Last Man On Moon

[toobfreak]

If anyone cares, Eugene Cernan passed away two days ago. From his Wiki page:

Eugene Andrew "Gene" Cernan, CAPT, USN (March 14, 1934 – January 16, 2017) was an American astronaut, naval aviator, electrical engineer, aeronautical engineer, and fighter pilot.
He traveled into space three times: as Pilot of Gemini 9A in June 1966, as Lunar Module Pilot of Apollo 10 in May 1969, and as Commander of Apollo 17 in December 1972, the final Apollo lunar landing. On Apollo 17, Cernan became the eleventh person to walk on the Moon and the most recent man to walk on the Moon, since he was the last to re-enter the Lunar Module Challenger after the mission's third and final extravehicular activity (EVA). Cernan was also a backup crew member for the Gemini 12, Apollo 7 and Apollo 14 space missions.

There are only a few Apollo astronauts still left, one Cernan's age (86?); I forget if that was Buzz Aldrin or Alan Bean.

 

[downinit]

Buzz is still alive and is 86.

 

[mso489]

It's odd to remember that the moon landings are so far in the past that the participants are deceased or very elderly. Currently we don't have rockets and vehicles that can get to the international space station. I was in Radioman A school in the Navy when the first moon landing took place. I think we were waxing the barracks floor and watching it on TV at the same time. Now that Mars is a next logical destination, we are faced with the prospect of space travel that involves much longer trips and perhaps permanent relocation, which raises all kinds of questions about who will do this and why. The actual living circumstances of getting to Mars and living there do not seem appealing, unless one can remain in a continual state of excitement about being an explorer while living in confined and limited environments. The universe is on such a vast scale and mostly not habitable. The adventure seems to require major changes in mind and heart.

 

[hextor]

Yes it is humbling to think mankind has actually landed on the moon, I get goosebumps when I think about the vast space, wonder who is going to be the brave souls who ventures out to mars.

 

[akfilm]

I really hope to see Mar's happen, whether by a nation, or by a corporation...don't care. It'll inspire a generation.

 

[toobfreak]

Currently we don't have rockets and vehicles that can get to the international space station.

Isn't that something? We have gone from a mad space race to get to the Moon using technology hardly better than a Radio Shack Calculator and risks right on the razor's edge where one closely covered-up near-catastrophe nearly ended one of the missions with an air scrub failure where the astronauts ended up improvising using some last-minute hodge-podge remedy that just barely worked otherwise they all would have suffocated and never made it back home! Everything was pushed right to the very limit and it is a wonder the LEM even held together.
Fast-forward today and we only send robots out now for fear of a single human casualty, and we can't even get a guy up in Earth orbit without bumming a ride with the Russians. Time was when every launch, you stopped whatever you were doing to see it take off into space, now they are launching stuff out there and most people don't even care or know.
Going to Mars is a far-flung dream, no easy task staying alive two years away from home; illness, radiation and anything else that might crop up, I don't know why they don't first establish a base on the Moon to work all that out, then once they get that right, they'll have a much better platform from which to try to launch groups of people half way across the solar system to Mars.

 

[mcitinner1]

Mars Smars... A human body can't handle the amount of time it takes to get there, in zero gravity. :crazy:

 

[toobfreak]

Maybe if they build ships with rotating sections like in 2001, but they still have to deal with the cosmic and gamma rays, sickness, confinement, isolation, hull punctures and other things. Mars has lighter gravity and weaker light too. Once a person goes to Mars and gets acclimated, assuming they even make it, their bones will be weak and trying to come back to Earth they might be better if they just stayed there.