Timeline for Are there any examples of technologies have been lost over time?
Current License: CC BY-SA 4.0
9 events
| when toggle format | what | by | license | comment | |
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| Nov 16, 2022 at 18:17 | comment | added | user15620 | Given the recent launch of the SLS, which was under development in 2019, I'd say this answer wasn't correct then, and definitely is not correct now. | |
| Aug 7, 2019 at 12:08 | comment | added | C Monsour | A single design generally isn't a technology. We've lost the blueprints for a lot of buildings and couldn't manufacture them in exactly the same way today, but that doesn't entail a loss of technology, either. If you were arguing that there was an entire type of technology that had been lost (like, for argument's sake, some day the wind-up analog watch), that would be different. But the Saturn V is just one watch. It really doesn't count. | |
| Aug 7, 2019 at 11:43 | comment | added | user | @CMonsour I'm not saying we lost rocket technology, I'm saying we lost some of the specific technologies used in the Saturn V. They may have been superseded, but those specific ones are not documented or manufacturable today. | |
| Aug 7, 2019 at 11:27 | comment | added | C Monsour | I think you're missing the point, on the wrong end of a type/token distinction: A technology isn't the same thing as a specific design. Saying that we've lost rocket technology because we can't build a new Saturn V just like the old one is like saying we've forgotten how to read because we can't translate Etruscan. | |
| Aug 7, 2019 at 10:05 | comment | added | user | @CMonsour missing the point there, which is that if for some reason we did want to build a new Saturn V we couldn't with what we have available now. | |
| Aug 7, 2019 at 0:42 | comment | added | C Monsour | No rockets currently exist capable of lifting that much mass for the same reason we no longer make station wagons with three rows of seats. It isn't needed for current use cases; it's not a matter of not being able to manufacture comparable rockets. Two Falcon Heavy launches can put about as much mass in orbit as a Saturn V launch at a very small fraction of the price thanks to much BETTER technology. newatlas.com/falcon-heavy-saturn-v/53090 | |
| Jul 29, 2019 at 10:37 | comment | added | MCW♦ | Very good answer; would be improved with the addition of citations/sources | |
| Jul 29, 2019 at 10:05 | review | First posts | |||
| Jul 29, 2019 at 10:07 | |||||
| Jul 29, 2019 at 10:03 | history | answered | user | CC BY-SA 4.0 |