I for one don't think that the Chinese being on the moon is going to be a good thing if there is no collaboration between nations. It will end in tears, and not for the Chinese.
Another reason the ISS is a waste of space (). A short sighted, post-cold war exercise in touchy-feely international relations.
Nobody's doing anything up there that couldn't be done more efficiently by a machine. All that dosh could've gone onto putting equipment and supplies on the moon ready to DIY together. The amount of top-notch Radio Astronomy that could be done, fairly simply, on the far-side is incredible.
ISS should have been a space hotel charging squillions to wealthy space buffs. That way they'd have some left $ over and have a much better idea of how real people react to long-term spac-edness (word?).
OUR place is exploring other worlds, not farting around in NEO.
And that's all I have to say about THAT!
Although I love the history of manned spaceflight, I say, GOOD!!! And that goes for pie-in-the-sky manned missions to Mars too.
The 2009 fiscal year for the US saw a deficit of US$1.4 Trillion, 2010 will be US$1.5Trillion and the following year may be worse still. The US economy is gravely ill through 60 years of recklessness, and it won't repair anytime soon.
Countries like Italy have a debt of 110% GDP and Greece is near insolvent.
The climate issues are not going away, but are getting worse, and no individual country wants to lead the way. The cost of keeping carbon emissions under control, in keeping warming under control, would be to condem all developing countries to stay as developing countries and to scale back first world countries. Ask the Chin family in the outskirts of Beijing (which is already choking to death with pollution), what they think about that idea?!
The west has got itself in a gorilla war with terrorist cells that won't go away until there is retribution, and since the US are in economic trouble, this issue will only heat up.
Until a thousand issues like this are cleaned up and we all can play nicely, I say space can wait...perhaps until a more sensible generation appears.
I'm sure the next 5 generations will really appreciate a more sensible approach to what gets achieved over the next 50 years.
OUR place is exploring other worlds, not farting around in NEO.
And that's all I have to say about THAT![/QUOTE]
Could not have said it better!
One of those other worlds will be mankinds home oneday.............well, not if we do not get on with it - we can all wither and die here!
I suspect way back when that someone was complaining about sending ships to the other side of the world was a waste of money and lives. Where would the world be now with out the pioneering spirit of the explorers of our oceans. And what happens when the habitable zone we are in moves and we haven't done the work to move to the other planets and stars do we seriously want to see our race die like the dinosaurs. What a footnote to our civilization yes we knew what was coming but we didn't move out of the cradle. In this diagram it shows that mars will be entering the habitable zone so this means we can look forward to living on 2 worlds in the future so we need to be developing the technology to take advantage of this and then when the earth is moving out of the Zone we have a place to live I understand it is way off in the future but that is no excuse that's how things get left undone and someone say's what the hell were our ancestors doing didn't they think ahead. O sorry if we don't do the tech there will be no ancestors to say that so I suppose that's ok. Any how I am all for moving out of the cradle that's my 2 cents worth.
I don't see why this next moon shot cannot be a collabrative effort. We need a base on the moon for our next journey out. Why not like the ISS and use everyones efforts and money.
Yes the US is in grave trouble, but if they stopped making war with every tin pot nation out there just so that their military industrial machine can keep rolling along, then things might be different. Let's face it, Afghanistan is no threat to anyone really, the same as Iraq. So much money and lives wasted on both sides.
I had hoped to see another moon shot in my life but perhaps now that is all for naught. We need another place where our species can be safe. If we don't do something soon we could jeopardize our very existence. The impact on Jupiter last year highlighted this issue. No one saw that coming and the same could happen to us.
Stupid State sovereignty is holding up our progression. Would serve us right if we had an impact in 30 years. Dumb humans
Sorry to be a pessimist, but I thought this would happen. I just recall every space announcement by every US president over the years (apart from JFK) and almost everyone of them failed to materialise.
A sad day for space exploration, but the Sun will still rise tomorrow and life goes on.
). A short sighted, post-cold war exercise in touchy-feely international relations.
. Any how I am all for moving out of the cradle that's my 2 cents worth.
