Perhaps space was a cultural frontier and then it just became a technological one. The culture seems to lose vigour over time, as it invests so much inward rather than outward facing energy.
Apollo was a campaign of the Cold War. We pushed Apollo to the Moon with a fire hose of money. It dealt the Soviets a blow to their prestige. Apollo taught them not to go toe-to-toe with the West technologically. It’s one reason the Soviets knew we could make SDI work. The Soviets were great at great brute force engineering. Anything sophisticated gave them trouble.
Apollo was worth doing, but it didn’t give us space travel. SpaceX is doing that. They are building the space equivalent of ocean going sailing vessels.
The voyages of exploration in the age of sail were government sponsored. Private companies colonized the New World and traded with the East.
It will be imperative that we protect SpaceX from the government. The bureaucracy is bad enough, but too many lawmakers are spiteful.
Apollo was actually quite unpopular at the time. The Apollo 11 launch had rather large protests, and popular songs campainging against it (e.g., Gil Scott-Heron's "Whitey's On the Moon"). Apollo spending was enormous - fully 10% of the *entire* US budget in 1966 - and there were a lot of people who wanted that money spent closer to home. And after Apollo 11, they pretty much got it.
I’m unclear what you are asking. The moon is a lot further than orbit. Nobody has been to the moon since 1972. Nobody has been further than the moon either.
Getting to the moon did not involve orbiting as far away as the moon. It required barely exceeding Earth escape velocity, timed just right for the moon to capture. Coming back did the same thing in reverse.
Think of it as two saucer shaped depressions in a skate park. On large, one smaller. You gain enough speed in just the right direction to coast up to the lip of one, and over the edge into the other.
Perhaps space was a cultural frontier and then it just became a technological one. The culture seems to lose vigour over time, as it invests so much inward rather than outward facing energy.
The Three-Body series made me re-assess our species' prospects for space exploration: it is imperative, and we should avoid it at all costs
Apollo was a campaign of the Cold War. We pushed Apollo to the Moon with a fire hose of money. It dealt the Soviets a blow to their prestige. Apollo taught them not to go toe-to-toe with the West technologically. It’s one reason the Soviets knew we could make SDI work. The Soviets were great at great brute force engineering. Anything sophisticated gave them trouble.
Apollo was worth doing, but it didn’t give us space travel. SpaceX is doing that. They are building the space equivalent of ocean going sailing vessels.
The voyages of exploration in the age of sail were government sponsored. Private companies colonized the New World and traded with the East.
It will be imperative that we protect SpaceX from the government. The bureaucracy is bad enough, but too many lawmakers are spiteful.
Apollo was actually quite unpopular at the time. The Apollo 11 launch had rather large protests, and popular songs campainging against it (e.g., Gil Scott-Heron's "Whitey's On the Moon"). Apollo spending was enormous - fully 10% of the *entire* US budget in 1966 - and there were a lot of people who wanted that money spent closer to home. And after Apollo 11, they pretty much got it.
Further, NASA became incredibly bureaucratic after Apollo as well; see Pete Worden's paper "On Self-Licking Ice Cream Cones" (https://www.researchgate.net/publication/234554226_On_Self-Licking_Ice_Cream_Cones), which was written in the early 90's, but was applicable to any of the NASA programs after Apollo.
I'm having trouble reconciling 870 miles to the highest orbit with 240,000 miles to the moon. Can you explain?
I’m unclear what you are asking. The moon is a lot further than orbit. Nobody has been to the moon since 1972. Nobody has been further than the moon either.
Your post says the height of the highest orbit is 870 miles. But the moon is in orbit too and it's 240,000 miles to the moon.
The highest orbit achieved by human-made rocket.
Getting to the moon did not involve orbiting as far away as the moon. It required barely exceeding Earth escape velocity, timed just right for the moon to capture. Coming back did the same thing in reverse.
Thank you Bob! I don't know that. That’s cool!
Think of it as two saucer shaped depressions in a skate park. On large, one smaller. You gain enough speed in just the right direction to coast up to the lip of one, and over the edge into the other.
Only, everything is moving.