just watching apollo 13 and wondered if with the tech. available today everything would be easier with fail safes incorporated and things just more advanced and more reliable.
2007-12-16 10:47:53 · 5 answers · asked by wave 5 in Science & Mathematics ➔ Astronomy & Space
Yes and no. Look at how many problems the space shuttle has had over time, even though the technology involved is much better than that of the Apollo program. Yes, our computers are MUCH better now and that allows a lot of fail safes that weren't possible before. But the basics of the fuel lines, the valves, the oxygen tanks, etc are the same now as they were 40 years ago.
2007-12-16 10:55:49 · answer #1 · answered by mathematician 7 · 0⤊ 0⤋
If you haven't got the equipment, you have to build it.
You are not one of these people that wonders why shuttles can't go to the moon, are you?
The space shuttle is designed for low Earth orbit.
It is basically an aircraft - it is injected into orbit by a rocket, and it basically floats back to Earth, and lands like an aircraft, on a runway.
Even if there was a rocket big enough to take a shuttle to the moon, there aint no air on the moon to support an aircraft, and there aint no runways.
We have the technology to create a better supersonic airliner than Concorde, but nobody is putting up the money, are they?
2007-12-16 12:12:10 · answer #2 · answered by nick s 6 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Going to the moon is challenging but not particularly difficult. After all, we did it forty years ago and technology has come a long, long ways since then. It IS, however, incredibly expensive. Our priorities are a bit different today as well. I don't even want to think about the carbon footprint of a Saturn V launch was, back in the day.
2007-12-16 11:47:38 · answer #3 · answered by jgoulden 7 · 0⤊ 0⤋
It would be easier, but it's also bloody expensive, and there would be a public outcry if it was done in the perilously dangerous way it was nearly 40 years ago.
They were pioneering expeditions. If it was done today, much more would be expected to be achieved. That's why the development is taking so long.
2007-12-16 13:15:20 · answer #4 · answered by Choose a bloody best answer. It's not hard. 7 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Did you know NASA destroyed all its engineering plans ror the Saturn 5 some years ago in a 'clean up'.
Short of rebuilding the one at Housten, we couldn't get there now as the shutle is merely an orbital craft.
2007-12-16 11:51:47 · answer #5 · answered by Brett2010 4 · 0⤊ 0⤋