Is the Moon Landing the most amazing thing humans have ever accomplished?

[cbdo2007]

It's just amazing...watching the History channel last night. I wasn't even alive for any of the Moon Landings, but just to imagine that humans can blast off from Earth, fly to the Moon, land on it, walk around on it....then freaking get back in their ship and blast off, dock with the other spaceship, and fly home!! Amazing.

Anyone else got anything that even comes close? I know some people say, taming fire, or inventing the wheel...I agree those were influential and more important than the Moon Landing, but geez we landed on the Moon. That's like saying the strikeout is the greatest achievement in baseball...um, no someone striking out 27 batters in one game would be the greatest accomplishment.

[Randomthought]

1. vaccines

wiping out small pox, polio vaccine, organ transplants.

[cbdo2007]

16. I would agree with organ transplants in a similar category....

I realize people had to create vaccines to attack specific viruses, but people have been using remedies to cure stuff for thousands of years, much of it natural.

Now in terms of say a heart transplant...this is on the same level I guess as the moon landing...that they can take a freaking heart out of someone, put it in someone else and that person can live with it. Unf'ing believeable.

[baldguy]

18. +1

[Milspec]

44. I was talking to my sister

about the Polio scares in my grade school in the early 1950's ( the school was closed) when her 7 year old son asked "Whats Polio?"

[liberal N proud]

2. Consider it was one of the last things designed without computers

Everything was done with a slide rule, even the in flight calculations.


And the computers they did use to run the spacecraft were very primitive. Most laptop computers today have more power and capability than the machines they had.

[RT Atlanta]

3. Forget your laptop, the cell phones today have more memory

Just amazing what a dedicated, and EDUCATED, team can accomplish.

[trotsky]

4. Laptops?

Heck, I'd wager any cell phone today has more processing power than the best NASA computer at the time.

[zipplewrath]

5. Um, no.

I'm not saying folks didn't use slide rulers. But there were computers on the spacecraft themselves. And the engineering firms definitely had computers (and freidan claculators). There were alot of computers around. They were big, expensive, slow, and I've got a handheld calculator now that has more computing power, but they did use computers.

[PVnRT]

43. Reference books as well

In fact, any big reference book still has a gigantic math section with loads of tables for statistics, trig, etc.

[tridim]

53. Computers with hand-made wire-wrap ROMs

IMO the Apollo computer is a thing of beauty.

[BlooInBloo]

56. You an play with the AGC yourself....

http://www.ibiblio.org/apollo/

[cbdo2007]

7. This is probably a good thing....you don't want to get a "bad_spooler error"

or whatever keeps sending me a blue screen, when you're on the surface of the moon.

"Come on Neil, let's go home!!!"

"I can't Buzz, I've got to reboot. I told you not to save the whole James Bond collection on the main computer but to put them on an external drive!"

[Kokonoe]

31. Back in the day, those calculations could be done in their heads.

Yes we have fallen that far.

No disrespect intended.

[PVnRT]

42. LOL not really

The ability to perform complex math in one's head is either genetic or carefully developed over time. Those guys were using scratch paper, slide rules and calculators/adding machines (they did exist) as much as anyone does now. Not to mention they had numerous reference books with tables of trigonometric functions, log functions, calculus, etc. Unless you know how to find an area of a circle with pi to the tenth decimal place in your head.

[Kokonoe]

60. It may seem impossible, but yes if you can do it, it can be done.

And i'm sure they double checked and triple checked just to satisfy everyone.

Lets be clear, A human can find an area of a circle with pi to the tenth decimal place in their head. Thats what I said.

[PVnRT]

63. And you think that can't be done now?

Or are all of us young 'uns just too damn stupid? :eyes:

[Kokonoe]

66. It may seem impossible, but yes if you can do it, it can be done.

Thats what I said, and it answers your question.

However, I admit there is another level beyond simple calculation.

It is striking out 27 batters that is more impressive.

[DavidDvorkin]

45. Nonsense

I worked on the Apollo missions at NASA, and we did all our work on computers. That was where I learned Fortran and programming.

[LeftishBrit]

50. Computers had been invented by then

Admittedly, they weren't a routine part of life, or as efficient as now, and people didn't have their own home and office computers; but I'm sure an organization like NASA would have had computers of a sort even in the 1960s.

[BlooInBloo]

55. Of course they did. People just like romanticizing the time, even if it's false.

[htuttle]

6. I still think digital watches and novelty cell phone ring tones are pretty neat ideas

[kickysnana]

8. No.

[Richard D]

9. flush toilets.

[bpj62]

10. Pure Audacity

I think that the various vacines that have been created are the greatest achievement of mankind in the 20th century. However the shear audacity of even thinking about going to the moon and then safely coming home is just amazing. We designed spacecraft that we had no idea whether they would work or not. People forget that we sent 3 missions to the moon before we even landed on it.

[zipplewrath]

11. One of

One would have to have some criteria as a basis for comparison. Just in space alone one might have to consider the Pioneer probes considering how many planets they passed and how far out beyond the solar system they traveled (and returned data). But as others have pointed out, in terms of exploration alone, Magellan was probably a bigger accomplishment based upon relative available technology. Small pox and Polio are probably in this category somehow. And this nerd might just nominate the discovery/invention of calculus right up there as well, considering all that it is able to do for us. And the internet might just qualify as our greatest creation to date.

[cbdo2007]

14. Magellan? What century do you live in?

Are you that time traveler guy they used to talk to on Coast to Coast or something?

Magellan sailed on the ocean on the Earth. Like that guy's Onion said, Neil Armstrong walked on the f*cking moon!!!!

[zipplewrath]

47. Comparative

The point was that it was an accomplishment on the same par, if one considers the available information and technology at the time. Truth is, read about Lewis and Clarks expedition some time. Pretty impressive feat considering what they had to work with. No one was shooting at Armstrong (Lewis actually got shot in the butt).

[Mari333]

12. quantum physics. imo. nt

[moggie]

13. I don't think in terms of league tables

But, amazing and inspiring though landing on the moon was, if we're talking about "the most amazing thing humans have ever accomplished" I'd have to say that the development of writing beats it easily.

[cbdo2007]

15. Appreciate the article...but...

I'm talking about the crux of human achievement. The thing that writing, the wheel, vaccines, and all that shit have built up to the most amazing thing anyone on the Earth could imagine up to this point.

People were communicating and using symbols and stuff thousands of years ago, looking up at the moon saying, "booga booga wooogie, aaaaaaahhhhhh, WOOGA!!!! Wooga boooga!!!" Come on...we sent humans to the actual, physical Moon probably. Nothing beats that shit.

[rateyes]

21. Did you read the "article?"

:rofl:

[cbdo2007]

29. Yeah...that's how I feel.

I know all this other stuff is amazing and stuff...but we sent humans up and they walked on the moon. Holy flying f*ck. See, this is totally how I feel.

polio vaccine - yeah that's pretty cool, lives saved and stuff
writing - yeah, it's nice to be able to communicate easily. novels of course bring this one down a bit.
quantum physics - yeah, wow, that's some pretty heavy stuff, mostly figured out by a bunch of guys who can't get dates.
sending humans to moon and walking on it then them coming back home - holy f*cking, f*cking holy sh*t!!! The surface of the f*cking moon!!!

[moggie]

25. But without writing, where would we be?

Writing allows us to distill knowledge and pass it on, much more effectively than oral transmission, so that, generation by generation, we can build to the point where we can walk on the fucking moon. The development of agriculture allowed us to settle, rather than being itinerant hunter-gatherers. The development of cities led to sufficient population density, and sufficient ease of life, that an intelligentsia could form and provide fresh ideas to move us forward (unfortunately, it also led to politicians).

[dysfunctional press]

58. probably?

you don't owe any props to the joe rogan fan club...we WERE there.

[drm604]

17. Funny

:rofl:

[rateyes]

19. ROFLMAO!!

That's is fucking hilarious. :rofl:

[salguine]

20. Actually it becomes even more astonishing when you take into account the whole

thing was plotted out with slide rules (do most people even know what one of those is, anymore?)—no computers to speak of.

[scheming daemons]

22. Mapping DNA would be right up there

We have the power to direct our own evolution now.


Think about that.

[ourbluenation]

23. I think pushing out a 9 lb'r for 33 hours was pretty amazing.

yeah me. :toast:

[cbdo2007]

32. My best is probably a 1.5 pounder but it did take me 3 hours to do it.

It was in college and luckily I could work on a term paper while I sat there.

Congrats though. Yours may be a record!

[DarthPortnoy]

24. False FLag Operation

The moon landing was just another in the long line of false flag operations conducted by the US Government to keep the Military in business. There is ample evidence that it was all created in a hollywood style soundstage. All you have to do is Google it to find the THOUSANDS of web site that will debunk this.

Ask yourself this..if we could go to the moon 40 years ago, why don't we do so today? The answer is, we didn't and we can't.

Open you mind and see what they don't want you to see. Look beyond the headlines that the corporate media is force feeding you.

President Obama is making strides to reduce the military industrial corporations influence on this planet. By eliminating false technology like missle shields and reducing the threat of nuclear war and shrinking our status as a "superpower", we are reducing the threat that we've had over developing nations all over the globe.

Wouldn't it be nice to spend the hundreds of millions of dollars we spend on the shame that is NASA on helping our poor neighboring countries? Think about it....

[moggie]

26. On today of all days, show some fucking respect for the achievement

[arcadian]

69. Now we have to show respect for achievements?

DU thought police much?

[Iggo]

30. I opened me mind.

You still stupid.

[RUMMYisFROSTED]

34. Indeed.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mouUUWpEec0

[Rebubula]

37. You sir\madam..

...have posted the dumbest post of the week.

Any suggestion that the moon landings were fake is utter ignorance. How would it remain a secret for so long? Why would the Russians (one of the main reasons that we went there) NOT expose our folly if what you say is true?

I agree that our money would be better spent on Terra Firma, but your accusation that we faked a moon landing is simply Nuclear level ignorance.

[Raskolnik]

38. Jebus...I wish mods would delete posts like this simply to avoid the risk

of their sheer stupidity rubbing off by accident.

[cbdo2007]

46. If you're basing your opinion on the number of websites supporting this....

...then shouldn't you think the Moon Landing absolutely DID happen because of the millions of websites that support it as fact?

Not that it's really worth arguing, cause recess is probably coming up soon for this kid anyway, but you think they faked it all on a sound stage where there just happened to be a, what 30 mph wind blowing hard enough to blow the flag straight out, yet it didn't blow up any of the moon dust or anything else around? Really, if the wind was blowing that hard, to move the flag like it's moving the video would look like a sand storm in Iraq.

[demwing]

64. Just an FYI so you don't get stung

If anyone thinks that there was a wind that blew the flag straight out, they are an idiot, just as you stated. However, Moon landing hoaxers say that the flag drapes straight down from a 90 degree angled post, but that there is a gentle breeze seen blowing the fabric. Why?

Of course, there should not be a breeze on the moon, but that shouldn't stop this flag from moving. There is only a slight atmosphere on the Moon, and as a result, very little (if any) resistance. The motion seen is caused by the twisting and turning of the flagpole as it was planted.

[Obama2012]

49. That has been debunked over and over again

And we are planning on going back to the moon. We plan to have a base there by 2025.

[PVnRT]

51. ...

[Name removed]

70. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[rateyes]

75. Cheese on a

fucking cracker. Did they put Armstrong and Aldrin and the other guy in the top of the rocket and blast them off into orbit in front of a million eye witnesses, videotaping all of it as a damned coverup? And, was the splashdown, videotaped for all the world to see...in the Pacific Ocean with thousands watching from a ship all done on a "sound stage?"

Or was it just the moon landing that was a hoax? One would have to be more of a dupe to believe the moon landing was a hoax than to believe it was real.

It can happen. And, it did happen.

[baldguy]

80. Here, Buzz has got something for you.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-ez-NpFVwQw

[Marr]

85. Jesus Christ-- where's Buzz Aldrin's fist when you need it?

You have got to be kidding me with that "fake moon landing" bullshit. It's fucking embarrassing.

[trayfoot]

27. I believe that medical marvels far outweigh the moon landing.

cure for diseases, vaccines, transplants, etc.

[cbdo2007]

35. yeah...but that stuff doesn't seem very amazing.

On the post above I said maybe the heart transplant is in the same league as the Moon Landing...

How bout this....if they can take off one person's head, put it on another person's body without losing movement, brain power, or anything...then I would say that would be definitely more amazing than the moon landing.

[yellowcanine]

28. Molecular biology advances are right up there in my book. Mapping the human genome, for example.

Gene splicing and production of genetically modified organisms also a very impressive accomplishment, imo.

[eeyore]

33. Oh, hell no....

Cup and Ball!

[baldguy]

36. The Moon landings were an elaborate exercise in propaganda writ large.

The only goal was to literally plant the US flag on a new piece of real estate before the USSR did. Any scientific work done was also literally an afterthought. "We came in peace for all mankind" is a well-crafted catch phrase used to deflect concerns over the obvious technical & military advantages it gave us.

[Raskolnik]

39. As opposed to every other form of exploration in the history of mankind? n/t

[baldguy]

65. Yes. In the 15th, 16th & 17th centuries there was a point to the exploration.

Usually commercial exploitation. The pure "search for knowledge" approach to exploration is really a recent phenomena. Before the 19th century people only bothered to travel beyond the horizon because they hoped to get away from something bad (disease, famine, invading armies), or they hoped to bring back something to sell & get rich (silk, weird spices, strange animals, gold, slaves). Planting the flag - or finding coverts - was secondary.

Columbus - an Italian - was looking for aa alternate route to China to try to get around the Venetian monopoly on trade. He couldn't sell his idea to any of the other Italian kingdoms, so he went to Spain and took their flag to America. Cortez was looking for gold for himself - and only got his royal appointment as Governor of Mexico after he conquered it. The British East India company, Dutch East India Company and Hudson's Bay Company were all established to the exploit the local natural resources of the areas they explored. The standard setup for them was that they could do whatever they wanted in the areas they discovered as long as they paid their taxes to the govt. Otherwise nobody interfered with them.

JFK didn't say "Before this decade is out, we'll set up a colony on the Moon." That was never the objective. The sole intent - and the entire point of the multi-billion dollar Apollo Project was to put *A* man on the Moon. Everything beyond that was secondary.

[Raskolnik]

67. Yes, and part of that point of exploration was prestige.

There is never just one explanation for anything an entire nation does, but to pretend that the moon landings were somehow unique because national prestige and the pure thirst for knowledge were a large part of the calculus is just not supportable.

[baldguy]

71. Try reading beyond the subject line.

The flag waving of Apollo isn't unique - I never said it was.

[Raskolnik]

73. Try supporting your subject line. n/t

[baldguy]

77. .

I did.

[Marr]

87. I'd definitely put it our top five moments as a species, yes.

[Raskolnik]

40. Its got to be pretty close, if not at the top. n/t

[lumberjack_jeff]

41. Written language. Otherwise, no. n/t

[LeftishBrit]

48. Amazing, but not the most amazing

Many other things were more influential: e.g. inventing the wheel as you say; the invention of agriculture; later on, the invention of the printing press; the development of efficient sanitation, and of vaccines and antibiotics; the Internet...

[moggie]

52. Food preservation

The scientific method, the theory of evolution, contraception, pornography, the Ice Cream Mars Bar...

[spanone]

54. no, getting bu$h* elected TWICE was the most amazing

[SIMPLYB1980]

57. Learning to harness fire, but

landing on the moon is right up there.

[FarCenter]

59. The invention of nitrocellulose, which led to plastics, high-explosives, etc

Christian Friedrich Schönbein discovered nitrocellulose in 1845. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christian_Friedrich_Sch%C3%B6nbein

This led to all smokeless powders for small arms and artillery, all nitrogenated high explosives (including those used to implode the fissonable material in nuclear weapons), most of the plastics in use today, the celluloid used in photographic file (all roll film used in photography and motion pictures), plastics used for insulation (without which electronics would be impossible), etc.

[timeforpeace]

61. Yes. Pyramids were good, but those were aliens. Having sailed across the Caribbean in one go, now

know that's not such a big deal. Carbon tax scam, if they pull it off, will be big.

[Javaman]

62. Twinkies.

a confection that has a shelf life of 26 days without refrigeration. Scary and amazing.

[bemildred]

68. Not really. Any amazing display of technical virtuousity, I will agree too.

"The most amazing thing humans have ever accomplished" seems a bit much.

[ContinentalOp]

72. In terms of a raw technological achievement, yes.

Setting aside for a moment the question of usefulness or positive benefit to society, I think that the Apollo program and the Manhattan Project were mankind's two greatest scientific achievements in terms of making enormous scientific leaps in a very short period of time.

[pitohui]

74. not even close, the invention of complex language is the most amazing

there was some leap made between the ability of animals to communicate on a basic level (wolves planning a kill in a hunting pack, for example) and the human animal's ability to express complex abstractions like say algebra

going to the moon is no more amazing than the invention of the airplane or the automobile, less so, really, since these other inventions went on to become something that joe every dude could experience for himself, rather than being a one time thrill for a few "elites" with the self-proclaimed "right stuff"

but to create language AND somehow develop our minds so that virtually every normal healthy person can use at least one language is simply mind-boggling and i can't even imagine how this step was ever taken

humans have done many impressive things with technology but they usually can't do much at all to change their brains, whatever happened to cause us to be able to have complex language...it's simply a marvel that words can't express

as far as "what's the most amazing things humans did in the 20th century," the MOST amazing thing is to win ww2 and yet not subsequently blow ourselves to blue jesus with our discoveries -- there is a sense of wonder to the moon landings and hubble telescope but it hardly compares to the sense of wonder of this

[bemildred]

76. That would be my pick too.

Language is the root from which all else flows.

The Australopithicine transition to upright hunter-gather life on the open plain from tree-dwelling ape is pretty amazing too. What an evolutionary long shot.

[WhollyHeretic]

78. I think your right that it's the most amazing event, i.e. an event that causes surprise and wonder.

I can't think of another event that caused such a sense of wonder around the world. There have obviously been many more important events throughout history

taming fire
the wheel
language
music
art
metal working
agriculture
written language
plumbing
the printing press
modern medicine
the car
the computer
the internet
the telephone
the plane
the newspaper
television

just to name a few. These things all developed over time. None of them were really a singular amazing event shared by people around the world.

[cbdo2007]

82. re: can't think of another event that caused such a sense of wonder around the world....

...except the death of Michael Jackson of course...(sarcasm)

[OPERATIONMINDCRIME]

79. Hands Down The Most Amazing Non-Natural Thing Humans Have Accomplished.

I think heart transplants would come in second.

[Odin2005]

81. Yes. To quote Sagan:

"A scientific colleague tells me about a recent trip to the New Guinea highlands where she visited a stone age culture hardly contacted by Western civilization. They were ignorant of wristwatches, soft drinks, and frozen food. But they knew about Apollo 11. They knew that humans had walked on the Moon. They knew the names of Armstrong and Aldrin and Collins. They wanted to know who was visiting the Moon these days."

[fujiyama]

83. .

[fujiyama]

84. It may or may not be the greatest scientific accomplishment ever

but it's quite likely the most audacious as someone else noted.

It's sort of the standard against all of society's short comings are compared to: "We can put a man on the moon but we can't" "<"insert problem that needs to be solved">".

Is it the most influential or the most important scientific accomplishment ever? No, a million other scientific discoveries and inventions are more useful in daily life. But landing a man on the moon was something humans sort of dreamed of doing for thousands of years and seemed the most ridiculous and most unbelievable. The moon, like other celestial bodies have also been the stuff of astrology and superstition for so long that to make it human, kind of diminishes its mysteriousness. At least that's the impression I get from some.

Also, the Apollo program and the moon landing is the best example of a public goal being set by a nation and the effort actually being accomplished within that time span - especially when that country was behind in that particular technology when the goal was made. Of course, the assassination makes the program even more compelling and legendary in a way. For that reason, it's hard to compare it to anything else.

[saltpoint]

86. It is astonishing. There are so many singularly dazzling things,

among them night train rides, black sand beaches, the first reed flute, Dali's hallucinogenic toreador, Nick Drake doing "Joey Will Come To Say Hello," civil war poets ("South, I have wounds for all your cotton..."), an hourglass, a compass, a gull held aloft by wind...

[Silent3]

88. Moon landings? Pffft. What about THIS?

[saltpoint]

89. Neil Armstrong's foot represents a collective effort of some thousands

of people.

I think the singular act of contemplation in a remote cave is a noble journey in and of itself, minus the razzmatazz of scientific brilliance and lunar hardware.

There is also the stick friction that precedes fire, LSD, and the Rachmaninoff Second Piano Concerto.

[depakid]

90. The eradication of smallpox

The moonshot's not even in the same league with that.

[TahitiNut]

91. It's the closest we've come to scaring the shit out of the rest of the universe.

"They're loose! They're loose!"

:evilgrin: