15 replies to this topic

[mab01uk]

I guess a few of us on the forum are old enough to remember the Apollo lunar missions of the 1960's and early 1970's.... 
I was 12 years old when the Apollo 11 mission first landed on the moon in 1969 and I can still remember my dad waking my brothers and I up to watch with great excitement Neil Armstrong's first steps on the Moon on our black & white TV. I followed all the Apollo missions as a kid, explained in great detail on the BBC by James Burke and Patrick Moore, including Apollo 13 which so nearly ended in disaster. Sadly the BBC wiped most of the tapes of their live coverage as they did with many other programmes back then. I also remember building the 'Airfix' model kits of the Saturn V rocket and the Apollo lunar landing module! 

The Artemis II launch is around 11.20pm UK time tonight, various news channels have live streams on you tube, etc. The crew on the 10-day Artemis II mission won't land on the Moon, but plan to circle it, while travelling further from Earth than anyone has ever been before. (Similar to the Apollo 8 mission of 1968).

LIVE: NASA prepares for launch of Artemis II with first crewed moon mission in more than 50 years:-
https://www.bbc.co.u...ygw0r02t#player
 
While similar to the Apollo 8 mission of 1968, Artemis II isn't just a re-run of Apollo 8 as explained well in the link below:-
https://www.skyatnig...8-vs-artemis-ii

 

 

[Shooter63]

I was lucky enough to be about during those times, it's probably one of the earliest memories I have. My parents didn't have a TV at the time so we went round a neighbours to watch it, all sat round a screen probably smaller than your average pc monitor, eyes fixed to those grainy black and white pictures and hearing those immortal words spoken by Neil Armstrong. It produced what I  consider the greatest photo ever taken, that little ball of rock against the blackness of space.

 

Shooter

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[MatthewsDad]

I'm still completely in awe of the moon missions - it wasn't a one-off fluke, they safely repeated them. Amazing scientists and engineers and very skilled (and brave) astronauts. All using 1960s technology.

[Designer]

Hi,

 

Apparently on all the missions in the sixties right up to the moon landing and beyond the total computer power on each mission in any of the space craft and landers added together was

a tiny percentage of the computer power that is in a mobile phone.

 

Paddy

[sonikk4]

Hi,

 

Apparently on all the missions in the sixties right up to the moon landing and beyond the total computer power on each mission in any of the space craft and landers added together was

a tiny percentage of the computer power that is in a mobile phone.

 

Paddy

 

Todays modern scientific calculators had more computing power, i feel that a better persepctive with regards to what the guys in the late 60's and early 70's had.

 

The mind boggles with regards to what we had then, the leaps we were doing and yet here we are literally using a very similar style type of rocket to launch a crew into space. Where did it fail as fail it certainly has. 57 years since the first lunar landing and we have not mananged anything near as dramatic a leap in capability.

 

To put it more into perspective with regards to technology, the leap from piston power to gas turbine / jet power, from flying at 450mph to breaking the sound barrier, to having aircraft like the lightning etc in the late to early sixties that could easily break the sound barrier. Early 30's to mid 50's so 20 years. Space travel as such has gone backwards.

 

I'm not expecting Warp drive, speed of light etc etc but when the space shuttle made an appearance it looked like we were actually heading in the right direction and then that got canned for various reasons. 

 

Now being an Aircraft engineer with over 45 years in the industry i fully understand the costs, the safety aspects etc, but when politics come into play which invariably they do that is when we stagnate. You only have to look at our own Aviation industry as an example, gone from being a shining light of hope and ingenuity to literally a complete has been.

 

However, lets hope this particular space journey is the start of fresh thinking that is not being dictated to by politics etc.

[Shooter63]

Something that made me chuckle while watching the build up to launch, a technician or scientist I'm not sure was checking a gauge and gave the glass a couple of taps old school, just to make sure it was working.

Shooter

[Designer]

Hi,

 

Re my earlier comment doing a quick search the onboard computers in the Apollo capsules were about a 1,000,000 times slower than the latest mobile phone. The main frame computer at Houston would have been slower too but by how much I don't know.

 

Paddy

Edited by Designer, 03 April 2026 - 09:40 AM.

[Shooter63]

This was actually the computer that NASA used before FORTRAN, her name was Katherine Johnson, there was an excellent film made about her and others involved in the "space race" called " Hidden Figures " the film not only follows the their personal endeavours but the racist crap they had to put up with in the USA at the time ( somethings never seem to change )

Shooter

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[mab01uk]

Hidden Figures....as said above by Shooter63,  is an excellent film about the African-American women working at NASA, who served as the brains behind one of the greatest operations in history: the launch of astronaut John Glenn into orbit which turned around the Space Race in the 1960's, well worth a watch.

 

Edited by mab01uk, 03 April 2026 - 09:02 AM.

[MatthewsDad]

Check out what her mathematics achieved. Not only orbital and re-entry calculations for the moon programme, but also created the mathematical foundation of global positioning system technology.

[Designer]

Hi,

 

It was on last night so I finally got to see the film all the way through.

 

Paddy

[panky]

The Apollo guidance computer was vary basic and used Core Rope Memory. A different kind of fly by wire

 

 

https://www.righto.c...e-rope-and.html

[sonikk4]

And i believe Katherine was still involved with the  Shuttle launches as well. Just goes to show the power of the human mind and its capability, something that is still not understood even today.

 

Brilliant film and it really did highlight the racist outlook of America at the time. We as sentient creatures have a lot to learn and hopefully we will.........sometime in the future!!

[Shooter63]

Is it just me that can't help humming/ singing the Floyds magnum opus " Dark side of the moon" every time the mission is on the TV?

 

Shooter

[mab01uk]

Artemis II Splashdown (Saturday 1am UK time)

"NASA will be hoping that the Artemis II splashdown will go off as smoothly as planned today. After a hopefully successful re-entry into Earth's atmosphere, the spacecraft is scheduled to land in the Pacific Ocean, if weather conditions permit, a little after 8pm EDT (that's 1am on Saturday in the UK). They'll then be picked up by the US Navy's John P. Murtha ship and its crew, who will recover both the astronauts and their Orion spacecraft. The US Navy says Sea Hawk helicopters from its Helicopter Sea Combat Squadron 23 will provide imagery support for NASA, tracking the Orion capsule as it travels through Earth’s atmosphere.

Once splashdown is complete, the Navy's helicopters will pick up the astronauts after they emerge from the capsule, then bring them onboard the ship for assessment, before transporting them to shore. Navy divers will assist with the astronauts' exit from the Orion capsule, then recover the capsule and bring it onboard.

You can watch the build-up to the Artemis II splashdown, the splashdown itself and recovery of astronauts and capsule, live via the You Tube NASA stream below or on some TV channels like Sky News."

 

NASA's Artemis II Live Mission Coverage