In article ,
Wes wrote:
I wonder if the desire to put a man on the moon for the first time was made
by our current
President, given our current state of technology if it would have taken even
half the time
from when JFK made his statement? The only think I believe would cloud or
hamper progress
is the quicksand of federal regs impeding progress of all sorts of projects.

The Pentagon was inhabited in 11 months, finished in 17 months. Could we get
an
enviromental impact study and the lawsuits settled in 17 months now?


Regulations my ass. In the present state of disfunction, if the current
president proposed it, the Republicans would do everything in their
power to block it, and if the last president had proposed it, the
Democrats would do everything in their power to block it. The country
can't get sh*t done because blocking the other side has become more
important than doing anything useful, to both sides, and any third side
remains too small to do anything useful.

And Nth to the "without the moon program (or more properly, 60's
aerospace in general) most of the toys that make things faster/easier
today would not exist." The Air Force & DARPA (or some DARPA ancestor)
had a huge amount to do with the development of CNC machining, from what
I have read. Much more to make airfoils/spars than spacecraft.

--
Cats, coffee, chocolate...vices to live by