US Officially Out of the Space Program

[Asher]

...are you suggesting that we would mine so much that we'd significantly decrease the mass, and therefore the gravitational effect, of the moon?

Just smile and nod.

[chequita guevara]

Take the extra money from the military.

[Drake Tungsten]

All NASA funding should be shifted into research on either stargate or space elevator technology.

[KrazyHorse]

Space elevator

[Asher]

I think an escalator would be more impressive.

[FrostyBoy]

...are you suggesting that we would mine so much that we'd significantly decrease the mass, and therefore the gravitational effect, of the moon? Never mind that it'd probably be cheaper to synthesize whatever material is needed than to send out rockets at millions per launch; unless the moon happens to have a mantle of pure...hell, what's worth that much? I'd say platinum, but that's only valuable due to rarity. Something with a major industrial application.

I am suggesting that yes. It's just another good reason not to mine the Moon. The only thing the moon is really good for (in terms of development) is acting as a stopover to Mars.

Anyway, has anyone ever suggested colonizing the ocean floor or something, instead of space? It's a lot more cost-effective, being much less hostile and without escape velocity problems, and there's probably something worth mining/exploiting down there. Dunno what. More useful research, anyway. A better understanding of ocean ecology would probably help us with climate change.

Can we colonize the ocean floor without ****ing it up? I have this feeling we can't. Honestly, we need to stop building so much **** on Earth and start building on Mars, it's huge, it's got resources, it's nearby, it's cool looking and most important, it'll teach us how to traverse space, coz we kind of still suck at that. Getting to the moon was like crossing the Nile river on a canoe - important, but not exciting. Getting to Mars will be like crossing the Mediterranean on a bigger boat - very important, very exciting; once we have mastered that, we can cross the Atlantic once again and find new worlds and convert the aliens to Christianity asap.

And lets please not forget what Bill Maher once said; commercialism is good, but not everything has to be a business.

[FrostyBoy]

Space elevator

Last I read, NASA is very seriously considering this option. I have no idea what the latest is.

I also thought the Mass Driver was a good idea. What happened with that?

[KrazyHorse]

I am suggesting that yes. It's just another good reason not to mine the Moon

[FrostyBoy]

I am suggesting that yes. It's just another good reason not to mine the Moon

[KrazyHorse]

I have no idea what YOU'RE laughing at.

[KrazyHorse]

I have no idea what YOU'RE laughing at.



EDIT: I love the poly server.

[FrostyBoy]

Then let's keep it that way.

[KrazyHorse]

Okay, ****. Either you meant your comment seriously, in which case you should be ashamed, or you meant it as a joke, in which case you should be happy to have others laugh at it.

[DanS]

To bring it (somewhat) back to topic: This country put a ****ing man on the moon and we can't figure out how to offer affordable quality health insurance and care to every citizen? I mean, ****! Even Italy figured out how to do it!

1) The country didn't figure out how to put a man on the moon affordably. Rather, it was wildly unaffordable -- so much so that the Apollo program effectively was killed by the congress years before we even put a man on the moon.

2) The country is not the same as the government of the country, as KH is doing well in pointing out repeatedly. The private sector is the strength of this country -- we will rise or fall based on the fortunes of the private sector. It disheartens me to hear so much unquestioning reliance on the government from Americans.

[KrazyHorse]

It's attitudes like that which have contributed to the massive size of American government compared to more sensible countries like Canada, Dan.