I’m kinda confused… I see the Space X test launch approaching and I’m just mind blown.
We went to the moon in 1969 ya? Why is it so difficult to re enact that? Why is SpaceX doing it and not NASA? I’ve seen/heard of a few unsuccessful test runs but I’m not super up to date with our space journeys. But don’t we have this technology/engineering capability?
I don’t mean to be arrogant but can someone explain it to me?
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>We **went** to the moon in 1969 ya?
Yeah that’s kinda the problem here. Pretty much the instant we did that public support for the space program plummeted. We were spending 5% of our GDP to basically learn how to build missiles before getting nuked by the Russians, and we did it with a very slim safety margin and exorbitant cost.
>Why is it so difficult to re enact that?
Basically because it was extremely difficult to do it the first time, and no one in 2023 wants to take on the same level of risk that the original crews did to be the 13th person on the moon.
>Why is SpaceX doing it and not NASA?
NASA is also doing it with Artemis II, but NASA’s budget is more interested in research and development rather than commercialization. NASA likes to be the first to do things, SpaceX is focused on being able to bring the cost and risk down to an acceptable enough level that they can offer tourist tickets to billionaires and maybe even mine other worlds for resources for Earth.
>But don’t we have this technology/engineering capability?
Besides the orbital math, most of the Apollo mission stuff is out of date. Building a spaceship capable of reaching the moon with 1965 tech and an effectively unlimited budget vs today tech with a commercial or slim research budget is a VERY different challenge, but at the end of the day, modern rockets will be more reliable, safer and cheaper.
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