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asamet.dat
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1992-11-15
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The Apollo Project was a race to the moon. The
launch of Sputnik by the Soviet Union in 1957 shook
the United States. JFK was determined to not risk losing
the race to the moon. What was happening at the time?
The Chappaquidick incident occurred on the weekend of
Apollo 11. The Nation was engaged on a War on Poverty.
Richard Nixon was President. Ronald Reagan was governor
of California. Aids had not been discovered. Moonies
were not a significant presence.
The Apollo Project brought men into large-scale
working relationships to solve extremely difficult
scientific and technical problems. The complexity factor
was such that there were an estimated 5,600 technical
failures per mission even with the spacecraft functioning
with 99.9 percent efficiency!
By the early 1970's, debate over the Vietnam War
overshadowed the accomplishments of the Apollo project.
The public wanted more justification for expenditures.
The mission was perceived by some as returning with two
boxes of rocks and a couple pockets of soil. Defeated in
the race, the Soviets abandoned their own moon-landing
program and turned toward developing a space station
and long-duration human presence in orbit.
What the moon rocks revealed is that the moon (and
probably the Earth) began 4.5 billion years ago with a
surface layer a few hundred kilometers deep. By 4.4
billion years ago, much of the magma ocean solidified.
Today we know that virtually all the twenty or so
planetary surfaces we have observed at close range have
cratered landscapes like those of the moon.
Some astronauts retired. Twentyfour astronauts had
gone to the moon during 9 Apollo missions. Some members
of the scientific community argue that manned space
exploration is a publicity stunt that should be abandoned
in favor of exploring the solar system with robotic
craft. Others are anxious to explore.Astronaut Lacy Veach
says that "by 2008 we will have the technology to put
a human on Mars. It will be 150 days out, 600 days on
the planet, and 120 days back. A lot like Magellan's
trip around the Cape."