Apollo 11 Moon Landing 50th Anniversary.

[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. 

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

[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 

[Josquius]

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

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

[mongers]

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 

Thanks Jos, two nice pieces of colour.

[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.

[Syt]

Well, there's no competition of one-up-manship between superpowers any more.

[grumbler]

On June 25, the moon landing will be closer in time to the signing of the Versailles Peace Treaty than to the present. 

[Josquius]

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.

[grumbler]

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.

[jimmy olsen]

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. 

[Valmy]

I feel like we have forward momentum going again at NASA as well.

[grumbler]

I feel like we have forward momentum going again at NASA SpaceX as well.

FTFY

[Valmy]

I feel like we have forward momentum going again at NASA SpaceX as well.

FTFY

SpaceX as well as SpaceX?

[Admiral Yi]

SpaceX as well as SpaceX?

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

[jimmy olsen]

I feel like we have forward momentum going again at NASA as well.

The SLS is a crime against rocketry and the budget.