Apollo/Moon landing stuff

I've only watched some of it. There are other channels! But what I am worried by is the new proposed missions. When it happened in the sixties there was a huge sense of optimism of going into space to explore and discover new things, but now I fear the plans for bases on the moon and Mars because I can't help thinking that there are rich powerful people making plans to dump this planet when it is totally wrecked and make themselves new homes elsewhere.

I agree with you, Trisher. There is a middle path between trashing the original project and enthusing over plans to out-do it, but everyone seems to go to one extreme or the other.

Polarisation again.

I'm not being mean, just stating the obvious- (it's a fault ..)

Countries waste big time, citizens on a smaller scale- Look around your own homes - How much of it necessary? I'm not talking Marie Condo brings you joy necessary, I'm talking necessary to survive-

Traveling to the moon wasn't easy to do .. But anything that looks easy to do makes it difficult to appreciate - And as a result of that lack of appreciation, it appears wasteful ..

I’m stunned and saddened by the negativity, which I have never encountered until these comments. How can you be so negative in the face of humanity’s greatest achievement? If space travel only ever gave us a picture of our beautiful blue planet, the one we need to save, that would be enough for me.

Not negative about the achievement at all, Lizzie just at the time of my original post, tv and radio (esp. radio, I listen more than I watch) was imo reaching saturation point.

Lizzie why can’t people be allowed to see things differently I don’t think it’s the greatest achievement of mankind by a long chalk because 50 years on it has gone nowhere, one or two men took a few steps on another planet .... so It involved poor animals being used as scapegoats (that put me off for the start)
Breaking down of the Berlin Wall, letting Mandela out of prison and the outlawing of apartheid, listening to Martin Luther Kings speech and seeing the outcomes of that are some of the achievements that held me spellbound and have stayed in my mind all these years
We need to learn how to look after the planet we inhabit before we head off to ruin another one we need to learn how to live together without hatred There is so much we need to do here before we spend time energy money and lives to go off into the big universe

With respect BlueBelle, as much as we might wish, those events that you mentioned haven’t manifested a world of greater peace (although they should have) or understanding. Populism is rearing it’s ugly head all over the world and the 90s could well be remembered as the most enlightened decade in recent memory. We certainly don’t have to agree on any of that.

So, Lizzie you say that space travel is (and I quote) " humanity's greatest achievement " but how has it actually benefited anyone?

Don't always agree with BlueBelle, but think she makes some valid points in her post of 18.01.

Well, it's better than the wall to wall saturation coverage commemorating the beginning, middle and end of the first world war. I can't imagine what all media outlets will be like in 2039-2045!

Wow, I wasn’t expecting the vitriol if I’m reading the tones correctly. My opinion is that the moon landing is humanity’s greatest achievement because it was a culmination of science, hopes and dreams, and the technology that has rinsed through that programme has given us better digital flight control and microchips. It has advanced physics and engineering. It was a remarkable event to fly men to the moon and return them safely. You don’t have to believe it to make it true for many millions of people. I’m not eloquent but that’s just my belief.

Perhaps I’m quite wrong. Perhaps humanity’s greatest achievements have been to eradicate diseases and those scientists are certainly heroes. For me, there’s enough room for all of them. I mean what good has Einstein done humanity? Who gives af about general relativity? But hey, you do you.

The first micro-chip (1958) is credited to Texas Instruments ..

You can learn about everything that came to be as a result of the entire NASA program and specifically Apollo technology by Googling NASA spinoffs-

Nearly all mankind has benefited from the NASA program-

Rosecarmel and the technology has advanced. Did I actually write ‘invented’? Don’t be a dick because you’re sitting at a keyboard. This website is a “wretched hive” if ever there was one. A bunch of jealous English women.

Somebody poisoned the waterhole!

A bunch of jealous English women.

What a strange comment.

All technology eventually advances, if you wait long enough. It is impossible to estimate just when all the innovations would have appeared without the impetus of the space race.

Many things were developed far sooner than they would have been, thanks to the push on science and invention given by a big project which was throwing up unprecedented challenges and problems that needed solving.

The space race itself was triggered by the danger that the moon would be used for enemy military purposes - Soviet space exploration had had successes and was likely to have more, and the balance of military power was about to tip toward them and potentially lead to them realising their ambition and overcoming the US. That danger had to be neutralised somehow . Do those who decry the moonshot have any other helpful suggestions how the balance could have been maintained?

Jealous of what exactly Lizzie4377?