nasa plans bigger moon base
- Thread starter watermelony2k
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In the short term the moon will do nothing but help bankrupt us. The money that funds these programs comes from taxes collected through business and commerce…which depend on oil…that we buy from countries that hate us…which has become a national security issue.
The US government would be better off using this money to fund another “Manhattan” project to develop alternative energies like hydrogen for instance…that would make us energy independent. (and not turning corn into gas BS diversions either)
Once again I remind my colleagues here …there was no talk of going back to the moon until China announced their intentions a few months back. Don’t you all get it…it is China’s intention to get us in a spending race to the moon for their own ulterior motives.
The US government would be better off using this money to fund another “Manhattan” project to develop alternative energies like hydrogen for instance…that would make us energy independent. (and not turning corn into gas BS diversions either)
Once again I remind my colleagues here …there was no talk of going back to the moon until China announced their intentions a few months back. Don’t you all get it…it is China’s intention to get us in a spending race to the moon for their own ulterior motives.
How much of going back to the Moon is political versus technological??
It's largely political, yes we saw revolutions in microchip technology, instrument sensitivity and miniaturization of tech but the very large scale breaks have not come have made very few technological breakthroughs in rocketry and aeronautics. The stuff we use to launch space mission is basically the same as the ICBMs that launch or first satellites, and there is only limited science we can learn by putting people back on the Moon like NASA did in the 60s. The Moon is a dead world, its got next to no atmosphere, little resources and is totally inhospitable. Mars on the other hand has a 24 and a half hour day, its got lots of trapped water, its got atmosphere, lots of resources and within a few hundred years we may learn how to terra-form it.
Bush-Snr made the proposal of going to Mars soon after the Russians were making record duration stays on the old MIR station, the Ruskies also launched the Buran Shuttle with their Energia rocket. NASA wasn't too healthy then and analysts feared that the Russians would soon be re-configuring the Energia launcher to send cosmonauts to Mars. George Herbert Walker Bush (Daddy) then proposed the SEI to counter the Russians, with little or no architecture the mission would have been risking brave astronauts and may have cost up to a TRILLION dollars. Many thought America could not risk this journey to Mars especially at such a high price. Thankfully for the USA the USSR ran out of steam, communism was a politically flawed system, the Russians were going bankrupt and the Berlin Wall was coming down.
>>>Skip, Tomogatchis, Beavus n Butthead,
>>Skip the SUV craze, Kosovo, StarTrek TNG, X-files, Clinton and the rest of the 90s
....Move on to 2003, Space Shuttle Columbia damaged by foam had broken up over Texas killing all astronauts on board (Clark, Brown, Husband, Chawla, McCool, Ramon, Anderson R.I.P) America had just opened up a new costly front in the war on terror with the invasion of Iraq, and a growing superpower China was flexing its might be being the third nation to launch a man into orbit. Soon Jnr didn't want America looking lame in front of China and he was dusting off some of the blueprints for his Daddy's proposal but for some reason it also included a lunar flag planting mission from the 60s. If NASA doesn't get this one right its days may be numbered, the private sector is starting to prove itself by launching designs like Spaceshipone, another possible competitor NASA should look out for in space is a Euro-Russo alliance with the Russian Soyuz already launching european missions like Venus Express.
Yep, that fucking gravity thing kills it everytime, doesn't it?
If you truely believe that space exploration with do nothing but bankrupt us, then it is you who are truely living in dreamland.
If all you see in space exploration is the expenditure of money, then why on Earth would you be interested in the world of sci-fi in the first place.
You don't see the probable return of investment in space exploration? The reason to go to the moon is to see if there's any resources there that we could use.
And for those that would rather go to Mars first, the moon [base] would be a stepping stone for just that. Just as the ISS is a stepping stone back to trhe moon. Think of them as a off-world gas station, so-to-speak.
A moonbase isn't going to be a stepping stone to anything. Just like the ISS isn't a stepping stone to anything. A moonbase will be nothing more than a place for 3 people to live and do whatever. Its not going to help or benefit a Mars mission at all. If anything it will drain funds away from a Mars mission.
Build the moonbase after the first manned Mars mission, not before.
Something just strikes me odd about that post.
What is it about Mars that you are in such a hurry about?
Quite frankly, we need a base on the Moon for long-range duration stays so that we can LEARN how long-term zero-atmosphere, low gravity environments will AFFECT humans. Don't take it from me, take it from the NASA officials.
Secondly, the ISS is also designed so that we can LEARN how long-term weightlessness AFFECTS humans. It's a 6 month trip to Mars afterall. And how long is a typical ISS Expeditionary Crew is for? 6 months? Hmmmm...
Because we know how returning Expeditionay astronauts are when they return to Earth after their stint. They're very weak, regardless of how much they excercise on the ISS equipment. And if the Orion CEV is the craft we use to go to Mars, then there ain't gonna be enough room to do much of anything.
We're gonna need a much bigger craft to get to Mars. Probably something that has a rotating artifical gravity creator. Which is why a manned Mars mission is quite a long way off yet. I wouldn't look for a manned mission to Mars until about 2050.
It seems like you're wanting to learn how to walk before learning to crawl.
We already know that. Russian cosmonaut Valeri Polyakov spent 437 days on Mir back in the 90s.
I'm not taking anything from NASA officials. Back in the 70s they said they'd be able to launch 100 shuttles a year.
The astronauts can attach a helium balloon to their suits when they get to Mars. They can ride around in wheel chairs. There's many many solutions to that problem.
They don't need revolving centrifuges, and they don't need to wait until 2050. If they start now NASA can have an astronaut on Mars by 2020.
Back in the 70s, NASA officials claimed a trip to Mars was possible by 1987. So obviously the engineering is ready for the trip.
Actually I've been pro space exploration up to this proposed mission. Yes I'm aware of all the spin off discoveries that filter on down ...plus all the hard science advancements too. I guess I failed to communicate is that this mission is a political knee jerk reaction to China's space plans. Get it?...it's political not scientific. Just keep in mind what the SDI did to the Soviet economy and political system.
But, our (the U.S.) space program has ALWAYS been politically driven since the day the Russians put Sputnik in oribit. The original U.S. moon shots were done just to show we could do something the U.S.S.R. couldn't. Hell, the majority of moon rocks brought back STILL haven't been scientifically analyzed.
In te end, most exploration is politically driven. Marco Polo and Columbus may have wanted to prove something; but the monarchs who financed their expeditions were looking for a way to expand their empires and political influence. Thus, I don't care WHY were doing it; just that we are doing it; and in the process, developing the technology we need to make deeper explorations into space.
Ditto.
I don't have a problem with whatever the motivation is for space exploration is, just as long as it's happening. I shake my head everytime I hear someone say "We're wasting all this time and money on the space program, and for what?" So I guess these people would kindly give up their cell phones, and iPods, and GPS devices, 'cause all these thing we take now for granted all or mostly came about from the space program.
Then work on that first instead of pointlessly lobbing shit and people at Mars with our current crappy technology.
Yes, I understand the impulse (hah) to just get out there do stuff, but it would be much better in the long run to have some kind of hub on the Moon first. Once that's established, we can basically go anywhere within the inner solar system and rock out all we like. Right now trying to pull that off from the Cape would be horrendously unmanageable.
And to all you losers saying space travel is a waste of money: blow me. Less than 1% of the national budget for pushing the frontiers of knowledge, and you fuckers are bitching? Where's your uproar about that private little war (Oh god, the episode title puns keep coming) you're waging in that bloody sandtrap? Yeah? That's worth the money then? Fuck you.
