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As Japan becomes the latest country or private entity planning to send a person to the moon, RT.com takes a look at some of the most ambitious plans for a future manned lunar mission.
Whichever country or corporation returns a human to our celestial neighbor will be the first to do so since NASA's Apollo missions concluded in the early 70s. In fact, whoever ventures to the moon will be the first to go beyond low-Earth orbit since 1972.
Space exploration has generally been the preserve of nation states and their taxpayer-funded space agencies. More recently though, private companies, most notably Elon Musk's SpaceX, have been leading the way in the aerospace sector.
Billionaire Musk recently laid out his plans to colonize Mars. For some, however, a return to the moon would provide good preparation for the months-long trek to the Red Planet.
Here, RT.com takes a look at some of the frontrunners in lunar mission planning.
Source: RT
(Score: 2) by Fluffeh on Wednesday July 05 2017, @06:13AM (4 children)
Keep the peasants distracted with bread and circuses - except the circus is twitter, and the russians and the ongoing media feeding trough, and the bread, well, you're actually taking the bread away from the poor here, in the form of stripping healthcare, minimum wages and the like. But you're telling them that it's good that you are doing it - and although polls are showing a growing unhappiness... for the most part, the peasants seem to be content with having all that taken away from them.
Why bother with any of this aspiration stuff that might come off if everyone works hard and makes less money and has to work hard and stuff and it might only just happen and everyone has to work oh-so-hard to make it maybe happen....
(Score: 3, Interesting) by takyon on Wednesday July 05 2017, @06:26AM
VR does not require rocket science or expensive space travel. If you do it right [wikipedia.org], people can use VR while living in pods [wikipedia.org] on universal basic income.
The bread can come from a plastic tube. And you ain't seen nothing like these circuses.
[SIG] 10/28/2017: Soylent Upgrade v14 [soylentnews.org]
(Score: 2, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday July 05 2017, @09:05AM (2 children)
I definitely think things are connected, but not really in the way you're implying.
Even the most despicable examples of 'profit over everything' today at one time were companies really trying to change the world and provide a great new service. McDonalds for instance was something that had never been done before. Getting food to people fast, really fast, and perfectly reliable? Without the benefit of hindsight it sounds like a utopian operation. The problem is that once these companies 'win' they lose any sense of purpose. What next? Well there's nothing really. Just make more money. How much? Who cares, just as long as its more than last year! More! More! More!! Food quality goes down, working conditions go down, healthfulness goes down, profit margins go up.
Something like actually beginning to work to colonize another planet is something that suddenly gives even the biggest of companies a new massive blank slate of opportunity and possibilities. The goal becomes not to just squeeze more profit out of doing what they've been doing for decades - but to be able to create, innovate, and become the best once again. We need a new direction. Capitalism works great at the beginning but deteriorates as opportunities and inequality increases. We can press the reboot button without tearing society down.
(Score: 1) by khallow on Wednesday July 05 2017, @01:55PM (1 child)
Ok, and what's the problem with that? Let us note that providing fast food is not a goal that you walk away from. It's an ongoing thing. And since, the US has evolved a huge variety of restaurant approaches. So McDonald's achievement wasn't the end.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday July 05 2017, @07:34PM
If The Market wanted Man to walk on the Moon it would have made Earth cheese prohibitively expensive.