Rosetta & Philae

[Al Skierkiewicz]

Eric,
I am old and don't mind. Apollo 11 was spectacular on many levels. It was, in my opinion, the single greatest technological advancement up to that point during peacetime. Not only had we gone from blowing up rockets on the launch pad to putting three men in multiday missions in less than a decade. Additionally, this was a test that America could "commit itself to achieving the goal, before this decade is out, of landing a man on the moon and returning him safely to the earth." It was a time when we as high school seniors whispered the names of our heroes, Chris Craft, Gene Kranz, Neil Armstrong, Buzz Aldrin and Michael Collins. Yes Gene was and is still a big hero for me. Check out his book "Failure Is Not An Option".
Yes this latest achievement is still a big deal for me. I didn't tear up like I did that July night in 1969 but I was very excited. As FRC builders we should remember that the achievement of getting to a moving object in space after a ten year journey is a test that was passed with flying colors. Additionally, landing on that object that has nearly no gravitational field and still hanging on is a spectacular achievement. Think about it, 1/30 of an ounce is all that the lander had as an equivalent weight. So it bounced, it finally was able to hang on. Remember also that the solar wind is pulling debris off that rock and, as it is likely to be composed of mostly ice, so it is melting as it nears the sun. As that cold rock continues to tumble through our neighborhood, I am betting it will turn towards the sun. It is constantly changing it's COG and I only hope that once the lander gets sunlight it doesn't get blown off in the "wind". I think it's finest hour is yet to come.
And just because I am old doesn't mean that every time a crew member is lost, that I don't think to myself, I still would like to go. I want to be a part of this new frontier even if it means sitting at home and praying that they get there and get home. I am still a part of it and so are you.

[FrankJ]

For Apollo 11, I was at summer camp. The whole camp was allowed to stay up late & watch the landing on what was large at the time color TV. The information that was available "real time" was certainly a lot less. Being in 4th grade at the time, I did not realize the magnitude of the feat. Since the moon race was a much bigger program, I don't think it totally fair to compare them. The concept of systems engineering was largely developed to send people to the moon.

While we were not in a shooting war, the whole moon race thing was driven by the cold war.