[Skooz]

BFL

[Donald Rumsfeld Fan]

In 1995 our daughter, then 23, returned home from seeing Apollo 13. “Was it really like that?” she asked me. I told her that I remembered those excruciating days well and to the best of my recollection they hadn’t made anything up or left anything important out. She unintentionally quoted the words of Admiral Tarrant (Fredric March) at the end of The Bridges at Toko-Ri: “Where do we get such men?”

Houston....I think we've got a problem

[JoeFromSidney]

On the 20th anniversary of the first Apollo landing, I had an op-ed in USA TODAY. I said in it that the next time we who wanted space travel would have to pay for it ourselves, not expect others to pay through taxes. On the 40th anniversary, I still say the same thing. If all the Trekkies, the Mars Society, the Moon Society, the Planetary Society, and all the unorganized space nuts decided to do it ourselves, I think we could get it done.

The meed shall inherit the Earth. The rest of us are going to the stars.

[Donald Rumsfeld Fan]

I recall the late Carl Sagan (Cosmos) being asked to comment on the triumphant conclusion of a Space Shuttle mission. He responded: “Ah, yes. Once again we have proved that tomato plants do not do well in Zero-G. This is not the exploration of space.”

As a former Apollo/Saturn engineer who worked at the Marshall Space Flight Center, Huntsville Al. during the glory years, I concur. As did many of my colleagues.

[rightwingcrazy]

We no longer have the technology for a moon landing, but we do have the technology to do an awesome CGI rendering of one!

[Iron Munro]

How could we get over 100 posts into this thread without
the mandatory Kerry Omp-A-Loompa NASA photo?

[SuziQ]

I believe we have all the technology we need to get there, and even get a colony going to start work there. Just doing that would spur even more innovation and technology.

What we DON'T have is the will on the part of the politicians to spend the money on it, because they don't perceive any interest on the part of the public. Sadly, they're probably right on that score.

[<1/1,000,000th%]

The technology exists.

The money is being spent on homes, cars and phones for crackheads.

[Billthedrill]

During one of his “Jaywalking” bits on "The Tonight Show," Jay Leno asked a young woman if she knew the name of the first man to walk on the moon. “Armstrong?” she answered tentatively.

Leno said, “Good. What’s his first name?” She replied: “Louis!”

Sheesh. What a maroon. It was "Lance."

There is one reason and one alone that men and women are not currently on both the Moon and Mars, and that is that the governments of the earth have named themselves in charge of the activity. It passes veto power to every jackass who thinks he or she knows a better use for the money or who starts bleating "we have to make sure we don't" contaminate, despoil, ruin, deface, etc, etc, as if "don't do anything because you might do something wrong" were the prime criterion of human activity.

You want a base on the Moon? Junk the rules and make a public statement - "Jack, if it's up there and you can get it, you can keep the money." And stand back. That is all it will take.