Just watching a bbc4 documentary about the moon landings. It has to be the biggest achievement to date for human kind doesn’t it? Awe inspiring.

Electrickery

Obviously this.

650b wheels.

Fire, the wheel, and writing are pretty important as well.

Voyager space probe and it leaving our solar system.

Global warming.

Wheel

Moon landing was basic physics, we knew how to do it, we had the technology….so no…it wasn’t our great achievement or breakthrough.

I would say the the discovery of DNA and the subsequent mapping of the genome is.

Complex natural language and the development of abstract thought. Everything else is just a consequence.

The answer will come when we stop killing each other, and just get along.

Me, 😀

That’s not our achievement though. That was mostly natures, we didn’t actively pursue it as a goal.

Britain’s got talent!

If the moon landing is just basic physics, then the genome project was just basic biology.

Complex natural language and the development of abstract thought. Everything else is just a consequence.

Is a great answer

Penis beakers

Some say the wheel but I reckon it’s the second wheel.
One wheel is just a wheelbarrow

Scampi Nik Naks.

Did the moon landings help us to start unravelling who we are?

We strapped ourselves onto rockets derived from ballistic missiles that we built to kill one another and decided to embark upon an international penis waving contest, to stand on a chunk of rock to look at how magnificent our planet was and then decide to carry on **** it up.

MUSIC.

Belief religions? 2013 and many still believe that crap.

i don’t really see what’s so important about the moon landings. apart from stuff like instant coffee what usable legacy did they leave ?

compared to zippykona’s example i’d say pretty little

One wheel is just a wheelbarrow

Hopefully aracer isn’t reading this thread.

I think the moon landings were an amazing achievement. People having the vision of leaving our atmosphere and heading off to a satellite orbiting thousands of miles away. Fair dues to them.

Voyager is up there for me too.

Mapping of the genome.

Dropping implements of war and talking, whenever it happens is a great achievement. We don’t seem to learn how great it is though, as we often forget, stop talking and start fighting again.

Anyone who has freed himself from desire and learned to be happy with little possessions has achieved greatness IMO.

Internet porn.

I was listening to a radio programme last week where a similar question was asked. The answer was that the space programme kindled such an interest in young kids in the US that 10-15 years or so later the number of PHd students in Engineering / Physics grew massively and helped drive the US technology industries.

I think the moon landings were an amazing achievement. People having the vision of leaving our atmosphere and heading off to a satellite orbiting thousands of miles away. Fair dues to them.

Voyager is up there for me too.

Mapping of the genome.

Dropping implements of war and talking, whenever it happens is a great achievement. We don’t seem to learn how great it is though, as we often forget, stop talking and start fighting again.

Anyone who has freed himself from desire and learned to be happy with little possessions has achieved greatness IMO.
You forgot to mention the cat flap.

i don’t really see what’s so important about the moon landings. apart from stuff like instant coffee what usable legacy did they leave ?

I don’t think that achievements necessarily need to be important. I can ride a really long way on a hard trail and feel a sense of achievement but it’s not important.

I think that evolving to where we are is a fairly good achievement, albeit one that we probably haven’t actually tried at.

Just watching a bbc4 documentary about the moon landings. It has to be the biggest achievement to date for human kind doesn’t it?

What has it achieved ? Why are we better off because it happened ?

Our exploits in space have absolutely been instrumental in helping us understand who we are and our place in the universe. And the technology that has been developed in order for us to be able to stand on ‘chunks of rock and wave out willys’ has definitely benefitted mankind fundamentally. Imagine where we’d be without Velcro, or Teflon or Microwave ovens?

The Interwebs. Not sure we know exactly where it’s taking us yet, but I reckon it will either bring us all together or the exact opposite.

This, of course:

Space exploration was possible without landing on the moon.

The moon landing was impressive but I’m not sure that it represents mankind’s greatest achievement.

Farming probably does. I can’t see that there would have been any moon landings if we were still hunter gatherers.

Our exploits in space have absolutely been instrumental in helping us understand who we are and our place in the universe. And the technology that has been developed in order for us to be able to stand on ‘chunks of rock and wave out willys’ has definitely benefitted mankind fundamentally. Imagine where we’d be without Velcro, or Teflon or Microwave ovens?

For sure but we didn’t have to land on the moon to peer into the depths of space or develop satellites.

Did the moon landings help us to start unravelling who we are?

It showed us who we can be when we aim for the stars. It may be surpassed by the eventual path the genome project leads down. But I wonder how many who worked on the genome project were inspired as children by the moon landings.

Has any other scientific endeavour touched so many peoples imagination to such an extent.

Voyager 1 and the iphone

lego

But I wonder how many who worked on the genome project were inspired as children by the moon landings.

I’m not sure Watson, Crick and Maurice Wilkins were (the lot who kick started it all).

Our greatest achievement judging by future consequences then, has to be the enlightenment surely?

Imagine where we’d be without Velcro, or Teflon or Microwave ovens?

In my house ?

Some of the human feats of adventure, exploration and survival are up there for me.
Some of the

the enlightenment surely

Plus 1

Philosophy in general, but that’s too general to count.

Moon landing was basic physics, we knew how to do it, we had the technology….so no…it wasn’t our great achievement or breakthrough.

My father worked in the aerospace industry during the 60s. His view on this – mindful of the fact that he designed some of the important bits of Goonhilly – was that we were very much on the bleeding edge of technology back then. An aircraft that could break the speed of sound without flying apart had only existed for fourteen years before Gagarin. On top of that, one cannot over-emphasise just how hostile space is. It’s either freezing cold or inhospitably hot, it’s bathed in lethal radiation, there’s no pressure and it’s completely disorienting for organisms that have the inertia of a billion years of evolution dictated by “up” and “down”.

To send three men, 250,000 miles further than any human being before, with only the most basic of life support systems, to enable two of them to walk on the surface of an airless world and to bring them home is nothing short of astounding. Thousands of aerospace engineers worked on Apollo – not all of them American or refugees from Nazi Germany, although the motivations were far from altruistic, we’ve managed to inspire generations of people. Even now, it’s hard to believe that humanity actually saw beyond its’ limitations for a brief period and indulged the innate need to explore.

However, as a technical achievement, my father is keen to point out that Concorde is right up there.