NASA plans moonbase for 2020

[Greatcloud]

NASA plans to put a base on the moon by 2020 - USATODAY.com

How exciting we are going to have a moonbase in 2020. However I hope it will continue to be funded. So many things become in jeopardy with budget cuts. I hope we continue to plan for this.

 

[Incariol]

NASA plans to put a base on the moon by 2020 - USATODAY.com

How exciting we are going to have a moonbase in 2020. However I hope it will continue to be funded. So many things become in jeopardy with budget cuts. I hope we continue to plan for this.

Indeed, the U.S. track record for funding science in the past few years has really been appalling. We can only hope things turn for the better.

 

[Greatcloud]

Here it is the moonbase that is planned for 2020. This is just the early modual more will be added on.

 

[Wiccan_Child]

NASA plans to put a base on the moon by 2020 - USATODAY.com

How exciting we are going to have a moonbase in 2020. However I hope it will continue to be funded. So many things become in jeopardy with budget cuts. I hope we continue to plan for this.

Oh I really hope they go through with this. The author of XKCD says that most planets have a species confined to its surface, because they made the rational, economical decision not to go into space. They are observed by those other species who made the irrational decision.

I don't know about you, but I yearn more than anything to be part of those irrational, space-dwelling species

EDIT: This is the comic:

And this is the alt-text:

"The universe is probably littered with the one-planet graves of cultures which made the sensible economic decision that there's no good reason to go into space--each discovered, studied, and remembered by the ones who made the irrational decision."

 

[Incariol]

And this is the alt-text:

"The universe is probably littered with the one-planet graves of cultures which made the sensible economic decision that there's no good reason to go into space--each discovered, studied, and remembered by the ones who made the irrational decision."

Key word is "remembered". I want to be one of the so-called "irrational" species as well.

YouTube - ‪Symphony of Science - 'The Case for Mars' (ft. Zubrin, Sagan, Cox & Boston)‬‏

 

[freezerman2000]

Who's up for a moon walk?
I am! I am!

 

[Resha Caner]

NASA plans to put a base on the moon by 2020

Why?

 

[Wiccan_Child]

Why?

Why did scientists begin investigating electricity?

Science should be done for its own sake. The amazing boons of science are rarely predictable. But, if you like, we can more accurately manufacture custom chemical in lower gravity. Medicine and nanotechnology would be vastly improved by research on the Moon. This is what is done on the ISS, but the resources of the Moon would improve this further. It would also allow for much cheaper refuelling of spaceships and the ISS, since the Moon is far easier to land on and take off from.

 

[Davian]

Cool.

 

[freezerman2000]

Why?

Why not?
It's the first step to Mars and beyond.

 

[Greatcloud]

Here is a more detailed verision of moonbase alpha.

 

[Greatcloud]

 

[Greatcloud]

I just hope that I am alive when this moonbase becomes a reality.

 

[Orogeny]

Has nobody noticed that the article posted in the OP is from 2006? NASA has been seriously de-funded by recent federal budget actions. This moonbase no longer seems to be in the cards.

 

[pgp_protector]

didn't that bases nuclear waste blow up?

 

[Greatcloud]

NASA Lunar Science Institute

We are definantly going back to the moon and build a moonbase. If you don't believe me just search the NASA website.

 

[Incariol]

NASA Lunar Science Institute

We are definantly going back to the moon and build a moonbase. If you don't believe me just search the NASA website.

At least until Congress cuts the funding so the Republicans can give more tax breaks to their corporate puppet-masters.

 

[Greatcloud]

It was the Republicans who started the funding for the moonbase in the first place.

 

[Lion Hearted Man]

Let's all join together, conservative and liberal, republican and democrat, and with one voice shout that a moonbase would be freaking sweet.

 

[Resha Caner]

Why did scientists begin investigating electricity? Science should be done for its own sake.

This is said by people with spare time on their hands ... and that usually means wealthy people. Doing a little historical research will indicate to you that a vast majority of the "science for science's sake" people came from the leisure class of the Enlightenment. Had the serfs working for the enlightened been allowed a vote in "science for science's sake", they would have chosen food instead.

But we live in a different time ... and that was one of Tocqueville's concerns about democracy. He wrestled with questions like this: autocractic societies (or societies under the pressure of war) are more likely to make great advances, but is the sacrifice - a forced sacrifice - worth it? Another difference between us and Volt with his little stacks of metal in jars full of chemicals is the amount of resource required to make further advances.

But, if you like, we can more accurately manufacture custom chemical in lower gravity. Medicine and nanotechnology would be vastly improved by research on the Moon. This is what is done on the ISS, but the resources of the Moon would improve this further. It would also allow for much cheaper refuelling of spaceships and the ISS, since the Moon is far easier to land on and take off from.

So, while I admit that the fun factor for a moon base is pretty high, I don't think it will happen. It won't prove financially or politically feasible. Driving to the moon to get your meds will be too expensive, and al Qaeda isn't building space capsules to compete with us the way the Russians did. NASA has been struggling to find a purpose since the end of the Cold War, and this is just propaganda. They probably have a plan to negotiate down to a little rocket that will carry an autonomous vehcile to the moon's surface.

Sorry to rain on the parade, but that's my prediction.