[ExI] rebuilding a saturn v today

[spike]

... On Behalf Of Adrian Tymes
Subject: Re: [ExI] extropy-chat Digest, Vol 90, Issue 29

>...  (Remember, it's been discovered that the Saturn rockets could not be
rebuilt today, due to loss of knowledge and parts; you'd have to redevelop
those entirely.  Same thing applies here.)

...

Adrian, when that notion (we couldn't build a S5 today) was first getting a
lot of play was in the late 80s, early 90s, when it became perfectly clear
that the shuttle was not going to live up to expectations in so many ways.
At that time, there was a great deal of argument, plenty of guys arguing
that even though some documentation had been lost, we could build it again,
etc.  But that was over 20 years ago, and we never did act on it.  Whether
or not it was true then, I suspect few would argue with you now.

Not only would they need to be redeveloped, in many ways they might be more
expensive to redevelop now than they were 50 years ago, because of more
rigorous standards for modern flight hardware.  

A lot of my old friends from my misspent youth have buried their fathers by
now, along with most of the stories from the heady days of the 1960s in the
rocket business.  The majority of these stories have never been recorded.  I
have tried to collect as many as I can, but so much has been lost which can
never be recovered.

I think it is safe to say most people no longer look to space as the final
frontier.  We now set our sights on inner space, cyber space and thought
space.  Ultimately I think interplanetary space will be the future abode of
our mind children, but not humans in our current form.  We take up too much
space and have too much material hanging all over us which doesn't do much
of anything useful.

spike