I'm going to sound like a conspiracy nut, but...

0verlord44 said:
if you look at how they built things in the 60’s (aircraft/spacecraft etc) it really is masterful. Almost all analogue, switches, valves, gaskets, breakers. Brilliant stuff. The knowledge required by both astronauts and Mission Control was astounding. Apollo 12 and John Aaron comes to mind.

But you wouldn’t just build a Concorde if you needed a supersonic airliner in 2024. Technology, and more importantly safety have moved on so much, they need to design and build a new on from scratch. With less money and very political or public appetite for it.

Artemis looks the step forward in exploration that the shuttle was supposed to be, but wasn’t in the end.
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We have to question whether there is a need for things.

Concorde was designed to get captains of industry to New York quickly but video conferencing made it too slow and expensive.

Fighters and bombers cost a fortune to build and pilots a fortune to train and can be shot down or crash whereas UAVs cost a fraction and can be flown from anywhere with much less risk.

I think we have problems on earth where that money could be better spent rather than messing about going to the moon.
 


Baloo said:
Can’t build the Saturn Vs any more, NASA now has 17k staff instead of the 396k it had to run the Apollo programme, things need to be more cost effective, need to be innovative to be worthwhile (pointless spending 5% of your GDP to achieve nothing new)…
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Can they just not employ people on like a back to work scheme from here :) .
Or have like an open day in the Blandford 🤔 .
 
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Baloo said:
Can’t build the Saturn Vs any more, NASA now has 17k staff instead of the 396k it had to run the Apollo programme, things need to be more cost effective, need to be innovative to be worthwhile (pointless spending 5% of your GDP to achieve nothing new)…
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All of this, and as a society, we are more risk adverse and litigious these days
 
Big Jeff said:
We have to question whether there is a need for things.

Concorde was designed to get captains of industry to New York quickly but video conferencing made it too slow and expensive.

Fighters and bombers cost a fortune to build and pilots a fortune to train and can be shot down or crash whereas UAVs cost a fraction and can be flown from anywhere with much less risk.

I think we have problems on earth where that money could be better spent rather than messing about going to the moon.
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For me, the amount of money involved, in the pursuit of science and further knowledge, is tiny compared to what gets spent on defense, offense and lobbying. Spend that money and continue to spend to further the race as a whole.
 
0verlord44 said:
For me, the amount of money involved, in the pursuit of science and further knowledge, is tiny compared to what gets spent on defense, offense and lobbying. Spend that money and continue to spend to further the race as a whole.
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Rather than messing about on the moon maybe we should devote some of that money to stop all the plastic going in our oceans. Or polluting our atmosphere.

We could destroy the world many times over with the amount of money we waste on weaponry - if only we could spend some of that money trying to save our planet.

I despair sometimes.
 
Big Jeff said:
Why don’t they just use an iPhone.

Space nerds are always going on about there is more computing power in an iPhone that the computers that landed a spaceship on the moon.

Bound to be an App for it!
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I'm not going to the moon on an iPhone. A Samsung android will be much better in a moon environment. Better camera, apps, operating system, battery and life support.
 
Baloo said:
Can’t build the Saturn Vs any more, NASA now has 17k staff instead of the 396k it had to run the Apollo programme, things need to be more cost effective, need to be innovative to be worthwhile (pointless spending 5% of your GDP to achieve nothing new)…
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This and I'd have a guess at the safety of the rockets/mission aren't up to standard now.
 
Because if NASA tried to centralise production of Rubber grommet #hg6548gf5ddf (produced in a factory in Buttfuck, North Dakota) which attaches to flange #56sdnmnn3333 (produced in Shiteehollow, Arizona) in Florida so they dont need to be flown to the Flange Assembly Plant (Meatflaps, Arkansas) the elected representatives from ND, AZ and AR would cancel their budget. NASA no longer makes rockets it makes jobs. Very very expensively.
 
You'd be hard pushed to make a 60s TV from modern components like so a spacecraft might be tricky. Wouldn't just be a case of following the same plans and chucking new stuff in where the old gear was.
 
Gonzo Mackem said:
You think we could knock out a replica space suit for the moon easily enough, or even a better one considering we've not stopped going to space.
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A space suit possibly.

But the highly advanced lunar roving vehicle they used back then is a whole different challenge.

Apparently someone at NASA accidentally binned the plans for the 'Glorified beach buggy with a bit of tin foil attached' concept.
 
Big Jeff said:
Rather than messing about on the moon maybe we should devote some of that money to stop all the plastic going in our oceans. Or polluting our atmosphere.

We could destroy the world many times over with the amount of money we waste on weaponry - if only we could spend some of that money trying to save our planet.

I despair sometimes.
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Well it’s not an either or scenario to be honest. Both can be funded. Same reason why the worlds governments don’t take a firm stance against oil, too much money involved.

If they found deposits of oil/gold/cheese/bitcoin/lego something sellable, on the moon, they would be there tomorrow
 
RedandWhiteRebel said:
A space suit possibly.

But the highly advanced lunar roving vehicle they used back then is a whole different challenge.

Apparently someone at NASA accidentally binned the plans for the 'Glorified beach buggy with a bit of tin foil attached' concept.
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Hardly that difficult you'd think they've got an unmanned one on Mars! Maybe should just ask ChatGPT to knock one up.
 

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