Posted on 11/29/2022 7:29:23 PM PST by bitt
SpaceX and Tesla Inc TSLA CEO Elon Musk said recently that the 1969 Apollo 11 Moon-landing mission was an “anomalous situation.”
What Happened: “The fact that we were able to go to the Moon in '69 was such an anomalous situation, it was like reaching into the future and bringing the technology forward,” said Musk on the "Full Send" podcast.
The landings, which saw Neil Armstrong become the first human to step on the lunar surface, were “not the natural pace of technology development,” according to the SpaceX founder.
“It’s just that the United States just collectively decided that this has got to be done,” Musk said, referring to the space race between the U.S. and the Soviet Union.
Why It Matters: Musk agreed with the podcast hosts that it was “weird” that the U.S. had not returned to the Moon’s surface since 1972.
"We’ll go to the Moon, SpaceX has an asset contract to take astronauts to the Moon," Musk said, adding that SpaceX’s super-heavy-lift launch vehicle Starship is “gigantic compared to anything that’s been done before.”
“It’s capable of putting 100 tons of payload on the Moon. You could build a Moon base with a Starship.”
Musk said, “We could go way beyond what was done with the Apollo program, where they had a small lander.”
SpaceX would take astronauts to the Moon before it took them to Mars, the billionaire entrepreneur said.
"I think we should build a city on the Moon and on Mars."
Nothing like screwing with a celestial body that controls so much of our planet's systems.
“Because those were the best of times for America. I want those back.”
What are you, some kind of hate-filled racist? Did you know back then, blacks lived in safe neighborhoods and had decent schools? If you did, you would have NEVER condemned them to such a horrible life.
(just kidding, but pretty close to how the Left would respond, whether they’ll admit it or not)
I hadn’t heard that one but yeah, probably slide rules in the capsule. That said, there were lots of computers on the ground at Cape Canaveral. But again - all together not half as powerful as an iphone.
“Have we even yet fully exploited the samples we brought back?”
Analysis of those samples could be the key to solving Gorebal Warning...
Trivia fact: The Lunar Module computer tracked the orbit of the Service Module so closely that it knew both when to it could take off and what direction/altitude was needed to reach it.
To put it another way, when they were at the Moon, they didn’t even need to talk to ground controllers to get home.
Analog computing is way faster than than digital typing....
“They were using slide rules. They did not have computers on board. It was amazing. And they could have died a thousand different ways. It was truly amazing.”
They did have computers, but primitive as hell, and it took super-human skills to squeeze the code to fit the tiny memory.
“...they didn’t even need to talk to ground controllers to get home...”
Personal Liberty has long been an American tradition.
That makes the space program at the time all the more amazing.
“Personal Liberty has long been an American tradition.”
Heck yea, but now people cannot even make it home from work without their Google GPS app.
Ping.
When asked how the U.S., who started from behind in the space race, managed to get to the moon before the Russians, he said, “Our Germans were better than their Germans.”
Listen Elon, we Americans used to do that all the time. It was kind of a way of life, once.
The Jetson model that folds up into a briefcase!
The American spirit and national pride bent the technology curve. Not being a native American or living in that time it’s easy to see why Musk doesn’t have a sense of this.
>> Because those were the best of times for America. I want those back.
I’m with you. Christian men and women of character made the difference.
Pray for restoration and revival.
In modern terms’, “Build me a lunar flight control system, here’s an Arduino Uno”.
Computers that were a tiny fraction of the computing power of an iphone or even android phone.
That was the purpose, not the consequence. People looking down can’t look up.
If we had a permanent base on the Moon, what would be its purpose? I could see manning a huge telescope or telescope array on the dark side of the moon would be great when it was facing away from the Sun.
If there is something to H3 for fusion but is that really harvestable in reasonable amounts as in the movie "Moon"?
Excellent post. I myself think robotic missions on the moon could conduct much science at a fraction of the cost. The concept of a grand telescope on the dark side of the moon is intriguing. That would probably need man to set it up. Oddly the dark side of the moon is not dark. It is dark to us as the moon is locked in orbit with the earth with one side facing us only. The dark side gets just as much light as the side we see. However, in the side locked to us the dark portions of that side during moon minimum still receive light from reflection of sunlight from the earth. A telescope on the other side could receive absolutely pristine light from the cosmos. This would be a worthy endeavor and if it needs man to do it, Musk will take you there.
SpaceX will plant a hotel/base on the Moon, after it beats the Artemis program to a landing of humans on the surface, or even the orbiting of humans around the Moon prior to a landing mission.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.