The moon-colony idea is one of the things which tempers my enthusiasm for Gingrich. It is nonsense, and a waste of money.
“Resources on the moon”! There is nothing on the moon which cannot be obtained on the Earth far more cheaply. A lump of basalt from the moon must cost millions of times what such a sample costs if gathered in my own backyard.
As for any knowledge we can get from the moon, we can do this research with robots. The entire computer power of the previous moon missions was much, much less than what is in an iPhone. In other words, we now have computer abilities which should be able to let us remotely explore the moon (and other places) much more cheaply than sending people, and with less risk to the hapless astronauts, and with more precise results. Building robots could be just as much fun as sending humans to the moon, and would sharpen our skills in robotics, with more immediate benefit to life on Earth.
The rockets going to the moon are powered by chemical rockets, and the power comes from fossil fuels, unless you expect windmills to do the job. Robot devices do not require the extensive overhead (food, waste-disposal, energy, weight, cost of return trip) that living humans do.
If the Chinese wish to send some of their people to the moon, let them. It is not what counts in the world. I wish them well in that effort, but we don’t have to make a contest out of stupidity.
Here’s an idea. The Chinese can go to the moon. They can get excited every time there is a crisis threatening the lives of their unlucky volunteer astronauts. Meanwhile, we will have robots exploring the moon, and will make their camera shots available in real time (with a slight delay required for transmission, because of the distance). Any person will be able to watch through the Internet. Kids could put on helmets with stereo presentation of the robot’s-eye view of the explorations, at any time. Pretty soon it would be obvious which system was working better.
Read the links at post 19. P.S. the Russians are also making plans for a moon colony. If Kennedy had ignored space, Russia and/or China would have military technology more advanced than the USA.
If you are happy using NASA as outreach to Muslims, go ahead and put your head in the sand. It is a perfect positon for BOHICA.
Read the links at post 19. P.S. the Russians are also making plans for a moon colony. If Kennedy had ignored space, Russia and/or China would have military technology more advanced than the USA.
If you are happy using NASA as outreach to Muslims, go ahead and put your head in the sand. It is a perfect position for BOHICA.