From Earth to the Moon

I'm not sure if this is the right forum, but since it's based on the Apollo moon missions, I guess its history.
I've just finished going through all 12 episodes of the HBO series "From the Earth to the Moon".
I missed them when there were shown on TV a few years back, I have to say I was very impressed by them.
It gives the real story of the engineers, geologists, astronauts and their families during the moon landings. I guess for me its as close to living through the Apollo program back in the 1960-70s as its gonna get, which was before my time.

After watching it, I feel it is even more of a pity that Nasa didn't build on the Apollo program and do further exploration on the Moon, the series really showed manned exploration is the way to go. It certainly puts going to Mars into context when you see the effort it took to do a 6 days round trip to the moon. I don't think it will happen within the next 60 years, but I do think we will see astronauts on the moon again, I really look forward to seeing that!.

For me, it was an excellent series, one which I'm sure I 'll be playing again. Anyone else see it ?

Very good series Dave! Really like it!

I have the series myself, and I also agree. This dramatisation is really showing the viewer what it was like back then. HBO have a habit of doing good dramatisations of real events like this ("Band of Brothers" anyone?).

I wonder Dave about your disappointment in NASA for not pursuing it further. The reason being at the time (if you have seen Apollo 13) was that public interest was waning. Therefore, NASA's budget on an already very costly series of missions that were proving to be 'run of the mill', eventually led to its demise (there were, after all, to be missions up to Apollo 20 - they stopped at 17).

Also, coupled with the fact that the U.S. were in the middle of a Cold War, meant that NASA's budget was (as is shown today) increasingly cut in favour of military spending.

Still, politics etc. aside, the series is well worth a look. Get yourself the DVD box set and watch them all in one go - not in one night of course!

The only thing I will say that I did not like it was Tom Hanks' introduction to each episode - he alwasy finished his 1 minute intro with whatever the heck it was, "from the Earth to the Moon".

Seanie.

*by the way, moved to the Space Exploration forum*

I have this on disc and have been meaning to watch it for a while.

The reason I have the discs is that I read the book on which the series is based: Wikipedia link here.

Its a must read, apparently the author became obsessed with the Apollo launches from an early age. I'm old enough to remember the launches of the later missions and this really brought it to life.

Seanie, I know what you're saying, it was fantastic that they went to the moon, but in my opinion they went for the wrong reason.

Next time they go back, some sort of moon base should be built, to give them a reason to go back again.

I found the below link on the NASA site
www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/constellation/main/index.html
When I heard of this a while back I have to say I was disappointed that its looked so similar to the Apollo setup, but now I can see why as this is building on that program. With more modern computer systems and materials/manufacturing technology, hopefully it wont be a dead end due to cost which is what eventually killed the Apollo program.