wrote in message
oups.com...
I was arguing with a friend that the lunar landing required very little
new science but merely extrapolations of existing technology. This
leads to: If it had been necessary, and cost was no object, what would
be the earliest time that a lunar landing would have been possible. I
argue that the Germans could have done it with their 1940s technology.

"It depends".

You can look at the Saturn V as a scale-up of the V-2. Just a much bigger
rocket.

That is of course an extremely simplified look at things. Getting the F-1
engines to burn stablely was itself a large task.

Then of course you have things like the IU and on-board computation. Even
with the advances there, much of the navigation was helped out by the
ground.

And of course things like fuel cells. While the science had been around for
I think about a century, making it work effectively was part of the problem.

Ultimately I think it comes down to, "how much brute force and money are you
willing to throw at the problem?"