were lunar landings possible in the 1960s? are lunar landings possble in 2006?

Question

how was it possible for lunar landings in the 60's when the atari game "pong" a primitive video game came out years later? open minds only please

Answer 1

if you make good enough calculations before takeoff, you don't need to take a big computer with you in the rocket. So, computer power is irrelevant to that matter.

As a matter of interest, i heard that russian rockets were still, until quite recently (10 years tops) COMPLETLY mechanical : no onboard computer. The ignition of the reactors was timed using mechanical devices.

Well, it's a lot easier to use computers, because you can let the computer do all the complicated maths, but still. There ARE other solutions to a problem than just ask a computer to solve it for you.

And in the case of moon walking and stuff, the difficult part wasn't to make the calculations to get there, but to build a rocket powerfull enough to get there and safe enough not to die during takeoff. And that's a mechanical prowess, not electronic. And i believe it will be really difficult for the NASA to get back that level of mechanical performance.

Answer 2

The problem with your thinking is that you are comparing a video game to a multi-billion dollar spacecraft. Atari was one of the first of its kind in that it used technology to provide entertainment. It was developed on a minimal budget.

The computers on the Apollo crafts were crap by today's standards, but were plenty capable of navigation and landing routines. The lunar landings were extremely possible in the 60's and did happen. The Russians actually landed a probe on the Moon before the US. They had the technology and so did we. However, we got man there first.

Today, lunar landings are not only possible they will soon become almost routine as we begin the Ares missions (see NASA.gov). These new crafts, Ares I and Ares V (named after the saturn V) will take us to the Moon where new technologies in long-duration human habitation will be developed. In the next 10 years or so, the new age of lunar exploration will begin.

By the way, the Apollo capsules only spent an hour or so in the van Allen belts. The suits they wore and the spacecraft itself provided more than sufficient protection from the radiation of the van Allen belts. If you think you know the moon landing was a hoax because you saw that FOX special 5 years ago, youre wrong.

Answer 3

I don't believe that that lunar landings were possible in the 60's. We did not have the technology to complete the task. Also, the Apollo spacecraft did not have the shielding to protect the astronauts from the intense radiation of the Van-Allen Radiation Belts that surround the Earth. That is the reason that no manned spacecraft has gone beyond near Earth orbit in the 1960's, or today, almost forty years later!

Answer 4

If they were possible in the 60s, talking of sheer possibilities, they were possible anytime. For all we know there may have been civilizations that reached the moon before us. And we may die out (26 billion years?) and another species may do the same.

Answer 5

I once heard that the computing power of the command center of the first space flight was less than the power of a present day laptop. But it was enough to do the job.

Answer 6

It was possible because we decided to do it...and i believe NASA is working to get there again...

Answer 7

*open mind* yes and yes *close mind*