The Big Picture
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I was watching BBC World News last night and they had a story about the race to the moon. And it struck me as sad how it was us pitted against the USSR in the "race" to the moon and that China and some other countries are still working on getting men to the moon. The sad part for me was that it was a race by country to the moon. Couldn't we just unite as a frikkin race and be done with it. Do we need to pi$$ away millions of dollars just to be the first Chinese person on the moon? It seems as though a Worldwide Aeronautics and Space Administration (WASA :) ) would be a better route to take!
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Most excellent. I remember watching it on a little black and white TV with rabbit ears.
Jim Crafton wrote:
Sigh, what went wrong
An aspect little spoken of in the moon race was the spirit of competition not in the exploration sense, but rather the military. In the early days of nuclear posturing between the US and USSR, the thought of one side being able to establish operations on the moon was rather unnerving. Not that you could effectively launch an ICBM from the craters of the moon, but nonetheless in a military sense it was very much "the high ground." While those of us who were there remember the excitement and spirit of exploration, the reality of the matter is that the political will to drive the program and accomplish the landing was fueled from this unspoken truth. Nations don't take big steps unless there's something in it for them. This is why landing humans on Mars isn't getting the traction that the moon did. There's nothing for us but the adventure, and for political will, that's simply not enough. It has to bring major, tangible benefits to the nation. Since the scientific aspects of discovery can clearly be accomplished with amazing little robots, it's unlikely that we'll see a Niel (or Nell) Armstrong walking on the face of Mars.
Christopher Duncan www.PracticalUSA.com Author of The Career Programmer and Unite the Tribes In the US? Explore our Career Coaching.
Until a massive asteroid comes at us, massive climate damage makes the planet uninhabitable for humans, or some other man-made disaster occurs that does the same thing, and then everyone will wonder, "Gee, maybe keeping all our eggs in one basket wasn't such a good idea after all". At some point we will almost certainly need an alternate habitat beside the Earth. Of course that's not really a tangible benefit until it's far too late, and given our current progress in space, it probably will be. Hopefully things will turn out differently.
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Sucks :(
Douglas Troy wrote:
Hopefully the private sector will get us back to our rightful place in the space race.
Please, the private sector can't even regulate itself enough to handle loans for houses, much less put reliable spacecraft together!
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Jim Crafton wrote:
Please, the private sector can't even regulate itself enough to handle loans for houses, much less put reliable spacecraft together!
So what are you saying?!?! I shouldn't have applied for that Home Rocket Loan!!! Damn-it. I KNEW it.
:..::. Douglas H. Troy ::..
Bad Astronomy |VCF|wxWidgets|WTL -
I was watching BBC World News last night and they had a story about the race to the moon. And it struck me as sad how it was us pitted against the USSR in the "race" to the moon and that China and some other countries are still working on getting men to the moon. The sad part for me was that it was a race by country to the moon. Couldn't we just unite as a frikkin race and be done with it. Do we need to pi$$ away millions of dollars just to be the first Chinese person on the moon? It seems as though a Worldwide Aeronautics and Space Administration (WASA :) ) would be a better route to take!
Joe Simes wrote:
Couldn't we just unite as a frikkin race and be done with it. Do we need to pi$$ away millions of dollars just to be the first Chinese person on the moon?
That's reality though, if everyone united there would be far less of this kind of thing happening. Humanity only stretches in response to something. Take away all the wars and political tensions throughout history and we'd still be living in caves foraging for food. Shitty as it is, if you're a fan of progress then you need that disunity to drive us forward. The only possible way that the world can be united and do these kind of great works is in response to entirely outside negative pressure of some kind.
"Creating your own blog is about as easy as creating your own urine, and you're about as likely to find someone else interested in it." -- Lore Sjöberg
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I'm doing some iDTV testing at the moment and on one of the test streams the recording from the landing is used for the soundtrack. I'm not ashamed to say it gets to me.
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Until a massive asteroid comes at us, massive climate damage makes the planet uninhabitable for humans, or some other man-made disaster occurs that does the same thing, and then everyone will wonder, "Gee, maybe keeping all our eggs in one basket wasn't such a good idea after all". At some point we will almost certainly need an alternate habitat beside the Earth. Of course that's not really a tangible benefit until it's far too late, and given our current progress in space, it probably will be. Hopefully things will turn out differently.
¡El diablo está en mis pantalones! ¡Mire, mire! SELECT * FROM User WHERE Clue > 0 0 rows returned Save an Orange - Use the VCF! Personal 3D projects Just Say No to Web 2 Point Blow
Obligatory B5. Mary Ann Cramer: Is it worth it? Should we just pull back? Forget the whole thing as a bad idea, and take care of our own problems, at home. Sinclair: No. We have to stay here. And there's a simple reason why. Ask ten different scientists about the environment, population control, genetics, and you'll get ten different answers, but there's one thing every scientist on the planet agrees on. Whether it happens in a hundred years or a thousand years or a million years, eventually our Sun will grow cold and go out. When that happens, it won't just take us. It'll take Marilyn Monroe, and Lao-Tzu, and Einstein, and Morobuto, and Buddy Holly, and Aristophanes…[and] all of this…all of this…was for nothing. Unless we go to the stars.
The European Way of War: Blow your own continent up. The American Way of War: Go over and help them.
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Until a massive asteroid comes at us, massive climate damage makes the planet uninhabitable for humans, or some other man-made disaster occurs that does the same thing, and then everyone will wonder, "Gee, maybe keeping all our eggs in one basket wasn't such a good idea after all". At some point we will almost certainly need an alternate habitat beside the Earth. Of course that's not really a tangible benefit until it's far too late, and given our current progress in space, it probably will be. Hopefully things will turn out differently.
¡El diablo está en mis pantalones! ¡Mire, mire! SELECT * FROM User WHERE Clue > 0 0 rows returned Save an Orange - Use the VCF! Personal 3D projects Just Say No to Web 2 Point Blow
Jim Crafton wrote:
"Gee, maybe keeping all our eggs in one basket
If you have only 1 basket that has no holes, you don't have any other option.
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Jim Crafton wrote:
"Gee, maybe keeping all our eggs in one basket
If you have only 1 basket that has no holes, you don't have any other option.
Unless you create another basket, with no holes. There are other options should we choose to actually investigate them. I would agree with that as of today, you're statement is dead on.
¡El diablo está en mis pantalones! ¡Mire, mire! SELECT * FROM User WHERE Clue > 0 0 rows returned Save an Orange - Use the VCF! Personal 3D projects Just Say No to Web 2 Point Blow
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Jim Crafton wrote:
Please, the private sector can't even regulate itself enough to handle loans for houses, much less put reliable spacecraft together!
So what are you saying?!?! I shouldn't have applied for that Home Rocket Loan!!! Damn-it. I KNEW it.
:..::. Douglas H. Troy ::..
Bad Astronomy |VCF|wxWidgets|WTLLet's just say I hope it doesn't all go up in flames!
¡El diablo está en mis pantalones! ¡Mire, mire! SELECT * FROM User WHERE Clue > 0 0 rows returned Save an Orange - Use the VCF! Personal 3D projects Just Say No to Web 2 Point Blow
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I can still remember watching the first step on the moon on a small TV in our kitchen with the family gathered around. (It's one of the earliest memories I have that I can pinpoint the exact time and place.)
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Let's just say I hope it doesn't all go up in flames!
¡El diablo está en mis pantalones! ¡Mire, mire! SELECT * FROM User WHERE Clue > 0 0 rows returned Save an Orange - Use the VCF! Personal 3D projects Just Say No to Web 2 Point Blow
Jim Crafton wrote:
Let's just say I hope it doesn't all go up in flames!
Don't worry, I've created the entire Rocket Automation system using SilverLight, WCF and WF ... I'm sure it will be fine. Hey ... do you smell smoke? :-\
:..::. Douglas H. Troy ::..
Bad Astronomy |VCF|wxWidgets|WTL -
Jim Crafton wrote:
Let's just say I hope it doesn't all go up in flames!
Don't worry, I've created the entire Rocket Automation system using SilverLight, WCF and WF ... I'm sure it will be fine. Hey ... do you smell smoke? :-\
:..::. Douglas H. Troy ::..
Bad Astronomy |VCF|wxWidgets|WTLDamn, I'm already heading for the door!
¡El diablo está en mis pantalones! ¡Mire, mire! SELECT * FROM User WHERE Clue > 0 0 rows returned Save an Orange - Use the VCF! Personal 3D projects Just Say No to Web 2 Point Blow
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Very nice...thanks for the link. I remember that moment well, where I was but not what I was doing! Thanks, Mike
"It doesn't matter how big a ranch ya' own, or how many cows ya' brand, the size of your funeral is still gonna depend on the weather." -Harry Truman.
Semper Fi http://www.hq4thmarinescomm.com[^] My Site
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I can remember exactly where I was when I watched the first moon landing. In Aus it happened about midday, I watched it on one of the TVs that had been set up in the lecture theatre of the research labs where I was working. I sat next to a female colleague whom I'd seen around but didn't know, we had lunch in the canteen, I asked if she seen the movie Z, she hadn't so we went to see it a few days later, then we ... Bitter sweet memories of inspirational times.
Multi famam, conscientiam pauci verentur.(Pliny)
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Unless you create another basket, with no holes. There are other options should we choose to actually investigate them. I would agree with that as of today, you're statement is dead on.
¡El diablo está en mis pantalones! ¡Mire, mire! SELECT * FROM User WHERE Clue > 0 0 rows returned Save an Orange - Use the VCF! Personal 3D projects Just Say No to Web 2 Point Blow
Jim Crafton wrote:
Unless you create another basket, with no holes.
MY baskets don't HAVE holes, they have strings and are multi-dimensional. My evil twin told me so, I'd introduce you, but he had to return to his dimension. Something about a dead-line ... apparently, neither one of us can escape that reality.
:..::. Douglas H. Troy ::..
Bad Astronomy |VCF|wxWidgets|WTL -
We were on vacation the week before so during the tour saw Apollo 11 on the pad. Since we were home by the launch we then went to my grandmothers house to watch the lunar landing on a COLOR TV. (Color TV was special in 1969)
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I still wandering how there is a wind into the moon, since no air? :-D Anyway great pics, but I suppose the second land on the moon to make higher resolution pictures :)
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Awesome!
------------------------------------------------------------ Want to be happy - do what you like!
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false idea, false landings, false missions, total crap :wtf:
peace & serenity
