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I think my point is that being the first to plant a flag on the moon is not space exploration. You think Voyager 2 trumps the entire Soviet unmanned space progr

I think my point is that being the first to plant a flag on the moon is not space exploration. You think Voyager 2 trumps the entire Soviet unmanned space program, and I think I would prefer all the papers and progress made by Soviet program. Luckily I can read them in native language. Thanks for your perspective.

krapp 13y ago
Perhaps the Russians surpassed the US in terms of space research and development initially, but the US did more on the moon than plant a flag and play golf. You can't explore someplace you never actually reach in any case. And as far as Russia being about research and the US being about militarizing space (which you seem to suggest upthread), I'd remind you that the Russians (as far as I know) were the only country to arm one of their space stations and test fire the weapon[1]: To suggest that either the US or Russia weren't keenly interested in using space as leverage against the other, as well as in scientific exploration, is probably not taking the entire picture into consideration. [1]http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Almaz http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Almaz ... and yes, having more than one space station puts a check in the Russian column.
- Demiurge 13y ago
  Yeah, I'm not denying geopolitics, just the emphasis as was described.
- avmich 13y ago
  Especially having more than one space station at the same time. There were Mir and Salut-7, with cosmonauts flying between them, and there were Mir and ISS - without such flights, since they were in the different orbital planes.
  - krapp 13y ago
    Yeah I know, and we broke Skylab on the way up, didn't we? That's embarrassing. But on the bright side we did prove that telepathy doesn't work on the moon at all.
- Luc 13y ago
  > You can't explore someplace you never actually reach in any case. Meh, the Soviets sent all kinds of robots to the moon. Orbiters, landers that made pictures, moon rovers, three robots that sampled soil and returned it to earth... Not too shabby I'd say. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Luna_programme https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Luna_programme
  - krapp 13y ago
    Huh. I stand corrected then.

krapp 13y ago

Perhaps the Russians surpassed the US in terms of space research and development initially, but the US did more on the moon than plant a flag and play golf. You can't explore someplace you never actually reach in any case. And as far as Russia being about research and the US being about militarizing space (which you seem to suggest upthread), I'd remind you that the Russians (as far as I know) were the only country to arm one of their space stations and test fire the weapon[1]: To suggest that either the US or Russia weren't keenly interested in using space as leverage against the other, as well as in scientific exploration, is probably not taking the entire picture into consideration. [1]http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Almaz http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Almaz ... and yes, having more than one space station puts a check in the Russian column.

Demiurge 13y ago
Yeah, I'm not denying geopolitics, just the emphasis as was described.
avmich 13y ago
Especially having more than one space station at the same time. There were Mir and Salut-7, with cosmonauts flying between them, and there were Mir and ISS - without such flights, since they were in the different orbital planes.
- krapp 13y ago
  Yeah I know, and we broke Skylab on the way up, didn't we? That's embarrassing. But on the bright side we did prove that telepathy doesn't work on the moon at all.
Luc 13y ago
> You can't explore someplace you never actually reach in any case. Meh, the Soviets sent all kinds of robots to the moon. Orbiters, landers that made pictures, moon rovers, three robots that sampled soil and returned it to earth... Not too shabby I'd say. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Luna_programme https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Luna_programme
- krapp 13y ago
  Huh. I stand corrected then.