Moon Base Canada
- Thread starter Liberalman
- Start date
I'm all for sending people to the moon. The more the merrier. I'll even volunteer to load them. We could use a little extra space down here. A poll should be taken and the numbers tallied. If there are enough to justify building the sucker, I say go for it.
That alone is reason enough to go.
No more space station orbiting the Earth, The U.S. heading for Mars, I cannot see why the Moon would not make a good jumping off place. It has all the resources to manufacture what ever it needs to be self supporting in a few years. We have to get out there sooner or later, and now appears to be a good time to start up again.
Is greed different in zero G?
During the 70's when robotics was born it was sold on the Utopian premise that someday we'd all just recreate while machines did the work. Of course the only ones recreating from it are the owners of the automation. The rest live mostly on leverage and asking people if they wants fries.
While there may be spin-offs from exploration, wouldn't they arrive naturally anyway? Would we still be without teflon or tang if the Apollo program never existed? Surely inventors have a helluva marketplace right here on Earth for non-stick cookware. Aren't these space programs more about make-work projects to transfer borrowed money to those who do the best sales pitching?
During the 70's when robotics was born it was sold on the Utopian premise that someday we'd all just recreate while machines did the work. Of course the only ones recreating from it are the owners of the automation. The rest live mostly on leverage and asking people if they wants fries.
While there may be spin-offs from exploration, wouldn't they arrive naturally anyway? Would we still be without teflon or tang if the Apollo program never existed? Surely inventors have a helluva marketplace right here on Earth for non-stick cookware. Aren't these space programs more about make-work projects to transfer borrowed money to those who do the best sales pitching?
Those problems like Teflon, tang etc. solved would not have surfaced as readily if at all. What is the need for tang, we have the real orange and other juices down here. Why miniaturize, we have all the room on Earth down here. Would medical lasers have been developed by now if there was no space program. How many lives we saved because the stuff was perfected within 10 years? We made this remarkable jump in the 1960's, slowed down after that to the dead stop were at now.
Even Cliffy could find his fortress of Solitude somewhere out there.
Even Cliffy could find his fortress of Solitude somewhere out there.
If there is a real need for them they will be developed. Half the population becoming senior citizens will create more demand for medical instruments than a moon walk.
Technology is expanding faster today than at anytime, yet the space program has been slowing to a halt for a decade or two.
Interesting to read this (includes section of mistakenly attributed spin-offs). I realize the list isn't comprehensive but it isn't too impressive considering the trillions of dollars spent.
NASA spin-off - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Technology is expanding faster today than at anytime, yet the space program has been slowing to a halt for a decade or two.
Interesting to read this (includes section of mistakenly attributed spin-offs). I realize the list isn't comprehensive but it isn't too impressive considering the trillions of dollars spent.
NASA spin-off - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Not impressive!! Tell that to those who are in need of these devices. Those items mentioned are very impressive considering they were not the main reason for their development in the first place. The trillions (it wasn't trillions though) of dollars spent was to put a man on the Moon and build the Space Station cost the U.S. almost $200 billion for the space station and about 20 billion to put a man on the Moon. (I did not include the price of military satellites).
Total Cost of NASA's Space Shuttle Program: Nearly $200 Billion | 30 Years of NASA Space Shuttles, Final Shuttle Missions | NASA Space Shuttles, Space Exploration& Human Spaceflight | Space.com
The space program only stopped flights with the last shuttle launch, development is still going on with the next generation shuttle which unfortunately will take about 10 years before it flys.
The spin off from the space program just made the whole thing worth while.
Total Cost of NASA's Space Shuttle Program: Nearly $200 Billion | 30 Years of NASA Space Shuttles, Final Shuttle Missions | NASA Space Shuttles, Space Exploration& Human Spaceflight | Space.com
The space program only stopped flights with the last shuttle launch, development is still going on with the next generation shuttle which unfortunately will take about 10 years before it flys.
The spin off from the space program just made the whole thing worth while.
And the import tariffs...
A moon base is so far out there. At a time when countries are beginning to realize the difficult financial future faced by most, we should not be undertaking such massive spending programs where the benefit is so highly uncertain. Costs and benefits. Let's see em, and see how sensitive they are to changes in the assumptions.
How about solving the engineering problems we already have. Here's a starting suggestion, replace lithium in the new generation of batteries.
Yeah, cost/benefit analysis would probably put the kibosh on that one.
Still, it'd be pretty cool.
Would be nice if lithium battery's could be replaced, but there is no need, there just making them smaller and better. Now if there was a need for a battery to last months or years on a charge that could speed up development.
I'd be happy for a battery that could lst over an hour of use. Especially when I am at one end of the dock and the spare battery is at the other.
I wouldnt be surprised if the US got back into the game in a big way in the next 10 years or so. Once the Chinese really get going. They are planning a manned mission to the moon. Once they do that who knows, maybe there'll be a second space race.
All the U.S. did was get out of the Space Shuttle business for the moment. The military space programs as well as other projects are going ahead full speed, launches are still happening.
Cape Canaveral Launch Schedule - Rocket & Satellite Launches from Cape Canaveral - Mars Science Laboratory Curiosity
Cape Canaveral Launch Schedule - Rocket & Satellite Launches from Cape Canaveral - Mars Science Laboratory Curiosity
Competition is good. In 2019, it wil be the 50th anniversary of the Moon landing. If China is there with some astronauts and a Moon base, perhaps that will wake people up. Putting a man on the Moon seems to me seems like superpower status. A Moon base with regular visits, even more so. China is up and coming, the tired USA is not.
Space exploration doesn't make money, spinoffs or not, but it is the classic investment of huge payoffs down the road. Nowadays there are more and more ads on TV showing Earth in space, like we are already off it and a space faring civilisation. We are in a small way with the International Space Station, but the ISS is a dead end. We need to colonise the Moon because the tech already exists.
The United States is still in the race for deep space exploration. The Orion MPCV (Multi-Purpose Crew Vehicle) is very much alive. The Shuttle became obsolete and to costly to upgrade.(Our fault for not keeping it updated all along. For the most part it was 1980's technology.) Space exploration to places like Mars, the moons of Jupiter and beyond will make money for future generations, and possibly save the human race at some point.