I can only imagine what it would be like to have this as a memory.
Astronaut Charlie Duke, visiting the U.S. Space and Rocket Center in Huntsville, Alabama in 2022. He's looking at the capsule that took him to the Moon 50 years earlier, on the Apollo 16 mission.
I find it interesting that America did this six times successfully 50 + years ago yet other countries are still finding this an impossible achievement to do despite the fact that technology and materials and fuel will all have been perfected 100 % since.
Do they not have access to the data from that time ? Or are their attempts merely nations sabre rattling to those at home (this is what we could do if we wanted) kinda thing ?
@Picklebobble2 Yeah. The scientific community would love to learn more about Mars. But they figured out a long time ago that robotic landers are a lot more cost effective, and that human flight should be reserved for specific scientific purposes, such as when a robotic lander finds evidence of life at a particular site -- that would be a place where humans could learn a lot more by actually being there.
On the other hand, there are others who want to colonize Mars -- give it an atmosphere and water, etc. I hate that idea, because they would be killing Mars. But people see it as "the new frontier". Just as Europeans came to the shores of America, and just as the United States expanded to fill the vast interior of the country, Mars in their view is the next stage.
@Picklebobble2 It's basically trying to build hope that if and when we make Earth too uninhabitable for the rich to live on, they can get their own exclusive uninhabitable planet.
They were special. They must have figured it was most likely a suicide mission but then, anyone who flies off and lands on a carrier in rough seas must be about the same way.
He and the others who made this fantastic journey are the dreamers, those who believe in something bigger than themselves... unusual people to be sure.
