re: We need to launch another Saturn V to the Moon ASAP

Holy shite, some of those people are my age or even a year or 2 younger and they have titles I couldn't even imagine at my age.


I feel like an even bigger loser now.

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All of that would literally do nothing to better our nation.

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I, and many, disagree.

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The moon is a dead rock and Mars isn't much more.

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The moon is hugely important for future space exploration. It may also be important for national security purposes. And it's possible that we could spring Mars to life. We won't know if we don't try.

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Let's try something novel: use all of those resources to fix our own messed up shite.

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Fix what, exactly, and how? Half of our "fixes" end up being frickups. The good we do might edge out the bad in the long run. Might.

From where I'm standing, the majority of our problems are rooted in our disagreements with each other. We are at our best when we find some common ground and work toward a common goal.

Do you feel that if it isn't immediately and directly beneficial economically, then we shouldn't pursue it? If it don't make dollars then it don't make sense? That's a short-sighted outlook on things, IMO.

Humans explore. We always have, and we always will. It's the only way to discover new things. The day we stop exploring is the day the species starts dying.

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Holy shite, some of those people are my age or even a year or 2 younger and they have titles I couldn't even imagine at my age.


I feel like an even bigger loser now.

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Fall back on the "In 100 years we'll all be dead anyway" theory, works for me.

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What resources does it have?

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I believe we could mine it for helium 3. Would be huge.

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The extremely small percentage of travel distance saved by putting a base on the moon certainly doesn't warrant the HUGE outlay of materials, man hours, infrastructure, manning, maintenance, resupplying, etc., etc., etc. of a moon base.

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It has nothing to do with distance and everything to do with gravity. The moon’s gravity is ~17% that of Earth’s. If we can refuel a rocket on the moon, the distance a rocket can travel is increased exponentially. It also makes space travel safer as the fuel saved by not launching from Earth allows for more maneuvering.

ETA: Downshift beat me to it.

Maybe the conspiracy theorists are right and we never landed there, if so I could see why we haven’t been back.

Both of you only addressed one issue and it is a valid point, but what about the rest of my post.

Don't pick and choose to make your point of view totally valid.


ETA: Oh, and notice I didn't downvote either of you.

For those complaining about the cost, keep in mind the money is spent on high paying jobs in the US. So while it’s expensive, it’s money that provides a return through technological investment (probably the highest ROI the government sees on money it spends) and taxes on those high paying jobs.

Regarding SLS and changing four year plans, the Alabama folks here aren’t going to like what I’m about to say. People like Shelby keep shoveling money into programs (often overriding presidential and NASA recommendations) like the SLS and Webb telescope to keep jobs for their constituents. The money would be much better spent hiring companies like SpaceX and Blue Origin. They would be able to get it done quicker, cheaper, and also accelerate the technological advances.