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How the Critics of the Apollo Program Were Proven Wrong
MarkWhittington writes "A recent story in The Atlantic reminds us that the Apollo program, so fondly remembered in the 21st Century, was opposed by a great many people while it was ongoing, on the theory that the money spent going to the moon would have been better spent on poverty programs. The problem with this view was that spending for Lyndon Johnson's Great Society dwarfed the Apollo program, that the programs in the Great Society largely failed to address poverty and other social ills, and that the Apollo program actually had a stimulative effect on the economy that fostered economic growth and created jobs by driving the development of technology,"
They may not be cheap, but they are cheap enough to be economical. Private companies launch satellites regularly. On the other hand, there were only 7 people privately in space.
Wikipedia (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Space_tourism#List_of_flown_space_tourists) says that mark Shuttleworth was one of them, I didn't know that. Apparently he had to fly in a Soyus, he wasn't Shuttle-worthy.
PlusFive Slashdot reader for Android. Can post comments.
NASA invested its money and brainpower into many things to push them to higher durability and power and lower size and weight.
The first practical integrated circuit was developed on the order of NASA for the use on the Apollo guidance computer. (And yes DoD pitched in too on that for their ICBM).
They worked with Black and Decker on modernizing their first generation of battery operated power tools.
They contributed to research and funding of countless computing systems to make them smaller and more robust.
As well as developments of new lightweight durable fabrics and materials for the spacecraft as well as the devices and clothing.
The list goes on - optics, food preservation and purification, robotics, guidance systems etc. etc.
And what was so special about the moon to create that brand value? As compared to:
first man made object in orbit
first animal in orbit
first man in space
first woman in space first
and I'm going to copy&paste the rest from wikipedia as I'm too lazy to type:
The first man-made object to escape Earth's gravity and pass near the Moon was Luna 1; the first man-made object to impact the lunar surface was Luna 2, and the first photographs of the normally occluded far side of the Moon were made by Luna 3, all in 1959. The first spacecraft to perform a successful lunar soft landing was Luna 9 and the first unmanned vehicle to orbit the Moon was Luna 10, both in 1966.[43] Rock and soil samples were brought back to Earth by three Luna sample return missions.
Getting a man on the moon was the only "first" the US ever scored in the space race. (What's even wors as mpst milestone swere pretty much arbitrary)
bickerdyke
Look at you being all space nutter-y and refering to satellites as 'birds', silly slashdotter you're not a spaceman.
Those of us that work in the satellite communications buisness commonly refer to satellites as 'birds'. It's called workplace jargon. Perhaps you posted as AC to keep us from pulling your geek card.
Some days I get the sinking feeling Orwell was an optimist.