I grew up in Titusville FL during the space race. My Father worked on the Apollo program. What is sad about this (US v. China/et al in moon race) is that they are projecting almost twice as long to get there now as it origianally took. From Kennedy's speech until July 1969 was just about 7 1/2 - 8 years. No PCs, no Super computers, no composite materials. We have 28 years of accumulated space craft performance data since then. We should be able to go back in 5 years. Modify the old Saturn plans, same for CSM and LEM (Command Service Module and Lunar Excursion Module) build the sobs and light the candle.
But the pols won't go for it. It's too important that they investigate steroid usage in baseball and corrupt umpires. Pretty effing sad. BTW, the space program from 1960 through today has been a net win (Profit). When you add up the benefits of that came out of the space program, it's more than paid for itself on many level.
Lets go back.
Slashdot Mirror
I grew up in Titusville FL during the space race. My Father worked on the Apollo program. What is sad about this (US v. China/et al in moon race) is that they are projecting almost twice as long to get there now as it origianally took. From Kennedy's speech until July 1969 was just about 7 1/2 - 8 years. No PCs, no Super computers, no composite materials. We have 28 years of accumulated space craft performance data since then. We should be able to go back in 5 years. Modify the old Saturn plans, same for CSM and LEM (Command Service Module and Lunar Excursion Module) build the sobs and light the candle. But the pols won't go for it. It's too important that they investigate steroid usage in baseball and corrupt umpires. Pretty effing sad. BTW, the space program from 1960 through today has been a net win (Profit). When you add up the benefits of that came out of the space program, it's more than paid for itself on many level. Lets go back.