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50 years ago, humanity's first steps on another world

17 Comments
By Issam AHMED

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JonathanJoJuly 20  08:03 pm JST

Successive presidents, Bush, Obama, Trump, have altered NASA’s objectives so much that it’s no wonder progress has been much slower than in the 1960s.

Actually it was Nixon, in the 1970s, who altered von Braun's plans for Apollo follow-on programs. von Braun intended to continue Apollo through Apollo 20 and follow-on programs using advance versions of the Apollo and Saturn V (defined as Apollo Applications Programs) to establish moon base, manned flyby to Venus and Mars by the 1980s.

After Apollo successfully won the space race to the moon, the public lost interest. Nixon noticed it and cut the budget and ended any viable manned space program. The space budget during the 1970s was cut such that NASA could barely salvage leftover Saturn V hardware to build Skylab. NASA didn't have the budget to build the the Space Shuttle design it really wanted: a fully reusable shuttle that would make earth to orbit affordable and routine. Instead, the design was compromised such that it never really fulfilled its original potential.

It was not only successive presidents from Nixon forward, but Congress, who felt the space program was a waste of money; money that could be better spent on entitlements to fight poverty, funding for foreign aid and wars and other earth-bound concerns.

So NASA quietly concentrated on unmanned space exploration instead.

For those who think spending money on Apollo and NASA is a waste of money, consider the spin-off technology derived:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NASA_spinoff_technologies

1 ( +1 / -0 )

How about we sort out all the problems we have here, before going out and trashing other planets?

I hate this view point which gets thrown around a lot. Have heard it before and I'm sure it won't go away anytime soon.

Simply, if we wait to sort out our problems here first, we'll never go. We'll go extinct like many species before us.

Sure, we're not perfect. But so what! Let's get going. If we can ensure the survival of our the human race on other planets, in time, we'll grow up. Even if we don't, it's better than being dead!

1 ( +1 / -0 )

I remember it like it was yesterday. (on the old black and white TV set).

1 ( +1 / -0 )

There's a good article on what humanity has done to the moon since it started this ridiculous waste of resources. The short version is, turned it into a junkyard of 200 tonnes of human waste, including leaving 96 bags of poo, pee and worse. 

https://www.theguardian.com/science/2019/jul/19/moon-buggies-and-bags-of-poo-what-humans-left-on-the-moon

The worst trend is the increasing politicization of it, in both nationalistic and religious terms. For example, Israel's failed attempt to turn it into a Holocaust memorial. I mean, what do they think they are achieving? Indoctrinating the Little Green Space Aliens before they invade Earth?

I dare say South Korea will go crazy if Japan gets there first and claims its slice of the pie first.

For all religion and nationalistic politics has done on this planet, it should be off limits for space and other planets.

How about we sort out all the problems we have here, before going out and trashing other planets?

-2 ( +1 / -3 )

@kurisupisu

And why isn’t mankind in space now?

NASA just gave up the ghost.

Funding is the problem.

NASA budget $18.69 billion (2010)

NASA budget $21.5 billion USD (2019)

as opposed to:

U.S. military budget $534 billion (2010)

U.S. military budget $686.1 billion (2019)

Space isn't as profitable as it needs to be for them to increase funding. Once it becomes more profitable and more individual states participate in the space program to include building parts, making consumables, etc., state senators and Congress members will push for more funding.

But for now, regime change efforts and bombing countries to take their natural resources is much more profitable. So that's where the funding goes.

2 ( +3 / -1 )

Successive presidents, Bush, Obama, Trump, have altered NASA’s objectives so much that it’s no wonder progress has been much slower than in the 1960s.

1 ( +1 / -0 )

Acoustic levitation (above human hearing so it will not destroy our ears) and supercooled magnetic levitation, if base is put above in ceiling rather than below on floor, can simulate gravity by pushing objects towards the floor.

If that is too much (we can do, but money might be an issue), 5 ringed spaceships or starbases could be built. Each ring rotates independently with a gap between rings for spherical elevators.

0 ( +0 / -0 )

CrazyJoe:

"Manned space travel is a Star Trek fantasy."

So were flip phones and plasma & ion engines. Imagination can become reality, if you put your mind to it.

3 ( +3 / -0 )

How is 2024 to go back to the moon unrealistic? Our tech is 50 years newer and we've done it before. 2024 may be a stretch for mars or titan...

We were supposed to have lunar colonies by 1997. Martian colonies by 2010. Really dropped the ball.

0 ( +1 / -1 )

Those guys had balls to do what they did. As do all astronauts who ride on top of rockets to go up thousands of kilometers beyond the atmosphere into the cold vacuum of space in humanity's quest to advance our civilization.

0 ( +2 / -2 )

I sat watching them on TV with my grandfather who was born in 1880 before there were aircraft, dirigibles or cars. He loved it, as much as I.

He was part of a generation that probably saw more change, for good and ill, as any other in the history of humanity.

3 ( +3 / -0 )

"I believe that this nation should commit itself, before this decade is out, to doing what it already did 50 years ago, and for no clear reason whatsoever"  Donald J. Trump, hahahahahaha

Manned space travel is a Star Trek fantasy. It's harder, more dangerous and more expensive than most Americans understand. How about we spend the money to improve citizens lives, healthcare, the environment - anything other than flushing money to the greedy aerospace giants?

-4 ( +1 / -5 )

And why isn’t mankind in space now?

NASA just gave up the ghost.

-1 ( +1 / -2 )

When all of us alive today are long forgotten Neil Armstrong will still be remembered.

I sat watching them on TV with my grandfather who was born in 1880 before there were aircraft, dirigibles or cars. He loved it, as much as I.

0 ( +2 / -2 )

It will always be an amazing achievement. The best part is that it actually happened.

1 ( +3 / -2 )

Still an amazing achievement.

0 ( +2 / -2 )

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