Going Back To The Moon, Good News?

[ToraToraTora]

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-42322236

[jno]

ah, handing over the moon to the private sector, kind of like Gordon Brown and his PPI?

I fear no good can come of this.

[hc4361]

What do you mean, back?


:D

[naomi24]

Oooo .... how exciting!!

[Peter Pedant]

well I dont think war can break out over that decision
so bravo!

[clearly my expectations are low today]
oh and is he gonna send gurlz into space and of course the needed maternity unit to follow?

[jim360]

Sending astronauts to the Moon is cool, exciting, and something I look forward to seeing happening in my lifetime for real rather than on historical footage.

From a purely scientific point of view it's rather a lot less useful than unmanned missions, or the apparently now-abandoned mission to an asteroid, but whatever.

[Old_Geezer]

I approve. Hugh time we, as the human race, stopped resting on our laurels and got back into exploring off world locations. But I'm unsure what the aim is, what he intends to do there. Long-term explorations and use means what ? Pity he seems to have abandoned the asteroid visit though. One might have hoped to fund both; and more besides. Cost per individual for space exploration etc. is vanishingly small.

[Old_Geezer]

HIGH !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[ToraToraTora]

jim: do you not think it will be a useful practice ground for future trips to Mars? Not a stepping stone but I think a useful exersize to get started with.

[Cloverjo]

It's not often I agree with Donald Trump, but I think this is a good thing to be doing. Maybe it will start more thought about getting to the asteroid.

[jim360]

I'm not sure I'm familiar enough with the difficulties of manned space travel to comment usefully right now on whether it's easier to get to Mars from the Moon or from Earth. In the first case you'd still have to sort out the problem of getting the necessary stuff to the Moon, so arguably the stop-off slows things down (to start with at least) but I've not given it much thought.

In general manned missions to anywhere are more useful as PR stunts than scientific missions, for the simple reason that keeping the astronauts alive rather takes up space in the missions that you could have used for more instruments, but that's only in terms of direct impact. How many people will have been inspired by watching Armstrong's first steps on the Moon to try and follow in his footsteps? How much progress was made in the technology required to get there in the first place? How much more interested are the public in watching things they can relate to?

I don't think there's much we can learn about the Moon by sending people there than we already have -- but I don't for a second think it's an excuse not to go anyway. "Because it's there" still remains a good enough reason!

[New Judge]

"How much progress was made in the technology required to get there in the first place?"

They invented Velcro to stop their pencils floating off round the cabin. (That was after they invested a tidy sum in trying to develop a biro that worked in zero gravity before an office boy suggested they might use a pencil instead).

[Old_Geezer]

They are already about 18 years behind schedule, but it must be to create this https://tenement01.deviantart.com/art/Space-1999-Moonbase-Alpha-2017-654770661

[jim360]

"(That was after they invested a tidy sum in trying to develop a biro that worked in zero gravity before an office boy suggested they might use a pencil instead)."

Urban myth.

[Old_Geezer]

I think that's an urban myth NJ. Bits of graphite dust floating around wouldn't be an ideal situation.

[Mamyalynne]

Velcro

Swiss electrical engineer George de Mestral invented his first touch fastener when, in 1941, he went for a walk in the woods and wondered why Burdock seeds cling to his coat and dog. He discovered it could be turned into something useful. He patented it in 1955 and subsequently refined and developed its practical manufacture until its commercial introduction in the late 1950s.



I think this is a great move.

[EDDIE51]

Nothing will come of it, Nasa will need a $ 4.5 billion boost in its income to even start to plan it. Chump will be out of office long before it gets anywhere near being even planned . Just more mindless rhetoric from an ignorant pratt. Like bringing back the coal mining jobs.

[Khandro]

Well, I hope they go if only for jim's sake, but the future isn't out there. Rockets require an enormous amount of fossil fuel to get into space. Each of the two solid rocket boosters on the Space Shuttle carries more than one million pounds of solid propellant. (I think that's firelighters to you and me).
The planet's fossil fuels are a limited resource and are disappearing on a daily basis.
Unless someone has another source of energy for such a demand, the future of space-travel is not promising.
Far better to deal with the problems here on Earth.

[Old_Geezer]

You might be here on earth forever then. There are always problems here; and easily used energy must be in limited supply, which we are already using up. Don't leave it too late to reach elsewhere.

[naomi24]

//Unless someone has another source of energy for such a demand...//

I'm confident it will be found. Where technology is concerned we are infants.

[yogi-bear]

Great news in my opinion, I can't really remember too well when Armstrong and Aldrin first walked on the moon in 1969, as only 3 years old, remember some later missions there and strangely, very vague though, the events of Apollo 13, a year later, and would love to see mankind conquering space travel again and the possibilities could be so beneficial to us, with more planets being investigated in the future, such as Mars.....a possible moonbase....

I do hope to see it in my lifetime, and for our children to witness it too.....having seen two Space Shuttle launches, both from Cape Canaveral in Florida, and visiting the Kennedy Space Center there numerous times, as well as the Johnson Space Center in Houston also, you get to realise just how awesome the reality of it really is.