Tuesday, September 20, 2005
Oh Come On!
There are few greater achievements in the history of mankind than putting men on the moon. In nine years and for $25.4 billion we put eight men on the moon over the course of a couple/three years. We did this in the 1960's when the world's best computers were little more than today's handheld calculators, and material science, particulalrly when it comes to plastics, was nearly infant.
And yet, in a proposal revealed yesterday, NASA says it will take more than four times as much money and thirteen years to get back there. And yet, this slow-motion, high-cost project will be essentially a modification of existing technology, not anything radically new.
The primary issue for such a journey -- that it takes spacecraft of remarkably different capabilites to accomodate the three phases of the mission -- launch, travel, and moon-landing -- remains the same as it was in the 1960's. But I cannot help but think that with all the new capabilities we have we cannot come up with something better than a large apollo type mission launched with the shuttle - particularly when it comes to the moon landing craft.
I guess this stuff still does not really capture the public imagination, that what did in the '60's had little to do with the moon and lot to do with beating the Sovs, and thus the resources are not available to really tackle this mission like it should be. But for the life of me, I can't understand why. We spend more money on movies about space travel than most things, you think we'd want the real thing.
And yet, in a proposal revealed yesterday, NASA says it will take more than four times as much money and thirteen years to get back there. And yet, this slow-motion, high-cost project will be essentially a modification of existing technology, not anything radically new.
The primary issue for such a journey -- that it takes spacecraft of remarkably different capabilites to accomodate the three phases of the mission -- launch, travel, and moon-landing -- remains the same as it was in the 1960's. But I cannot help but think that with all the new capabilities we have we cannot come up with something better than a large apollo type mission launched with the shuttle - particularly when it comes to the moon landing craft.
I guess this stuff still does not really capture the public imagination, that what did in the '60's had little to do with the moon and lot to do with beating the Sovs, and thus the resources are not available to really tackle this mission like it should be. But for the life of me, I can't understand why. We spend more money on movies about space travel than most things, you think we'd want the real thing.
