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Should We Skip Mars for Now and Go to the Moon Again?

posted by martyb on Wednesday June 08 2016, @09:17AM   Printer-friendly
from the build-a-space-elevator-on-the-moon dept.

Gaaark writes:

NASA seems hell bent to go to Mars, but can't afford to on its own.
Its international partners have no stomach for that — they would would rather return to our moon and build a base there for further exploration.

Doesn't going back to the moon make more sense? Build a base on the moon, and use its low gravity and possible water at the poles as propellant for further space exploration?

Why not the moon first?

http://www.theverge.com/2016/6/7/11868840/moon-return-journey-to-mars-nasa-congress-space-policy

Links:
From NASA itself, in 2008: https://www.nasa.gov/centers/goddard/news/series/moon/why_go_back.html
The all-knowing, ever-trustworthy: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Colonization_of_the_Moon

Original Submission

 
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  • (Score: 2, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday June 08 2016, @09:20AM

    by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday June 08 2016, @09:20AM (#356766)

    SpaceX will go wherever it wants, for fun and profit.

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  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday June 08 2016, @09:28AM

    by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday June 08 2016, @09:28AM (#356768)

    SpaceX, the Uber of Space.

  • (Score: 2) by driverless on Wednesday June 08 2016, @07:37PM

    by driverless (4770) on Wednesday June 08 2016, @07:37PM (#356958)

    Nahh, let's start even smaller, maybe a family vacation to Disneyland, or a rented Winnebago to Utah. Then we can aim for more ambitious stuff, maybe a weekend trip to Canadia, or over the wall to Mexico. Then bigger steps, watch the kangaroos in Austria or sit on a beach in Zntlszrkstan. After that, we can think about going to the moon again, after we commission a study to investigate planning a report to start a study on how to go about it.

    • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday June 08 2016, @08:17PM

      by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday June 08 2016, @08:17PM (#356980)

      > family vacation to Disneyland

      cheaper to build a moonbase...

    • (Score: 2) by arslan on Wednesday June 08 2016, @10:43PM

      by arslan (3462) on Wednesday June 08 2016, @10:43PM (#357049)

      Kangaroos in Austria? Do they look different than the ones here in Australia? Do they... yodel?