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- cryinlion85, on 07/19/2009, -1/+2040 years later, still no love for engineers.
- fury420, on 07/19/2009, -0/+12buried as inaccurate, objects left behind from Apollo missions are clearly detectable on the lunar surface
- zyklon, on 07/19/2009, -0/+11My old neighbour, Cliff Winget (Real name, died in 2006. Photos here: http://www.whoi.com/page.do?pid=10934&tid=282& ... and http://www.whoi.edu/75th/gallery/week50-en.html but picture him with a ZZ-Top-styled beard in his later years.), worked on the the early designed for RCS engines for spacecraft. He proposed a spark plug be mounted inside of a rocket cone. How simple is that idea? They liked the idea and continue to use a similar design. He later went on to help design/build the Alvin (WHOI) which found the Titanic wreck.
Pardon me while I pick up the names. *Cough* - AmnesiacJack, on 07/19/2009, -2/+12My parents got to watch the USA walk on the moon, my children will get to watch the Chinese.
- NotAChickenHawk, on 07/19/2009, -0/+7Everyone who hasn't been to Kennedy Space Center in Florida really should go - they have one of the last Saturn V's there that was never launched. You can't truly appreciate the size and enormity of this rocket until you've see it in person.
- robbiedo, on 07/19/2009, -0/+6What's really amazing about the Apollo space program was the enormous scale of the whole endeavor. 400,000 people were employed by NASA. 3% percent of the federal budget went to NASA.
I grew up in SoCal in the 1970's. The place was absolutely dominated by aerospace and military. Literally half the people in my neighborhood had fathers working for major contractors on the space program, aerospace, or the military.
Frankly, Apollo was the gutsiest accomplishment by a society probably as great as the Eqyptian pyramids in Khufu's time. There was no way we could sustain that without some direct societal benefit. When you look back at the Space program, it's a huge disappointment in what we found. The moon had no green cheese, Venus was not a jungle planet, and Mars is a vast desert. It is tough to make the commitment to send people when the robotic programs are so darn successful.
Everyone denigrates NASA for the failure to follow up on Apollo with an equally adventurous program; however, there was not the political will to follow up once we got bored with it, and the robotic probes have paid such huge dividends, and continue to do so. It is really tough to understand the enormous pressure for safety in the manned space program. Look at the navel gazing we did with the two lost Shuttles, and they only went to LEO. - Garmonbozzia, on 07/19/2009, -0/+6Maybe it's because they did a job, and did it damn well, and without huge egos to please (unlike Aldrin, who I still respect, but there's a reason NASA picked him to be second.) I know some will say that by taking place in that mission, they placed themselves in the public domain for life. I disagree. They hung that up with their space suits and are now ready to privately deal with life on Earth, having been among the first to leave it and look back, then find themselves a week later sitting back in their living rooms. Wrap your minds around that....
- RogerStrong, on 07/19/2009, -0/+6That's not at all likely.
The Chinese are where the early Gemini program was 45 years ago. They've launched a multi-person crew and done a space walk, but they haven't achieved Gemini's rendezvous and docking, or long duration flights.
But Gemini was launching every 8 weeks or so, and the Chinese are launching only once every few YEARS. And while the Chinese have lots of grand plans, their only commitment is for an unmanned lander.
I hope this changes. - RogerStrong, on 07/19/2009, -0/+5Is that what the voices told you?
- ophello, on 07/19/2009, -0/+5You heard what other people wanted you to think. The moon hoax only has power because people don't think about what they say. They react and spread rumors.
- doublefelix, on 07/19/2009, -0/+5It must take a degree in rocket surgery to figure out something like that
- Garmonbozzia, on 07/19/2009, -0/+5That's one hell of a neighbor. Just cool.
- ophello, on 07/19/2009, -0/+4Neither?
- spriggig, on 07/19/2009, -0/+4Here's a shot of Von Braun with scale models of the rockets, the big one behind him is an early version of the Saturn V.
http://history.msfc.nasa.gov/vonbraun/photo/31.htm ...
Also, if Johannes Kepler hadn't done it, someone else would have figured out planetary motion, but still that was the first step to going to the moon. - ebcreasoner, on 07/19/2009, -0/+4Damn rock scientists!
- S1ngular1ty1, on 07/19/2009, -0/+4Cool thing is NASA is designing and building replacement rockets like the Saturn V right now !!!
Ares I
http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/constellation/ar ...
Ares V
http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/constellation/ar ...
Video of testing of Ares V solid rocket motor
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8SEyerTbnOs - ophello, on 07/19/2009, -0/+4Go back to your cave.
- danielttt, on 07/19/2009, -0/+4Probably tired of dealing with idiots....
- Brassbud, on 07/19/2009, -1/+4The thing is, when it comes to space flight, technology really hasn’t improved in the last 50 years. Yes, maybe there are some new materials here and there, and new computer systems to reduce (or increase) workload, but our effort to get back to the Moon is mostly about figuring out what the hell it was these engineers did back in the 1960's.
The truth is, in the last 40 years the available technology and knowledge required for manned spaceflight has regressed. We have forgotten. It is a sobering realization not only for the modern US and science, but for humanity as a whole. Neglected, our entire society would be forgotten. We would again be as the monkeys in trees. - NiftyG, on 07/19/2009, -0/+3I'm still amazed that we figured all that out in less than 10 years.
- RogerStrong, on 07/19/2009, -0/+3Actually those are Saturn 1Bs.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saturn_IB
Dug anyway. - RogerStrong, on 07/19/2009, -0/+3Ares V will have it beat, if built.
- carbonfilament, on 07/19/2009, -0/+2Armstrong stopped signing autographs years ago when he discovered they were being sold for profit.
He's had to sue people often to prevent exploitation of quotes of his, or pictures.
I'm sure his decision to retire from public life is connected to this and other things. - S1ngular1ty1, on 07/19/2009, -0/+2Here are some more videos of cool stuff related to these rockets.
Explanation of these two rockets:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g1QGrAokYJg (part 2 of 3)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w7V5jVa3Rco (part 3 of 3)
Ares I solid rocket motor testing
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1bb4Ogf91fU
Ares V main engine testing (RS68). Ares V will have 6 of these:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lxW5voegW4c
Ares I launch abort system animation:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=noCIjCm8eOw
Ares I launch abort system actual test video:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5xEshwVHnMY (go to 2:05)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kQMYBWW_6Rg
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e0_wwWFTOE0 - ophello, on 07/19/2009, -0/+2Please let the HB's die.
- DulcetTone, on 07/19/2009, -0/+2I strongly recommend the book: Apollo: The Race to the Moon (by Charles Murray and Catherine Bly Cox), as it focuses on engineers and contractors. The stories of the innovation and the raw scale of the project are humbling to read.
The instability in the engines was (as the article above indicates) solved by trial and error, but the litmus test chosen and applied was that the engine had to have a bomb detonated within its bell while burning and become stable again before it would be deemed stable and ready-to-fly.
The rocket was bolted to the pad through an inch of steel, and pulled these bolts through it to attempt to dampen longitudinal shock waves on lifting off.
The lunar lander's gas tank had to read its fuel level, and they wrestled with different weighty (therefore bad) ways of doing this, such as firing neutrons through it and seeing how many were scattered by the fuel inside and failed to reach a detector on the other side. The solution chosen? They gave it a small reserve tank to switch to, as a moped would do. This helped guide abort choices with minimal complexity.
Really. Get the book. It went out of print and became lordly expensive before a class at MIT used it, which forced it back into print. It was simply the best book on the space I ever came across. It celebrates what it calls "The Steely Eyed Missile Men". - DrunkenPirate34, on 07/19/2009, -0/+2Man that guy reminds me of Jeff Bridges (Especially in The Big Lebowski, sans the long hair)
- Garmonbozzia, on 07/19/2009, -0/+2Sorry to be the nitpicker, but that video link you posted isn't for the Aries V, it's the Atlas V. Completely different.
- S1ngular1ty1, on 07/19/2009, -0/+1Oops yeah.
- B1665r, on 07/19/2009, -0/+1A mentos, diet coke and condom rocket.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wwNxIS4mlQU&NR= ... - x00x, on 07/19/2009, -0/+1FTA:The result of their work was the mammoth Saturn V, the largest and most powerful launch vehicle of its time.
Make that of "all time". - Coercer43, on 07/19/2009, -0/+1Either LA is on the East coast or this article was actually written in the future. Interesting.
- crashlock, on 07/20/2009, -0/+1Maybe you should go ask Mulder and Skully you ***** *****.
- EntangledPhysx, on 07/20/2009, -0/+1I think NakedJedi was making a funny
- carbonfilament, on 07/19/2009, -0/+1Wikipedia has a great article on the saturn fives. The only Saturn Five currently on display consisting entirely of components that were meant to be flown is in Houston at the Johnston Space Center. KSC has a mostly complete one, just the 1st stage is a test stage, the other two are flight components. The one in Alabama is all test stages. Interestingly, even the one in Houston is mismatched together from parts of different rockets. First and second stages are from different completed Saturn Fives meant for cancelled Apollo 18 - 20. The third stage is from the Saturn Five used to launch Skylab.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saturn_5 - preet1059, on 07/19/2009, -0/+1it's really been a one of achievement
- crashlock, on 07/20/2009, -0/+1If you knock on you head with your knuckles you'll hear something! Your ***** empty brain chamber.
- carbonfilament, on 07/19/2009, -0/+1Energia was more powerful at Earth Sea Level. But only two were ever launched in testing configuration....
- joeliscool92, on 07/22/2009, -0/+1sarcasm? goodness
- crashlock, on 07/20/2009, -0/+1Do you think you sound funny or something?
I think you should go thank your parents for bringing you up as complete ***** redneck nonse. - crashlock, on 07/20/2009, -0/+1wake up you retard
- 4AntiStupid, on 07/19/2009, -0/+0Actually that should be "almost" never got off the ground. It probably wouldn't have if someone hadn't come in and clamped down on the project (forget the guys name at the moment). Interesting thing too is the famous error code during the landing was only documented on a hand written piece of paper and not included in any official documentation with the software delivery.
- 4AntiStupid, on 07/19/2009, -0/+0The premise is flawed. Without the Cold War politics it never would have happened. They also need to include the budding world of Computer Science and also the first demonstration of how not to organize a software development project. It also never got off the ground due to bloat and disorganization in the software development.
- golgotha, on 07/19/2009, -1/+1and just think, your great great grandchildren will get to watch the Mexicans.
- BREZZZ, on 07/19/2009, -4/+2That is how it works. We did it to show off to the Russians, they are going to do it to show off to us. We have gone beyond the need to put a person on the moon. Rovers can do everything we can and more with less liability, and on-site analysis labs mean we don't have to bring samples back.
- LilRabbitFooFoo, on 07/19/2009, -3/+1One small step for A man...
Just because Neil choked on a word, doesn't mean we should keep messing up the line...or, more importantly, the MESSAGE.
It's more important than ever today to remember this was one small step for a man, one giant leap for mankind. - americanoboy, on 07/19/2009, -7/+1boooring.
- joeliscool92, on 07/19/2009, -7/+1everyone knows it was fake anyways
- EmilyCragg, on 07/19/2009, -10/+0I hear, Bolden now says it was faked; it was "one small step for Hollywood."
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