If the Apollo moon landings were taking place today, would you support them?

[SlipperySlope]

For some reason I was just thinking about the fact that forty years ago men walked on the moon. Personally I'm still awe struck by the fact that we were able to successfully pull it off - to send humans hundreds of thousands of miles away from earth and bring them back again, a feat that has not been duplicated by any other nation in all these years.

But then I think; how would I feel if this same feat was taking place today? Would I look at the incredible expense it represented and think of how much better those funds could be spent, or would I still be able to look at it as a tremendous achievement in its own right and as a symbol of human endeavor?

I'm curious what others here think? If the Apollo program were taking place today would you look at it as waste or inspiration?

[Codeine]

1. A tremendous inspiration.

We need another enormous effort like that, returning to the moon with a permanent presence or setting foot on Mars. When we have no new horizons we stagnate.

[WilliamPitt]

2. Yup.

To the Moon, Alice.

[Catherina]

3. No. Would look at it as waste

I say to you today, that if our nation can spend thirty-five billion dollars a year to fight an unjust, evil war in Vietnam, and twenty billion dollars to put a man on the moon, it can spend billions of dollars to put God's children on their own two feet right here on earth.

Martin Luther King Jr, "Beyond Vietnam"

We are challenged to rid our nation and the world of poverty. Like a monstrous octopus, poverty spreads its nagging, prehensile tentacles into hamlets and villages all over our world. Two-thirds of the people of the world go to bed hungry tonight. They are ill-housed; they are ill-nourished; they are shabbily clad. I’ve seen it in Latin America; I’ve seen it in Africa; I’ve seen this poverty in Asia...

As I noticed these things, something within me cried out, "Can we in America stand idly by and not be concerned?" And an answer came: "Oh no!" Because the destiny of the United States is tied up with the destiny of India and every other nation. And I started thinking of the fact that we spend in America millions of dollars a day to store surplus food, and I said to myself, "I know where we can store that food free of charge—in the wrinkled stomachs of millions of God’s children all over the world who go to bed hungry at night." And maybe we spend far too much of our national budget establishing military bases around the world rather than bases of genuine concern and understanding.

Martin Luther King Jr, "Remaining Awake Through A Great Revolution"

Rec'd for a good question.

[hlthe2b]

4. You mean out in the southern Arizona desert?

:evilgrin: I k'eed, I k'eeed.

[SlipperySlope]

Oh boy, I rolled my eyes at that one...

[hlthe2b]

8. ....

GOTCHA! ;)

[Ozymanithrax]

5. Absolutely...America's greatest endeavor. n/t

[TheWraith]

6. Of course. Anyone who says no doesn't at all understand history.

Starting with the fact that those missions produced more modern technology than any other single initiative. If it weren't for Apollo, life today would not be the same, and we wouldn't have the research and development that provided us computers, modern materials technology, and other things which improve people's lives every day.

[woo me with science]

24. [phone] nt

[Bunny]

25. You forgot Space Food Sticks. If it wasn't for Apollo, we wouldn't have

these "non-frozen balance energy snack in rod form containing nutritionally balanced amounts of carbohydrate, fat and protein."

[sufrommich]

37. And Tang! God I loved Tang. nt

[Bunny]

42. I actually liked Tang, too.

If the astronauts drank it, it was good enough for me. :thumbsup:

[PVnRT]

26. +1

[spin]

31. Agreed. Here we are posting on computers which resulted from the space program ...

and some of us are bitching about its benefits.

:banghead::banghead::banghead::banghead::banghead:

[Kalyke]

7. Yes.. why not?

[Forkboy]

9. In a heartbeat.

[Maru Kitteh]

10. absolutely!

[Luminous Animal]

11. No. But I would support unmanned flights with ships filled with thousands of little robots.

As proposed by the eccentric robot scientist in the movie "Fast, Cheap, and Out of Control". He proposed that we send to the moon or mars thousands of small spider-like robots, each have been programmed to detect specific information (some H2O and carbon, others minerals, and all mapping the terrain) and they "beam" the info back. In the end, there is comprehensive (though not complete) map of the planet.

[struggle4progress]

20. +

[nadinbrzezinski]

12. Yes

Sadly we don't have the tech today.

[SlipperySlope]

13. That is indeed sad...

...but also a remarkable statement on what was achieved with the technology they had then.

[A HERETIC I AM]

14. We have the tech....

in spades.

It just isn't being applied in that fashion.

[tkmorris]

15. Sure we do

Every single bit of technology available in 1969 is available today, and quite a bit more (obviously). Now granted, no one has put together that technology to create a moon mission in many years, but if we wanted to we easily could.

I've always hated that canard about how we flew to the moon but couldn't do it today even if we wanted to. It's nonsense. No, we don't have a Saturn V etc. standing by waiting for the presidents go-ahead but if we wanted to go to the moon we damn sure could given the time to build what was required. All that is needed is the desire to do it.

[Warren DeMontague]

18. Oh, yeah, we could get back to the moon. With multiple launches, we could do it with avail. hardware

In a very short span of time.

[nadinbrzezinski]

21. Not according to well NASA...I think they know what

They speak off.

Oh and in vase you do wonder, they lost the plans for the Saturn V...so realistically it will take a decade.

[Statistical]

22. I don't think that is what NASA is saying.

Some of the technology used in Apollo program has been lost. Poor record keeping, companies went out of business, people died (and that knowledge in their heads is lost), incompatible/obsolete technoiogy, etc.

NASA isn't saying we don't have the technology or capability to go to the moon again rather it wouldn't be possible to exactly duplicate the Apollo mission down to every nut, bolt, and wire.

[Johonny]

33. I don't think you'd want to anyways

we designed that thing 40+ years ago. The materials available are vastly different today. Look at computer and polymer technology today compared to back then just to start. Also we have a fundamentally different space infrastructure today than when we thought about Apollo. We also had different questions and knowledge about space then compared to today.

[dmr]

16. Yes. n/t

[Warren DeMontague]

17. ABSOLUTELY- except I would say we shouldn't go, come back, and then destroy all the work

that got us there.

We should have gone and then stayed, or at the very least built on the impressive amounts of achievements and technology we achieved, more than we did.

Instead, we dithered for years, got the Space Shuttle, which, despite being an amazing technological achievement of its own, was a compromise with many built-in drawbacks.



The Apollo Program- the fact that what was done was done with the technology available, in the time available- is one of the signature achievements of the human species, to date, without question.

Inspiration. All the way.

[A HERETIC I AM]

19. Just in case you missed it a few months back.....

OK...18 months back...

I put up this thread back in July of 2009, on the anniversary of the Apollo 11 mission;

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=389&topic_id=6091080

[SlipperySlope]

30. The shuttle, oh the shuttle...

Apollo was just about purpose-built behind the single goal of getting two men to walk and the moon and back again. There weren't many compromises made along the way.

The Shuttle, although an amazing project in its own right, was compromised from the beginning. It was tasked with meeting manned spaceflight goals, meeting military goals, serving as a satellite launch (and retrieval) vehicle, a research vehicle, etc. It ended up not being ideal for any of the jobs that it was asked to do.

[MicaelS]

23. Absolutely no question, not even for one second. n/t

[treestar]

27. I think I would

It creates jobs, too.

[Johonny]

28. no

Because we live in an age with an on going space program. The funds taken from these programs to walk around on the moon would be pointless and counter productive. We would be better off spending such funds to further our on going missions than to walk around on the moon. Then it was inspirational, today it would seem like a waste. The space program is simply in a different place today.

[former9thward]

29. In hindsight it was a waste.

It was an inspiration at the time but it quickly faded. NASA is adrift with no clear mission. There is no national consensus to go back to the Moon or Mars or any other particular mission in space. Presidents occasionally give it some lip service but none since the Moon landings has ever gotten behind it again.

[Brother Buzz]

32. Yes, but in these austere times we can't afford the Apollo program

Now, if we dust off and use the Gemini space craft wouldn't we realize a 33% savings?

:hide:

[zappaman]

34. Do people still believe we went to the moon?

Really?
I thought it was common knowledge that it was all a hoax?

[SidDithers]

35. Waiting for our resident moon-landing denier to check into the thread...nt

Sid

[sufrommich]

38. Look above your post . lol.

[SidDithers]

39. zappaman's being sarcastic...

and I suspect he's thinking about the same poster I am :)

Sid

[sufrommich]

41. Oops, sorry about that zappaman. It's hard to tell these days. nt

[zappaman]

43. No problem

Yes, I am waiting for one of our resident posters to inform us of the hoax.
And yes, I would still support the APOLLO program.

[11 Bravo]

36. Without hesitation.

[Kennah]

40. Will Palin, Bachmann and Beck be on Apollo 1?