Just thought I’d take a second to remind people that today, 37 years ago, Neal Armstrong set foot on the moon. It’s worth it to take a moment and remember what we’re capable of as a species and a people.
We rented one disc of the great miniseries ‘From The Earth To The Moon‘, and then went ahead and bought it.
One reason I love this series so much is that it honors not only the astronauts, but all the people in white polyester short-sleeved shirts who stood behind them and made the machines that took them on their voyages.
We don’t tend to value those people much these days, and we ought to. I had dinner (with a LA Times journalist, no less – Susan Carpenter, their new motorcycle columnist) in Los Feliz a while ago, and one thought I had as a walked past the cafes full of well-travelled, well-dressed tattooed hipsters was that they would look on those guys with contempt. But they couldn’t have built an airplane, a motorcycle – or the loom their clothes were made on – to save their lives.
Let’s take a moment today and honor the men and women who can.
[I’m arithmetic-challenged today…fixed.]
Is it 1986 again?
There needn’t be anything about hipsters that implies lack of technical skill
http://flickr.com/photos/99253840@N00/65743579/
We should build a space elevator and go back to the moon. In that order…
Thanks for the reminder . . . My wife and I own a _build-to-data_ job shop in California. One of our biggest problems is convincing kids, both college and High School about the AMAZING opportunities in the Engineering field, especially in Aerospace. As a nation we have to really promote being able to make things with our hands and minds. A manufacturing career is not your dirty old job shop any more. Technological innovations, and some really smart people are coming up with some amazing new aircraft and space systems. As Neal made that wonderful “One small step…..” remark, we must remember those words and take them to heart. America is a great country, capable of great things, I for one hope we continue taking those steps, Aiming High and Staying Focused.
People need to get used to the idea that private enterprise is the future of space flight.
Yep. I’m a big space fan (got souvenirs back to the Mercury program), but the near-earth / manned program has to get off the dole, and dump the resulting politically driven designs.
Indeed, an incredible and memorable moment. Basically, the manned lunar missions were touch and go’s.
Sadly, reality sucks…….and cosmic radiation is reality. The plans to travel to and then explore (colonize ?)the Moon and ultimately Mars as humanity’s next grand challenge is essentially funding a suicide mission for any astronauts in the near future – for at least 20 years, if not longer.
We have no way, even any suggested by fringe science, to cost effectively shield astronauts from radiation during the journey. The lack of atmosphere makes surface exposure on both the Moon and Mars from the same very dangerous for any extended periods. The one partial solution would be to build underground facilities. But then one is faced with an additional extraordinary expense (a Big Dig on the Moon?) and “exploration time” will need to be rationed – exploration time on the surface equals exposure time.
No magic, shielding force field physics are currently feasible, even highly theoretical proposals don’t cut it. My long term perspective suggests the solution may be biological, perhaps genetic engineering that permits humans to absorb much higher does of radiation by accelerating the development and maturation of new cells.
Read the article:
http://www.sciam.com/article.cfm?chanID=sa006&articleID=000D6A37-E75F-13F5-A75F83414B7FFE9F
Now, pointing this out is unlikely to be popular. It is contrary to the “innate exploration gene of humanity”, and also attacks the substantial scientific/industrial/governmental complex who are/will be recipients of the financial nourishment the journey this achievement will require. (Remember – everything can be reduced to – Jobs!) The build it and it will be fixed at any cost does not look like it is going to work this time. Oh! I forgot, hell, astronauts are like fighter pilots, they don’t care about long term consequences……so tell me again, what are we going to die for? Hey, you’ll get a nice tan….
Let’s stick with the robots until a solution is feasible.
Yeah, we could instead spend the money helping the poor, educating the dense, and generally doing all the give-away stuff that politicians excel at; but, I have a better suggestion. Let’s start spending to move the U.S. of A. inland. Rebuilding NO is nice, but if the seas rise as appears likely, that’s a lost cause along with a whole lot more land on all coasts. We need to get started building a new national infrastructure ANSL (Above New Sea Level). We’ve only got about 100 years. It’s a multi-trillion dollar job. Let’s get to work.
Space will wait.
“Space will wait.”
Congratulations. You’ve just re-iterated a cliche that I’ve been hearing since my childhood in the 1970s.
As a Ph.D. in molecular biology, I’m profoundly dubious that the problems with manned space exploration are as insuperable as Scientific American thinks; but actually proving them wrong will require somebody to actually get off their rear end and do some work. That’s not likely to happen until we have a manned privately-owned space capacity. Anything publically-financed is just too subject to the political will of too many gumptionless people.