Semi Serious Question..... Do you think we really do have our own spaceships

[morrismike]

I don't care about the movies, books, and articles about the subject but seriously doubt that a country which cannot reliably launch close orbit missions or even get a probe to other planets was somehow able to do something way back in the 60s before we even knew much about simple stuff like jets. Does anyone think men can walk the moon now without spending a trillion bucks?

If it makes a difference I'm a mechanical engineer working at a nuclear plant so I am familiar with the difficulties in such an undertaking.

[ManiacMike]

Does anyone seriously think we ever landed on the moon?

http://youtube.com/watch?v=mQKxAqpjroo

thats what happens when you ask that question.

[SoulReaver]

Semi Serious Question..... Do you think we really do have our own spaceships

yes we all do in fact I have my own spaceship parked in my garage

[sabretoothsheep]

We're too busy building bigger & more deadly ways to kill ourselves & for that reason we'll never ever be able to pool resources as a unified planet. Which will hold us back centuries technologically wise.

Put it this way, Nasa & other space agencies & governments around the world have spent goodness knows how much money on Ion Drives these past few decades without any success. Then the ESA gives some stuff to Australian scientists. After a few months, they make a much quicker & more efficient engine. If we could work as one, there is no limits to what we could develop & some of that far fetched Stargate stuff might one day be reality.

Not so true, Constant Warfare has driven technical achievement going back as far as time began. Science development always occurs more rapidly during a time of conflict/war than peace time.

For recent examples/

Space Programme and all associated tech was generated from the Rocketry programmes of Nazi germany, indeed many of their scientists were captured, defected and assisted the US and USSR space/military programmes.

Dont forget all the tech from the space race, a bi product of the cold war!

Radar, developed during WW2

Jet power and flight took off after WW1 and WW2

Nuclear power, a result from the Manhatten Project.

Nothing it seems acts as a catalyst for scientific development more than trying to find more ways to kill others or defend each other. More money gets ploughed into military reserch programmes esp at war time than peacetime.

Sad but true =O(

[morrismike]

I find it amazing the hubble telescope can see bugdust a trillion light years away (small exageration) and yet not one picture of the footprints or flag on the moon..... Did you ever wonder why Chuck Yeager didn't get to go to the moon???? Maybe he wouldn't play ball.

Seriously though the moon is beyond our capabilities in 2007 and was done multiple times in the 60s several times with relative ease.

[Coco Pops]

I find it amazing the hubble telescope can see bugdust a trillion light years away (small exageration) and yet not one picture of the footprints or flag on the moon..... Did you ever wonder why Chuck Yeager didn't get to go to the moon???? Maybe he wouldn't play ball.

Seriously though the moon is beyond our capabilities in 2007 and was done multiple times in the 60s several times with relative ease.

Aaaaawww now don't do that you're seriously making me think.

But if I did have to doubt history one question does bug me.

How is it that in 38+ years technology hasn't advanced at an
equally exponential rate to the level of the Saturn V moon rockets
and all the associated stuff like electronics and stuff. Sure we have
laptops, DVDs, LCD TV etc...........

But if technology changes at an exponential rate I think in these 38
years we should be beyond laptops. At least that's my opinion.

And correct me if I am wrong but I do believe I read a while back that
CD technology was around a while before 1983 and it's "official" launch.

I think it was in the experimental stage as early as the early 70s

[wolfax]

I find it amazing the hubble telescope can see bugdust a trillion light years away (small exageration) and yet not one picture of the footprints or flag on the moon..... Did you ever wonder why Chuck Yeager didn't get to go to the moon???? Maybe he wouldn't play ball.

Seriously though the moon is beyond our capabilities in 2007 and was done multiple times in the 60s several times with relative ease.

God, here we go again. We do have the tech to go to the moon in modern times, it is called inflation costs and a 30 billion dollar a month war, that is stopping current future endevors to the moon plus nothing of strategic value there.

[sabretoothsheep]

Was under the impression that recent discoveries on the moon of certain compunds and resorces changed the strategic value somewhat.

Also the fact that the prescence of said compounds now make it easier to make it self sufficent, witht he prescence of h30 in large quantities. (means water and oxygen can be created on the base with ease reducing the need for so many supply missions)

Gat over the start costs and you have a valuable science, mining, construction facility.

Coming soon, Moonbase 2020

[wolfax]

I wasnt aware of these dicoveries. Could you show me an article or 2, for my viewing pleasure.

[morrismike]

CD/DVD disks have been around since early 80s. Seeing how music pirating has turned out, the music and movie industry would like to make this technology disappear.

NASA has consistently foregone advancement in space program in order to keep it's cash cow (the shuttle) going. Has anyone seen the movie "farmer astronaut"? Well guess what, the air force had something even simpler with far more potential (Delta Clipper) which NASA commandeered then sabotaged because it was a threat to their cash cow.

[Salas1]

It simply depends on whether incident like Roswell are true or not!

At the time, the military even released a statement about it being a UFO, then quickly recanted when they switched to the weather balloon story.

That isn't recanting, it's simply identifying the flying object.

[HellBringer18]

I realy dont think so. They are working on space weapons though, to protect us from any astroids or meteors in the far future.

[AvatarIII]

i think the greatest evidence for the US government having advanced space craft is that they keep slashing NASA's budget, why? because they won't need nasa in a couple of years
but seriously, i don't think the kind of spaceships everyone expects the military to have would be financially viable at the present time, they are more likely to be building advanced spy planes and fighers, and special planes that can dive directly into oil resevoirs and pump out the black gold

[TheGreatLordGeorge]

Just when you said late 50's and 60's I thought you meant something
other then the tiny one man capsules that NASA sent up. And the
late 50's they only used animals...

But watching BSG gee a lot of the stuff they use on the show down to
the ships looks very late 20th or early 21st level tech apart from the FTL

when I wnet to the Smithsonian Air & space museum they had the first space monkey stuffed and on display

[tendomentis]

For those that would question the moon landings.....

Yes, I truly believe we did land on the moon. Just because we're not doing it now doesn't mean we didn't do it in the 60's. It was the international equivilant to being the the first kid on your block to climb the electrical tower; it served no purpose other than to say "we were first up there", but just like the electrical tower there is no other value to be gained by doing it. No creatures to meet with or take samples of. No air to sample. Not even a strategic reason to put a base up there (check the math, firing a missile from the moon to a point on Earth would give any modern nation on the planet MORE than enough time to respond). We stuck the flag in the ground, bounced around, drove around (like Seinfeld said, just so we could say that we drove around on the moon....they didn't really have anywhere to go), and brought back some boring, inert rocks that were originally part of our planet ANYWAY.

After all that, there really wasn't any reason to go back....still isn't in fact. There has been talk of being able to manufacture hydrogen fuel from the polar ice caps on our moon for spacecraft heading further out into the system, but practical application of that is decades away (we don't even use that kind of fuel down here yet or the interplanetary spacecraft to use it).

The long and short of it is.....humans aren't really adapted for space travel, and unless we undergo some really bizarre evolutionary change, probably will never be. Any trip into space is essentially going to be us taking a big breath of air and swimming to the next hunk of rock that we can stand on to catch our breath.