing. We see probes sent here and there, satellites launched all over the show, a few Mars landers dotted around, but nothing on the scale of the 50s and 60s. I always hoped I'd be around to see the first Mars mission when I was a kid, but this is looking highly unlikely (and I don't want a big global conflict to inspire such an event into being).
They say necessity is the mother of invention and nothing could be truer than the necessity of defense during a major nuclear stand-off to invent a better arsenal of rockets. Without it, I fear we won't be racing back into space in any big way for quite some time!
Ah well, once the UFOs arrive to invade us maybe things will be diferent...
- 15 July 2009 20:4425605rick
the entire world ground to a halt that sunday.
everyone spent a summer sunday glued to a tv screen.
across the globe, people in third world villages traipsed for days, to reach a town that had a television.
all space exploration after that has never captured the imagination of ordinary people. - Brian Dixon
- Location: Dover
- Registered: 23 Sep 2008
- Posts: 23,940
15 July 2009 20:4725607i remeber it well.wasnt there a rumor about the tv pictures being fake at one time. - 15 July 2009 21:0725608I'm not entirely sure I believe it, but there is actually some very compelling "evidence" out there to support the idea that the Moon landings were faked. It's certainly compelling enough to make you ask yourself a few troubling questions!
- Brian Dixon
- Location: Dover
- Registered: 23 Sep 2008
- Posts: 23,940
15 July 2009 21:1825609its only a vage memory but there was a big hoo har about it. - 15 July 2009 21:3025610I wondered how long it would be before someone brought up the inevitable 'hoax' angle - just three posts in and there it is already. Of course it took place - 400,000 persons were involved in the Apollo Project, there is no way that that many people could have been involved in a conspiracy. Anyway, I digress.
The Apollo Project has got to be the ultimate technical achievement. Such a task would be a monumental these days, let alone using the available technology in the mid sixties - rudimentary computers, slide rules, chalk boards and hand drawn blue-prints. It's incredible that after the dreadful Apollo 1 fire there were no fatalities during any of the flights, given that the technology was cutting edge and experimental it was only a matter of time if the flights had continued. Still, NASA somehow got away with it by the skin of their teeth, notwithstanding Apollo 13. What an incredible rescue that was! Every single piece of technology in the Apollo Project was experimental, from the immense Saturn V boosters to the sanitary system in the Command Module. How it all functioned so well is a testament to utterly brilliant engineering.
The Soviets built a gigantic rocket, the R-1, to try and beat the Americans to the moon but it exploded during each of its four launches. They even designed a one man lunar lander, but after the US successes they abandoned the project to concentrate on longer and longer Salyut and later Mir space station missions. Still it hasn't all been a disappointment, NASA's unmanned probes may not have the glamour of the manned missions but have been generally a great success and the Mars Rovers are still functioning years after their operational life should have expired.
It's an odd thought but after the shuttle retires late next year, the US will have to pay Russia to launch their astronauts from Baikonir using Russian built craft. I predict within 15 years, a Chinese astronaut will be walking on the moon. The balance of power really is shifting up there, Buzz Aldrin must be fuming. - 15 July 2009 22:3025614These silly conspiracy theories have been thoroughly debunked. A very good programme examined them in detail, theory by theory only a few years ago and proved them as total hogwash. So yes, the Americans did land on the moon.
- 15 July 2009 22:3925617i cannot for the life of me believe that such an event was hoaxed.
their great rivals at the time, the soviet union, would have monitored every single second of the operation.
phil said earlier about the number of people working on it.
any possible doubt and everyone would have been rushing to newspapers to make money. - 16 July 2009 18:1325655Ah well, I never said I believe the hoax claims, just that a lot of the arguments were very compelling. But, just to keep the interest going, Hitler once said that the broad mass of a nation will believe a big lie a lot easier than they'll believe a small lie. So... who knows?
- 16 July 2009 20:5825670I remember VERY clearly the thrill of being allowed to stay up to 04.00am to watch the landing on our 9inch Ferguson (portable - a great rock in the corner with a tiny screen - that's the TV - not the Moon!).
Spent many happy hours after whilst recovering from a burst appendix making the Airfix Saturn 5 kit including the tiny command module with Eagle attached with lotsa silver and black paint'n'glue.
Happy innocent days...
......but then.....
'Capricorn One' - a great spoof movie which set the 'Astros' on a false lunar set with a view to having them complete a staged grainy filmed landing after the original rocket blasted itself to pieces in space, with them topped by the authorities and then recovered all burnt-up in their re-entry vehicle - quite a novel theory for SF
Oh Boy!, That'll be the day......... - 18 July 2009 09:2925754I was only two at the time but I remember it clearly...on the black and white DER television in our house on Crabble Hill, Mum, Dad, my two brothers Chris and Nick and our dear Grandad. Amazing. Wonderful memories.