NASA chief wants to send some people to the moon permanently. Is Trump high on the list? Can we get some Russian collusion to get him there? NASA Chief Wants to Send Humans to the Moon — 'To Stay' https://www.space.com/41599-nasa-moon-space-priorities-jim-bridenstine-update.html Jim Bridenstine wants to make sure that there is never another day when humans are not in space. "In fact," the NASA administrator said, "we want lots of humans in space." (More at above url)
We should have colonized the moon years and years ago, and have landed a mission or two on Mars already. We have everything to do so except for the will. Just another sign of a once great country in decline.
Ran out of Nazis to propel the space program Wernher Von Braun's death in 1977 at the relatively young age of 65. His goal/vision was always Mars not the moon. The Curious Droid channel is very good, lots of stuff to explore.
Yep, they got distracted with that whole kill all the Jews and take over the world thing. Interesting video and I also liked that youtube page you shared with all the short sci-fi films. I wonder what would bring the best ROI, a moon colony or a trip to Mars? Mars gets a big headline, but then what, unless they find some Martians. A colony on the moon would bring ongoing science to be studied. Both are huge undertakings and the question people would ask, where's the money coming from? It's a valid question considering we can't even fix the bridges and roads. Maybe if we weren't spending billions on building smart bombs to kill three people at a time we'd have the money, but that's a different topic. I had hoped to see a mission to Mars in my lifetime, but that seems unlikely now. Maybe the private sector can get there, but I think they're finding out it's complicated as well as expensive.
For anyone young who does not know reading, I'm sure the Captain does. Von Braun was a member of the Nazi party, though this was a political necesssity, he did not share their ideology really. He just wanted to get rockets made and go to Mars. His projects working Jews to death was incidental to his bigger plans, this was unavoidable really given how every German project was run during the war. So he got a pass as too valuable and got America to the moon on schedule. Both the US and Russians got their boost by grabbing various German rocket scientists. The joke was whichever country advanced faster depended on who got the better Germans in that field. A major issue on Earth is nearly exponential population growth. This will kill is as sure as bacteria run out of sugar in an agar dish. We HAVE to get off the Earth and find new resources or by maybe 2070 (guess) it will look like the movie Soyalent green down here. Roads won't matter by 2100. Hard to predict what A.I. will add to the mix of course. You may recall the cover of the book that showed that the resources of the Oceans were unable to feed the population. This was ahead of schedule and did not take into account tech improvements and resource discoveries however these extensions are finite. The arable soil is turning to clay, this soil crisis nobody talks about but it is a real killer. We might green the deserts, the Sahara is as large as the continental US and was forests until relatively recently, there are options but we will need space. So moon of course, Mars maybe though if there is some major propulsion breakthrough and we capture some good asteroids perhaps large orbital stations also?
Why is it asinine? Difficult, yes. Hell of a challenge, you bet. Expensive as hell, for sure. But think of the knowledge and technology to be gained. A unified effort between all advanced countries would help bring us together. The sense of accomplishment would give us all something to be proud of. And, one day, sooner or later, humans will have to exit this planet and it's highly unlikely that can be done on some kind of oh shit, we need to go right now basis. All very unlikely in this horrible, at each others throats climate we live in, but I'd rather see my tax dollars going for this rather than a dozen other programs we blow money on like there's no tomorrow.