Active Topics | Member List | Search | Help | Register | Login
The John Byrne Forum
Byrne Robotics > The John Byrne Forum
Topic: RIP Crew of Apollo 14 (Topic Closed Topic Closed) Post ReplyPost New Topic
Author
Message
Conrad Teves
Byrne Robotics Member
Avatar

Joined: 28 January 2014
Location: United States
Posts: 2160
Posted: 05 February 2016 at 8:22pm | IP Logged | 1  

Ed Mitchell died today.  The whole crew of Apollo 14 is gone.
That's the first of the moonwalking missions where we've lost them all.


Edited to add:  Today is the anniversary of the Apollo 14 lunar landing!


Edited by Conrad Teves on 05 February 2016 at 8:46pm
Back to Top profile | search | www e-mail
 
Brian Peck
Byrne Robotics Member
Avatar

Joined: 16 April 2004
Location: United States
Posts: 1709
Posted: 05 February 2016 at 10:36pm | IP Logged | 2  

Only 7 of the 12 men who have walked on the moon are still alive.
Back to Top profile | search | www e-mail
 
Matt Reed
Byrne Robotics Security
Avatar
Robotmod

Joined: 16 April 2004
Posts: 35693
Posted: 06 February 2016 at 3:30am | IP Logged | 3  

Given the date at which we stopped sending manned spaceflights to the Moon, 7 out of 12 is actually pretty good! 
Back to Top profile | search
 
John Byrne
Avatar
Grumpy Old Guy

Joined: 11 May 2005
Posts: 132129
Posted: 06 February 2016 at 8:59am | IP Logged | 4  

All of human history was aimed at the first man on the Moon, and now it's half a century ago.

I still recall quite vividly the sinking sensation I felt when Walter Cronkite hosted an anniversary documentary and opened with the line "We don't go to the Moon anymore." It seemed absurd that in my short time upon the Earth (at the time) I should have lived long enough to hear him say that.

Back to Top profile | search
 
Mike Baswell
Byrne Robotics Member
Avatar

Joined: 02 May 2004
Location: United States
Posts: 1966
Posted: 06 February 2016 at 3:53pm | IP Logged | 5  

I had a twenty-four year-old college educated young man tell me sincerely the other day that he believed the moon landings were staged because the U.S. just didn't have that kind of technology back then.

It makes me sad to think that the last landing is so far back that this kind of thinking can even exist.
Back to Top profile | search e-mail
 
Peter Martin
Byrne Robotics Member
Avatar

Joined: 17 March 2008
Location: Canada
Posts: 15726
Posted: 06 February 2016 at 6:02pm | IP Logged | 6  

The Apollo landings are remarkably uplifting and simultaneously morose as these rare men leave us.

Compared to some of the technology we have today (specifically, computer processing power), it is incredible that we pulled off those moon landings. Some things haven't moved on so much though -- is rocket technology that much superior nowadays to the Saturn V boosters?


Edited by Peter Martin on 06 February 2016 at 6:02pm
Back to Top profile | search
 
Conrad Teves
Byrne Robotics Member
Avatar

Joined: 28 January 2014
Location: United States
Posts: 2160
Posted: 06 February 2016 at 9:37pm | IP Logged | 7  

Both the long and short answer to that is "no."

Apart from computers, running through a list of what is better about modern rockets are mostly cost-related improvements often applied to the same engines designed during that period.  

The main difference today is that Apollo was a time which proved if you throw enough money, manpower and talent at something, you can get it to work, and work quickly.  Sure, that's unsustainable, but look what they did!

Astronauts were my first "real life" heroes.  For better or worse, what they did changed what sort of person I became.  Now that we're looking back on their lives, I would hope that what they accomplished was a humble beginning to a Great New Era, rather than just the crowning achievement of an iffy one.
Back to Top profile | search | www e-mail
 
Joe Boster
Byrne Robotics Member
Avatar

Joined: 29 April 2004
Location: United States
Posts: 3160
Posted: 10 February 2016 at 8:23pm | IP Logged | 8  

When I was at the Rocketry Museum in Huntsville, there was a big dispaly about using the ancient J-2 engine updated by Pratt & Whitney. 
Back to Top profile | search e-mail
 

Sorry, you can NOT post a reply.
This topic is closed.

  Post ReplyPost New Topic
Printable version Printable version

Forum Jump
You cannot post new topics in this forum
You cannot reply to topics in this forum
You cannot delete your posts in this forum
You cannot edit your posts in this forum
You cannot create polls in this forum
You cannot vote in polls in this forum

 Active Topics | Member List | Search | Help | Register | Login