46 Years Ago!

**Zap** · 04-12-2007, 07:50 AM

46 years ago, today...

Yuri Gagarin became the first man in space.

Too bad the race that kicked off from that ended in July of 1969.
We could have gone so much farther.

ewomack · 04-12-2007, 08:05 AM

I actually knew a woman from Sweden who was at the 1961 parade in Red Square when Yuri was paraded in front of the crowd. Mandible dropping. Since Gagarin died some seven years after his trip, she was part of a lucky elite. Sadly she's no longer with us, either.

Gagarin orbited the earth on his first flight. The first American space mission, in the same year with Alan Shepard, lasted 15 minutes. No orbit. Spacewise, the Russians were clearly ahead back then.

**Zap** · 04-12-2007, 08:17 AM

Yeah, but the race, itself, was so good for us, as a species.

It's too bad that the moon was seen as the ultimate goal. We just gave up after that.

Edit: I've seen the dog (Laika) that went before him at the Space Museum in Moscow. (Replica, at least)
That place is small.

Taltos · 04-12-2007, 08:56 AM

YES! The space race sent technology screaming ahead! Not to mention huge boosts to a wide variety of the sciences. Those boosts translated directly into commerce and economy boosts as well and I'm not just talking about Tang.

We have so much we could be doing. Some of it has come back in the last 20 years but very slowly and only based on the very creative use of tiny budgets compared to what went into the moon race.

And we were way behind on that race until about half way through the Gemini project. And Apollo 1 almost killed the whole thing. I remember as a kid begging to stay up to see launches and telecasts from the capsules and moon landings. I was very young but I could still tell this was major stuff not to mention that it really fired my imagination!!!

Unfortunately, to get beyond the moon and especially beyond our solar system will take more than just a single nation. We have a start with the international space station but it is such a mess as far as consistent commitment and agreement from a number of nations that it can be a bit depressing. I think we will have to deal with our own crap right here on tiny Earth before we get much farther than the moon.

I just want to live long enough to get a chance to get into space personally. I don't happen to have $20 million laying around right now so I'll have to wait for some more progress. Bummer!

**Zap** · 04-12-2007, 09:08 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Taltos

I just want to live long enough to get a chance to get into space personally. I don't happen to have $20 million laying around right now so I'll have to wait for some more progress. Bummer!

You and me, both.

That's one of the last things on my "to do" list before I depart this planet for good.

That... and... Somehow, find myself trapped in a room naked with the "Deal or No Deal" models.

Taltos · 04-12-2007, 09:13 AM

Deal or no deal models! I'd give you greenies on that but just did recently so it won't let me. I must spread my green pollen around first

ewomack · 04-12-2007, 09:56 AM

Sadly, I think the space race was motivated by politics of hegemony, not the best interests of humanity. It did do some good but when the politics changed so did the committment and funding. We need to get that energy back without the subcurrent of international politics undergirding it.

**Zap** · 04-12-2007, 10:20 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by ewomack

Sadly, I think the space race was motivated by politics of hegemony, not the best interests of humanity. It did do some good but when the politics changed so did the committment and funding. We need to get that energy back without the subcurrent of international politics undergirding it.

Absolutely. We need the fire of desire back again!

Taltos · 04-12-2007, 11:50 AM

So, from a US perspective, does that mean we have to wait for Iran to try to go to Mars?!?!

Because you are right, Ed. That was purely Cold War politics. We pumped an enormous amount of money just to prove we could do it better and faster than those damned Russkies

It's sad that is how it came about but it did push us. Now if we could come together and go further...

StupidScript · 04-12-2007, 03:00 PM

I, for one, am glad that it lit a fire under our elected representatives. One of the direct results of the Soyuz launch (1957) was that the U.S. Department of Defense started pumping money into the educational system's little project known at the time as the ARPANet (1962) ... turning it into the DARPANet ... and later known as the Internet. Without the Space Race, we'd probably still be using typewriters and fax machines, and I never would have gotten the opportunity to meet so many nice people, like those here.

ewomack · 04-13-2007, 09:09 AM

Was it last year or the year before that when China announced a mission to Mars? Soon after the US announced their intentions to go to Mars. My frist reaction was "here we go again" but when China's desires cooled so did the US's. Oh well. Eternal recurence again.

Nixon made a pledge similar to Kennedy's: "We will be on Mars by the end of the century." Well, we all know that didn't happen. Why can't the US lead the charge rather than simply react to it? Your example of Iran, Taltos, is satirical but all too true. If Iran were planning a Mars mission, we'd try to beat them to it.

Dustin07 · 04-13-2007, 09:29 AM

yeah, unfortunately people lost interest in space travel when they realized the whole thing was a hoax photographed in Utah. bloody shame.

Taltos · 04-13-2007, 11:28 AM

@ Dustin. My brother-in-law truly believes that! He absolutely is convinced that we never really went to the moon. Saw on of the conspiracy theory type shows on TV and bought into it hook, line, and sinker! It's crazy!

Dustin07 · 04-13-2007, 01:00 PM

I definitely believe in space travel. I'm torn on aliens though. I think they are highly unlikely. But possible.

Taltos · 04-13-2007, 01:27 PM

I assumed (and hoped) that the post was tongue-in-cheek but it isn't for my brother-in-law. He's scary in his commitment that the whole moon thing was filmed right here on earth and the world's biggest scam. It kills me.

As for the aliens, I'm of the school that the universes are too big not to have others out there somewhere. What I do think is highly unlikely but possible, is that there are any of them close enough to us to be doing all this visiting that gets claimed or that that many have the kind of technology to be visiting us that frequently from across 500 galaxies.

Dustin07 · 04-13-2007, 01:39 PM

I sometimes wonder if Heaven is a tangible planet that is beyond our current reach (in life) and that perhaps thats how angels get here, via space travel.

theseokit · 04-13-2007, 02:11 PM

Totally cool!

droplister · 04-13-2007, 02:15 PM

Just because we stopped sending men to the moon doesn't mean it's all over. There have been various probes sent far beyond the moon, there is one up there now. We have landed on mars, sent back color picture, all that. The fastest man made object is speeding towards pluto. It will arrive 2015. To compare, it took the Apollo 3 days to reach the moon, 2 1/2 to get their, 1/2 to slow down. This new probe passed the moon in 9 hours.

^ I went to a lecture by Bill Nye The Sciene Guy

**Zap** · 04-13-2007, 05:02 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by droplister

Just because we stopped sending men to the moon doesn't mean it's all over. There have been various probes sent far beyond the moon, there is one up there now. We have landed on mars, sent back color picture, all that. The fastest man made object is speeding towards pluto. It will arrive 2015. To compare, it took the Apollo 3 days to reach the moon, 2 1/2 to get their, 1/2 to slow down. This new probe passed the moon in 9 hours.

^ I went to a lecture by Bill Nye The Sciene Guy

It's not nearly the same as having human beings on other worlds. If photos are all you're after, why spend billions on space travel when we could spend millions on a really cool cgi flick with all the trimmings.
Sure, robots have been to Mars and beyond, but a robot can't come back and tell the rest of us what it felt like to be there. A robot can't spontaneously get curious about a particular rock and walk over and investigate. We have all kinds of data and pictures, but we won't really begin to understand and appreciate other worlds (and, by comparison, our own) until humans are actually there.

And, to the point of life on other worlds... Begin to count the stars, and then the planets around those stars and it becomes pretty obvious, very quickly, that the odds of Earth being the only planet with life on it are pretty astronomical.