A Walk on the Moon

[amicus]

Thirty-five years ago today, July 20th, 1969, I was tooling along a Florida highway near Tampa Bay.

I was on the road, footloose and fancy free, after 8 years of military service, 4 different universities, and a failed marriage, I was out to see the world.

The 'on the road' would carry on to a motorcycle around Western Europe and a sailboat in the Bahama's.

But on this summer night in 1969, I found myself on the Campus of a University in Tampa Bay. I went to the students lounge and interviewed several about the moon landing, then sat down and wrote a piece for the New York Times...which I doubt was ever published....

The "one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind..." was scripted no doubt...but still...the first time in human history a man set foot on soil that was not of this earth.

Although there were several landings, a space station and a space telescope, probes on Mars and forays to the outer planets, I for one have been disappointed that man has not returned to the moon.

Also disappointed that man has not journied to Mars before now.

Is it the cost? Is it the danger of space travel? Is it lack of interest, lack of public support?

The magnificent accomplishments of the Apollo program and later unmanned voyages are astounding. Being a science fiction fan since I was old enough to read, I marvel in what man has done in space and with technology.

Many more read these forums than those 'regulars' who post, I would like to hear from some who do not speak, at least on this subject...

amicus

 

[seasparks]

Well I do speak here, but I have a comment anyway,

There is a cheap, reliable and proven method of reaching orbit, and from there to the moon is not an insurmountable task.

the main reason that I can figure that it is not being used is that it was NOT developed at NASA.

The technology is in place to put men on the Moon and on Mars, but politics, (from both sides) keeps cutting the budgets for space travel to a bare minimum.

I forgot which writer said it, but the quote still holds true, "If we do not gp to Mars and beyond by the year 2010, we may not have the resources left to do it at all"

(at least that's the quote as best I can recall at the moment.

 

[amicus]

Thanks seasparks...I seem to recall reading that about 2010 also.

The recent 'private' venture into space may bear some fruit...I do not understand how it has taken over 30 years to realize that the Moon is a much more efficienct place to launch from than is the earth.

I still have some doubts about the veracity of NASA and the Feds in terms of all that was discovered on and around the moon. I thought for a while solar radiation, as the moon has no atmosphere and no megnetic field, was lethal over a short period of time, which would limit any stay there.

I recently heard there are large deposits of Titanium on the Moon and I wonder why private enterprise has not made overtures in terms of mining.

Oh, well...what will be, will be, I guess

amicus

 

[Seattle Zack]

My father was a Boeing aerospace engineer, got transferred down to Cocoa Beach after the Apollo I fire. I grew up in the shadow of the Apollo program, there in the muggy swamp of central Florida.

The engineers all had identical homes (the Stanford-L, which accounted for a full 60% of the home designs in Brevard County) on identical lots with identical swimming pools. We would gather on the rooftops to watch the liftoffs, especially the huge Saturn-V boosters for the Apollo launches.

The astronauts were like rock stars. They drove around town in identical Corvettes (some Chevy promotion that, I believe, started with the Mercury program).

Everyone worked at NASA, and my dad often took me to see the VAB, the huge vertical assembly building where the rockets were constructed, and the computer center, where programs were run from huge stacks of punch cards.

I do remember that July night in 1969, the grainy picture of Neil Armstrong's awkward hop, a sight so monumentous that even Walter Cronkite was momentarily awed to silence.

The Race to the Moon, misnomer that it is (the Russians were nowhere close to a lunar mission) truly was a scientific achievement that changed our culture forever.

 

[amicus]

Zack...have a daughter in the Seattle area..if that is your location, thanks for sharing the memories of the cape and the era, it was a special time for many...I understand a million people showed up for the launch

amicus

 

[dr_mabeuse]

I recently heard there are large deposits of Titanium on the Moon and I wonder why private enterprise has not made overtures in terms of mining.

Probably because it costs something like $50,000 to put a pound of material into earth orbit, and because there's tons of titanium right here on earth. Even if the moon were made of gold it would be more expensive to mine it and ship it back than what you'd make off it.

As for using the moon as a launching sight, the fuel still has to come from earth, so it doesn't pay. It's cheaper and more efficient to burn the fuel in getting off the earth than it is burn even more fuel to send it to the moon.

As for manufacturing fuel on the moon, as far as I know there's nothing to use. There's certainly no fossil fuels or oxygen there, and if there is water locked up underground, you'd still have to set up an electric generating station to split it into hydrogen and oxygen, and what would that run on?

No. It was a magnificent engineering achievement, but it doesn't lead anywhere. Not with the technology we have today.

---dr.M.