Did we really land on the moon?!?!?

[Eric Mc]

welshjon81 said:

I never said that I "didn't believe" I merely stated that I was some what sceptical and found it hard to believe.

Some very good points from most comments. Mainly the mirror on the moon and the broadcast from Aus.

It seems there are more obvious points for the event taking place than there are for it not.

In light of that - what an amazing achievement it was! As previously stated especially due to the lack of technology and time constraints on research and development!

We'll sort out any doubts you may have - don't worry

It is one of the crowning moments in the history of humanity. The fact that it all happened over 40 years ago just makes the achievement all the more impressive and makes me feel that the intervening decades have been wasted - to an extent.

However, we will go back to the moon - someday. And at least Apollo provides a base line of technology from which newer projects can borrow and learn.

[grumbledoak]

The reason we haven't gone back is that there is very little point in doing so. Unless we discover some future fuel there in abundance it is a waste of a good launch.

[qube_TA]

The 'their computer was less powerful than a calculator so they couldn't have gone' argument is a strange one, but it always comes up.

Would the modern approach to going to the Moon now simply involve going out and purchasing a really nice PC with the rest of the hardware being trivial?


The space race showed that to go to the Moon you don't need a quad core i7 CPU, you need a really big rocket, and a calculator.

[ewenm]

grumbledoak said:

The reason we haven't gone back is that there is very little point in doing so. Unless we discover some future fuel there in abundance it is a waste of a good launch.

IMO the most likely (and still very unlikely) reason for a manned trip back to the moon will be for our first steps in trying to set up an extra-terrestial habitat (other than space-stations). Maybe for some manned Mars training mission.

Edited by ewenm on Friday 1st March 13:23

[welshjon81]

grumbledoak said:

The reason we haven't gone back is that there is very little point in doing so. Unless we discover some future fuel there in abundance it is a waste of a good launch.

Helium 3 found in regolith for hypothetical fusion power plants perhaps?

[Hugo a Gogo]

qube_TA said:

The space race showed that to go to the Moon you don't need a quad core i7 CPU, you need a really big rocket, and a calculator.

or some slide rules, and a couple of sharp pencils

[poprock]

For the sake of remembering that the human race *is* still making progress on this sort of thing …

There are currently two separate proposals being worked on for building permanent, inhabitable, bases on the Moon. One from the European Space Agency, in conjunction with Foster + Partners Architects, the other from NASA.

NASA’s proposal is utterly, utterly bonkers. They want to send up a remote-controlled, or robotic, six-legged machine to pre-fabricate a complex of buildings in the Shackleton Crater by using a big microwave gun to superheat moon dust and sinter it into a sort of metal-infused ceramic material. Essentially, they propose to 3D-print buildings on the Moon, using moondust as the base material.

Architect’s proposals here





This whole thing was proposed as a feasibility study by some space architecture students, but NASA are now paying them to refine it to a more realised stage.

Here’s a working, half-sized, prototype for the robot (this has been under development by NASA for ages, the sintered habitat building is only one proposal for its future use.)

[ewenm]

poprock said:

Here’s a working, half-sized, prototype for the robot (this has been under development by NASA for ages, the sintered habitat building is only one proposal for its future use.)

The important question - winter tyres?

[MOTORVATOR]

Hugo a Gogo said:

or some slide rules, and a couple of sharp pencils

Are you mad? The tip of the pencil could break off and affect the electronics or something. What they really need is a pen that will write upside down and it is the simple lack of that which proves it must have been a spoof.

[omgus]

poprock said:

Essentially, they propose to 3D-print buildings on the Moon, using moondust as the base material.

Brilliant idea to avoid the weight penalty of getting stuff up into space but every time i hear about it part of me just thinks that it is utterly, utterly bonkers!

[rhinochopig]

omgus said:

poprock said:

Essentially, they propose to 3D-print buildings on the Moon, using moondust as the base material.

Brilliant idea to avoid the weight penalty of getting stuff up into space but every time i hear about it part of me just thinks that it is utterly, utterly bonkers!

Given the issues I have with my printer at times - printer not found - I wish them all the best of luck with that one.

[RacerMDR]

if....someone decided to go back there. Make it a remote base for whatever reason. Everything from Science to Sightseeing holidays, would it be allowed?

I'm pretty sure if someone said to me that I could go to the Moon, and there was a telescope base.

I would pay a hefty price for that sort of week 'away'.

Why hasn't anyone commercialised the Moon as yet?

If they did.........would there be a race over it? Could it cause wars (assuming China did it before the USA) etc

I like to think if I was in charge of a country - I'd be working on it very hard.

thoughts?

[rxtx]

Wars on the moon? Oh yes, read some Stephen Baxter

[welshjon81]

RacerMDR said:

if....someone decided to go back there. Make it a remote base for whatever reason. Everything from Science to Sightseeing holidays, would it be allowed?

I'm pretty sure if someone said to me that I could go to the Moon, and there was a telescope base.

I would pay a hefty price for that sort of week 'away'.

Why hasn't anyone commercialised the Moon as yet?

If they did.........would there be a race over it? Could it cause wars (assuming China did it before the USA) etc

I like to think if I was in charge of a country - I'd be working on it very hard.
thoughts?

I completely agree. When we eventually do go back there I believe 90% of the funding for development will most likely come from tourism. We just need to find a way to make the initial base and launches cost efficient.

Space elevator??

[Tango13]

The bit the moon hoax tin foil hat brigade never seem to explain is if NASA faked the first moon landing why did they continue to fake subsequent landings?

[Einion Yrth]

Tango13 said:

The bit the moon hoax tin foil hat brigade never seem to explain is if NASA faked the first moon landing why did they continue to fake subsequent landings?

and why would they have faked 13?

[annodomini2]

They haven't gone back for cost reasons.

There are scientific reasons to be on the moon, but not commercial ones.

There are also a lot of technical challenges to be overcome to allow a permanent moon base. Radiation, water, food etc.

[afrochicken]

grumbledoak said:

I did doubt it for a while, thinking "Well why didn't we just take up one of those three-way mirrors so we could shine a laser at it and prove it once and for all?" But we did, apparently, and universities use it daily to measure the distance. I've just got a blind spot for the correct term for the mirror and still couldn't find it on google if I tried.

You're thinking of the lunar laser ranging experiment. It uses retroreflectors. Is that the term you were trying to remember?

[Eric Mc]

They are the only Apollo experiments that are still operating - simply because they were unpowered. The Apollo astronauts left behind a number of science stations which operated using a nuclear isotope for power They might even be working still if they hadn't been deliberately turned of by NASA to save some money for the upcoming Space Shuttle.

[Brother D]

I've never been able to get my head around people thinking that the moon landings were faked. I'm glad some can grasp the science behind it eventually and change their 'opinion'.

But I've worked with similar people who along the lines of denying people were on the moon, would not and could not get their head around the fact that a large jet liner flying into a building and ensuing fire could bring down a building, but the ONLY way to bring it down was via hidden secretly installed demolition explosives...

I have to walk away from these people now.