Going to the moon in 2024

[hatidua]

Well of course, but there is no single issue that outweighs everything else. Cancer isn't the only thing.

-potentially not, unless you are dying of it. suffice to say, going to the moon, again, isn't making anyone's latte cheaper or easing anyone's morning commute. I get it, you want to see a rocket blast off, headed for the moon. The reality is that it costs a metric-@#$%-ton of money to go to a place that is a barren rock, with bragging rights to say "lookie here, we went, -again".

[Irving]

I guess I just don't understand why people offer that type of input in the first place. Pick any category you want and people can say, "that money could be spent on cancer or feeding the hungry." Of course it can, but it's already not, and the reality is that it won't be anyway. So why not do both things. Not everyone in the world can be focused on the same issues, not sure they be.

[Justin]

-potentially not, unless you are dying of it. suffice to say, going to the moon, again, isn't making anyone's latte cheaper or easing anyone's morning commute. I get it, you want to see a rocket blast off, headed for the moon. The reality is that it costs a metric-@#$%-ton of money to go to a place that is a barren rock, with bragging rights to say "lookie here, we went, -again".

The implications go far beyond watching a launch, even though launches are fundamentally cool.

The ultimate implication in manned space exploration is as a way to lay the fundamental groundwork to stave off the extinction of the human race.

And, ultimately, Artemis isn't (or shouldn't) be about recreating a stunt where we go and pick up a couple rocks and do a few basic experiments, but about establishing the fundamental infrastructure where long-term experiments and business concepts can be conducted that will pave the way for eventually moving on to doing manned missions and business development in other locations like Mars and Ceres. The initial concept here should be more about establishing a facility similar to McMurdo rather than just doing a flags 'n' footprints stunt. As an example, the amount of useful science that's been done on the ISS has been utterly tremendous, and that's with a facility that's rapidly aging and can only support six astronauts at any given time. A lunar facility capable of supporting two or three times that number of astronauts for a few months at a time would very, very likely pay incredible scientific dividends.

There are also national security issues as well. The Chinese have already successfully landed two lunar rovers, and are rapidly bootstrapping the technology needed to execute a manned mission, and my understanding is they're also planning on implementing a manned facility as well, most likely at the lunar south pole where ample supplies of light and water are available.

[RblDiver]

So, this is a video made for a video game, but even so, the sentiments inside are legit.



"In our distant past, it was the province of governments to explore and understand space. A simple launch took resources and money beyond the capacity of even the largest companies. But then RSI introduced the Zeus, and suddenly regular people were able to explore our solar system, allowing an unprecedented amount of knowledge to be discovered. ...But once that technology was refined and opened to the public, what happened? That's right, an era of expansion that led us from [two dots] to [much larger quantity of dots]. ...Whenever innovation has put technology in the hands of the people, it has heralded sweeping discoveries, because power in the hands of many will always exceed the power of few."

[Justin]

So, yesterday the $1.6 Billion proposal was shot down, but today this news showed up:

https://www.space.com/nasa-private-m...g-artemis.html

The space agency is granting a total of $45.5 million to 11 U.S. companies, including Elon Musk's SpaceX and Jeff Bezos' Blue Origin, to help them develop spacecraft that can get astronauts to the lunar surface. NASA aims to achieve this goal by 2024, as part of its ambitious Artemis program.

The money will be awarded via NASA's Next Space Technologies for Exploration Partnerships (NextSTEP) program. Each company must contribute at least 20% of its total project costs, agency officials said.

[SideShow Bob]

And to think that in the late 60’s we put men on the moon in a spacecraft that had less computing power than a digital watch has today.
Talk about big balls......

[Gcompact30]

If we already been, why we need to go back. Just saying.....

[SideShow Bob]

For a staging area for a trip to Mars.

[Irving]

If we already been, why we need to go back. Just saying.....

It's not a theme restaurant.

[Bailey Guns]

If we already been, why we need to go back. Just saying.....

That's actually been answered pretty well a couple of times in this thread.