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NASA was presumably an expensive way to get any inventions not related to space. You could just fund normal research, after all. People similarly laud military

NASA was presumably an expensive way to get any inventions not related to space. You could just fund normal research, after all. People similarly laud military research, but it's not as if you need the military to carry it out. Governments were just willing to fund the research as part of a military effort.

renewiltord 3y ago
Yeah, but if you just fund research without an objective you just waste money because it creates an opportunity for a grifter like me to go there and just not get any results of value. When you place an objective like the Moon in front, at the least your research has to result in it getting closer. The hope is that this broad objective results in something as opposed to something narrower you might want.
- ke88y 3y ago
  There's a lot of wisdom here. Stupid but hard goals are still hard goals. Necessity -- not taxpayer largess -- is the mother of all invention. The corresponding risk is in the resulting cargo cult around arbitrary constraints whose reasons were forgotten. I bet if we committed to building the Panama canal with only spoons we'd have ended up with a lot of amazingly useful spoon-platform earth moving technology, and the commercial sector would've ended up with highly optimized spoon-based machines, and it'd all be very stupid compared to what we got instead.
scarface_74 3y ago
Let’s look at Apple before Steve Jobs and Parc research. There was a lot of useless research being done without focus on a shipping product.
- nitwit005 3y ago
  While NASA and the military only fund effective research with practical applications?
iancmceachern 3y ago
That wasn't one of the choices. I really love the book "The decision to go to the moon" because it chronicles not apollo itself, but the years leading up to the decision to do it. Remember: The soviets had just successfully launched sputnik and were years ahead of the US. It was perceived to be a matter of national security and pride, we had to do something. The choices were: 1 - do it, but as a secret CIA/Pentagon thing focused on military power, objectives, run by the military leadership. 2 - Do it as it was done, as a civilian, public thing for us all to share in. I, for one, am very grateful they chose 2.
- stringfood 3y ago
  [dead]
- edmundsauto 3y ago
  Can you double check the title and maybe add the author? I’d like to pick a copy of this up for my dad.
  - iancmceachern 3y ago
    Its: John M. Logsdon The Decision to Go to the Moon: Project Apollo and the National Interest I think its out of print. I had to buy it used on Amazon for like 80 bucks when I bought my copy.
    - edmundsauto 3y ago
      Ah there it is, thank you! Is it worth the $50 i see on Amazon?
      - iancmceachern 3y ago
        Yes! It's very different than the other books I have on Apollo, which are mostly about the engineering and astronauts. This book really answered a lot of questions I had about all the rest of it. The greater economic political and social things going on at the time, the background before. At first it seemed dryer than the other books but it's actually become some of my favorite facts and most discussed details about apollo. If you're into apollo, yes. If you're just into the engineering details and not as much in the politics and societal part maybe not.

renewiltord 3y ago

Yeah, but if you just fund research without an objective you just waste money because it creates an opportunity for a grifter like me to go there and just not get any results of value. When you place an objective like the Moon in front, at the least your research has to result in it getting closer. The hope is that this broad objective results in something as opposed to something narrower you might want.

ke88y 3y ago
There's a lot of wisdom here. Stupid but hard goals are still hard goals. Necessity -- not taxpayer largess -- is the mother of all invention. The corresponding risk is in the resulting cargo cult around arbitrary constraints whose reasons were forgotten. I bet if we committed to building the Panama canal with only spoons we'd have ended up with a lot of amazingly useful spoon-platform earth moving technology, and the commercial sector would've ended up with highly optimized spoon-based machines, and it'd all be very stupid compared to what we got instead.

scarface_74 3y ago

Let’s look at Apple before Steve Jobs and Parc research. There was a lot of useless research being done without focus on a shipping product.

nitwit005 3y ago
While NASA and the military only fund effective research with practical applications?

iancmceachern 3y ago

That wasn't one of the choices. I really love the book "The decision to go to the moon" because it chronicles not apollo itself, but the years leading up to the decision to do it. Remember: The soviets had just successfully launched sputnik and were years ahead of the US. It was perceived to be a matter of national security and pride, we had to do something. The choices were: 1 - do it, but as a secret CIA/Pentagon thing focused on military power, objectives, run by the military leadership. 2 - Do it as it was done, as a civilian, public thing for us all to share in. I, for one, am very grateful they chose 2.

stringfood 3y ago
[dead]
edmundsauto 3y ago
Can you double check the title and maybe add the author? I’d like to pick a copy of this up for my dad.
- iancmceachern 3y ago
  Its: John M. Logsdon The Decision to Go to the Moon: Project Apollo and the National Interest I think its out of print. I had to buy it used on Amazon for like 80 bucks when I bought my copy.
  - edmundsauto 3y ago
    Ah there it is, thank you! Is it worth the $50 i see on Amazon?
    - iancmceachern 3y ago
      Yes! It's very different than the other books I have on Apollo, which are mostly about the engineering and astronauts. This book really answered a lot of questions I had about all the rest of it. The greater economic political and social things going on at the time, the background before. At first it seemed dryer than the other books but it's actually become some of my favorite facts and most discussed details about apollo. If you're into apollo, yes. If you're just into the engineering details and not as much in the politics and societal part maybe not.