[hanamizu]

“Really? it was a movie.”

---

Yes it was. And the movie was released before we actually landed on the moon. Don’t know if you were around at the time, but the speed at which we made progress in manned space missions made the movie seem like a logical progression.

I’ll tell you this, no one from ‘68 would have been able to imagine that nearly a half century (and perhaps much longer) would pass with no human presence on the moon.

[PIF]

I was around when they killed the original Project Orion in 1964 - Project motto: Mars by 1965, Saturn by 1970. Interplanetary model would have been 10,000 tons, crew 150. 3 days to Mars. Cost same or less than Apollo

Interstellar model would have been 40 million tons, 1.5 years to Alpha Centauri.

Killed by Government inter-agency infighting, NASA Apollo conflict, perceived treaty obligations, lack of political leadership. “...the first time in modern history that a major expansion of human technology has been suppressed for political reasons.” - Freeman Dyson.

[PIF]

I’ll tell you this, no one from ‘68 would have been able to imagine that nearly a half century (and perhaps much longer) would pass with no human presence on the moon.

—
There was a reason. Too much unexplainable stuff on the moon - they were spooked. The Navy’s 1994 Clementine Mission mapped the entire surface of the moon and the Hi-Res images remained classified or inaccessible for decades. Then the satellite disappeared, then decades later reappeared still broadcasting. Too much unexplainable stuff as I said.