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US wants astronauts back on the Moon in five years: Pence
March 26, 2019
Vice President Mike Pence announced Tuesday that the United States aims to send astronauts back to the Moon in five years, with a woman first in line to set foot on it again.
"It is the stated policy of this administration and the United States of America to return American astronauts to the Moon, within the next five years," Pence said in a speech in Huntsville, Alabama.
"Let me be clear, the first woman and the next man on the moon will both be American astronauts launched by American rockets from American soil," he said.
This kind of thing has happened repeatedly, with administrations red and blue, for decades now. None of it has ever led to anything. It's easy to get PR and attention for these stunts (and probably kickbacks and $ behind the scenes), but only reducing spending, solving other major issues, and getting Congress onboard, will lead to anything. Enough of the charades.
This nonsense gets increasingly more and more ridiculous with each reiteration. Who's next to come to the stage of this theatrical performance?
The moon is where it's at. We must first learn to crawl before we can walk and run. Our closest neighbor, the moon, is the best place to learn and put space technologies to use. I would argue that all the money spent on Mars project could have been put to better use by building a permanent base on the moon from which commercial mining and other space explorations (including Mars) can launch from.
This kind of thing has happened repeatedly, with administrations red and blue, for decades now. None of it has ever led to anything. It's easy to get PR and attention for these stunts (and probably kickbacks and $ behind the scenes), but only reducing spending, solving other major issues, and getting Congress onboard, will lead to anything. Enough of the charades.
This nonsense gets increasingly more and more ridiculous with each reiteration. Who's next to come to the stage of this theatrical performance?
Congress is not only onboard, but increased the NASA budget above what T wanted. This time it is too big a risk for playing around. The tell was when the administrator intimated that if SLS wasn't ready, private sources would be tapped. IOW, get your S*** together or be left behind, pork barrel rights no longer count. The window for action is now defined.
Yeah, I mean if we didn't have the moon, we wouldn't have high and low tides and those really cool solar eclipses!
Add to the list:
1. Earth's axial tilt for a stable weather system that makes it possible for surface life to exist.
2. The moon's gravity also pulls and churns the liquid iron inside earth which in turn creates the magnetic shield that protects earth from harmful radiations.
But the moon is also important in that it can serve as a low gravity base from which we can build stuff. We can also extract resources from it. What we did with the Apollo program was just the first step. Now we need to take the next step.
harry chickpea posted some of the things the moon can benefit us in post #9 here:
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