Apollo/Moon landing stuff

No Phoenix it is not just you! I am getting increasingly irritated because, yes it was a great achievement, but we are also being increasingly told to lower emissions etc. by using electric cars, not flying etc.
We are not looking after our own planet so should we be causing havoc by going into space?
What damage and pollution do the now regular flights into space cause?
Just a thought!

It was dull 50 years ago and it is dull now.

Dull? Dull?!!!!!!!
It was an incredible achievement for mankind.
I think after 50 years it’s only right to re -show this to another generation and to remind us of a momentous event.

I agree, lemon but I'm fed up with it now.

Time to re-read 2001 A Space Oddysey.

I’m with you lemongrove I’m sure it’s been a revelation to a new generation who just take it for granted.

My GS (10) has been fascinated and I have promised to buy the Earthrise poster for his bedroom!

I am still fascinated by the moon landings. I can't get enough of it.

I totally agree lessismore
Huge waste of time and money we can’t even look after the world we have so we spend all that money and time and energy and intelligence to try and go to another part of the universe which has accomplished nothing further for 50 years so what point was that

We need to try and look after our own world first look what we ve done to that !

And I thought it was just me.

Sick of hearing about it !

It may not interest everyone but I found younger people who were not around then find it fascinating. My grandson is interested from both an historic and scientific viewpoint. Yes of course things have changed now and there are different priorities but it was nevertheless a great achievement.

Yes, they do go on about it but why should it just be forgotten, ignored, not told to another generation and celebrated?

It was a great achievement by a dedicated team of scientists and communicators and programmers. The calculations were controlled by a computer with about as much power and memory space as an out-of date pocket calculator. The people who manned those spaceships faced death or worse in the vast wastes between Earth and their destination with their remains lost to their loved ones for ever.

Is that not an epic as worth recounting as the conquest of Everest or the Wild West, or the explorations of Captain Scott or Marco Polo?

So in retrospect some think we have gained nothing for all that? Not so, there have been all kinds of new perspectives (literally and metaphorically) and scientific spin-offs. Non-stick saucepans are one. At the time, it was impossible to predict the results - of course not, it was exploration of the unknown. If we never did that, we would be stuck with carrying things around on our backs instead of putting them onto containers with those new-fangled wheels on them. I bet the neighbours of the first person to cut sections of tree trunk and fix them to a box said he was wasting time playing around, as they shouldered their back-breaking burdens.

It's amazing to think we now have more technology in our mobile phones than they had to achieve getting man on the moon!

An incredible achievement, we thought it was the start of manned space travel. Who knew what the future would hold? Turned out it was the pinnacle of manned space travel. Though we have sent missions to outer space and have learned new perspectives about our place in the cosmos.

Well said Elegran

Blinko we can’t know what the future will hold for manned space travel, certainly at the moment there would have to be a breakthrough for us to get further, but that may well happen.It was the first rung on the laddder.

Also, at the time there was a spirit of optimism around, Things had been gradually getting better as the devastations of world war were mended and conditions improved in most countries. It seemed that nations were learning to live together on peaceful terms (give or take a bit of posturing) and there were efforts to equalise the differentials between rich and poor. It looked as though those improvements were going to continue. It was worth branching out and doing something - something exciting for a change - that had never been done before.

We didn't realise then that human nature doesn't change, that greed and spite were waiting to be unleashed again, against people of other countries and people of the same country, indiscriminately, and seem more important than preserving the earth we had inherited and cherishing humanity in all its variety. Living well hadn't yet blunted the edge of concern for others less lucky. Temperature extremes and evil regimes hadn't begun to make some lands less pleasant to live in so that their inhabitants seemed to threaten to overwhelm the more fortunate areas and cause bitterness. Welfare budgets did not appear to be stretched to the limit.

You can't judge a past project by the arguments you would make against it now.

I remember watching it aged about 13 while on holiday with the family on the island of Harris. My main thought at the time was 'Is that it?'! After a TV lifetime of Fireball XL5 and Thunderbirds etc the real thing seemed so boring.

You were too young Jane to appreciate it.

I have used the off switch more and more lately, seriously thinking of getting rid of the tv altogether and just getting on with my life.

I agree. This obsession with burning up monstrous quantities of fossil fuel in a few seconds just to put a lot of tin junk on our perfectly blameless moon feels so wrong.
The whole space race thing is a long story of wasted money, macho posturing, male chauvinism, and cruelty to animals - they sent poor terrified dogs and chimps up before humans which I can’t forgive.
More impressive scientific progress would see us:
Stopping climate change
Ending all non-recyclable waste
Boosting biodiversity
Ending factory farming

There is no Planet B!

I agree, it was a huge historical event and shouldnt be forgotten,but the TV has really gone OTT lets hope it was just yesterday programmes were re- arranged.

I think that it is more important to engage, inspire and enthuse the young generation with the possibilities of human endeavour and personal effort, than to worry about whether it might bore some of us oldies. Plenty of other things for us to watch …… B*r*s, Br*x*t......Aaaaagrh! - take me to the moon!!

Me too Ellan.