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She wrote all this code by hand to take humanity to the Moon (thelemmy.club)
submitted 3 years ago by to c/nextfuckinglevel@lemmy.world
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Margaret Hamilton, NASA's lead developer for Apollo program, stands next to all the code she wrote by hand that took humanity to the moon in 1969

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[–] 10 points 3 years ago (11 children)

Also worth remembering: The Apollo guidance computer had less compute power than a USB charger. That thing sent us to the moon. https://www.popularmechanics.com/technology/a30916315/usb-c-charger-apollo-11-computer/

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  • [+] 4 points 3 years ago* (last edited 3 years ago) (9 children)
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  • [–] 8 points 3 years ago (5 children)

    Money and pride. Back then America had something to prove, money was no object. Now it's all about how much it's going to cost.

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  • [+] -3 points 3 years ago* (last edited 3 years ago) (4 children)
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  • [–] -1 points 3 years ago (2 children)

    We don't have a villainous empire like the soviets to beat there to prove we're better on the world stage. There was a lot of hand work and individual skill/knowledge that designed the rocket nozzles and those people either wrote it in notebooks or didn't write it at all so it was lost. That's what they mean when they say we lost the technology. Try asking your great grandparents for specific details about the career they had 50 years ago and see how far you get.

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  • [+] 1 point 3 years ago* (last edited 3 years ago) (1 child)
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  • [–] 0 points 3 years ago

    Not a whole lot of things cost a billion dollars to attempt again. We could put it all together again eventually but the amount of R&D needed to return to where we were just hasn't been worth the benefit. We have countless unmanned craft all over because getting scientific data doesn't require a dude to be there anymore.

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  • [–] -2 points 3 years ago* (last edited 3 years ago) (2 children)

    Start with "Why should we go back?"

    The fact is there's really not a reason. We've been there, done that. The cost to send people to the moon is astronomical (lol) but the value to civilization is minimal at this point.

    Honestly, NASA spending more time exploring Mars has been more beneficial.. Just wish we found something more up there, but hopefully in time.

    I wish we could go to the moon again too, I just don't see a purpose, and that's kind of why we did that, and stopped.

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  • [–] 0 points 3 years ago

    You're kind of missing the point. It costs us about 4 BILLION dollars to send a person to the moon. What do you expect to find on the moon worth that? we know what the moon looks like, if we want imagery, we can send satellites for a fraction of that price, and danger. We have rocks, we have materials from the moon that are still working on.

    Do you think there's a lost city? A secret civilization? A massive moon base the Nazis put there?

    It's a hunk of DEAD rock. And the idea of "lunar mining" and all sorts of sci-fi stuff probably is unfeasible at those prices.

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