Posted on 01/27/2012 11:43:26 PM PST by greeneyes
........."China is expected to complete its first exploration of the moon in 2010, and will establish a base on the moon as we did in the South Pole and the North Pole," said the program's chief scientist, Ouyang Ziyuan, according to the official People's Daily.
'For the Benefit of Humanity'
Beijing Morning Post quoted him as elaborating that the base would be used to "mine [the moon's] riches for the benefit of humanity."
(Excerpt) Read more at archive.newsmax.com ...
Wercome to the peoples moon corony number 8, please to watch the low overhead round eye.
Wercome to the peoples moon corony number 8, please to watch the low overhead round eye.
———out of the blue which serves no purpose. -——
Much of the hardware is already designed. There is a private company with a functioning space station module already in space. For an already determined and advertised fee, they will build a larger station to suit.
In old Engineering News Record’s there are articles describing moon base structures of several designs for various purposes. There is at least one private company with vehicles capable of reaching beyond the earth
Newt is right. We have already much of the necessary technology available in private hands. The project is doable
Then there are China and Japan. Why go alone? Why not have some collaboration? We have all sorts of American/foreign design and construction joint ventures to carry out all sorts of projects.
All of the countries involved know the process and could just as easily ficus on the moons as the far deserts of Mongolia. Such consortia of multinational joint ventures built Saudi Arabia and Kuwait and soon Iraq.
Newt is hated and dangerous because he thinks. No one else has his vision. He could lead the process of culling the nonthinkers and cleansing the system
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.
The biggest challenge for any lunar settlement is that the moon is so inhospitable for basic human existence that the cost of supporting human life there will be enormous. There's no way any ambitions about long-term settlement can work out unless this substantial obstacle can be addressed.
But we didn't have the gall to claim it.
Not really. It's not like the space station, where every pound of every resource has to be boosted. Virtually all the needed energy and raw materials to SUSTAIN life can be had there, now that we know there are large quantities of water. The comparison is pretty much the same as for the original US colonies.....there is a startup cost, but once started, can be self-sustaining.
LOL!!!!
You have the R-L sound substitution down perfect, plus the “round eye” comment and improper verb conjugations.
Let me guess... you spend lots of time around Asians?
The way things are going with the Chinese figuring out capitalism while we're destroying it, we probably deserve to have the Chinese beat us to the moon. Plus, they're the ones in need of extra territory to put all their people.
Maybe if the Chinese are nice and decide to keep a few “round eyes” around back on Planet Earth to remind them of how socialism destroys nations, the Chinese will decide around the year 2030 that it's in their economic best interest to let us rent some technology from them so we can keep what's left of our government and industry functioning, on condition that they be allowed to implant monitoring chips so they know what we're doing and can avoid repeating our mistakes. ;-)
(Do I need the “sarcasm” tag?)
Excellent post!
Newt is a visionary. He wants the private sector involved with the project and I predict that one day...years down the road..many will look back (after China has a base on the moon) and say that Newt was right and a man ahead of his time.
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.
oops. Sorry for the inadvertent double post.
And it will cost even more to get material to the moon. But let's not be rational about this. A true patriot demands a moon base.
I think that is a far better analogy. When Kennedy announced plans to go to the moon, I don't recall anyone ridiculing him.
The response to SDI, which is now essentially operational btw, was more like the way the einsteins here and elsewhere are ridiculing newt's idea.
Wonder why they aren't here, dissing the Chinese?
Not to mention the EPA—no wetlands regulations!
And industry with lots of moot regulations....
Not to mention the EPA—no wetlands regulations!
(Somehow it makes more sense when I get the HTML tags typed in right...)
Send the tools to make what you need there. A foothold will be expensive, but if someone else gets one before we do, it will be more so.
Instead of a Moon Base we should focus on a warp drive spaceship like the Starship Enterprise. Then if the Chinese or Russians threaten us from their Moon Bases, we can blast them from the Enterprise with our Photon Torpedos.
I will not say that NG is a visionary, as he is too well known as a panderer. Be it as it may, he is correct. A nation without a vision of something greater, something inspirational, is no nation at all, just a ship without a rudder or compass, going in circles.
Von Braun was ahead of his time, as was James Clerk Maxwell, Dyson and Tesla. NG is just another politician, to be believed and trusted at one’s own peril.
I’ll remind those reading this that of the Presidents with manned space programs (JFK, Bush 1, 2), only Kennedy’s plan passed Congress. All the others died on the vine.
Why anyone imagines NG’s plan will survive Congress is an open question.
As I said earlier, when - not if - China has a base on the moon, it will be militarized and we will do as they tell us. We will make their consumer goods for them. And people living in the North American territory, formerly known as the USA, will be glad for the job, even if it only pays $1hr under horrible working conditions.
Those who repeat the mantera of “we can’t afford it” may have reached critiacal mass. Dooming us all to contemplate our navels looking for the fount of godhead or some such drival.
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