There's an echo in here..... 
I didn't say they couldn't, but only Americans have ever had the chance to go so far. Even they have only recently postponed plans to revisit.
As far as I know no other country is planning on doing it in the reasonably near future. So as I implied, your thread is a bit previous to say the least.
The lassy band kept breaking.
I
imamartian
i'm talking about the development of the human race in the last 500 years !!
500 years ago the country wasn't full of foreigners and gypos, some development.
That should get them other two divs going.
You can go to the South pole if you like but not many choose to live there. 
I'm sure humans will go back to the Moon but it'll only be a determined bunch of scientists who choose to live there for any length of time.
As I said in an earlier thread, the Moon is a good place from which to launch more ambitious space missions. Its gravity is much lower than Earth's so you can get into space a lot easier. You don't have to worry about poisoning its atmosphere with the effluent from nuclear powered engines because it doesn't have one. You can even build particle accelerators and fusion rings on the Moon without the need for a vacuum chamber.
It might not happen in my lifetime but we'll be back.
I'm sure humans will go back to the Moon but it'll only be a determined bunch of scientists who choose to live there for any length of time.As I said in an earlier thread, the Moon is a good place from which to launch more ambitious space missions. Its gravity is much lower than Earth's so you can get into space a lot easier. You don't have to worry about poisoning its atmosphere with the effluent from nuclear powered engines because it doesn't have one. You can even build particle accelerators and fusion rings on the Moon without the need for a vacuum chamber.
It might not happen in my lifetime but we'll be back.
People went there in the 1960's, so we've gone downhill over the last 50 years.
I actually believe that the reason (and for the space race in general) was that it enables the Great Powers to have orbiting nuclear weapons ready to use, that they can send down on their enemies if/when needed (and remember that in the 1960s the world was on the brink of nuclear war more than once). They also thought a moon base would be a good place to keep some missiles, and to prevent your enemies from setting up their own missiles.
Even today, the Space Race nations tend to be those with nuclear weapons.
I actually believe that the reason (and for the space race in general) was that it enables the Great Powers to have orbiting nuclear weapons ready to use, that they can send down on their enemies if/when needed (and remember that in the 1960s the world was on the brink of nuclear war more than once). They also thought a moon base would be a good place to keep some missiles, and to prevent your enemies from setting up their own missiles.
Even today, the Space Race nations tend to be those with nuclear weapons.
Dammit Martian Breath that's the third post you've written I agree with, this is getting to be a regular occurrence.
listen ... i don't have an agenda.....ffs....
i am just a normal bloke.... thats all !!
G
geraint
Dammit Martian Breath that's the third post you've written I agree with, this is getting to be a regular occurrence.
listen ... i don't have an agenda.....ffs....
i am just a normal bloke.... thats all !!
She is just crying tears as to which one to have tonight.....
both are dead.... sorry... all three are brain dead....
JohnD said:
I agree. It was military money all the way.
Now that the cold war is more or less over, America's star wars program is a dead duck - and poor old Ronald Reagan never did find out what role the wookiee would play. 
Any new money will have to come from those who think there's profit in it - which reminds me. It's a few years now since Richard Branson started offering trips into space at an outrageous price. Virgin Galactic wasn't it?
I suppose somebody with money to burn will buy a ticket but what do you get for it? I'm sure I heard that it was a rather short trip; just up and down again. Now that doesn't make sense because, once you're in close Earth orbit, you can turn the engines off and drift around as many times as you like. Having paid so much to get up there, shouldn't you get at least one trip right around the planet?
