Re: Apollo Hammer/Feather drop

On 6/20/24 12:38, vallor wrote:
> On the moon, since there is no air, a hammer and
> a feather dropped at the same time will hit the ground
> at the same time.  This was demonstrated:
> 
> https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Oo8TaPVsn9Y
> 
> I think R.A. Heinlein would laugh heartily at moon landing
> deniers.

"Laugh" ?
I think perhaps the better description, would be "scoff".
They covered that landing kind of like reporters.

But, then considering how Heinlein could be skeptical
of human common sense ?????

from
https://arstechnica.com/science/2016/12/heinlein-and-clarke-discuss-the-moon-landings-as-they-happen/

Heinlein and Clarke discuss the Moon landings as they happen
Sci-Fi authors envision moon hospitals, babies in space, and Proxima 
Centauri trips.
ERIC BERGER - 12/21/2016, 6:16 AM

Chances are that anyone in their 50s or older will remember watching 
Apollo 11 land on the Moon. And while younger people may not envy your 
age, many of us sure do wish we had witnessed that bit of history 
live—human beings landing on, then exploring another world, right before 
our eyes.

Thanks to documentaries and YouTube, the younger set can experience some 
of the flavor of the late 1960s today, as well as what the Moon landing 
meant at the time to America and the world. The zeitgeist of hope and 
possibility might perhaps best be captured in a CBS News discussion on 
July 20, 1969—Apollo 11 landing day. Hosted by the inimitable Walter 
Cronkite, the great newsman interviewed science fiction authors Arthur 
C. Clarke and Robert Heinlein about the implications of NASA's 
achievement. The program featured a discussion just after the landing, 
with a second segment following the first moonwalk by Neil Armstrong and 
Buzz Aldrin.

FURTHER READING
Gus Grissom taught NASA a hard lesson: “You can hurt yourself in the ocean”
"Time just stopped for me, I think it stopped for everybody," a 
51-year-old Clarke said, describing how it felt to watch the lunar 
module touch down. "My heart stopped. My breathing stopped."

Cronkite was equally taken aback by what he was witnessing: "I can’t 
imagine a moment to equal this. The only thing I could imagine is some 
fellow came forward and could say positively that we were not going to 
have any more war."

Both Clarke and Heinlein then suggest that such an event might make 
problems back on Earth seem more trivial and bring the world closer 
together. While it may not usher in world peace, certainly, it would 
forever change the planet—and humanity—the authors agreed. Heinlein, 
then 62, whose novel the Moon is a Harsh Mistress had been published 
just three years earlier, was especially effusive.

"I think this whole business today has been thought of in too small of 
terms," he said. "This is the greatest event in all of the history of 
the human race up until this time. Today is New Year’s Day of Year One. 
If we don’t change the calendar, historians will do so." By landing on 
another world, Heinlein asserts, humankind has gone through puberty, 
confirmation, and a bat mitzvah all at once. "This is the biggest day 
the human race has ever seen," he adds, "the most important thing since 
the human race learned to talk."

Colonization
The two science-fiction luminaries envisioned the Apollo landings as the 
beginning of human colonization of space. Clarke said he foresaw finding 
new ways of controlling gravity in space once humans were able to study 
it free of the constraints of Earth. "When we get into space we'll learn 
how to control it," he said.

Like Clarke, Heinlein envisioned the Moon landings as just the first 
step. "I think this is the most hopeful thing that has happened," he 
said. "I don’t know if we’re going to get rid of war… But I do know that 
your grandchildren, the descendants of all of us, will be in colonies 
elsewhere, the human race will not die even if we spoil this planet. 
It’s going to go on and on and on... We’re going to be at Proxima 
Centauri before you know it. "

FURTHER READING
Musk’s Mars moment: Audacity, madness, brilliance—or maybe all three
With its low gravity, Heinlein envisioned the Moon as a place where 
humans could grow old in relative comfort. "Certainly before the end of 
the century we will have hospitals on the Moon for elderly people to 
enable them to live quite a lot longer because of their tired hearts 
under one-sixth gravity, and their fragile bones, and so forth," he said.

Cronkite, the sober newsman, was not immune to the optimism. "We’ve got 
earthbound constraints, but it’s as inevitable now as the tides that are 
controlled by that Moon upon which men landed upon today," he said. "You 
can’t stop progress, and this is progress."

Today, some 47 years later, it's rather melancholy-inducing to watch 
great thinkers wax poetic about the future of humanity in space. Just 
five more human missions would land on the Moon, and then progress did, 
in fact, stop. There would be no colonies. No old folks' homes. No one 
would return to deep space again. Instead of controlling gravity, 
gravity still controls access to space, and it remains a costly, 
dangerous trip.

Women in space
Toward the end of the discussion, after Cronkite opines that "school 
boys" will be taught about Neil Armstrong's first words on the Moon for 
centuries to come, Heinlein makes a rather refreshing comment—space is 
not just for men.

"I want to point out that it doesn’t have to be a man at all, and for 
esprit, and for the continuation of the human race, it is time for us as 
quickly as possible to get the other half of the human race in on this," 
he said. "It does not take a man to run a spaceship. It can be done just 
as well by a woman as it can be done by a man." Indeed, he says, women 
like Peggy Fleming (an Olympic gold medalist in figure skating) would 
have saved NASA considerably on weight were they sent instead of "three 
big men."

FURTHER READING
China claims a major breakthrough in making space babies
After Clarke says he can't imagine a crew of three women instead of 
three men, Cronkite makes an unfortunate joke about how the women 
wouldn't be able to decide who should go down to the surface. Heinlein 
saves the discussion by returning to his point that women were eminently 
able and "could qualify tomorrow" to become astronauts.

As a final point Clarke opines that women will undoubtedly go into space 
soon. In fact, he added, "Do you realize the first baby is going to be 
born off the Earth before the end of this century?" Alas, no.

Listing image by YouTube

Promoted Comments
unsaved Smack-Fu Master, in training
JUMP TO POST
I was 8 when they landed on the moon. They stopped classes at school and 
we all gathered around and watched the rockets take off. Scientists from 
NASA came and told us amazing stories about our future second home on 
the moon, and gave us lunar geography lessons.

It was the biggest letdown of my life when we all realized that the moon 
landings were just a political weapon in the Cold War.
1 post | registered 12/21/2016
Promoted Comments
unsaved Smack-Fu Master, in training
JUMP TO POST
I was 8 when they landed on the moon. They stopped classes at school and 
we all gathered around and watched the rockets take off. Scientists from 
NASA came and told us amazing stories about our future second home on 
the moon, and gave us lunar geography lessons.

It was the biggest letdown of my life when we all realized that the moon 
landings were just a political weapon in the Cold War.



>