kPa, if you continue your oppositional streak, you may eventually go full circle and become as anti-metric as that fellow up in Wiscasset, Maine! Put down your spear and pick up a pruning hook once in a while.
----- Original Message ----- From: Kilopascal To: [email protected] ; U.S. Metric Association Sent: 2011-07-20 20:14 Subject: [USMA:50891] Apollo 11 - 20 July 1969 Paul, I think you are omitting the German connection. It might have been American money and resources, but it was German (and metric) technology that put man on the moon. It was the efforts of Dr. Werner von Braun and his hundreds of mitgenossen that made it possible for John Kennedy's dream to be realized. The contributions made by von Braun and those Germans are often forgotten or ignored, yet they are the reason for the success of NASA in those days. The enemies of metrication who claim that America got to the moon using feet and inches often refuse to accept that von Braun and his genossen used metric units and only translated them later to USC. Even though many think the space shuttle was wonderful, it was nothing more than a very costly white elephant. It basically came down to ending the shuttle program or closing NASA as the shuttle program would have bankrupted NASA. But NASA hadn't done much better with its Constellation program. Constellation was one big step backwards for NASA and the nation. It was basically reinventing the wheel and then making the dumb decision to use USC, which meant no way NASA would be able use it on joint missions with other space companies using metric units. Anyways Paul it is good to fantasize about the achievements of NASA in those days, but don't forget to give credit where credit is rightfully due and that is to the man that made it happen .... Vielen Dank Herr Dr von Braun. The unfortunate thing though is that those nations and companies using the metric system are moving ahead of NASA and the US. It again shows that America's loss is someone Else's gain. [USMA:50891] Apollo 11 - 20 July 1969 Paul Trusten Tue, 19 Jul 2011 23:43:00 -0700 Today is the 42nd anniversary of a triumph in U.S. technology--the fulfillment of President John F. Kennedy's 1961 stated national goal of "landing a man on the moon" and, some days later, " returning him safely to the earth." Age 17 years at the time, I wrote in that night, "All of us are now members of the second man," because it seemed to me that, from that time on. the development of the human species meant something different from what it was before. The same nation that made "one small step for man" into "one giant leap for mankind" (said Neil Armstrong, first human being to stand on the moon), should have a measurement system that is cognate with its ideals in science. We at USMA shall continue to fight for that national goal. SIncerely, Paul R. Trusten Registered Pharmacist Vice President and Public Relations Director U.S. Metric Association, Inc. www.metric.org [email protected] +1(432)528-7724
