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Poll: Back to the moon

Started by Ron Wenrich, January 14, 2007, 08:35:00 PM

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Ron Wenrich

Poll expires 1/29/07

NASA plans to have us back on the moon by 2018.  What do you think?
Never under estimate the power of stupid people in large groups.

Jeff

Just call me the midget doctor.
Forestry Forum Founder and Chief Cook and Bottle Washer.

Commercial circle sawmill sawyer in a past life for 25yrs.
Ezekiel 22:30

DanG

WHAT?  Is NASA not a Government agency anymore?  They're actually talking about doing something that make's sense?  I've been trying to figger out why we have a space station just floating around out there when we landed on the Moon almost 40 years ago.  We could have just put it there to start with, and added onto it as time and circumstances permitted.  We coulda had a Starbucks up there by now!
"I don't feel like an old man.  I feel like a young man who has something wrong with him."  Dick Cavett
"Beat not thy sword into a plowshare, rather beat the sword of thine enemy into a plowshare."

Radar67

I don't think they should waste the money. We have more important things in the nation that need to be addressed. ie education, jobs, and many other things. That money could be better spent taking care of where we already live. MHO

Stew
"A man's time is the most valuable gift he can give another." TOM

If he can cling to his Blackberry, I can cling to my guns... Me

This will kill you, that will kill you, heck...life will kill you, but you got to live it!

"The man who can comprehend the why, can create the how." SFC J

Mooseherder

Trekking back to the Moon must come with a hefty price tag just to kick up a little dust and maybe collect a couple pounds of moon rock. ::)
If it's someone's idea to develop the place to have humans living and working there IMO we would be looking back at Earth wishing we were back on Green ground with Trees around ya. Hopefully new technologies will be harvested to help mankind with their preparations for the Trek because we are all gonna pay for it anyway. :D
It wasn't on the last ballot I voted on. ;)

DWM II

Whats the reason for going? is there something to test that cant be tested on the current space station? Will this be a joint venture with other countries or will we the tax payers bare the brunt. I would prefer to spend pur tax dollars providing our troops abroad the personal armor and silly string they are begging for. I realize that new break throughs are around the corner but can our economy with stand sending billions to the moon as well as to Iraq, Afganistan and who knows where next? I'm not saying we should never go back or that we should never build a space station there as well, but I do belive we should take care of our current responsibilites here on planaterea. :-\ JMHO
Stewardship Counts!

Furby

The moon is a needed jumping off point for futher points of travel.
Yes we should go back, should have gone a long time ago.
I'm first in line Jeff so ya gotta wait your turn! ;)

DanG

Y'all need to consider one thing.  Money don't really exist.  The only thing that keeps the economy going is the circulation of the numbers that represent what we call money.  The space program is the cornerstone of many large industries.  If we just let it die, there will be many thousands of people without jobs.  But, if we keep it going, and moving forward, there are jobs that pay real wages, thereby there are tax dollars going to the Government.  All of these people with the good jobs will be buying goods and services, which also generates tax dollars.  The actual expenditure of resources to build a moon rocket is miniscule, relative to the benefits to the overall economy.  Just look at all the technological breakthroughs that came from the original space program!  Just think, if it were not for the space program, your spouse couldn't call you anywhere and anytime she pleased.
"I don't feel like an old man.  I feel like a young man who has something wrong with him."  Dick Cavett
"Beat not thy sword into a plowshare, rather beat the sword of thine enemy into a plowshare."

Ianab

I voted yes.

Will it cost a lot of money? Yup.

But remember that money just goes straight back into the economy and gets spread out though all the contractors and workers involved in the project. So in a way it's an injection into the American hitech industries. Not spending the money may just mean more layoffs and less money for everyone downstream?

There are far less productive things that it could be spent on  ::)

And if America doesn't do it, Richard Branson will be there next  :D

Ian
Weekend warrior, Peterson JP test pilot, Dolmar 7900 and Stihl MS310 saws and  the usual collection of power tools :)

Furby

He's closer then most folks think. :-\

Cedarman

With the right marketing it will be a great way to get more kids interested in science and math.  The results of the last go round is still being felt with all the advances we have made in science and technology. IMHO money plays little part in whether kids get a good education or not. It mostly has to do with the attitude in the home.
Talk about creating jobs, this will do it big time. I would much rather see my tax money head in that direction than in where we spend it now.  The war in Iraq will wind down sooner or later. Our war on terror will keep going, but the things we learn from science will do a lot to combat that.
I voted a big yes.
I am in the pink when sawing cedar.

beenthere

In favor
It will mean jobs for those who want jobs.

(but I ain't goin  :) )
south central Wisconsin
It may be that my sole purpose in life is simply to serve as a warning to others

SwampDonkey

I think it's a great thing with all the science and research that goes along with it and the jobs all the way down the line. However, I ain't interested in going up there myself and if things get so bad down here in my life time, and they think I'm leaving, they're in for a surprise.  I'm staying down here on good Ole earth. They probably won't miss me. ;D :D :D
"No amount of belief makes something a fact." James Randi

1 Thessalonians 5:21

2020 Polaris Ranger 570 to forward firewood, Husqvarna 555 XT Pro, Stihl FS560 clearing saw and continuously thinning my ground, on the side. Grow them trees. (((o)))

DanG

You'd be a really old man before they need a Forester up there anyway, Swampdonkey! :o
"I don't feel like an old man.  I feel like a young man who has something wrong with him."  Dick Cavett
"Beat not thy sword into a plowshare, rather beat the sword of thine enemy into a plowshare."

snowman

This space junks been a sore spot with me for many years. I hear all the arguments for it, jobs, new technology spinoffs that benefit us all but I'm not impressed. Imagine if we put the money, time and minds into stuff that directly benefited us, like say umm, oil shale technology, engines that got 100mpg, solar power,anything and everything to make us not dependent on the mideast , venezuela and everyone else who hates us and our way of life.I'm ok with sending puters into space, but manned space flight has a rediculous cost benefit ratio. I'd love to see those arabs back living in tents, riding camels and cutting eachothers heads off instead of ours.Thats where they would be if not for our oil dependency. Besides, theres no trees on the moon, who cares?  ;D

Ron Wenrich

Going to the moon isn't a consumer dependent industry.  Oil shale, engine efficiency and alternative energy is dependent on consumers.  So far, the oil industry wins and the alternatives lose, just on economics.  Oil has to get a lot more expensive to make the others work.

There is also some competition on getting to the moon.  China is now in the race, and speculation is that the next man to walk on the moon may be speaking Mandarin.  In that case, they have the money (ours from exports) and they will develop the science and math.  They could buy it if they wanted to. 

Losing out to the Chinese would further cripple our technological edge.
Never under estimate the power of stupid people in large groups.

TexasTimbers

One of the best, if not THE best (and someone may have mentioned this) benefits of going to the moon that most people use every single day in all facets of life and 99.9% of our society doesn not realize it, is the spinoff technology that results from moon shots and space exploration.
Even those of us who are aware of a multitude of this spinoff technology can't possibly know the full extent.

However, this time when they go, I think it ought to be imperative that in order to make up for the technology we have given away to our enemies (those who would do us harm when they get the chance) we should prioritize the harvesting of all the cheese up there to at least corner that market. If that moon cheese is as good as they say, maybe we could export that stuff to shift the balance of power that the Indians, Chinese, and Upper Voltans are amassing.
The oil is all in Texas, but the dipsticks are in D.C.

Fla._Deadheader


  I think the cargo hold on the shuttle could hold LOTS of illegal aliens. Let them start building the living quarters on the moon.  8) 8)
All truth passes through three stages:
   First, it is ridiculed;
   Second, it is violently opposed; and
   Third, it is accepted as self-evident.

-- Arthur Schopenhauer (1788-1860)

Tom

To heck with economy.  I just want to do it.    It falls in that catagory of looking around the corner of the house to see what made that noise.   It's that sawmill I didn't have to have as long as I stayed in a Corporate America cubicle.  It's sticking my chest out and thumbing the rest of the world and saying "I beat you".  It's another step in seeing what's out there.  It's a chance to get a lot of questions answered.   One day we'll figure this whole mess out and know where we came from .

We could spend all of our resources penny pinching the products available on Mother Earth and be right here 10,000 years from now without any products to pinch.  Making a 100mpg auto is great, we should do it, but, not at the expense of exploration.  If we do, we will end up with a 100mpg auto and nothing to put in it.   That might happen anyway.  We might find sources of energy "out there" or getting out there that will relieve us of the anxiety.

To not go is like canceling the superbowl because new towers need to be built in N.Y.  Or, canceling The baseball season because we don't know who would win the games anyway.

There's some things we need to do just for the fun and the challenge.  Heck yes!   Let's do it!

flip

errrrr.   I don't know if you folks know it or not but we've never been to the moon ::)  didn't you see the show where they debunked the moon shot? :-X  If we do attempt it (for real this time) it would be an incredible waste of money and manpower. IMHO ;)
Timberking B-20, Hydraulics make me board quick

beenthere

Flip
Where does that money go that you say is 'wasted' ?  I'm thinkin it goes into the economy, and gets circulated around to business's and contractors, and then to their employees who spend it on food, housing, new products, and on and on and around it goes.......

Today's computers, might be a good example of designing for a space need and it might just have been to pack a lotta memory in a small chip (space), fer example.

The biggest waste of money is to hire people in the Gov't (been doin that just to lower unemployment) who are not productive. Or to give money to the person sitting on the street corner who remains unproductive. The list goes on (in my way of thinkin anyway).

I think, spend it on science that breeds knowledge and makes it even more possible to come up with break-throughs that might cure cancer, find a new, cheap fuel, and that list can go on and on.......Just the competition to get there again and again, will make new inventions happen.

Saw a program on TV last night about an apparently happy tribe of people living along the Amazon river. They too, can do without the moon program (they kinda did have one of their own  :) ) and continue to wait for the pack of monkey's to migrate back through their camp so they can eat some meat again. In the meantime, they get along with the manioc that they grow and process into a flour for subsistence.  Not me. Lets shoot for the moon.  :)
south central Wisconsin
It may be that my sole purpose in life is simply to serve as a warning to others

Michigan Mike

I am in favor of it. Kinda like Tom just because I want to see whats around the corner. Also because it is somthing of an insurance policy for the human race. If we get established in space and the other planets and asteroids we as a race may continue on even if some crazy on earth makes a nuclear winter or a large meteor sends us back to the stone age.

TexasTimbers

Yeah i know flip. And also there is no God. We all just suddenly appeared from a pool of slime that, also came out of nothing. ;)
The oil is all in Texas, but the dipsticks are in D.C.

TexasTimbers

MM that's a good thought but as the Earth goes, so goes the moon. We are gravitationally connected in a way that if the earth ever gets impacted by an asteroid it would also sling the moon into ....... hey I wonder what Ralph Cramnden would think about this. If we al lived on the moon where would he send Alice?
The oil is all in Texas, but the dipsticks are in D.C.

SwampDonkey

Quote from: flip on January 15, 2007, 01:12:15 PM
errrrr.   I don't know if you folks know it or not but we've never been to the moon ::)  didn't you see the show where they debunked the moon shot? :-X  If we do attempt it (for real this time) it would be an incredible waste of money and manpower. IMHO ;)

Flip, I know we got to the moon because there were some very talented Canadian Engineers involved in making it happen. In fact a lot of them were involved in making the world's first Mach 2 interceptor with with fly-by-wire control system.

Jim Chamberland

  • Head Engineer for project Mercury
  • Project manager for Gemini (he designed it in fact)
  • Had a key role in NASA's descision to use lunar orbit rendezvous
  • Became technical advisor to Manned Spacecraft Centre director Bob Gilruth
  • troubleshooter on Apollo
  • Worked on concepts for the space shuttle

Richard Carley

  • Had a leading role in developing the guidance system and navigation systems in Mercury, Gemini, Apollo and the shuttle

Stanley Cohn was a computer expert at NASA, returned to Canada to work at IBM and U of T.

R. Byran Erb became manager of the Lunar Receiving Division, then went on to NASA's remote sensing program and later became Chief of the Earth Observation Division. His wife Dona was a computer programmer and manager with Lockhead working on the Shuttle and retired after being Lead Scientist for Mitre Corp.

And the list goes on...

[Source: "Arrows to the Moon: Avro's Engineers and the Space Race"] Good book I might add. ;D

Canadian engineers wouldn't lie would they? ;D
"No amount of belief makes something a fact." James Randi

1 Thessalonians 5:21

2020 Polaris Ranger 570 to forward firewood, Husqvarna 555 XT Pro, Stihl FS560 clearing saw and continuously thinning my ground, on the side. Grow them trees. (((o)))