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Space is the place [message #96887]

Sat, 05 August 2023 07:25

Rusty
Messages: 1205
Registered: May 2018
Location: Kansas City Missouri

Illuminati (3rd Degree)

I remember as a child in grade school filing into the cafeteria/gymnasium, sitting on some small bleachers to watch with wide eyed amazement to witness America's first space shot with Alan Shepard on board. It went up and the little capsule he was crammed into parachuted back down. The start of the great space race with the Soviets.
This is some background information that gives some perspective what was going on then that I though was interesting.

https://www.moonofalabama.org/2021/07/the-space-race-technical-facts-vs-popular-narrative-by-gordog.html

The Atlas missile that finally got John Glenn legitimately into space was an ICBM missile. That was dubbed by technicians from it's numerous failure attempts as, an Inter County Ballistic Missile. Prompting Gus Grissom to lament: "Are we really going to get on top of one of these thing?"

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Re: Space is the place [message #96888 is a reply to message #96887]

Sat, 05 August 2023 08:35

Wayne Parham
Messages: 18793
Registered: January 2001

Illuminati (33rd Degree)

Since I grew up in the 1960s and 1970s, I saw the early space flights on television and enjoyed the excitement of the technology of the times. So I loved space flight, computers, robotics and artificial intelligence from a very early age. I think most guys our age did.

Some of my heros were guys like Tesla, Einstein, Turing and Gödel. Another one of that ilk would have to be Goddard:

Robert Goddard

Robert Goddard was arguably the most significant inventor of space vehicles - at least of rockets - and he was from Worcester, Massachusetts, near Boston.

As an aside, the Boston area was the original "silicon valley." Before the computer tech crowd flocked to the west coast, most modern digital technology came from the east. It was the computer Mecca from right after WWII until the 1980s or so.

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Re: Space is the place [message #96890 is a reply to message #96888]

Sat, 05 August 2023 10:16

Rusty
Messages: 1205
Registered: May 2018
Location: Kansas City Missouri

Illuminati (3rd Degree)

Yes, I too was spaced out as a kid. Just spacey now. Caught up in the dynamic possibilities for what the future would become. As the link mentions, both the Russian and our development was serviced by German ex-patriots from the war. Von Braun heading up our R&D then. I always admired Goddard as well. Working all on his own following his passion. Like all the greats.

I can even remember seeing Sputnik earlier on move across the night sky one night. That's what started the whole shebang. It's all commonplace now. Too the moon again I guess, then Mars. Don't know if I'll make it to that milestone, but hoping to. In the interim, NASA's robotic missions have gone way further than where no man has gone before.

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Re: Space is the place [message #96892 is a reply to message #96890]

Sat, 05 August 2023 21:23

gofar99
Messages: 1955
Registered: May 2010
Location: Southern Arizona

Illuminati (5th Degree)

Hi, been of that ilk as well. I also really liked some of the various video series from years gone by. Carl Sagan for one. I have the disks of it and watch them from time to time. Some say he was horrible to work with...but the disks are really thought provoking. I don't expect to see men on Mars (I'm three weeks shy of 77), but it is possible as things are moving along rather rapidly now. NASA might not do it, but Space X might. I have a huge collection of Sci-fi paperbacks...likely 4000 that I read on occasion (I do read a lot). Many go back to the early days. Folks had imagination then. They still provide insight on possibilities for where we are going provided we don't blast ourselves into dust. Some have been prophetic. Another venue I really liked was seeing Space Oddessy 2001 in surround. Extraordinary. Even in two dimensions it is really well done and makes one think.

Good Listening
Bruce

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Re: Space is the place [message #96893 is a reply to message #96892]

Sun, 06 August 2023 05:55

Rusty
Messages: 1205
Registered: May 2018
Location: Kansas City Missouri

Illuminati (3rd Degree)

Well, happy pre-birthday for you Bruce. I'll join the 7th decade in October. That Sagan series back then was a revelation. Billions & billions is a lexicon. But I liked his description of what it took to derive the soup of life. To replicate it in the sense of throwing all the components into a caldron and stirring it, he said. "What you would have then.... Is a mess". So nature apparently is more proactive.

I have some faith in NASA getting some humanoid prints on the surface of Mars. Maybe the Chinese will get there first. More power too them. Musk I feel is more a self aggrandizing wind machine than what he might really do. Well see.

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Re: Space is the place [message #96896 is a reply to message #96893]

Mon, 07 August 2023 21:19

gofar99
Messages: 1955
Registered: May 2010
Location: Southern Arizona

Illuminati (5th Degree)

Thanks for the wishes. I have a five year plan that I found on a day to day calander. I renew it daily, it said "just don't die for five years". Sounds like a good thing. So maybe I might be around long enough to see folks on Mars. A lot has happened in the past 100 years and the rate seems to be speeding up.

Good Listening
Bruce

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Re: Space is the place [message #96901 is a reply to message #96896]

Sat, 12 August 2023 03:08

Silver
Messages: 116
Registered: December 2013

Viscount

Just like the legitimate footage of UAP's lately. I remember hearing from multiple sources that some of those craft, or more specifically the technology from them, can make entire nuclear facilities shut down. If they can do that, and they don't want us roaming around outer space, all of our efforts may be for naught.

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Re: Space is the place [message #96908 is a reply to message #96901]

Sat, 12 August 2023 07:26

Rusty
Messages: 1205
Registered: May 2018
Location: Kansas City Missouri

Illuminati (3rd Degree)

The great mystery of universal life throughout the universe. I'm a big fan of it. And why not with what understanding now of how nature operates and the favorable odds of conditions availing themselves elsewhere to spark consciousness. But the Fermi paradox gives pause to what our buildup of myth to reality is on the possibility we're not alone. Personally I'm of the notion that a civilization capable of traversing distances that are beyond our current knowledge of physics are more than likely to have overcome the baser instincts that plague our species we've exhibited forever. And maybe the need to have a relationship with such aggressive behavior we project is not practical. Kind of a prime directive like captain Kirk followed. Maybe the UFO, now UAP's are more likely autonomous data providers than nefarious emissaries.

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Re: Space is the place [message #96912 is a reply to message #96908]

Sat, 12 August 2023 21:13

gofar99
Messages: 1955
Registered: May 2010
Location: Southern Arizona

Illuminati (5th Degree)

In spite of all the si-fi movies etc the value of interstellar conflict make little sense. Any intelligence that can master the universe has no need of stuff anyone else has. They can make it or acquire it easier and without risk. Much more likely they would want to encourage development in other intelligences to further both civilizations.

Good Listening
Bruce

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