Fly me to the the moon, let me sing among the stars...? (1 Viewer)

[loquasagacious]

I've been thinking about making this thread for a while and now it seems that I have been gazzumped by the smh, as an expert panel is set to announce that NASA can not afford to land astronauts on the Moon again.

Of course by afford they mean afford within current budget of US$81million to land astronauts on Mars. The budget could always be increased (defecit be damned).

And this dilemma really encapsulates the two key questions that we need to answer about going to the moon (or Mars):

1. Should we go to the Moon/Mars at all? Is there value in these activities or are we spending vast sums just to say we went there?

2. Is it the place of Government(s) to pay for space exploration? Certainly they have in recent years, but if we look at European exploration of the world it wasn't always this way. If there's value in space exploration then why doesn't a commercial enterprise of some sort do it? Or a hybrid commercial-government venture?

 

[Kwayera]

Re: Fly me too the the moon, let me sing among the stars...?

I might have read too much science fiction, but I think that a "public/private partnership" moving towards a totally commercial venture would be the most effective.

 

[Iron]

Re: Fly me too the the moon, let me sing among the stars...?

The main thing driving the 69 landing was the cold war. Going back would be even more pointless hubris

 

[Brontecat]

Re: Fly me too the the moon, let me sing among the stars...?

return to the moon? there are many (including me) that argue that man never made it to the moon in the first place. If we did make it to the moon, why is it that with all our technological advancements over the years we have never been back and why did Armstrong become a recluse that refused to talk to anyone in his town about his moon landing??

As for the original questions i dont see any massive benefit in going 'back' to the moon when the america and the world have huge amounts of poverty and other 'earthly' problems that could benefit from the extra money rather than for a frivolous trip.

 

[Graney]

Re: Fly me too the the moon, let me sing among the stars...?

return to the moon? there are many (including me) that argue that man never made it to the moon in the first place. If we did make it to the moon, why is it that with all our technological advancements over the years we have never been back and why did Armstrong become a recluse that refused to talk to anyone in his town about his moon landing??

The moon landing being faked is the only possible explanation for those things.

As for the original questions i dont see any massive benefit in going 'back' to the moon when the america and the world have huge amounts of poverty and other 'earthly' problems that could benefit from the extra money rather than for a frivolous trip.

US defense spending each year is more than 40 times NASA's budget. The United States spends more on its military than the next fifteen biggest defense spenders put together, most of whom are American allies.

The space program is really good value for money imo.

 

[Ancly]

Re: Fly me too the the moon, let me sing among the stars...?

space program does provide some good research and shit

 

[Kwayera]

Re: Fly me too the the moon, let me sing among the stars...?

return to the moon? there are many (including me) that argue that man never made it to the moon in the first place. If we did make it to the moon, why is it that with all our technological advancements over the years we have never been back and why did Armstrong become a recluse that refused to talk to anyone in his town about his moon landing??

You're serious.

That frightens me.

 

[whatashotbyseve]

Re: Fly me too the the moon, let me sing among the stars...?

It's just an ego contest between the US and Russia. $81 million is spare change to the US, I doubt there is any great benefit from the moon/Mars mission sans egotism. The government has to pay for space exploration because frankly no sane private company would. There are just no tangible ROI measures.

 

[Spiral Seeds]

Re: Fly me too the the moon, let me sing among the stars...?

Regardless of whether the '69 landing was a hoax or not, they did legitimately land in the later Apollo missions of '71. But thats beside the point.
Decades ago there was a legitimate reason to venture to the moon, as pointed out earlier that of egotism and the desire for America to prove its scientific dominance to the world. But what's the point anymore?
The world already believes they did it, they have nothing to prove or accomplish by heading back there.
A Mars expedition holds promise for scientific advancement, but frankly no one really gives a shit anymore. Its far more important for America to invest billions and billions into military projects that will ultimately destroy the world than even consider the concept of physically exploring the solar system and of colonizing life elsewhere.

The government has to pay for space exploration because frankly no sane private company would.

And that. A private company would essentially have to create the equivalent of NASA to meet the demands for a safe Mars exploration, its not exactly an easy feat.

 

[Smile_Time351]

Re: Fly me too the the moon, let me sing among the stars...?

return to the moon? there are many (including me) that argue that man never made it to the moon in the first place. If we did make it to the moon, why is it that with all our technological advancements over the years we have never been back and why did Armstrong become a recluse that refused to talk to anyone in his town about his moon landing??

As for the original questions i dont see any massive benefit in going 'back' to the moon when the america and the world have huge amounts of poverty and other 'earthly' problems that could benefit from the extra money rather than for a frivolous trip.

The counterargument to your lunacy is rather simple, and in fact you said it yourself. You say that there is no benefit from going back to the moon just a few lines after you ask why we haven't gone back to the moon! The mind boggles!

As for Old Armstrong, if I was going to be hassled by crack pot theorists like you for the rest of my life, then I would become a "recluse" as well. When faced with conspiracy theorists, I simply resign myself to the fact that one quarter of the population is retarded. Thank you for reaffirming it once again.

Putting the aside back aside, going back to the moon isn't economically viable at present, although I do think we should in 10 years or so, for research purposes if nothing else.

 

[Random_dude]

Re: Fly me too the the moon, let me sing among the stars...?

Regardless of whether the '69 landing was a hoax or not, they did legitimately land in the later Apollo missions of '71. But thats beside the point.
Decades ago there was a legitimate reason to venture to the moon, as pointed out earlier that of egotism and the desire for America to prove its scientific dominance to the world. But what's the point anymore?
The world already believes they did it, they have nothing to prove or accomplish by heading back there.
A Mars expedition holds promise for scientific advancement, but frankly no one really gives a shit anymore. Its far more important for America to invest billions and billions into military projects that will ultimately destroy the world than even consider the concept of physically exploring the solar system and of colonizing life elsewhere.

And that. A private company would essentially have to create the equivalent of NASA to meet the demands for a safe Mars exploration, its not exactly an easy feat.

Hear, hear!!

However, what about getting some more space rock?
what about setting up a space station base thingy on the moon?
what about saying "haha, we can do this and you can't"

 

[sam04u]

Yes, both.
Commercial and government ventures into space should be welcomed.

 

[Iron]

looking for answers
in the wrong places
buying time
selling souls

 

[JonathanM]

Bah!

Stuff the money, the advancement of mankind is more important.

 

[Smile_Time351]

Bah!

Stuff the money, the advancement of mankind is more important.

At any other time, I would agree with you, but given the GFC, it probably isn't the best time to be spending billions of dollars on advancing the space program, all benefits aside.

 

[spyro14]

Indeed, good call Konrad Adenauer, lets not wait for the GFC to fix itself.

 

[HumanDichotomy]

I don't think we should go back to the moon, because:

- It's not particularly sensible at this time of recession or deficit or whatever stage it is we're in now.
- There are many, many problems here on Earth that warrant spending money on that are definitely more important than another moon landing.
- What purpose would it ultimately serve? Other than the Americans, yet again, being giving the chance to have a massive ego-wank? The moon doesn't have any resources, and even if it did, we're doing a pretty shit job of looking after our own.
- A moon trip would cause more space junk...we're already doing a very good job of dumping crap in our own place of habitation, and we've dumped some in space too, let's just leave it at that, shall we? We don't need to wreck everywhere we go anymore than we already have.

 

[S.H.O.D.A.N.]

The governments of Japan, India, China and America (no clue about Europe and Russia) all plan to set up Lunar colonies by 2020 (China, America) or 2030 (Japan, India).

 

[S.H.O.D.A.N.]

Why is there not an option for 'both', BTW?

 

[S.H.O.D.A.N.]

The moon doesn't have any resources

Helium-3 - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

I tend to agree that it's not a massive priority since there's still so much good science to be done here on Earth. But on the other hand, I'll have you know that a massive amount of technological advances in the past 50 years came from NASA and space travel.