/sci/ - Science & Math

Am I the only one amazed that we managed to do this 50 years ago? That it had only been a little more than 60 years since we couldn’t get a fixed wing aircraft into the air, and hadn’t launched an object into orbit since around a decade earlier?
And there were many things that could go horribly wrong, dooming the crew to a painful death. Yet it all went fine and they returned back to the earth safely. It’s mind boggling that there were no fatalities in space during the Apollo missions.

The Saturn V and the CSM/LM keeps blowing my mind. The most powerful rocket to successfully launch had F1 engines that were so powerful that they were actually slightly breaking down while burning. And it has brought the heaviest payload known to man into space. And aside from Apollo 13, the Saturn V safely brought men to the moon.
It just worked.
The CSM has also worked relatively well even with a very simple onboard computer that was revolutionary in many ways and helped spark the age for more compact computers. And these vessels combined brought 3 men, a lander and even scientific equipment (and later on a rover) to the moon, which is still unmatched to this day.

It’s a shame that after Apollo, there wouldn’t be any more manned deep space missions. I know some might love the Space Shuttle but it failed to serve as a low-cost, low-maintenance vessel that could be launched frequently and was very expensive in the end. It’s also probably the most dangerous space vessel ever made. It’s assumed we might have been able to have sent men to Mars by now if all the funds for the Shuttle was spent on something else.

I really hope that NASA manages to send men to the moon again with the SLS/Orion system, even though many argues that it’s unlikely considering the budget constraints. But if it would happen, even Mars, I would be very happy as it will pay a homage to the Apollo project and also the SLS/Orion are the spiritual successor to theSaturn V, even resembling it