
The maths that made Voyager possible (2012) - bootload
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-20033940
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jasode
As a related note, it's interesting that we (society) know the name Neil
Armstrong more than Richard Arenstorf[1].

Armstrong climbed down a ladder and walked on the moon. His actions were
something that could be televised. We could relate. Most of us have climbed
down a ladder from a bunk bed or used a ladder to get something from a high
bookshelf and then walked around a room.

Arenstorf solved a really hard math problem. Showing a person "thinking" or
writing equations is not telegenic.

I think the number of people on the planet who had the mathematical creativity
to simplify the 3-body problem and solve it to enable a Moon mission is less
than the number of physically fit pilots that can sit in a rocket ship.

In this case, we don't remember what's more rare (Arenstorf type intellects)
but what's more telegenic (Armstrong type pilots).

History will replay itself with a Mars mission. There are unsolved
intellectual problems that the best scientists are working on. However, none
of their names will be known as well as the first astronaut to step foot on
Mars.

[1][https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_Arenstorf](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_Arenstorf)

~~~
hoorayimhelping
> _Armstrong climbed down a ladder and walked on the moon. His actions were
> something that could be televised._

Armstrong attempted one of the most difficult maneuvers in the history of man.
The reason Armstrong was the first man on the moon, other than the fact that
Gus Grissom died in a fire, was because he was the only person on earth who
could land Apollo 11. Did Arenstorf risk his life doing something that had
literally never been done before? Did he literally take the first step into a
literally unknown world that literally no human had ever been before? No?
That's why people know who Neil Armstrong is.

I get what you're obliquely saying about how society values what you think are
the wrong things. But you're brushing off nearly unfathomable accomplishments
(it's easy to take for granted the fact that we landed on the moon when it's
been true your whole life) to make a point about how a single person doing
math deserves as much credit as the person who successfully landed the
multibillion dollar ship built and operated by 400,000 people. Do you know the
names of the countless engineers who built new technology on the Saturn V or
the Apollo spacecraft then got it to work? Is Arenstorf more essential than
they were?

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fsloth
Thanks! I thought I was well read into space exploration lore but this detail
was unknown to me.

It seems so very often new breakthroughs happen despite entrenched systems and
not because of them, through serendipitous circumstances which allow the work
of individual researchers and independent thinkers to enter the production
systems of established organizations.

