Whatizzit?

[Armchair]

When JFK announced going to the moon he added the words "...and bring them back safely..." That was because our success rate for launches was less that 50%. I was working at Martin Denver on the Titan I and II.

Most people had forgotten how many test pilots were lost in WWII and after and I am sure the powers to be felt the American public would not tolerate similar things in the space program. I feel our progress has been hampered because of our fear of risk. Each of the Shuttle accidents shut the program down for months and years.

By the way, a train accident in California killed 25 people last week and the trains were running the next day. Risk???


Armchair

[Diderick A. den Bakker]

Don't care where it comes from - just keep up the good work. These early rockets are a lot more interestin g than Startrek etc.
Diderick A. den Bakker, Holland

[joe4227]

Originally Posted by Diderick A. den Bakker

Don't care where it comes from - just keep up the good work. These early rockets are a lot more interestin g than Startrek etc.
Diderick A. den Bakker, Holland

Diderick, I agree! The Sci-Fi stuff is all well and good, but if it's fiction you can "compromise" details and get away with it.

Modelling REAL designs, even historic Concept Designs, you are limited by the historic facts. So they must be more "real"!

Also, there was a certain minimalist influence, which carried into other areas of engineering - things were "simple and elegant". And as Einstein said, they should be "as simple as possible, but no simpler"!

[joe4227]

Originally Posted by John Bowden

I too remember this............ also the neat Sci-Fi moves all shot in black and white.............. When Worlds Collide was one of my favorites..............

Boy I sure did expect to be mining asteroids when 2000 rolled around..........or at least living on the moon or in a space station.

Missed the boat on those.......... where did we go wrong? Don't answer unfortunately I know :o

Simple answer to that question: Bogged down in Vietnam. Then the Republicans that followed believed that Oil at home was more important than the perceived dubious returns of mining on the Moon or Mars. It all fell to Accountants...

The only surprise to me is that NASA even survived the crashes and cuts to live another day - and now a whole new century...

By the way - the Russians claim to have launched at least one vehicle carrying the Plasma Gun. But they were afraid that firing it would shake the vehicle apart!

[joe4227]

Originally Posted by Gil

Scott K.

Chesley Bonestell was the renowned space artist commissioned for the Collier's Magazine articles. The following URL is interesting from the perspective that he actually built what appears to be paper models of the vehicles!....,

http://www.bonestell.org/models1.html

Also the movie "Conquest of Space" has an interesting spaceship that looks suspiciously like the Willey Ley / Werner von Braun Mars concept. A clip is here:

Conquest of Space Trailer - IMDb

+Gil

And Disney has put all the "Conquest of Space" programs on a single DVD in the Tomorrowland Series. You can get it at Amazon, or Future Shop! And hear Willy Ley and Werner von Braun describe the vehicles in their own voice...