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The flight is a necessary step toward viable interplanetary travel. Even NASA slung people around the Moon before later flights landed thereon. Gotta send a roc
by ctdonath 10y ago
The flight is a necessary step toward viable interplanetary travel. Even NASA slung people around the Moon before later flights landed thereon. Gotta send a rocket up & around & back, with passengers, to make progress toward the "colony on Mars" goal, so may as well do it with someone willing to fund a good chunk of the excursion.
- rwmj 10y agoI actually think today we'd be in a better situation if NASA had stopped there and didn't land on the moon (in the 1960s). Here's my reasoning: (1) It's much easier to orbit the moon than to land on it. (2) Both the US and the USSR had the capability to send many people on orbital flights around the moon. (3) With both the US and USSR orbiting the moon, the space race wouldn't have ended (because both had the same capability and neither had put a flag on the surface). (4) Once both countries are orbiting the moon for a few years, at some point in the 1970s one or the other would have made a landing. (5) Both great powers would be competing incrementally in the same space, but at the same time it's not a situation which could have plausibly lead to a war, so it would have been safe for humanity.
- rimantas 10y ago1) It is much easier to stay on Earth than to got into space 2) All the nations have a capability to stay on Earth …