"Should we return to the moon?" Topic

International Moon Day

"International Moon Day is celebrated on July 20, the day humans first set foot on the moon during the Apollo 11 mission in 1969. It recognizes our lunar achievements and highlights scientific and technological advancements, like NASA's Orion spacecraft. Designed for deep space exploration, Orion completed a test flight to the moon without astronauts in 2022 and will carry out a crewed orbit in 2024.

The plan is to return astronauts to the moon's surface in 2025. NASA hopes that these flights, along with events like International Moon Day, will encourage public engagement and education about the moon and its influence on Earth, as well as the potential for future space exploration and colonization."

So should man return to he moon? I say absolutely.

Yes

Colonising other planets is silly. They have nothing that we don't have on earth, except exceptionally hostile environments.

What do we achieve by putting people on the moon? A lot of money spent to give no scientific results, no economic results and no improvements to anyone, anywhere.

Sure NASA hopes. Because it is a massive bonanza for NASA.

link

Just one more place to fight about…

Anyways, the game looks interesting.

Establishing a moon base from which deep space exploration can be launched is much more efficient than launching from Earth as the energy, and therefore cost required to escape the Earth as a gravity well is enormous. Without which deep space exploration is extremely difficult, and therefore, finding new habitable planets is much more difficult and costly. Without driving forward and investing huge amounts at the start, no matter how little the gains, is always the most important step also. Otherwise there will be little investment interest moving forward, without the first small steps…being taken.

The reason finding water on Mars was such an important discovery is that this can be used for fuel once a base can be established – which means its possible to move deeper into space once the first steps are taken, but requires huge initial investment…one small step for man…one giant leap for human kind.

Yes – as noted, a first step to moving onwards

If one could find a reasonably economic way to move the mass, likely lots of rare and precious minerals in places like the asteroid belt

Yes, the country is in desperate need of a unifying, aspirational goal. The more technically challenging and physically demanding the better.

We should return to the Moon only if we're planning to stay. We should be working on viable colonies, not a "greatest hits" anthology.

Mark, not being here is the point. Right now, we've got the whole future of the human race riding on whether our politicians and scientists will do anything especially stupid, or whether the next asteroid will do for us what the last one did for the dinosaurs. We need to get a sustainable technological society off the mudball as fast as we can--multiple ones if we can pull it off.

But this paints no castings.

Mark, do you like your microwave? There were significant scientific and economic benefits to the moon program that were not obvious. Now, would a return to the moon reap similar benefits? Good question.

I agree with Edge of Empires.

And also with Robert Piepenbrink.

Working towards a base of exploration is great. Planting a flag on the moon and walking around a bit would be sad.

Yes, because space exploration benefits us all.

Yes. And we should stay. The benefits to science and humanity are incalculable.

But even if there were NO such benefits, money spent on space exploration is much wiser money than any social program in existence. Why? Because money spent on space exploration is spent on innovation and technology. It employs the brightest among us, rewards and encourages education, pursues the best based on merit regardless of background, color, politics or creed (or anything else) because it is focused on a real purpose that demands effective results. You don't design a half-assed rocket or a "diversity hire" lunar lander. You make the best damn thing you can make, and you don't give a rats ass what the person who makes it looks like or thinks like. You hire them because They Can Do The Job. So you wind up (in the 1960s) with entire divisions of the Mercury and Apollo program being run by black women… in the SOUTH… because they understood the necessary math and taught themselves how to program computers to a level that white male supervisors couldn't do. Because crap like racism and sexism has to be jettisoned like a booster stage if you're gonna put a man on the Moon.

And then, of course, the money which goes to pay these people— what do they do with it? Why, they buy stuff. They buy new clothes. They buy houses. They buy cars. They buy phones. They buy computers. They buy hundreds of thousands of things. And they spend money in other ways— they pay for (and demand) better schools for their kids— schools that teach hard things like math and science, which make their kids smarter. They spend it to hire landscapers, designers, builders, plumbers, electricians, cleaners, painters. They spend it on vacations for their families, on nights out, on movies and theatres and museums and concerts. And they pay local taxes and state taxes and federal taxes and it all just keeps going round and round and round, bettering the conditions of the entire community. It creates economic and cultural booms which do not end.

But even that's not the reason to do it. The reason to do it is that human beings need dreams. Big dreams. Exploring space makes us look up into the heavens instead of down into our navels (or these days, our phones). It makes kids dream of their own future even as we dream of ours.

And every dime spent on space exploration is a dime spent on those dreams, and not a dime spent on wars and petty squabbles over whose race or gender or faith or politics is better or worse than someone else's. When we dream big, everyone can dream big— we make our world bigger and better. When we think small, we make ourselves small, and the world diminishes with it.

Yes. An infinite times Yes. Go to the Moon. And Mars. And Europa. And one day, the stars.

Yes

Parzival, when I become Supreme Overlord I am going to put you in charge of NASA. I was planning to sell NASA to Elon for a Dollar but your post has convinced me you'd be the right man for the job!

+1 Parzival and very well stated!

<p>moon base from which deep space exploration can be launched

From an Earth Start a moon pit stop is a waste. No now, building and starting from the moon is fine. Refueling wouldn't be worth it if you shipped it there vs making it on site.

Beautifully presented argument Parzival!

I very much hope we'll go back, I would watch every bit of news with the greatest enjoyment.

But we need to keep in mind that his is a luxury, it's a splurge. It's 100% optimism to think that any deprivation or suffering on Earth will be eased by what we learn or harvest in space. There are plenty of ways we could spend that money on Earth to better people's lives. I'm certainly not arguing we don't do science until we have eliminated poverty and disease, that would mean never going to space. But we do need a balance. That balance can certainly include a moon base, but we should also, you know, wipe out malaria.

Of course, the biggest causes of human suffering are corrupt, oppressive governments and China's CO2 emissions, and I suppose no amount of money spent will make those go away. So we might as well build cool space ships.

+1 Parzival

+1 Parzival

+1000 Parzival

Having witnessed the Space Age, I want it back

Parzival, thank you for that. 100% agree.
Andrew also, I agree.

+1 Andrew. There are more important things that need to be done. The "going to the moon benefits us all" assumes those things take place and it's not just more of the same. Will there be US manufacturers hiring more or will it just be more PRC goods being purchased. We got pictures from Mars and that made not such a huge splash. Government run trip to the moon, ya lots of waste coming and no guarantee the politics of DC won't be thrown in there just like it is now. A private company would be better because they at least seem to care about results and cost. Letting the politicians run this, when they can't even get safe drinking water figured out in the US, is a waste of money, a new waste to add to the current ones. The only ones who will care are those old enough to remember the space race, it's been so long since then that the allure has worn off and there are better things to do, like watch "NPC tiktokers".

NASA's budget is literally 1/2 of 1% of the national budget. Saying "we can use those resources elsewhere" is statistically, and absolutely, pointless. They could DOUBLE or even TRIPLE the budget, and it would make little overall difference in the national budget. If you are so worried about waste. there are FAR, FAR more areas to look for it, than in a program that pushes pure science, without an expectation of a return (BTW, if NASA sold all of the patents that they had developed over the years, rather than giving them out to private industry, it would be one of the most efficiently run programs anywhere in the world. IMHO).

Damon.

+1 Garand

Garand's right. If I remember it correctly, the entire Apollo Project budget would have kept the Great Society programs going for about ten days.

Andrew, Striker, I'm also intrigued by the notion that if politicians had more money to spend, they'd (on average) do something helpful with it. Possible, of course. But I don't think it's as likely as money spent on scientific research having practical benefits.

Robert, no they'll it away no matter what it is but like a broken clock there's a chance it'll hit the right spot at some point. Not saying NASA is the biggest budget eater either, there's A LOT more that can be cut. I was just reading how the USCG helos are way too old but they can't get new gear even though they are probably one of the most useful of the services day-in-day-out, but yep keep the LCS going.

Yes, humans will continue to explore.

If we go back to the Moon, it should not be the "First so and so on Moon" as this inevitably becomes a one-off.

If we're going to go, then do it right with hundreds. GET THERE. Stop wasting time on publicity. Find platinum or diamonds or helium 3….something worth it.

So tired of time wasting.

We should be landing on Titan by now.