Saturn V engines recovered

[Bobnova]

Speaking as someone who repairs/services/retrofits CNC machines, the amount of work that it would take to start with the old blueprints, draw them in *CAD, get them through the post-processor into G code, fix the mistakes, destroy the first few parts, fix those mistakes, and generally get to the point where you can crank out the bits correctly is huge.

(The grand irony is that most of retrofits are caused by dead bits in the CNC controller that can no longer be replaced, as they haven't been made in a decade. With the new controller, guess what? You can't use your old programs to cut your old parts.)

CNC machining/milling/routing/cutting/whatevering is fantastic for making a lot of copies of a given part. For making a single part, it can still be very very useful, but contrary to the apparently popular belief it takes at least one, more likely two, extremely skilled people. It also cannot directly use a blueprint, you have to turn that into a CAD drawing, which takes (you guessed it!) a very skilled person.

So, I'm in the "can't make it now" camp. They can make something very similar, that is as good, but it will not be a direct copy.

[Brethern]

Only NASA could lose perfectly good plans.

What's so difficult about documenting and fileing things in safe and sercure places.

Infact knowing NASA they probably spent $200 million designing a simple fileing cabinet and system only to cancel it after 99% of it was complete and a whole staff of clerks was hired.

I read somewhere that they do in fact have the plans but the machine to read them is gone.