Artemis I was finally able to take off. The roar of its reactors drowned out, for a moment, the cackles of those hordes who, not “believing” in the Apollo missions, made fun of its repeated hiccups. But Artemis would she bring back pictures of the original moon landing sites (as did the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter in 2011) that she would also be part of the conspiracy…
The arguments of these cuckoos, spread without embarrassment on social networks, are more distressing than each other. But the most representative of this era that provides megaphones to the ignorant is that it would have been “impossible” to reach the Moon in 1969, since there were “no computers”. We can clearly see the proven stupidity of these masses unable to find a convenience store without a telephone. They shouldn’t be taught that the Roman Empire had aqueducts and running water, and this, “without computers”!
Besides, it’s false. The missions were assisted on board by the Apollo Guidance Computer. Armstrong even had to ignore an error code. On the ground, the flight was managed by batteries from IBM. The expertise in computer-assisted ballistic calculation dates back… to the Second World War. In 1946, a V2 rocket from Wernher von Braun, the father of the Saturn V, took the first snapshot of Earth’s curvature. This moment will inspire Hergé.
As early as 1969, the Concorde, the X15 and the SR-71 set aeronautical records that are still unmatched. The Shelby Cobra 427 hit zero cents in 4 seconds. The Olympics were broadcast live and in color worldwide. Tangerine Dream’s electro made you soar. The greatest film of all time was screened in 70mm. Atomic power stations supplied the current. The ARPANET existed. These technologies are probably also part of the conspiracy! Kubrick is often cited as an accomplice of NASA…
It wasn’t until there were “no computers” in 1969 that there weren’t those insufferable electronic nannies to beep-beep in our blind spots.
Deny Apollo, sulk Artemis, it’s not even grasping its own era, it’s not seeing the social accelerating that this program has been through plethoric public calls for tenders. We owe the contemporary technological world to Apollo: without NASA, no boost from IBM; without IBM, no Gates or Jobs.
Some Apollo innovations are still science fiction, such as the suitcase-sized atomic power plants, the SNAP-27s, which provided electricity on the lunar surface (Apollo XVII stayed 12 days on the sea of Serenity and its electric lunar rover will travel 36 km there). Charging an electric vehicle even 100 meters from a terminal is still a challenge “in 2022”.
The Apollo program was the largest engineering project in human history. So much human and financial capital has been devoted to this pharaonic objective (up to 5% of all the GDP of the United States!) that it is inevitably an anachronism. Charles Lindbergh attended, still dashing at 67, the take-off of Apollo 11. A piece of the Spirit of St-Louis was deposited on the Moon. In order to story telling national of which only the Americans have the secret, a figurine of Snoopy, as an aviator ” Lone Beagle – inspired by Lindbergh – is on boardArtemis I.
To return to the Moon, even “in 2022”, is to repeat this feat from A to Z; it is to redo the pyramids, but faster, better, cheaper “. The extreme physical challenges remain the same, and all the mechanical expertise has to be rebuilt (how to secure hydrogen seals, obviously).
What generated the original impetus for the lunar conquest is widely documented: the Cold War and the rivalry with the Soviets, but above all the panic fear that Sputnik engendered.
The calendar of Chinese Chang’e missions is known: taikonauts will soon walk on the Moon. Will they have the cruel elegance to visit the original Apollo sites? Perhaps all it takes is a fresh battery to run the rovers that have been parked there, untouched, for 50 years.
Artemis I is not as ambitious as Chang’e 5, which in 2020 brought back a lunar sample (like the Soviet Luna 16 mission in 1970). But it will beat a record set by the Chinese, the greatest distance reached by a lunar module. This “detail” says a lot about the new rivalry (spatial, but not only!) that is being established.
Artemis and the colonization of the Moon, then of Mars, it is the necessary ” huge leap for mankind » of the XXIe century. This new race between superpowers fuels innovation, and is already shaping the world of tomorrow. A multipolar world is so much more interesting.
It will also be entertaining to see the treasures of imagination that the lunar conspirators will deploy to deny the present and future missions; after all, we have “computers” in 2022 and the whole thing will be broadcast live on their iPhone…