Was it crazy in 1969 to send human beings to walk on the moon?

[Brickjectivity]

I just want to get a poll, not to argue against anyone. Was it crazy? Was it reasonable to risk the lives of human beings? Was it worthwhile? If they had died, could we still say that it was a worthwhile attempt? Was it a good decision to send men to walk on the moon?

 

[Thief]

Kennedy thought it was worth the risk.
wish I could remember that quote.....something about ....'we do these things because they are hard'

 

[Nietzsche]

Define your terms. "Reasonable" and "Good Decision" are not always one & the same.

 

[Willamena]

I just want to get a poll, not to argue against anyone. Was it crazy? Was it reasonable to risk the lives of human beings? Was it worthwhile? If they had died, could we still say that it was a worthwhile attempt? Was it a good decision to send men to walk on the moon?

Well, arguably, we're not sure they actually did go to the moon. Capricorn One and all.

But yes, it was worth it. We were explorers, in a way that we will not be again for a long, long time. We reached out and touched the stars.

 

[Awoon]

Crazy. They didn't find and bring back the Man that lives there.

 

[dust1n]

Was it crazy? Was it reasonable to risk the lives of human beings? Was it worthwhile? If they had died, could we still say that it was a worthwhile attempt? Was it a good decision to send men to walk on the moon?

Yes to all five questions.

 

[Thief]

btw....my wife thinks it was faked....
and my granddad did too

 

[Nietzsche]

btw....my wife thinks it was faked....
and my granddad did too

Your wife needs some education regarding Occam's Razor.

 

[Quintessence]

Nope. They should have sent a woman. Now that would have been crazy and unreasonable (for the times).

 

[Revoltingest]

I just want to get a poll, not to argue against anyone. Was it crazy? Was it reasonable to risk the lives of human beings? Was it worthwhile? If they had died, could we still say that it was a worthwhile attempt? Was it a good decision to send men to walk on the moon?

The human beings not only volunteered for the adventure, there was keen competition for the opportunity.
A few deaths would be insignificant compared to what they achieved.
Note that we sacrificed tens of thousands at the time in the Viet Nam war, which had far far less value.
Now that I've thoroughly dismissed that issue, was it worth it?
Hell, yeah!
It's the closest mankind has ever come to living in a Star Trek type world.

 

[Revoltingest]

Nope. They should have sent a woman. Now that would have been crazy and unreasonable (for the times).

No need.
They were already there.

 

[Shadow Wolf]

Without sacrifice, we don't get very far. Every exploration comes with risk. Every unprecedented scientific endeavor comes with risks. With great personal risks to themselves, explorers have always traveled beyond the known and into the unknown. The risk is high, but it is their willingness to accept those risks that exponentially increases our knowledge.

 

[psychoslice]

Everything was crazy in those days, they were probably hippies lol.

 

[Skwim]

I just want to get a poll, not to argue against anyone. Was it crazy? Was it reasonable to risk the lives of human beings? Was it worthwhile? If they had died, could we still say that it was a worthwhile attempt? Was it a good decision to send men to walk on the moon?

We risked and wasted a hell of a lot more for far worse reasons:

 

[Laika]

I tend to think of landing on the moon as one of the human's races greatest achievements (so far. I can dream. I might see a man on mars in my lifetime. ) this wasn't in isolation but in the context of the Cold War, so this wasn't about sticking a flag pole in a lump of rock hurtling through space. it was an extension of development of military technology to develop new and longer range missles. The Cuban missle crisis was in 1962 and world war III was an unnervingly genuine possibility.

The Soviets early successes in the space race, left the US in shock. If you can put a satillite into space (Sputnik, 1957), surely you can nuke the US from space too? This is what ultimately led to the creation of NASA and the start of the space race. it was one of the rare moments when the Soviets did something better than the west. And of course, the US was never going to stand for that kind of nonesense.

If you want America to do something amazing, tell them the commies are doing it. suddenly it not a dangerous waste of taxpayers money, its their patrotic duty to spread freedom and democracy for the benifit of mankind....

...and because the US gets really insecure if your missiles are bigger than there's.

 

[psychoslice]

When you think of the vastness of the universe, the landing on the moon if it did happen, seems, well laughable lol.

 

[Valjean]

I think the moon shots were less about exploration or scientific research than about American one-upmanship with the Soviets.

 

[psychoslice]

I think the moon landing if it ever happened was nothing more than American egocentric, they seem to want to be the first in everything.

 

[Flankerl]

The Moon landings, which happened teached us more about our Planet and the Star System we live in.

Also for all those idiots: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lunar_Laser_Ranging_experiment

 

[Revoltingest]

I think the moon shots were less about exploration or scientific research than about American one-upmanship with the Soviets.

That wasn't the feeling at the time we actually did it.
The Soviets were largely failing at manned space travel,
so we didn't have the sense that we were competing with anyone.
(Soviet successes were more interesting than threatening.)

An interesting thing happened when they first set foot on the moon.....
People around the world were exuberantly saying "We did it!", ie, as
fellow humans, they too felt a sense of accomplishment in putting
their own kind on another world.

And for the disbelievers....yes, it actually happened.
Later on, when I worked in aerospace with many guys who made the
moon trips happened, I glimpsed the monumental size of this effort.
A government which can't even create a reliable health care sign up
system could never maintain a conspiracy of this magnitude.