Moon landing - 50 years

[Paddy]

Hi @Bealman

If you look at what would have been involved in faking the moon landings then I personally believe it was easier (and probably cheaper) to do it for real!  Also, one has to remember that this was a very different time where risk was accepted, if not embraced by people having lived through WWII and Korea.  Despite our objections to the contrary, today's society has become VERY risk averse.

What saddens me most is that to date, the Apollo programme (program?  ) stands as mankind's high water mark of achievement.  We do have visionaries like Elon Musk but in the main our dreams have become rather mundane.  It seems to me that what passes for achievement these days is the release of a new iPhone... 

I must be getting old. 

Kind regards

Paddy

[Bealman]

Good on ya, Paddy - I agree with every point in your post. The reference to WWII and Korea is particularly relevant - John Glenn was a fighter pilot who took out some Russian MiGs over Korea. Most of the Apollo astronauts were fighter jocks or test pilots before they joined NASA.

Elon Musk is indeed a visionary, but he has some bad days. As recently as 7 March, he tweeted, "The caronavirus is dumb," and as to his idea of sending in a submarine to gets those kids out of that cave..... well, 

We need a return to the moon and a mission to Mars!! 

[Paddy]

Hi @Bealman

Like most if not all visionaries / great people, Elon has his flaws (serious in some cases).  By the way, I do not use the term "great" to mean "good".  One could argue that Hitler was a great man but certainly not good.

Putting a man and/or women on Mars would be amazing although I suspect the time where governments are able to allocate the resources required has past.  We have blown all the dosh on wars, the banks and excess consumption...

Now when are Apple going to release the iPhone XXX? 

Kind regards

Paddy

[Bealman]

 

I'll stick with me Android phone 

And they managed to get Matt Damon back from Mars in Ridley Scott's "The Martian" 

.... and having watched Tom Hanks in "Captain Phillips" last night, I might just watch him in"Apollo 13" tonight!

[Paddy]

Hi @Bealman

Yep, planning to watch Apollo 13 today as well.

Kind regards

Paddy

[Railwaygun]

Vue cinemas were Doing a special showing ( big screen) of the film but cancelled due to current problems!,,

[railsquid]

An interesting (if lengthy) listen:
Apollo 13 Accident - Flight Director Loop Part 1 (YouTube).

I must say however that having reviewed much of the Apollo footage available on YouTube that NASA made a very obvious omission when faking the footage, as not once in any of the 6 landings do any astronauts stop to harvest and sample moon cheese.

[dannyboy]

as not once in any of the 6 landings do any astronauts stop to harvest and sample moon cheese.

Two reasons - i) they were crackers and ii) they forgot the cheese knife. 

[chrism]

I must say however that having reviewed much of the Apollo footage available on YouTube that NASA made a very obvious omission when faking the footage, as not once in any of the 6 landings do any astronauts stop to harvest and sample moon cheese.

Well, they had to leave something for Wallace and Gromit to do 

[Paddy]

Apollo 13 watched and very much enjoyed.

Happy Easter everyone.

Kind regards

Paddy

[Bealman]

Copy that, Houston Paddy 

[chrism]

Apollo 13 watched and very much enjoyed.

Ditto - failure to do so was not an option 

[chrism]

Dunno if you'll have seen this elsewhere or not, George, so here it is anyway;

Apollo 13: Enhanced images reveal life on stricken spacecraft
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-52264743

[Bealman]

No, mate, I must admit I haven't! Cool! Thanks for this link! 

I do hope our photo stacking expert and modeller extraordinaire @rogerdB has a look at this! 

[rogerdB]

No, mate, I must admit I haven't! Cool! Thanks for this link! 

I do hope our photo stacking expert and modeller extraordinaire @rogerdB has a look at this! 

Spotted the BBC News page this morning. Clever stuff - glad I'm not starting with moving images!