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The moon? Been there, done that, bought the moon rock.
We have no justification on spending hundreds of millions of dollars to see some guy hop around on the moon. It has little bearing to making our lives any better.
I agree. More money is spent on space exploration in one year than (the estimated) amount of money allocated to ocean research for 1,000 years. Funny, we know more about the surface of Mars than we do about our own ocean's floor. The really funny part is that it will probably remain this way for many decades.
The moon? Been there, done that, bought the moon rock.
We have no justification on spending hundreds of millions of dollars to see some guy hop around on the moon. It has little bearing to making our lives any better.
it is the precursor to the big trip to mars, It is better to train on something close, than to send people out farther than any human has ever gone, and have an oops moment.
It took what, ten years to go from nothing, nada, zilch to landing a few people on the Moon and than bringing them back. That is quite the accomplishment. I don't care if it has been 100 years since we last went to the Moon; that know-how, technology, and all around brain power did not go anywhere. Just because we haven't been back does not mean that we forgot how to.
We went to the Moon because Russia 'threatened' to do the same. It was a political statement as much as anything else that the Moon mission stood for. Now that other countries are developing space programs (some with the intentions of reaching the Moon) the US is once again getting the itch.
I have to disagree with one point.... we did forget how to go back. Not in know how, technology and brain power but in will and desire.
Bureacracy, risk assesment, budgets. We wanted to perfect the "space bus" so its 100% safe, cheap and has a "reason". I don't know when taking a risk and exploration for its own sake was lost. Granted, even by the 1960s it was gone and politics (those commies) was the only reason we rushed to the moon.
Even with other countries racing to space and the moon... Im getting the feeling the US will sit this one out. Give it a few years and they will decide to postpone or scale back the program. By 2010, it won't even be "back to the moon" anymore. The US will be counting down how many years it takes us to get "back to low earth orbit" once the shuttle is retired.
Yeah, after we were the first one's there there was really no need to go back at the time, then the space shuttle program came along.
There were "needs", but the problem is that politics is what got us there. Once that motivation was gone the funding was too.
The shuttle became the next political need, as we wanted to expand into LEO for exploration AND military reasons. Then came the "Star Wars" program with spacestation alpha/freedom as a symbol of US power and superiority. I'm sure the use of space based weapons was also a motivating factor.
If we had gone to the moon for financial, scientific or other reasons perhaps we would have stayed. There are valid reasons to go there and Mars, but politics is too fickle a reason to do any long term venture. Once the whims change or the parades are over then so is the program.
There were "needs", but the problem is that politics is what got us there. Once that motivation was gone the funding was too.
The shuttle became the next political need, as we wanted to expand into LEO for exploration AND military reasons. Then came the "Star Wars" program with spacestation alpha/freedom as a symbol of US power and superiority. I'm sure the use of space based weapons was also a motivating factor.
If we had gone to the moon for financial, scientific or other reasons perhaps we would have stayed. There are valid reasons to go there and Mars, but politics is too fickle a reason to do any long term venture. Once the whims change or the parades are over then so is the program.
This is what I meant. Once we beat the Russians to it and showed the world that we were superior the issue became a sort of been there, done that deal and now it is time to move on to something else.
This is what I meant. Once we beat the Russians to it and showed the world that we were superior the issue became a sort of been there, done that deal and now it is time to move on to something else.
By LEO do you mean Law Enforcement Officer?
Low Earth Orbit. Where we are stuck now and probably for the next 20 years.
You are correct, once the Russians admitted defeat it was over. Up until then it was a contest between the US and USSR. Had the Russians followed to the moon (as the US followed them most of the time) or taken the next step, things would have been very interesting.
The Russians technically did follow up, with longer stays leading up to MIR. That kind of led the planning of Spacestation Freedom. Once the USSR and MIR were fading, we just repacked it as the International Space Station.
This thread is quite depressing and I'm almost sorry to bump it. I'm afraid what Rcarillo is saying about how the US has lost its desire to explore is true. We, as a nation, are too "grown up" for such silly things as space exploration. Many would rather invest all of our scientific development into green technologies when in reality space holds many answers to the questions of our long-term survival.
To the person that said "been there done that got the moon rock" that is a very narrow view of the situation. The moon has a little resource known as Helium-3 in abundance- something that would prove quite useful.
Wow, I wish our country had a different mentality. If we don't do anything I guarantee China and India will more than make up for our pitiful low earth orbits this century.
This thread is quite depressing and I'm almost sorry to bump it. I'm afraid what Rcarillo is saying about how the US has lost its desire to explore is true. We, as a nation, are too "grown up" for such silly things as space exploration. Many would rather invest all of our scientific development into green technologies when in reality space holds many answers to the questions of our long-term survival.
To the person that said "been there done that got the moon rock" that is a very narrow view of the situation. The moon has a little resource known as Helium-3 in abundance- something that would prove quite useful.
Wow, I wish our country had a different mentality. If we don't do anything I guarantee China and India will more than make up for our pitiful low earth orbits this century.
it seems that Obama is hell bent on getting back to the moon, so much so that it is said that the new moon rover will take part in the march to the white house.
I think they've been doing quite a bit of exploration, just not so much by actually going places, personally.
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