The Quagmire of The Apollo Space Program

I enjoyed Dennis Wingo's recent post and I hope you have the time to read as well.

When we talk about going back to the Moon or on to Mars and the stars we need to understand how governments and politics work.

Unless we feel we need to prove some military might, we will have to find an economic justification to sell the idea to a paying customer.

It will be interesting to see if the need for rare minerals will provide a push to develop space as a source materials.

Will watch to see who sends in the first mining robots and finds a need to send some human maintainers.

- LRK -

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   The Quagmire of The Apollo Space ProgramPosted on January 18, 2015
2. Why the Lessons of Apollo Have Still Not Been Learned 50 Years Later
   

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      There is an old saying that history is his-story, or the story of whoever the victors are in war or society.  We know that Roman and Greek civilization was superior to others at the time because we have the Roman and Greek records that tell us so.  The Celts or Chinese might have thought differently.  In some respects the same is true of all history.  This is not to indict historians that have written on the subject of space but it is to say that everyone has a viewpoint and sometimes the official history does not fully illuminate a subject.
      
      I have never been satisfied with the “official” NASA history of the Apollo program.  I lived in Huntsville Alabama for a long time and it mystified me to an extreme why we did not at least launch the last two flight worthy Saturn V’s and their payloads, Apollo’s 18 and 19.   Over the years since I left the computer industry in 1987 and moved to Huntsville to begin my space career I have collected a pretty good library of space books and I have read them all.  I have participated in conferences, talked to and worked with many Apollo veterans, and have been a part of NASA’s attempts at new efforts to get exploration beyond Earth orbit going.  None of it has ever made sense to me, so I have spent time researching the history to try to understand why we were able to do it then, and why it has been so hard since Apollo to make progress.
3. https://denniswingo.wordpress.com/
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As you can see Dennis has been active in looking at the Moon in many ways.

- LRK -

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   http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lunar_Orbiter_Image_Recovery_ProjectThe Lunar Orbiter Image Recovery Project (LOIRP) is a project funded by NASA, SkyCorp, SpaceRef Interactive, and private individuals to digitize the original analog data tapes from the five Lunar Orbiter spacecraft that were sent to the Moon in 1966 and 1967.[1]
   
   The first image to be successfully recovered by the project was released in November 2008. It was the first photograph of the Earth from the Moon, taken in August 1966. On February 20, 2014, the project announced it had completed the primary tape capture portion of the project.[2] One medium resolution image, most of one high resolution image and parts of three others are missing, apparently due to lapses at the time they were being recorded.[3] The rest of the Lunar Orbiter images have been successfully recovered and are undergoing digital processing before being submitted to NASA's Planetary Data System.[2]

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Miss McDonald's at NASA Ames but building being put to good use.

- LRK -

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   http://www.moonviews.com/mcmoons-aka-building-596/MOON VIEWS
Recently in McMoons aka Building 596Category

Photos From a Visit to McMoons

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It will be interesting to see just how the Moon develops in the years to come.

 

Thanks for looking up with me.

- LRK -

Web Site: http://lkellogg.vttoth.com/LarryRussellKellogg/
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http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Moon_Is_a_Harsh_Mistress

The Moon Is a Harsh Mistress is a 1966 science fiction novel by American writer Robert A. Heinlein, about a lunar colony's revolt against rule from Earth. The novel expresses and discusses libertarian ideals. Widely admired for its credible presentation of a comprehensively imagined future human society on both the Earth and the moon, it is generally considered one of Heinlein's major novels as well as one of the most important science fiction novels ever written.[1]

Originally serialized in Worlds of If (December 1965, January, February, March, April 1966), the book was nominated for the Nebula Award in 1966.[2]and received the Hugo Award for best science fiction novel in 1967,[3]

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==============================================================http://sservi.nasa.gov/articles/is-mining-rare-minerals-on-the-moon-vital-to-national-security/
Is Mining Rare Minerals on the Moon Vital to National Security?

The seemingly barren moon may actually be a treasure-trove of priceless resources: a potentially bountiful, mineral-rich – yet untapped – cosmic quarry. Still, few see the moon as an alluring mining site, ripe for the picking of rare elements of strategic and national security importance.

Here on Earth, China recently blocked the export of rare earth elements to Japan for use in an array of products; from wind turbines and glass for solar panels to use in hybrid cars, and even guided missiles and other defense-oriented creations.

China is increasingly putting the pinch on quotas of such elements out of their country. And as the scarcity of these valuable minerals grows, so too does the concern in other nations regarding the availability of this limited resource.

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WHAT THE MIND CAN CONCEIVE, AND BELIEVE, IT WILL ACHIEVE - LRK -

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