One Small Step

[Kokomo_Man]

This is a tad off topic, but I thought that I would share my thoughts with my Carnival & cruisecritic friends.

 

My favorite ship is the Valor. Of course, most of the venues on the Valor are named for something relating to "valor". The piano bar is the "Lindy Hop" for Lindburg's Atlantic crossing... the John Paul Jones Art Gallery... the Betsy Ross Card room... the Lincoln and Washington dining rooms... and so on. The "disco" on the Valor is named, "One Small Step".

 

With the passing of Neil Armstrong we've all been reminded of his "one small step"... and "one giant leap for mankind". What we did in those years showed what we really can do if there is national determination to do it. From Kennedy's speech in 1961... "to land a man on the moon and return him safely to earth"... it took only about eight years. Landing on the moon was one of those events that almost everyone remembers where they were when it happened in July 1969.

 

I was in a little "garden spot" on the other side of the world. There was only one little black & white TV with about 500 guys trying to get a glimpse. It was only happenstance that I walked by the place where the TV was. I asked one of the guys what was going on and he said, "we're landing on the moon". I couldn't get near the TV so I moved on without being able to watch.

 

Today, only half of the people on earth were alive when Apollo 11 landed. We think we've come a long way since then... forty something years. We've got internet... eye-phones... eye-pads... instant messaging... facebook... and twitter. But I ask you this question... with all we think we have, do you think that today we could land a man (or woman) on the moon and return him (or her) safely to earth? I don't think so.

 

Bob

Memories of Naked Fanny

[mondello]

It was definitely a different era. Nearly impossible now to approve funding and find agreement to accomplish anything.

[loubetti]

Thanks for remembering Neil Armstrong, Bob.

 

Most people do not realize that much of the "technology" we have today came from the "space race".

 

There are some idiots who think the Moon landing was a farce, and was staged on a Holly Wood sound stage! They say it could not have happened because there were no computers back then, along with other ridiculous comments.

 

Apollo 11 had a computer. It was developed at great effort by the folks at MIT. I think it had a grand total of 32K of memory or so, but it was enough to run the guidance programs.

 

Could we get to the Moon again? Of course, but why? Mars should be next on the list for manned space flight, but that makes going to the Moon look easy.

[deborahjo]

It was kind of funny yesterday. My 24 year old son and I were talking on the phone and he told me Neil Armstrong passed away. I thought wow. He told me to go onto msn homepage and read the article. Said it was really neat. What 24 yo would even know who he was? I was impressed.