From Newsgroup: alt.fan.heinlein
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
liverCohuman 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, 1969rCoApollo 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: rCLYou can hurt yourself in the oceanrCY "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 canrCOt
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 planetrCoand humanityrCothe 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 YearrCOs Day of Year One.
If we donrCOt 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 donrCOt know if werCOre going to get rid of warrCa 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.
ItrCOs going to go on and on and on... WerCOre going to be at Proxima
Centauri before you know it. "
FURTHER READING
MuskrCOs Mars moment: Audacity, madness, brilliancerCoor 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. "WerCOve got earthbound constraints, but itrCOs as inevitable now as the tides that are controlled by that Moon upon which men landed upon today," he said. "You canrCOt 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 commentrCospace is
not just for men.
"I want to point out that it doesnrCOt 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.
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