Location: In the land of nuclear reactors ,Oak Ridge ,Tn.U.S.A
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50 Years of NASA: A Celebration
Fifty years after its founding, NASA arguably leads the world in exploration, standing on the shoulders of a long line of explorers throughout history.
Its astronauts have circled the world, walked on the moon, piloted the first winged spacecraft, and constructed the International Space Station. Its robotic spacecraft have studied Earth, visited all the planets (and soon the dwarf planet Pluto), imaged the universe at many wavelengths, and peered back to the beginnings of time. Its scramjet aircraft have reached the aeronautical frontier, traveling 7,000 miles per hour, 10 times the speed of sound, setting the world’s record. How did an agency with such varied accomplishments come into existence?
NASA is in a bad place right now. With the loss of 2 shuttles, and the upcoming retirement of the shuttle fleet. Budget woes and leadership problems are always an issue, as well.
And let's not start on the proposed moon and Mars missions they are supposed to be working towards. They have no funding and very little public support or interest.
I like to remember NASAs glory days of the Mercury, Gemini, and Apollo programs, as well as the early STS shuttle missions.
I hope NASA and the US can reclaim their place in both the world and space.
Location: The 'Lazy O' Magic Circle Dudes Ranch and Collective Love Farm
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Re: 50 Years of NASA: A Celebration
Great job, Iggy!
And what Lab said. I feel exactly the same. I was able to witness those early events in real time, and I hope we do continue to reach out as far as we can.
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Thanks Iggy! I'll echo what Lab and Rose have said. With all of the more immediate problems facing the country, it is easy to be short-sighted and less than visionary with budget dollars. The brilliant minds of NASA, past and present, deserve our congratulations and support.
Location: In the land of nuclear reactors ,Oak Ridge ,Tn.U.S.A
Posts: 6,400
Re: 50 Years of NASA: A Celebration
Fortunately, folks who have been covering the space effort have been doing this ever since the days of the actual Apollo program. "One Apollo" turns out to be a relatively standard currency unit, the equivalent of $25 billion in 1970 dollars, or roughly $100 billion in today's dollars.
In fact, you could put together a whole scale of scientifically based currency units, based on the estimated cost of big projects, including the Large Hadron Collider and the international space station. In reality, these numbers are always squishy. Nevertheless, even order-of-magnitude estimates can be helpful.
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50 Years of NASA: A Celebration
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