popsci.com — This month marks the 40th anniversary of humankind's first steps on the moon. Auspiciously timed is Craig Nelson's new book, Rocket Men--one of the most detailed accounts of the period leading up to the first manned moon mission. Here, we have ten little-known Apollo 11 facts unearthed by Nelson during his research.
Jul 13, 2009 View in Crawl 4
aresdiggsJul 14, 2009
SteveMTyler - Are you stupid? I was not arguing that the Apollo Missions where not great because they most definitely where... I was just pointing out that our generation has had awesome advances as well they just aren't huge ass rockets... Because you said "It doesnt seem fair that our generation did not get to experience a great scientific achievement" so I pointed out that we did -- Like the guy above said the internet is one of them and it changes how you do everything everyday and yet you say we got nothing as a generation... MmmmKay? Understand now?
lazlotlomaxJul 14, 2009
You guys are stupid. They have been using reflectors for years that are on the moon bouncing laser off them etc.... for measuring distance etc..... How did those reflectors get their? Find another theory to be stupid about.
Closed AccountJul 14, 2009
No, but I propel myself to work every day with controlled explosions.
jbiznessJul 14, 2009
The original statement wasn't "Because the moon landing was so great, people became scientists/engineers and they are the ones responsible for our current scientific discoveries". All we're pointing out is that you said not as many people care about science now because there haven't been any great new discoveries, but that is clearly untrue. Great discoveries are being made all the time. Also, it's pretty ridiculous to say that all of the big discoveries nowadays are being made just by people who saw the moon landing. So no one under the age of 40 (and more like 45 since you wouldn't remember the moon landing as an infant) has had any major contributions to science? And as far as "being inspired"...you can't just make big blanket statements about our generation. I majored in engineering, and I definitely wasn't alive during the moon landings. Meanwhile, my parents, who were about 10 during the moon landing, majored in art and film studies.@Ares....Internet! I can't believe I didn't even think of that! I just take it for granted now XD
ae1360Jul 14, 2009
This why I heard they had cyanide pills on them, in case they became lost at space.
Closed AccountJul 15, 2009
You do realize I was quoting a movie, right?
dwatchAug 1, 2009
I think they meant that if a Saturn-V rocket blew up on launch, it had the potential to hurl 100 pound pieces of debris 3 miles away. The unfocused nature of that type of explosion means you don't get the distance you would normally get from properly contained rocket exhaust pushing the payload in the opposite direction. I believe that the first few Saturn-V's they launched for unmanned testing had 'catastrophic failures' before they got all the kinks worked out, so NASA probably had direct experience with how far the debris could fly.