NationStates Jolt Archive

Straight up I know any time now, someone's going to come in and throw in the reply "V neva vent 2 da moon, it vas aww a hoax!11!". I'm not even going to try to change your mind, because you already have it made up. Even if you were given a ride to any of the 6 landing sites you'd still claim its a hoax.

Why did the United States sponsor a national program in the 60s-70s to send human beings to the moon (Programs like Mercury, Gemini and Apollo)? Why did we send human beings instead of probes?

Was it purely to beat to Soviets to it and prove the power of capitalism/democracy? (In reality, the Soviet Moon program barely got off the ground)

Was it about fullfilling Kennedy's dream? (Did the country symphasize with him after his death to the extent of paying more than $20 billion to fullfill it?)

To prove we, as human beings, can go to another world and return?

Or was it for some other spritual/philosophical purpose?

Personally I think its all 4, and theres the human factor as well. No better how good the resolution of a camera, nothing beats being there in see it in person.

We wanted to beat the sovients to it, and we did it you commie bastards.

To make it belong to us.

That's right. The moon is american. The flag is up there.

Because the moon was there.

I would say it was primarily to show up the Soviets. After all, they appeared to have the edge over the US during the 1950's and 1960's, both economically and militarily, and the launch of Sputnik 1 in 1957 was a wake up call that showed the very real possibility that the Soviet Union was closing the technological gap along with the economic one.

We wanted to show that we could achieve the same thing, and we wanted to show the superiority of the capitalism by getting a man on the moon first.

To make it belong to us.

That's right. The moon is american. The flag is up there.

So is the flag of the Soviet Union.

To beat the commies and to continue mankinds yearning for exploration. Two pretty valid reasons IMO.

To show those pesky Russky's whats for! In the end, it was a great but hardly practical accomplishment.

So is the flag of the Soviet Union.

Not planted by a man.

Uncle Sam, you can't stop us.

Because the Russians had kicked our ass in virtually every other aspect of the Space Race, so we needed to win at least one round in order to declare teh uber-moral victory.

St Jello Biafra;11977598']Because the Russians had kicked our ass in virtually every other aspect of the Space Race, so we needed to win at least one round in order to declare teh uber-moral victory.

Yeah, we were pretty scared of the Soviets at the time, and with good justification...if they ever came close to winning the Cold War, it was in the 50's and 60's.

Why did the US land humans on the moon?

Because they* could.
*I say "they" because I was not yet alive to declare it publicly as a huge waste of money spent to win a dick-waving contest.

So the Government could pay to advance computer and weapon systems and compete with a system that could starve the population and devote almost its whole GDP to its military...and still say they ARE CAPITALIST .

To make it belong to us.

That's right. The moon is american. The flag is up there.

Yup, bassically. To make the moon an AMERICAN MOON! OORAH!
Really, it is.

Because the moon belongs to America.

Don't fuck with da moon.:upyours: :p

Yup, bassically. To make the moon an AMERICAN MOON! OORAH!
Really, it is.

Not according to every single international treaty around. Legally, no one can own the moon.

To see if it was made of cheese.

No, really.

It wasn't, so we never went back.

Because the rhinocerus wouldn't fit in the lander! badabump.

Not according to every single international treaty around. Legally, no one can own the moon.

When the hell have we bothered honoring treaties? :)

Besides, it was to inspire Pink Floyd's 'Dark Side of the Moon'. Everyone knows that...

Yup, bassically. To make the moon an AMERICAN MOON! OORAH!
Really, it is.

HUA sweetheart,

not oorah.

When the hell have we bothered honoring treaties? :)

Besides, it was to inspire Pink Floyd's 'Dark Side of the Moon'. Everyone knows that...

I think the lunatic may be in YOUR head.

Optimistic/visionary response: To take the first step into an exciting, wonderful, and dangerous future. To make an important scientific distinction. To hit a landmark, one that would inspire generations to come. To pave the way for further exploration and colonization of other planets and planet-like bodies. In the words of JFK "Not because it is easy, but because it is hard!"

Cynical response: To one up the Russians.

HUA sweetheart,

not oorah.

Only commie Ruskies say 'oorah'. Lets not mention the fact that a song loved by both the Army and Marines was written by a Russian to celebrate a Russian victory >_>

Optimistic/visionary response: To take the first step into an exciting, wonderful, and dangerous future. To make an important scientific distinction. To hit a landmark, one that would inspire generations to come. To pave the way for further exploration and colonization of other planets and planet-like bodies. In the words of JFK "Not because it is easy, but because it is hard!"

Cynical response: To one up the Russians.

I'll second this, since I'm to lazy to write it out again needlessly.

When the hell have we bothered honoring treaties? :)

Well, there's the Treaty of Tripoli, but that's because the other guy stopped honoring it first.

To conquer and oppress the people of the moon, of course! And pillage their abundant resources...(and very secretly!) set the moon on a crash course with the Kremlin...Bush's latest rumblings for a new outer space program are just a thinly veiled guise for returning to the moon, collecting 40 years worth of tribute, (leaving some rapeage and pillagement behind for future generations to remember and fear,) and redivert the moon's crash course to Beijing.

It should be a highly profitable investment opportunity for those of us here (who are in the know); you can invest buy purchasing the download of low-res videos of the original moon landings; and don't worry about losing the moon out of our night sky: Bush is already building a new moon behind the original to replace it when it drops out of orbit; the new moon will be replaced in turn by further moons that will be used to bomb Tehran and Pyongyang. Don't worry about the seemingly prohibitive costs of these projects: they're entirely owned by the Federal Reserve Bank and subsidized by the profits earned from the American taxpayers by collecting annual interest on the 9 trillion dollar bank loan given to Congress over the years.

What puzzled me at first was, why would the USFRB want to destabilize the world economy by wiping out major cities..?; then of course, I realized that it's just the agenda of the Project for a New American Century (PNAC): "Stay the course" ~~Cheney, Rumsfeld, Rice, Bush, et al. Oh well, I live in Taiwan; having the moon hit Beijing and create a nuclear winter over China would finally resolve cross-strait tensions.

"Operation Mindfuck", as described by Robert Anton Wilson in "The Illuminatus! Trilogy", is a metaphorical, fictitious government agenda that blinds the public to its clandestine crimes by flooding any leak of real information with a torrent of variously tangential, near-truths and fictitious conspiracies to drown out the truth and make suckers of anti-establishment thinkers who are duped into swallowing a plausible but misguiding smokescreen.

So what is the truth? I've never been to the moon to know, but I also haven't had any reason to trust the US government since Kennedy got whacked.

Not according to every single international treaty around. Legally, no one can own the moon.

Fuck that. All the moon are be belong to Posi.

I think the lunatic may be in YOUR head.

I thought he was on the grass....:confused:

*snippers*

http://www.internationalhero.co.uk/d/darth.jpg
I find your lack of sense disturbing...

Why did the Us go?
We choose to go to the moon. We choose to go to the moon in this decade and do the other things, not because they are easy, but because they are hard, because that goal will serve to organize and measure the best of our energies and skills, because that challenge is one that we are willing to accept, one we are unwilling to postpone, and one which we intend to win, and the others, too.

...

Many years ago the great British explorer George Mallory, who was to die on Mount Everest, was asked why did he want to climb it. He said, "Because it is there."

Well, space is there, and we're going to climb it, and the moon and the planets are there, and new hopes for knowledge and peace are there. And, therefore, as we set sail we ask God's blessing on the most hazardous and dangerous and greatest adventure on which man has ever embarked.


http://vesuvius.jsc.nasa.gov/er/seh/ricetalk.htm

They don't do speeches like this anymore, sadly.

Why did the Us go?


http://vesuvius.jsc.nasa.gov/er/seh/ricetalk.htm

They don't do speeches like this anymore, sadly.

Well, we don't exactly have leaders like JFK anymore. :(

Why go to the moon? To give the Soviets the finger from the fucking moon.

Why go to the moon? To give the Soviets the finger from the fucking moon.

Quoted for truth.

Well, we don't exactly have leaders like JFK anymore. :(
Clinton did a good imitation of JFK - at least from the waist down.


Read through the whole speech. Not only is it a great speech, what really struck me was the level of intelligence there - and the level of intelligence assumed in the audience. JFK talks about compressing human history into just 50 years and goes on to detail what that means. He doesn't insult the listener's intelligence, nor resort to meaningless repetitive babble babble and kneejerk emotive responses.
Imagine Bush (or indeed anyone these days) getting up and speaking like this?

How refreshing it would be!

Good lord, if any of our present leaders spoke like this, I would be speechless.

About 4 minutes in...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ul7EDYXmDNE


Should probably mention: Clip does contain bad language.

I find your lack of sense disturbing...

Yes!! I have conjured a Darth Vader in response! :cool:

The Americans went to prove that they had bigger penises than the Russians.

Clinton did a good imitation of JFK - at least from the waist down.


Read through the whole speech. Not only is it a great speech, what really struck me was the level of intelligence there - and the level of intelligence assumed in the audience. JFK talks about compressing human history into just 50 years and goes on to detail what that means. He doesn't insult the listener's intelligence, nor resort to meaningless repetitive babble babble and kneejerk emotive responses.
Imagine Bush (or indeed anyone these days) getting up and speaking like this?

How refreshing it would be!



NO WAY DUDE !!


JFK got some BABES ...TRUTH ! :eek:


Did you see what Clinton was playing with ...????


NO WAY they COMPARE !

Why did the US land humans on the moon?

Man who knows. One day you see the moon up there in the sky and think "hey, thats pretty" then you have a few drinks, get together with some friends and suddenly you're years down the line, spent billions of dollars and for some reason everyone keeps calling you a hero for hitting the moon when you were aiming for Mars. Its anyones guess.

stupid "beat the commies" reasons.

This is the unedited version of Neil's landing speech:

http://www.blogjam.com/neil_armstrong/

Yeah, we were pretty scared of the Soviets at the time, and with good justification...if they ever came close to winning the Cold War, it was in the 50's and 60's.

And, it would've been pure bluff...

Clinton did a good imitation of JFK - at least from the waist down.

JFK banged no less than 12 interns (and possibly one illegitimate child) and then got to clean the clock for Marilyn Monroe.

Clinton < J.F.K

This is the unedited version of Neil's landing speech:

http://www.blogjam.com/neil_armstrong/

It wouldn't be Armstrong who said that; it'd be Aldrin who'd say something like that.

Neil was so stuck-up about procedures he once requested permission to urinate during the Gemini 8 misson.

Look up what Pete Conrad said when he set foot on the Moon on Apollo 12.

Whoopie! Man, that may have been a small one for Neil, but that's a long one for me.

Reason 1: To stick it to the Russians.
Reason 2: For science!
Reason 3: Because we can.

Not according to every single international treaty around. Legally, no one can own the moon.

I SAW IT FIRST! IT'S MINE!


<.<
>.>

Everyone knows its to finger the soviets

Why did the United States sponsor a national program in the 60s-70s to send human beings to the moon (Programs like Mercury, Gemini and Apollo)? Why did we send human beings instead of probes?

US space program was pretty sucky in the '50s, in comparison with the Soviet space program. Just look at the problems they had with the Vanguard missiles! And think of the world awe when the Sputnik I was the first craft to orbit Earth.
Many US industries and militaries thought that by feeding a huge state science program, they would benefit from a huge research and tech transfer, which is what happened. Major economical players like Rockwell, Northrop, General Electrics and many many others. Also the militaries were well aware that the Soviets were cutting the edge on jet propulsion and missile capability; compare the MiG-21 to any US fighter of the same age, you'll see what I mean - the (upgraded) MiG-21 can fulfil some minor roles even today.
So they choose space: many people in the science area where already space-enthusiastic, the US had some rocket scientists (mostly germans from the Peenemünde Nazi ballistic missile program, like Von Braun: the Saturn V is sort of a big V-2 after all), plus the ideological bonus - sending a message throughout the world: "The US are the leading tech power: forget about Lira (Alpha) class subs, forget about Gagarin, the US placed their flag on the Moon - and beware, commies, we could also place weapons there or anywhere in space" . Add the tech transfer to consumer goods industries - they received a lot of state funding for space, then they received a lot of newly developed technology to boot.