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When will humans return to the moon?
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Only fools are quoted.
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(Score: 4, Funny) by zocalo on Sunday November 19 2023, @08:44PM (5 children)
More seriously, I think it'll be a toss up between the US (using a SpaceX launch vehicle) and China sometime around 2030, and for exactly the same reasons as last time; two superpowers engaged in a dick-measuring contest purely for the kudos of seeing who can get there first. It's not like there's much of anything other than kudos that boots on the ground can achieve that robots can't at this point, unless you're seriously laying the foundations of a permanent lunar base for things like mining Helium-3, building telescopes on the far side, and the like.
Hopefully, the rest of us will at least get some side benefits from the technological advances developed to make it happen though.
UNIX? They're not even circumcised! Savages!
(Score: 4, Insightful) by Freeman on Monday November 20 2023, @10:46PM (2 children)
Without SpaceX, I doubt we'd have any hope for returning to the Moon in the next decade or two. Certainly not more than one or two trips and done. With SpaceX, reusable rockets, and Starship (assuming they're successful) we could see humans on the Moon by 2030 or maybe a bit later. It would be epic to see humans going to the Moon and maybe even Mars in my life time.
Joshua 1:9 "Be strong and of a good courage; be not afraid, neither be thou dismayed: for the Lord thy God is with thee"
(Score: 3, Interesting) by turgid on Thursday November 23 2023, @10:05PM (1 child)
Elon Musk is unhinged, and he is not a nice man to work for. But to give him his due, he has put a large boot up the backsides of many industries. He has taken the last 70 years of space technology, for example, and refined it, with some government subsidies, to make it more of a commercial operation.
On his own, I don't think he'll see us to the Moon or Mars. He's making quite a mess of Starship and he hasn't got a proper solution to the problem of radiation on a Mars trip.
He is motivated, and he is showing everyone else what you can achieve if you cast off the old cobwebs, which is good. I think he's going to run out of money before he gets anywhere near boots on Mars, though.
I refuse to engage in a battle of wits with an unarmed opponent [wikipedia.org].
(Score: 3, Insightful) by Freeman on Monday November 27 2023, @02:38PM
I figure a couple more X/Twitters and that should do it.
Joshua 1:9 "Be strong and of a good courage; be not afraid, neither be thou dismayed: for the Lord thy God is with thee"
(Score: 2) by DannyB on Tuesday November 21 2023, @03:39PM
<no-sarcasm>
It is a land rush. They aren't making any more of that land. Defending your territory may require actually being there.
</no-sarcasm>
So grab it while you can. Grab 'em by the 0 G's. They'll let you if you can see the stars.
Such a contest is important, but measuring it can be hard.
Police can legally stop you for having too much tent on your window.
(Score: 2) by JoeMerchant on Wednesday December 06 2023, @07:33PM
>unless you're seriously laying the foundations of a permanent lunar base for things like mining Helium-3, building telescopes on the far side, and the like.
We've maintained the ISS for quite a while... a Lunar base could run a similar (yes, more expensive) program serving a very similar agenda, tritium exports and dust plagued telescopes not really required. Note that, while it has grown, the ISS is nothing like the big, empty orbiting wheels of the 2001 movie(s), and I would expect a lunar base to be similarly cramped and crowded - operated as much for "political cooperation" as any science being performed.
🌻🌻 [google.com]