Over 50 years ago the U.S. landed men on the Moon. According to historians, NASA did this with computers no more powerful than a pocket calculator. Now, they're excited about the Artemis mission. Yet we're now hearing of all the obstacles, the Van Allen belt, heat and cold exposures etc. A few unmanned launches for testing purposes before the real deal. Seems like NASA could clean out their garage for parts and have a Moon mission ready in a week; after all, they did this over 50 years ago! Was NASA more willing to risk their astronauts back then? Did they have smarter engineers? Apparently, NASA claims they lost all their telemetry data over a decade ago. Yet we're in the age of super computers, not pocket calculators. I asked this in a more, well, lively forum a few days ago and was told the reason for the hype is because this is, indeed, the first time NASA will place astronauts on the Moon haha. So I thought I'd try here for a few intelligent responses...
This is using a LOT of existing technology some just larger. Seems they had a faulty valve in one of the rocket engines for the cooling system. Oh well hopefully Friday. I wish them success but have doubts about sending men to the moon again without a clear purpose with tangible results. Of course with the Chinese racing to get and knowing that ultimately they will attempt to put offensive weapons there we may have no choice but to go and do the same.
You can see how far things have declined when we're hopefully we can simply replicate a task that we were able to accomplish 50 years ago. This is simply an attempt to say, "We've still got it! Don't we?"
Why do you think modern car companies spend millions developing and testing new vehicles when Henry Ford did it all 100 years ago? They're still seeking to do exactly the same task but there are so many different elements to allow them to do things faster, more efficiently, more safely and more comfortably.
Some people say that we were warned off the Moon by aliens. Obviously, we should stick out a hat and wave it around first, so to speak, and see if the decoy moon capsule gets blown up out of space before sending a human crew.
It's not difficult to look up as NASA have laid out their long term plans fairly clearly. This mission is part of the process for manned missions to the moon, establishing longer term infrastructure there for research and preparation for later missions to Mars. You're free to think that is a bad plan for all sorts of reasons but there is literally zero justification to claim ignorance.
But there is no significant advances on what was done more than 50 years ago. Current mission is to orbit the moon which was first done in 1966. Manned missions are a waste of money and are so expensive. Money better spent exploring areas of Earth that still remain a mystery
"You're free to think that is a bad plan for all sorts of reasons but there is literally zero justification to claim ignorance."
But can do that with unmanned missions at a significantly reduced costs. The cost of manned missions anywhere in not justifiable. Please don't get me wrong; I can see the scientific advancement in these sort of missions however they do not justify the costs at the present times. The moon is a dead environment with little scientific interest. Having water ice is not that rare, comets have water ice too.
I wasn't trying to justify the reasons (I'm not really sure it's worth the money either) but you said you didn't understand the point of this mission. The stated point of this mission and the purposes of the wider project are clearly published and explained. Not liking them is reasonable, not understanding them isn't.
Agreed, we all need to accept the fact that humans explore and colonize new places --it's what we do. Sure, it's cheaper to just sit at home and tend our own personal a lives, but the idea here is to not simply have a life but rather to have a life worth living.
Manned missions to Mars is the end goal. The South Pole of the moon will likely be “colonized” as the staging area for the Mars missions. Right now the valuable resource of the south pole is up for grabs. This is like the colonization of Earth in the 1400-1600’s. You have to establish physical presence to make your claim stick.
Hardly like the era of expansion around the world. There were already life sustaining resources where they were going and financial rewards for doing so. They didn't have to rely on where they came from to keep the supplied and getting there and back was LOTS easier and LOTS less expensive. It was quite profitable to ship products back and forth while going to the moon to bring back a couple of hundred pounds of whatever resource there might be there is HUGELY expensive. And going to Mars exponentially more. What is even the purpose of going to Mars except the "because it's there" emotional appeal. If we think we could somehow convert Mars into some lush planet that could sustain human life without extraordinary means we have lots of places here on earth we should use that technology rather than on Mars. But we don't have that technology. Send robots which can do the same research and a lot less expensive in dollars and lives. But as I said above, if we know the Chinese are going there to claim it as there own and will even take measures such as weaponize it to prevent others from going there without their permission and also be able to use it for other space based attacks (laser or impulse weapons, the stuff of science fiction but..), who knows what our CIA knows of their intentions.
Water is what we are after at the South Pole. The ultimate resource for life. And more importantly the rocket fuel that will get us to Mars. Much more feasible to use rocket fuel from the moon than attempt to ferry fuel from earth. That is the why. Unlimited rocket fuel and water to sustain life. Energy and water. The ultimate resources. That said, I think going to Mars is dumb. I’m not advocating for it I’m just pointing out why we want to colonize the moon.
You realise the Chinese are probably saying exactly the same thing about America? "The enemy is crazy enough to do this terrible thing so we need to do it first!"
Which of course leads to the ultimate question...........why send people to Mars which is as desolate and as I said exponentially more expensive and dangerous? It's hard enough building and working on rockets here doing that on the moon where you have to mine for water and process it and store it and then load it and how are you going to power all of that?? And remember all your workers have to be provided an enclosed living space and they need food and water too. This exploration for water at the poles could be done LOTS cheaper than this project.
We had no real plans to go back until they announced theirs and I would put it at about 80% the Chinese plan to do it and we maybe 20%, the it being declaring they own the moon and will defend their territories. Look what they are doing in the South China Sea.
