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Michael Collins, Apollo 11 astronaut, has died

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Re: Michael Collins, Apollo 11 astronaut, has died

#31

Post by anonAndOn »

vkou wrote: post #17
unchocked wrote: post #4

Clear skies and tailwinds. Can't get back to the Moon fast enough, while we still have living continuity to Apollo. Can't believe how low the low in our space program has been.

The reason the space program wound down was because the moon race was a vanity project. Once the vanity goal was achieved, nobody had any reason to go back there. Meanwhile, people and groups with non-vanity goals are making extensive use of space in 2021, compared to 1969... But that's not very sexy, because things like weather satellites and imaging satellites, and communications satellites and the occasional teles…

> nobody had any reason to go back there

Don't tell that to the Radio Astronomers. Something, something, dark side.[0]

[0]https://www.nasa.gov/directorates/spacetech/niac/2020_Phase_...

Re: Michael Collins, Apollo 11 astronaut, has died

#32

Post by TimTheTinker »

minikites wrote: post #10
unchocked wrote: post #4

Clear skies and tailwinds. Can't get back to the Moon fast enough, while we still have living continuity to Apollo. Can't believe how low the low in our space program has been.

SpaceX is still blowing up rockets like it's 1950s NASA, maybe we should just fully fund the competent folks at 2020s NASA instead.

Occurrence of failures directly correlates to occurrence of growth and innovation. SpaceX is (a) innovating very fast, and therefore we see lots of failures, (b) embracing those failures as opportunities to grow, and (c) installing many sensors and collecting a lot of data to maximize the chance that they can learn a lot from whatever failures occur.

Make no mistake, if a company or institution isn't trying a lot and failing a lot to achieve a new type of goal, it's also not making much progress toward any new type of goal.

Re: Michael Collins, Apollo 11 astronaut, has died

#34

Post by macintux »

mnw21cam wrote: post #9

It turns out that https://xkcd.com/893/ was posted almost ten years ago. Although he didn't actually get to walk on the moon, he still went there.

The alt text is quite poignant.

> The universe is probably littered with the one-planet graves of cultures which made the sensible economic decision that there's no good reason to go into space--each discovered, studied, and remembered by the ones who made the irrational decision.

Re: Michael Collins, Apollo 11 astronaut, has died

#37

Post by BitwiseFool »

aplummer wrote: post #16
unchocked wrote: post #4

Clear skies and tailwinds. Can't get back to the Moon fast enough, while we still have living continuity to Apollo. Can't believe how low the low in our space program has been.

Pictures of Pluto, a helicopter on Mars, I’m more inspired than ever by nasa

And I love them for it. But I want humans on the Moon again.

Re: Michael Collins, Apollo 11 astronaut, has died

#38

Post by aluket »

thestoicattack wrote: post #3

I'm glad his memoir, "Carrying the Fire", got mentioned. It's one of the best astronaut memoirs.

I'm half-way through reading this at the moment and I cannot recommend it highly enough. In the prologue he talks of being able to turn to any page and find something interesting to read. He's not wrong.

Re: Michael Collins, Apollo 11 astronaut, has died

#39

Post by japhyr »

For anyone interested in the story of the astronauts who went to the moon, Moondust is a great read. In the early 2000s (if I remember right), the author traveled around the world to visit each of the living men who had set foot on the moon. He asks them about their experiences, both on the moon and in the time since the moon missions ended. Some of them treat him like any interviewer, but toward the end as they realize he has actually connected all of their stories once again, they share a bit more than what comes out in typical interviews.

It's a wonderful blending of life in the world at that time, the story of our collective quest to reach the moon, and the individual stories of humans who actually went there.

- https://www.amazon.com/Moondust-Search-Men-Fell-Earth/dp/152...

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