DBWI: 35 years after the first man on the Moon

[MaskedPickle]

As we all know, on July, 20 1974, Soviet space mission Soyuz 16 managed to land on the lunar surface. A few hours later, cosmonaut Vladimir Komarov set his feet on the grey lunar surface, becoming the first man to ever walk on the Moon. After putting a Soviet flag, he famously said the following words: "That's one small step for a human, but one giant leap for the people".

Komarov and the two other members of the Soyuz 16 team, were next to Soviet Premier Yevgeny Primakov for the 35th celebrations of this historic day, this July, 20 1974 on the Red Square.

What is your opinion about space exploration and its consequences for everyday life?

[feanor512]

OOC: What's the POD? Do ASBs swap the Saturn V and N1?

[B_Munro]

Originally Posted by MaskedPickle

As we all know, on July, 20 1974, Soviet space mission Soyuz 16 managed to land on the lunar surface. A few hours later, cosmonaut Vladimir Komarov set his feet on the grey lunar surface, becoming the first man to ever walk on the Moon. After putting a Soviet flag, he famously said the following words: "That's one small step for a human, but one giant leap for the people".

Komarov and the two other members of the Soyuz 16 team, were next to Soviet Premier Yevgeny Primakov for the 35th celebrations of this historic day, this July, 20 1974 on the Red Square.

What is your opinion about space exploration and its consequences for everyday life?

Well, the development of the space program has certainly had it's good points (spy satellites helped prevent the outbreak of a WWIII, weather prediction, satellite communications, etc.) the horrendous expense of putting a man of Mars really hardly seems like it was worth it. We only went once, and for what? To top a Soviet Union already economically on the skids? Frankly, it strikes me as a absurd bit of national "tit for tat": first we put the first rocket in orbit ('56), then the Soviets manage to pull a fast one and put a man on the moon ('74) while we're still building orbital bases for future development, then we have to put a man on Mars ('87) to show we're still number one! Absurd, really.

Bruce

[B_Munro]

And frankly, if anyone mentions president Kucinich's proposal for a joint Soviet-US "return to Mars" - for crissakes, he's just pandering to the egghead vote. It's not like the Soviets are going to actually pay for any of it - they've managed to pull out of the economic swamp they sunk into in the 90's, but they're currently in the middle of a massive upgrade cycle for their nuclear power industry - brave new post-fossil fuels future, you know - and they sure as hell aren't going to waste scarce roubles on a propaganda spot. If the Pres is so big on space, why isn't the moon base getting more funding?

Bruce

[Dathi THorfinnsson]

Originally Posted by MaskedPickle

As we all know, on July, 20 1974, Soviet space mission Soyuz 16 managed to land on the lunar surface. A few hours later, cosmonaut Vladimir Komarov set his feet on the grey lunar surface, becoming the first man to ever walk on the Moon. After putting a Soviet flag, he famously said the following words: "That's one small step for a human, but one giant leap for the people".

Komarov and the two other members of the Soyuz 16 team, were next to Soviet Premier Yevgeny Primakov for the 35th celebrations of this historic day, this July, 20 1974 on the Red Square.

What is your opinion about space exploration and its consequences for everyday life?

OOC:
Soviets tended to have different names for similar vehicles with different functions. They had about 5 names for variants of the Soyuz (R7?) rocket, depending on its usage. In particular, the 'Soyuz' was the orbital vehicle (like the Apollo CSM). They would have needed something else entirely for landing - http://astronautix.com/craft/lk.htm the LK ('Lunniy korabl' - lunar craft)
They'd have probably given it a snazzy name like Red Moon (Krasny Sputnik) or some such (Krasnaya Zvezda would be funny).