The myth of NASA's 'Golden Age'

Post by **XMEN Gambit** » Thu Dec 18, 2003 11:46 am

<a href="http://spacedaily.com/news/spacetravel- ...  An interesing article, and educational. Some of these things I knew, but many I did not. It is a rebuttal of those who criticize today's NASA while praising the organization's accomplishments in the '60s. The fundamental problem, it says, is "the myth" - that the research innovations we give NASA credit for doing back then weren't actually done by them, and that their accomplishements were just scaled-up versions of earlier efforts. Give it a read if the space program holds any interest for you. <img src="http://www.xmenclan.org/xmengambit.gif"/> XMEN member Card-carrying DTM OKL Fish-napper Though a program be but three lines long, someday it will have to be maintained.  The Tao of Programming

LoSTimberWolf · Post by **LoSTimberWolf** » Thu Dec 18, 2003 12:27 pm

The first part was interesting to read, and believable. Then when they said the complex where the Shuttles and Saturn rockets were assembled was just a converted ICBM test facility blew my ability to believe any thing else. That building was one of many custom built for NASA, just like the Launch pads, the crawler (the massive carrier that carries the Shuttle or Rocket with the launch pad). I agree that most of the things NASA got credit for in the beginning were things developed by others, but they specilized them and refined them. They also don't say anything about the byproducts of NASA's work in space, such as the Microwave, better semiconductors, better batteries, better engines (not the entire engine but parts of it), and so much more. <blockquote>Quote:<hr>This tradition was swamped during the Golden Age by the pressing emergency of the Moon Race and left NACA's successor NASA oriented towards building and launching massive pieces of hardware, instead of conducting research on faster/better/cheaper ways to build and launch them.<hr></blockquote> Todays NASA can hang their most recient failures with their Mars probes and satelites to the faster/better/cheaper pollicy. Because NASA rushed to get victories out there for the public to see, they messed up because of that fast pase. One of the failures was just because a simple miss entering the wrong unit system in. I am going to leave it there. Yes, NASA in the past took more glory than they deserved but the US citizens needed to be assured that they would win. Yes, Todays NASA is spread out into every corner of science and has greatly increased the technology available to everyday people. But todays NASA is not as orientated for Space as it use to be and it should be moved back that way. -LoS-TimberWolf{FF} Vehicle Specilist

XMEN Ashaman DTM · Post by **XMEN Ashaman DTM** » Thu Dec 18, 2003 12:34 pm

Actually, the hydrogen/oxygen rocket motor would never have happened if it weren't for Goddard. Even though Goddard started with gasoline/lox, Goddard did all of the engineering with cryogenic systems to make the rocket actually work. If you want to get technical and say that hydrogen/oxygen was not used until the Ohio State experiments, then that is true. But those would not have been necessary without Goddard. For the space life support systems, in fact NASA did develop machines that helped out in this area. The first were potassium hydroxide fuel cells, which produce oxygen and water when used. The second are mechanical "scrubbers" which take carbon dioxide out of the air and make oxygen with it. NASA did investigate better ways of doing this. The other stuff is technically true. Though with the deep space network, the guy is actually saying that the network hardware was built by non-NASA people. But the protocols were developed by NASA. It was more of a shared development. But the guy is dead on with other stuff. I'm glad to NOT see NERVA still going. They were interested in using a nuclear reactor to heat a propellant for a motor that could concievably be single-stage-to-orbit. But just think if one of those had exploded in 1986 instead of Challenger... I'm a fan of reactors used in space, but not for atmospheric flight. It turns out that chemical rockets really are the best way to go to space from earth's surface if you consider rocket options only.

XMEN Ashaman DTM · Post by **XMEN Ashaman DTM** » Thu Dec 18, 2003 12:40 pm

TW: microwaves were not a byproduct of work in space. They were a byproduct of people like Bohr, Heisenberg, and Einstein developing quantum mechanics. The microwave oven was realized when someone realized that you can take a resonator cavity and configure it so that the frequency of the microwave energy inside is the same as what it takes to excite water molecules. What got me rolling was when the guy said this: <blockquote>Quote:<hr>Senator Al Gore (I) of Tennessee actually introduced a bill in 1957 that would have placed the entire civilian space program under AEC control; it is interesting to speculate how history would have been different had this plan been adopted. <hr></blockquote> Uh oh! Al Gore would later go on to invent the internet after having his dreams smothered. <img src=http://www.ezboard.com/images/emoticons/laugh.gif ALT=":lol">

Post by **XMEN Gambit** » Thu Dec 18, 2003 2:19 pm

Um, that was "our" Al Gore's daddy. Note the Roman numeral (I) after his name. No way the dude who just ran for president was a senator in '57. <img src=http://www.ezboard.com/images/emoticons/smile.gif ALT=":)">

XMEN Ashaman DTM · Post by **XMEN Ashaman DTM** » Thu Dec 18, 2003 3:04 pm

*sigh* What was funny was seeing Al Gore's name. Whether it's 50 years out of date or not. <img src=http://www.ezboard.com/images/emoticons/wink.gif ALT=";)">

Post by **XMEN Gambit** » Thu Dec 18, 2003 4:48 pm

LOL @ Asha Though it would indeed have been interesting to see an AEC space program.

The myth of NASA's 'Golden Age'

The myth of NASA's 'Golden Age'

Re: The myth of NASA's 'Golden Age'

Re: The myth of NASA's 'Golden Age'

Re: The myth of NASA's 'Golden Age'

Re: The myth of NASA's 'Golden Age'

Re: The myth of NASA's 'Golden Age'

Re: The myth of NASA's 'Golden Age'