Never before seen Apollo photo

[Omaroo]

http://www.nasa.gov/multimedia/imagegallery/image_feature_1264.html

[renormalised]

Interesting:D:D

Although, Nixon was more interested in prosecuting the Vietnam War and staying out of prosecution himself, than worrying about Apollo and the space program as a whole. Look how quickly he moved to can further flights...Apollo 17 was the last of them and they had a possible 5 more scheduled. Instead of thinking of going back to the Moon now (for 2019-2020), we'd have never left the place!!!!. We probably would've had a manned landing on Mars by now...done and dusted. But since none of that ever happened, it's probably a moot point. I'm just happy the crooked SOB got nailed by Watergate.

[Arman]

Makes me wonder,

Another 10 years to we land on the moon.
We would probably forget. How it feels.

I'm waiting to see the Impact of the Orion shuttle.
They say it's going to be completed in 2014 followed by Mars in 2020 ;)
I'm hyped for it.
Wouldn't you be?

[Coen]

Whilst not about to defend Nixon himself, the decision to stop going to the Moon was politically probably the right one. Those who like Astronomy, science etc may bemoan that but we personnally did not pay for all of it, the (USA American) public tax payer did. The (USA) public tax payer is also is a voter, a politician is elected and therefore mostly listens to the tax payer, voila.

Note the considerable money that was needed to sustain manned missions to a remote desolate rock was instead partially put into programs such as Pioneer and the other inter-planetary probes. Look at the wealth of information and wonder that they brought for a fraction of the cost. Robots are cheaper for that sort of thing. Manned = expensive. Relatively speaking the moon rock is probably one of the most expensive per kg of anything on the planet.

There is also the risks to be considered. Apollo 13 was scary especially for the astronauts themselves. The Moon is remote. The Sun can have a potentially dangerous flare whilst the folk are in transit or on the surface itself. All these things need to be factored and taken care of. Not easy, especially now in these modern days of instant press and different pressures/standards than previously. If Apollo had continued and astronauts were lost, the tragedy and its resulting implications, well...

Sending a manned mission to the Moon was and is an incredible feat and well done to all involved from the engineers and manufacterers through to the astronauts themselves.

I'd personnally have loved to see it continue (the "romantic appeal") but can certainly understand the rationale behind why it did not and why perhaps it did not make sense for it too either.

[renormalised]

Politicians never listen to "Joe Public". The only things they listen to is who can further their cause for staying in power (which means conning the voters every 3-4 years) and who feeds them the money. But all that is beside the point.

The Apollo Program cost $25 billion over it's lifetime. The Vietnam War was costing more than that per year. If "Joe Public" was concerned about fiscal propriety and expediency, then they should've looked harder at what their government was really doing with the money they spend and what they spend it on. Just to give you a more modern example, the US DoD in the last few years has "misplaced" $2.3 Trillion!!!!!!!!!!!, and can't account for where it went and what it's been spent on!!. NASA's yearly budget is around $15-$16 billion. If NASA even saw 1/10 or 1/50 of what the DoD "misplaced"...can you imagine!!!!:eyepop:

Sure, going to the Moon is risky and has its dangers, but so does booking a ticket and getting on a plane...in actual fact, I'd stake my life on NASA being able to build a safe spacecraft to get me to the Moon than I'd put my faith into most airlines these days. You only have to look at the track record of many of them to see it's not exactly 100% foolproof. Everything we do invites risk. If we're going to pull back from doing something just because it seems too hard or too risky, we'd still be walking around in bearskins and living in caves. I like the romantic notions of going to the Moon or Mars...or anywhere else for that matter. But to pull the rug from out under something momentous, something that could've brought new opportunities and enterprises we can't even imagine, just because they felt it was not the "in thing" to be doing (they'd rather be killing people for some pseudo sociopolitical claptrap) is nothing short of criminal.

It wasn't making "America" (and by that, I mean the military-industrial complex) enough money at the time, so they had their political lackeys pull the chain on it.

[Coen]

Each has their own view and take on history that is what keeps the field of history going and the later interpretations of what happened way back when including preceived motives and potential "What if's".

Back to the picture at the start of the thread.
If you ever get a chance to go to Washington DC and visit the air and space museum there are plenty of things to take pictures of including the remains of the Apollo 11 capsule (it is small especially considering how long they stayed in the thing); a full size lunar lander, viking lander, HST etc. An amazing place and worth every cent of its free entry price. The guard by the piece of Moon rock looks bored and you can touch the rock sliver. Whether you actually touch the rock or the accumulated oils and grease from all the thousands who have touched it before is a matter for debate. It is a black rock.

Also interesting to see the former nuclear tipped missiles lined up on one wall complete with Russian lettering and tags indicating x number of these were targeted on location Z.

Another highlight is the Chuck Yeager sound barrier plane and the X15 rocket plane amongst the many other pioneering records.