OT; Corning technology

[Kenneth Brody]

On 3/8/2011 10:11 AM, Barry Wiseman wrote:
> On 3/8/2011 8:55 AM, Kenneth Brody wrote:
>> On 3/8/2011 8:28 AM, Mike Schwartz wrote:
>> [...]
>>>         If we can put a man on the moon, we should be able to do all this stuff
>>> in glass.  We just have to make it a priority.
>> Unfortunately, we can't put a man on the Moon today.  We could 40 years ago,
>> but not any more.
>>
> Sad and true, but par for the course.  Following Magellan's circumnavigation of the earth in 1519-1522, the next well known expedition -- Sir Francis Drake's -- did not occur until 1577.

But, they had the ability to make such a voyage.  The equipment was readily 
available to anyone who had the money to pay for it.

We currently do not have any equipment that can get a living creature (let 
alone a human crew) to the Moon and back.  Sure, we are capable of designing 
and building such equipment, given the money and several years time, but 
such equipment does not exist today.  (I don't count the Saturn V parts 
scattered in museums, as it would probably take longer to get them 
flight-ready [if that's even possible] than it would to design and build 
something new from scratch.)

-- 
Kenneth Brody