In article heedndKvTq4N92nanZ2dnUVZ_rOqnZ2d@northdakotatelep hone,
says...
Al wrote:
Forty years ago today in D.C. .
Technology detected in the film still as good as gold.... but still
probably 50 to 100 years off in the future.
The instrument panels in the spacecraft are very similar to what we use
nowadays.

Careful about cause and effect. A while back, I read a story in an IEEE
magazine about how some NASA researchers were developing next-generation
displays based on the panels in the movie.

There are times when the distinction between fact and fiction gets very
fuzzy. (Spinal Tap, for example.)


I imagine you could dock a Pan-Am spaceliner to a space station the way
it's shown in the movie, but I think a de-spun hanger area makes more sense.

Only from the point of view of the pilot of Orion. From the POV of the
designer of Space Station Five, a de-spun hanger has gobs and gobs of
nasty engineering issues.


The big question is of course what exactly is the purpose of the big
human presence on the Moon?
Clavius Base is apparently huge, and one suspects the Russians have one
of equal size.
What makes that expendature of time and treasure worth it to the two
countries?

That's simple enough. Both the US and the USSR are mining the lunar
mcguffins. (http://www.essortment.com/all/alfredhitchcoc_rvhd.htm)
--
Kevin Willoughby lid

Kansas City, this was Air Force One. Will you change
our call sign to SAM 27000? -- Col. Ralph Albertazzie