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Apollo 11 Moon Landing 50th Anniversary.

Started by mongers, July 20, 2019, 05:14:10 PM

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mongers

8.17pm (UTC) the Apollo 11 mission LEM - the 'Eagle' landed on the Moon.

A great achievement and due respect to all those Americans and other scientists and engineers who made this first step possible.  :cool:

Do any of us here have any memories of this and the later Apollo missions? 

"We have it in our power to begin the world over again"

Josephus

I was three. I don't remember the landing at all, but I remember watching, with my dad, the astronauts coming back to earth in the capsule into the water. I still remember the helicopters buzzing around it.
A year later, and I don't know if it was the same astronauts, but I think it was, they did a fly by in a helicopter in Malta, where I was at the time. I remember being in pregrade class (kindergarten) and we were given little Maltese flags that we waved outside the window of our classroom as the helicopter went by.
The coolest thing was we got to keep the flags.

On another note, one of Neil's sons is a huge prog rock fan, and I've met his twice at Marillion concerts  :D
Civis Romanus Sum

"My friends, love is better than anger. Hope is better than fear. Optimism is better than despair. So let us be loving, hopeful and optimistic. And we'll change the world." Jack Layton 1950-2011

Josquius

Speaking of prog..... I've been listening to this song on repeat. Great homage

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BHIo6qwJarI
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mongers

Quote from: Josephus on July 21, 2019, 11:41:27 AM
I was three. I don't remember the landing at all, but I remember watching, with my dad, the astronauts coming back to earth in the capsule into the water. I still remember the helicopters buzzing around it.
A year later, and I don't know if it was the same astronauts, but I think it was, they did a fly by in a helicopter in Malta, where I was at the time. I remember being in pregrade class (kindergarten) and we were given little Maltese flags that we waved outside the window of our classroom as the helicopter went by.
The coolest thing was we got to keep the flags.

On another note, one of Neil's sons is a huge prog rock fan, and I've met his twice at Marillion concerts  :D

Thanks Jos, two nice pieces of colour.
"We have it in our power to begin the world over again"

mongers

Just watching one of the documentaries from last night, got me thinking about the rate of technological progress in aeronautics/space; the first manned space flight was within 16 years of war's end, the Apollo 11 landing was less than an a quarter century after the peace and only 28 years on from the first jet engine.

Now 50 years on, despite the mainly American /European achievements in solar exploration, we've not taken the next major 'step' in exploration.
Though Mir and now the ISS are significant staging successes.
"We have it in our power to begin the world over again"

Syt

Well, there's no competition of one-up-manship between superpowers any more.
I am, somehow, less interested in the weight and convolutions of Einstein's brain than in the near certainty that people of equal talent have lived and died in cotton fields and sweatshops.
—Stephen Jay Gould

Proud owner of 42 Zoupa Points.

grumbler

On June 25, the moon landing will be closer in time to the signing of the Versailles Peace Treaty than to the present.  :wacko:
The future is all around us, waiting, in moments of transition, to be born in moments of revelation. No one knows the shape of that future or where it will take us. We know only that it is always born in pain.   -G'Kar

Bayraktar!

Josquius

Quote from: mongers on July 21, 2019, 12:03:49 PM
Just watching one of the documentaries from last night, got me thinking about the rate of technological progress in aeronautics/space; the first manned space flight was within 16 years of war's end, the Apollo 11 landing was less than an a quarter century after the peace and only 28 years on from the first jet engine.

Now 50 years on, despite the mainly American /European achievements in solar exploration, we've not taken the next major 'step' in exploration.
Though Mir and now the ISS are significant staging successes.

Technological advancement has continued. We are light years ahead of where we were in terms of utilisation of orbit and the technology of space travel in general.

The space race wasn't about technology so much as brute forcing problems. That we don't do anymore. Which is sad.
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grumbler

Quote from: Tyr on July 22, 2019, 02:34:45 AM
The space race wasn't about technology so much as brute forcing problems. That we don't do anymore. Which is sad.

This is quite untrue - in fact, the opposite of true.  The race to the moon was originally between two programs that believed in direct flight (i.e. brute force), but which both realized that this would be hugely expensive and risky.  By the early 1960s the decision was made in the US to use technology to allow the more elegant and likely rendezvous system whereby there were separate travel, landing, and ascent modules, with a space rendezvous that would allow return in just the command module.  It did require that a 2800 metric ton rocket be developed to get a 15 metric ton lander to the moon, but the brute force solution would have been a 6000 metric ton rocket to get a 35 metric ton lander to the moon.

The necessary computers to calculate the orbital dynamics involved in the Apollo moon landing system had to be developed (and, in fact, their memory had to be hand-woven), but the elegant solution proved to be the right one.
The future is all around us, waiting, in moments of transition, to be born in moments of revelation. No one knows the shape of that future or where it will take us. We know only that it is always born in pain.   -G'Kar

Bayraktar!

jimmy olsen

Quote from: mongers on July 21, 2019, 12:03:49 PM
Just watching one of the documentaries from last night, got me thinking about the rate of technological progress in aeronautics/space; the first manned space flight was within 16 years of war's end, the Apollo 11 landing was less than an a quarter century after the peace and only 28 years on from the first jet engine.

Now 50 years on, despite the mainly American /European achievements in solar exploration, we've not taken the next major 'step' in exploration.
Though Mir and now the ISS are significant staging successes.

Eh, while NASA has been stuck in a rut for decades, I think SpaceX has made some significant strides.

They were founded in 2002 and in 2008 were the first to get a privately funded liquid-fueled rocket to orbit, and by 2015 they managed to develop reusable rockets. Then in 2018 they launched the Falcon Heavy. They have cut the cost to go to orbit by three quarters.

Almost all of their components have been designed and constructed in house for a fraction of what it would cost the legacy corporations. These are modern rockets, with modern electronics. 
It is far better for the truth to tear my flesh to pieces, then for my soul to wander through darkness in eternal damnation.

Jet: So what kind of woman is she? What's Julia like?
Faye: Ordinary. The kind of beautiful, dangerous ordinary that you just can't leave alone.
Jet: I see.
Faye: Like an angel from the underworld. Or a devil from Paradise.
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1 Karma Chameleon point

Valmy

I feel like we have forward momentum going again at NASA as well.
Quote"This is a Russian warship. I propose you lay down arms and surrender to avoid bloodshed & unnecessary victims. Otherwise, you'll be bombed."

Zmiinyi defenders: "Russian warship, go fuck yourself."

grumbler

Quote from: Valmy on July 23, 2019, 06:51:50 PM
I feel like we have forward momentum going again at NASA SpaceX as well.

FTFY
The future is all around us, waiting, in moments of transition, to be born in moments of revelation. No one knows the shape of that future or where it will take us. We know only that it is always born in pain.   -G'Kar

Bayraktar!

Valmy

Quote"This is a Russian warship. I propose you lay down arms and surrender to avoid bloodshed & unnecessary victims. Otherwise, you'll be bombed."

Zmiinyi defenders: "Russian warship, go fuck yourself."

Admiral Yi

Quote from: Valmy on July 23, 2019, 10:49:51 PM
SpaceX as well as SpaceX?

Two less-filling great tastes that are tastily less filling.

jimmy olsen

Quote from: Valmy on July 23, 2019, 06:51:50 PM
I feel like we have forward momentum going again at NASA as well.

The SLS is a crime against rocketry and the budget.
It is far better for the truth to tear my flesh to pieces, then for my soul to wander through darkness in eternal damnation.

Jet: So what kind of woman is she? What's Julia like?
Faye: Ordinary. The kind of beautiful, dangerous ordinary that you just can't leave alone.
Jet: I see.
Faye: Like an angel from the underworld. Or a devil from Paradise.
--------------------------------------------
1 Karma Chameleon point