Saw on Insty that December 13, 1972 was that last time humans walked on the moon. 48 years later and we haven’t been back. To hell with the flying cars, where’s the moon base? We should have had a permanent presence on the moon by now. Heck, where is the high altitude space station we saw in 2001: A Space Odyssey?
Werner von Braun was opposed to the way we went to the moon. He wanted to go to high earth orbit first and from there to the moon but that approach wouldn’t have got us there in the 60’s as Kennedy had promised. We won the race to the moon but didn’t have any plans afterwards.
We built the space shuttle but that was a low orbit vehicle. And then we didn’t have a replacement when we retired it so we had to buy rides from the Russians to get to the international space station. How humiliating!
I can still remember some black race hustler (I think it was Ralph Abernathy) driving a mule drawn wagon to one of the moon launches protesting that the money spent on the launches should go to social programs. So we abandoned the moon and blew $21 trillion on the War on Poverty. How’d that work out? We have no moon base and we still have a lot of poverty.
Remember the cheesy British TV program Space 1999? Back when it came out we really did think we’d have a moon base by the turn of the century, just like we did when 2001: A Space Odyssey came out.
We should be established in high earth orbit, have a moon base, and be on our way to Mars by now.
We blew a ton of money on the space shuttle instead of building vehicles to get us to high earth orbit (where the future is), to the moon, and beyond.
Space 1999 should have been a reality, except for that part about the moon leaving the solar system.
48 years since we walked on the moon and we might be going back in four years. Maybe not, under a Gropey Joe administration.
I would like to see an American walk on the moon before I croak.
Social-political scientist Dr. Charles Murray co-wrote with his wife, Dr. Catherine Bly Cox, the most fascinating space-related book I have ever read “Apollo, Race to the Moon”. Murray and Cox took an evening physics course for layman from Jack Trombka, an Apollo scientist. He talked Murray and Cox into writing the book, which deals with Mercury, Gemini, and Apollo from the ground point of view, both at JFK Space Center, and Houston. It describes how John Houbolt came up with the dual spacecraft Command module and LEM method. Doing it that way simplified many things and greatly reduced the launchpad weight to what the Saturn V could lift. The other “miracle” to me is the crawler that took the entire Saturn V from its construction point to the launch pad.
What I find even more remarkable is what was done with slide-rulers in an age of primitive computing power. As for the space shuttle, it did have certain essential functions such as repairs to Hubble and construction of the space station. Manned missions to mars may be a goal, but it seems nearly an impossible one at the present time given the human radiation exposure that would occur during a trip of this duration (not to mention the physical and psychological toll).
Unless a MAJOR discovery is made trips to the moon will NEVER become routine. The laws of physics as we currently understand them make regular large scale travel to the moon untenable. Our MOST effective means of climbing out of this HUGE gravity well we call Earth is to combine HUNDREDS of tons of hydrogen and oxygen in a gigantic ‘roman candle’ that costs MILLIONS of dollars every time we light one. And ALL that money, effort and expenditure of resources can only put something the size of a school bus….AT MOST into orbit. Getting it to the moon let alone further would require a helluva a lot more energy. Roughly 90% of EVERY rocket sent into orbit is FUEL. Not payload….FUEL. Going further requires an even more lopsided ration. So no…..unless someone stumbles upon a workable antigravity system or some other means of propulsion humans will NEVER be able to make significant use of the resources in this solar system. We will continue to go places and explore but only on a very limited scale that requires massive amounts of time, money and effort. That is physics.
Glad to see your caveat, Dan, in sayin’ “as we currently understand” the laws of physics. That leaves room for us to make discoveries that may change what we can do. Our nuke subs now don’t resemble Verne’s version but he still had the basic idea and we just fleshed it out as we created the technology.
I’m basin’ this on the hope that our scientific progress isn’t de-railed by politics. Like Denny, I think it’d be great to see us back on the moon.
A space elevator could get us out of the gravity well. That would allow us to transport materials to earth orbit to build moon shuttles and ships to explore the solar system.
I see that I retired from the elevator industry just in time.
It all comes down to energy content. Today’s leftists love the “green” forms of energy, but they don’t have the necessary energy content to provide the necessary power. Even liquid hydrogen did not have the energy content for the Saturn V to lift off of the pad. The first stage used kerosene and liquid oxygen, and stages 2 and 3 used liquid hydrogen.
Every time I think about a horse’s patoot driving a mule-drawn wagon it makes me grin.
In the Biden Regime, NASA will return to its proper mission… Moslem Outreach.
The most economic savings will occur if you send BLM/Antifa people to Mars first, so that no one else will want to go.
Where is the Moon Base ?….Ask Crooked Hillary or one of the other Moon Bats who travel there routinely.
Broomstick flight reservations are available at Pelosi`s FRISCO`Freezer office.
What for?!?!Why go back to the moon? When you’re over $20 trillion in the hole, why bother? Mars is even more worthless to visit. Every breath of air, drop of water and bit of food will have to come from Mother Earth. No atmosphere to deflect/absorb UV and other troublesome types or radiation, so one must be clad in a space suit @ all times. Don’t waste my time and tax dollars on this nonsense!
So let’s stay on Mother Earth and put all of our eggs in one basket so the next asteroid strike wipes out humanity.