2001 A Space Odyssey

The day after that, Neil and Buzz climb into the lunar module, dubbed the Eagle, to set off for the moon’s surface; Collins stays behind to orbit in the command module. Collins states that t... ... middle of paper ... ...understanding to create these amazing technological developments, and it is just mind blowing to look in your palms to see what used to cost millions of dollars and was the size of your average house. The Space Race has set us off into an era where anything is possible. To quote Von Hardesty, “It’s really an impressive story of how we turned a negative into a positive. We won The Space Race.

NASA has sent humans into orbit, onto the moon, and most recently sent robots to Mars, so if anyone is going to send humans to Mars it will obviously be NASA. The only problem with this is the fact that NASA is in a troubled time right now. Less than six months ago the crash of Columbia shook not only NASA, but the American people as well. The Columbia tragedy brought déjà vu to many people, reminding them of the same horrors sustained through the Challenger crash of 1986. The Columbia crash forces NASA to make sure their next mission is flawless in order to preserve lives and their reputation.

Space discoveries are made everyday. Whether they’re large or small, it is still newly discovered knowledge for mankind. Mechanics, more specifically Astronautical Engineering has made discoveries more valid and lets scientists calculate specific quantities of data acquired. Aeronautics has allowed the human race to get to where it is today and further use of knowledge in this field allows future discoveries to be made. Space has always boggled the mind of many scientists for thousands of years.

On board, Four and half tons of fuel, and a spider-shaped spaceship covered with gold and silver foil. The goal of Apollo 11 was stated very simply. Perform manned lunar landing and return mission safely. Simply stated, but almost impossible to achieve, it was the mission NASA had been preparing for almost a decade, and nobody was trying to pretend this was just another launch. It would take this rocket ship almost three days to reach the shores of their new world.

In the planning stage, there is a more aggressive and high risk three-year manned trip to the planet Mars.2 This trip will test human adaptability to space. Scientific concern is high over human ability to go to such extremes. In the three-day 1972 Apollo mission, astronaut Eugene Cernan, fatigued and filthy with rock dust on the moon, barely made it back to the spacecraft for a return to Earth. A trip to Mars will multiply the hazards of space travel. Scientist Michael Long suggests a troubling scenario.3 He says, "Imagine a radiation-sick, sleep-deprived astronaut stepping onto Mars.

This is too much time taken just to get some bad pictures of a planet that, sources suggest, has long been dead. Half of NASA?s rovers haven?t even got to the planet, even less have ever even sent any data back to Earth. Numerous satellites, spacecrafts, and rovers are endlessly exploding, getting lost in space, and so on. Until we can send things into space with a one hundred percent chance of success, we shouldn?t send any up period. All this money that NASA is spending on failed missions could save countless lives, multiple times over.

But in July of 1969, Neil Armstrong stepped foot on the moon before live audiences around the world. As he stepped out on this extraterrestrial surface, he stated the now famous words, “That was one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind.” But why was Kennedy so adamant about sending men to the moon? What significance could such a feat serve in our lives? Of course, we lived in a different time then. Many believed our effort to send a man to the moon was just an attempt to display the philosophical superiority of capitalism over communism during the height of the Cold War.

They would fire up the engine of a projectile in hopes of a spectacular launch into the atmosphere. Many times it would only result in some kind of explosion. Catastrophe, if anything, is the nature of launching any projectile. Mans attempt to send objects toward the clouds has sparked interests in going further than ever before. The moon and the outer planets of our solar system have now become an obsession with not only the science community, but with a lot of ordinary folks as well.

Burning 20 tons of explosive fuel a second, it propels Neil Armstrong, Buzz Aldrin, and Michael Collins into history. The spacecraft lands four days later on the moon. Millions watched as Men took the first steps on a strange place 238,900 miles away, or 9 and ½ time around the earth. After placing America’s flag among the lunar rocks, the Apollo 11 crew lit their engines and headed for the small blue sphere we call home, splashing down safely in the ocean and completing Kennedy’s challenge as well as winning the space race to the moon. It took a monumental effort by the National Air and Space Administration (NASA) and billions of dollars to reach this point.

NASA, the national Aeronautics and space administration became an iconic brand for the United States recognized for landing a man on the moon. The success of NASA was legendary but short. The last lunar flight was in December 1972 and since then no man has gone back. The new world abandoned left in utter darkness, longing for human affection but ultimately receiving nothing but the cold darkness of space. With Obama’s new budget for NASA the future for manned lunar flight seems dismal.