It’s easy to be skeptical about any expensive idea hatched by a government agency, but NASA’s plan for a permanent outpost on the moon sounds a note of optimism and forward thinking that couldn’t come at a better time.
As outlined Monday, the base would tap lunar resources to sustain itself and perhaps provide fuel for eventual manned missions to Mars. After shutting down the tired shuttle program, NASA hopes cooperation from international partners and space businesses might make the project feasible without any dramatic infusion of new money.
Or maybe not. But it sounds good to me. It surely can’t hurt to lift our eyes, at least briefly, once more to the sky.
Posted by Dave Knadler
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27 Comments
It’s a great idea. Man was never meant to sit still and rust. A base on the moon, with the idea of using it as a jumping point for Mars is simply awesome. Mega jobs, new discoveries, better ways of manufacturing not easily done with earths gravity. It’s a win-win situation. Where do I sign up?
I wonder how long it will be until Haliburton smells this one?
Maybe we will find Saddam’s WMDs hidden there.
I can think of the perfect candidate to go up there and look.
I think we have discovered the base camp for Sam Brownback’s presidential bid – and he can take all the Evangelical Christians with him!
Sam Brownback-The Moon Beam candidate?
Probably based on the dark side.
Of the moon.
If this plan stimulates interest in studying the sciences, math, and engineering qua the “first” space program, then I’m all for it. As an unabashed space “freak” in my younger days, I am excited to consider the potential, although my enthusiasm is tempered by the reality of the funds needed to see it to a successful conclusion.
Our Space program is falling into the same sort of hole that leaves us unable to go to the Space Station whenever we have a problem with the Shuttle. We need a program that has external redundancy, not just one but two at least different spacecraft that can be launched on top of at least two different launch platforms.
That way when a problem is found with one spacecraft or launch platform the other can be substituted and programs can continue in a timely manner.
This is even more essential when we are placing people in positions (like on the moon) where untimely delays could result in unnecessary loss of life.
There is no dark side of the moon, really.As a matter of fact, it’s all dark
Fleetwood- It’s poetic license, and you’re about as deep as Saran wrap!
No, it’s Pink Floyd, DA.
Oh, and that’s a compliment! I don’t know how you do it.
Just what we need – another massive boondoggle.
The time will come to do this. But this is not the time. Too many other commitments and unfunded liabilities in the budget now.
GMC is HALF right.
SO he starts out only marginally better than usual.
The time to do this was THIRTY YEARS AGO!! not 20 years from now.We SHOULD be talking about the bases on Europa (moon of Jupiter) the miner strike on Mars and the first missions to a nearby star. America failed SO badly in the 70’s. So much has been lost.
It’s time to prove that America’s best days are not, as I and many others feel, behind it. We do that with missions like this not silly chest thumping wars
TELL THE BUSH ADMINISTRATION THAT THERE IS A TERROR CELL ON THE MOON AND SOMEONE WILL BE THERE TOMORROW.
JR, maybe if we could convince Bush to declare war on the moon? Tell him green cheese is just another form of oil….
I do not see how we are going to get anywhere if we have too many pessimistic attitudes against space exploration.I heard a lot of it during the 70’s; too expensive, why we are going and so forth, it is what killed off the Apollo program.People did not see a need to be going to the moon vs. the cost of the supporting the program.Today is a different world with better technologies and the potentials to better understanding of space resources that can benefit all of us in private industries that will provide us a reason for going out to space.With the population, growing in large numbers, how much longer do you think we can survive on using only the resources that we have here on earth?What can we learn about resources on other celestial bodies?We will not know if we are not trying and I would rather be knowledgeable of it than to be ignorant of it.I am in support of it, it is a start and one of these days, we will reap the rewards of it.
I wanna know why our tax dollars need to be going to this at this point in time. Lets pay off the wars first, then we can look to something like this. IF we can manage to keep out of another war.
If you will do your research, you will find that construction has been ongoing on the moon for over a decade. Why they are only making it “newsworthy” now is beyond me.Please research military intelligence officer William Cooper, who was killed in a mysterious “shoot-out” with law enforcement while researching the space program.This is the same gentleman who exposed the Secret Service’s involvement in the JFK assassination – watch the film and judge for yourself:http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=8136240710964892606&q=William+Cooper
This is a colossal waste of resources.
Good to see you X.
Hey political mom which would you RATHER pay for? War or the future of the human race?
In the future, folks will look back at the period between 1974 and whenever we return to the Moon and wonder what the hell we were doing wasting time.
I remember when we first stepped on the moon believing that one day I would be out there – doing some sort of science. It’s too bad they throttled back so much, I will probably never step off the planet. Well, maybe my grandkids.
Big difference in putting a space shuttle into earth orbit at about 200 miles above the earth and perhaps 20 miles more at 220 miles above the earth if visiting the space station.
On the other hand, our moon is a lot further out at an average distance of some 240,000 miles from the earth.
A friend of mine just got a Thames and Kosmos chem set for her 13 year old. This is the kind of serious chemistry set that turned millions of kids like me onto science during the Space Race. You haven’t been able to get this for more than 30 years.
T&K’s president is a Stanford engineering graduate. We built their solar/fuel cell powered car a few years ago. Fun, and very interesting.
If anybody is interested in some great science stuff for their kids or grandkids to learn science by DOING science, check out
thamesandkosmos.comscientifics.com
“Too many other commitments and unfunded liabilities in the budget now.”
Well no shit! If the current preznit hadnt cut taxes for the rich, spent what will amount to a TRILLION dollars for the haliburton/contractor disaster in iraq, and generally pissed away the treasury…
…we might have some money left to do something progressive.
You do know that term? Like making progress? Moving the country forward instead of backward toward the vietnam/nixon era?
GW is driving drunk again. He thinks he’s in “drive” when he really has the car in reverse.
Hope he doesnt back over those weapons of mass destruction.
Or his dad…..
Watching this preznit is like being tied to a chair and forced to watch some horror movie on a loop.
Over and over and over and over again. With the same ending everytime.
Worst.president.ever.
A moon base isnt as cool as a Death Star.