Attn MSDuncan: Saturn V Preservation Efforts move Forward

[Enough]

I saw this story on Slashdot and remembered that your brother has passionately worked on preservation efforts for the Saturn V/Apollo program and wanted to make sure you (and other interested parties) saw this. Pretty cool that they are finally getting some momentum on this stuff! 8)

[Daehawk]

To this day the Saturn 5 rockets are my all time favorite. I still remember watching those babies burn brightly as they rocketed into space.

[Odin]

It's a real shame that our Apollo program was allowed to die in favor of the more politically expedient myth of the "reusable" space shuttle (which as it turns out is every bit as expensive to use as a rocket) and a variety of largely pointless space missions (the biggest exception I can think of being the Hubble repair - probably the most useful single satellite ever created which is now barely avoiding the scrap heap). How much better would it be to have a base on the moon rather than a partially-functional International Space Station that's finally being assembled some thirty years after the last Apollo flight? How much closer would we be to setting foot on Mars with twenty years of lunar landings and extraterrestrial habitation to draw upon?

By all means, preserve the Saturn rockets so our last true era of manned space exploration can survive to hopefully one day inspire us to reach for the stars once again.

Sith

[The Meal]

http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap950829.html

~Neal

[Kraken]

How much closer would we be to setting foot on Mars with twenty years of lunar landings and extraterrestrial habitation to draw upon?

Before Apollos 18-20 were canceled due to public apathy and the hardware was recycled into Skylab and Apollo/Soyuz...before NASA condemned itself to a generation in low earth orbit by convincing Congress that space travel should be affordable...NASA had firm plans to establish a colony on Mars, using Apollo-era hardware, by 1985. No technical breakthroughs required, just go and do it. Imagine giving the aerospace industry a purpose other than making war machines! When Neil Armstrong took that giant leap in 1969, there was absolutely no doubt in my mind that astronauts would be exploring the moons of Jupiter and Saturn by 2000. Even geeks like me would surely be taking lunar vacations.

Letting go of that technology base was the stupidest political decision of the Space Age. Nixon's series of decisions that prevented STS from ever delivering its cost savings was a close second.

The shuttle engines may deliver more thrust per pound than the Saturn V motors did, but nothing can match a moon rocket lifting off for raw power. I'm glad that was the background to my childhood. Watching one of those monsters clear the pad, you knew that there was nothing we couldn't do if we set our minds to it. I pity those who grew up with your idea of a space program being exploding shuttles to nowhere.

[Odin]

I pity those who grew up with your idea of a space program being exploding shuttles to nowhere.

I wouldn't exactly call it "my" idea, but it does sum up the 80's and 90's space program fairly well. I was actually born about a year after Apollo 11, so I can remember wanting to be an Astronaut and there still being interest in the space program. My first lego set was the lunar lander



and my trip to Cape Kennedy included models of the "forthcoming" Space Shuttle, which was still a prototype when I was there IIRC. But yeah, it still can't compare to the fascination and wonder that I hear people express when they recall the 60's space race and the seminal moment of a man setting foot on the Moon. Such a damn waste.

Sith

[msduncan]

Cool! Thanks for PMing me and letting me know about this. I had indeed missed the thread.

And for those that missed my brother's site:

http://www.apollosaturn.com/

[Lassr]

efforts to save the Saturn V in Huntsville.

http://www.spacecamp.com/saturnv/