NASA Wants to Return to the Moon as Early as This Year

[ZodaEX]

Topic at hand - returning to the moon. The announcement that NASA really wants to do it, and maybe even do it this year, is exciting. But I'm one of those radical people who thinks that space science is just a great excuse that we can use so we can get funding for manned exploration. I appreciate the pure science, I appreciate the robotics for what they can do, but there are scientists who would rather close down our manned program so NASA's budget can focus on the less expensive remote control research.

Bullocks. I strongly disagree. If we aren't going to lead humanity past LEO I'd rather close the whole program. There are scientists who believe that the manned space programs are draining the budget and will happily tell you they aren't interested in going to space. Fine, I'm not interested in pictures from Uranus. I'm certainly not going to hire a robot to go to Disneyland for my vacation. The rovers that have been drilling holes and taking pictures while doodling around on Mars haven't satiated my curiosity, they've increased it. I don't feel fulfilled by a bunch of postcards from the Red Planet.

To these people I say, "If humans are not going to space I'm just as happy spending your rover dollars making a fence on the Canadian border, I don't want you teasing me with how interesting the universe (or Disneyland) is if we aren't going there."

We're going to the Moon? Then we better GO to the Moon. The goal is boots on the ground.

So you don't care for planet and moon pictures and that's fine but I feel like you are in a minority there. Others including myself find them fascinating and awe inspiring.

 

[The Mad Atheist]

Its either we do it now, or we rent moon space from china...

Pass, China can built great stuff, but most of it is trash, even if they would that care of it instead of letting it fall apart.

That's your smoking gun that proves the moon landings were a hoax?

Better than what the religious tell me, "wait til you're dead and find out".

Before our next trip, we need to ID the head flat earther, train them up and send em with the next team.

But I am sure they will scream indoctrination and continue believing the NATO patrols around the arctic caps to prevent people from knowing the truth.

Make sure the whole team are FE-ers and fly them through the thickest parts of the Van Allen Belts.

Exciting news, will be interesting to see if the flag is still clinging on the moon. Maybe they'll bring it back and put up a new one (one that doesn't lose color from cosmic radiation).

I wouldn't dought it's gone, unless it was struck by a meteor.

The topic on hand is about returning to the moon folks. Keep to it and keep it civil.

Oh come, a little fun is OK, right!?

 

[Jagger100]

Capricorn One was a documentary.

Although getting to the moon in under a year would be a hoax. Unless we have a Saturn V in mothballs somewhere.

 

[seanreisk]

So you don't care for planet and moon pictures and that's fine but I feel like you are in a minority there. Others including myself find them fascinating and awe inspiring.

No, I love all the photos, I love the rovers, I eat up everything the Hubble will give me. I have two books on the Juno mission and I am desperate for them to send a probe to land on Europa in my lifetime.

But every time we celebrate discoveries made by unmanned exploration someone decides to open their opinion-release orifice and say that we need to end manned exploration. There has been a lot of push-back from planetary scientists about the amount of science that could be completed if we weren't paying for manned missions to LEO.

I disagree. I will not accept a bunch of photos as a replacement for human exploration. The investment in human endeavor is just as important, if not more important, as the investment in human knowledge.