Mark's Blog

The engines for the Saturn V rockets were incredible pieces of engineering, and probably very advanced. Maybe they can design things faster now, but I don't know how much better. I suppose there have been some materials advances and such, but with the high temperatures and pressures, they might be using the old reliable materials. Otherwise, it still takes the same amount of energy to get a rocket into orbit, so don't expect the overall design to change--though it would've been nice to see one of those plane-launched rockets or something.

However, much like any project at work, what is planned is not always what is delivered. Perhaps they need a big program to motivate them to do some redesign and have new ideas.

My favorite "facts" about the old moon program are that all the ground-based computers at the time were about as powerful as a 486 processor, and that all telemetry was done to 2 decimal places, with any corrections done manually by the astronauts aiming out the viewport. So I bet the new computers and technology will be heavily used in the guidance and living quarters where they will make a real difference for the astronauts.

Sounds like your next trip to the US should be to Cape Canaveral, but it is dangerously close to Orlando.

All I can say for the astronauts is that I hope they don't make software like we do. In space, nobody can wait for the next service pack.