Mankind is heading back to the Moon

So they're going back to the moon again. BBC News: Lockheed is awarded Nasa contract

Sigh! Its like showing repeats on telly: "We've seen it before!" I'm sorry. I cant get excited about it.

And the capsule even looks like the the old ones. How nostalgic. I bet it even has big chrome bumpers, manual wind down windows and "retro" rockets.

I'm sure they'll sing that song again "I was walking on the moon one day..." They're going to sing it. I know!

These days we expect black holes, death stars, gamma quadrants and other species. The TV watching public of today have travelled far beyond the aspirations of the sixties. I mean, the moon is still in black and white for goodness sake!

Can't they go into deep space and meet beautiful alien women (who happen to speak English)? It would get much better viewing figures!

Well I am not excited about it if Lockheed Martin got it. They ara a shit company.

If Northrop Grumman got it then maybe.

I am excited about any return to space though.

You mean they are really going to go to the moon this time ??

what are they going back to the moon for?
I couldn't see anywhere in the article what the purpose is

If its that good a place to go to, why has it taken them so long to return?

Maybe cos they didnt have the technology to get there the first time and just made up the bullshit story!

Because it's there.

but they've already been!
surely they've something better to spend their copious wads of cash on??

AAhh, but have they really been ??
Some say they haven't...

This thread will surely incur the wrath of DrivinWest at some point...

The purpose should be crystal clear Topsy: The nice kind political sponsors get their investment back tenfold, courtesy of ordinary American pockets. Sorry to be cynical, but this lot are proven privateers.

Better than spending it on muslim-killing though eh?

well, i wasn't suggesting that they spend it on wars or anything instead...

yeah - lockheed (only 'cuz my uncle works there)

yeah - real moon landing (only 'cuz they won't be filming it in my neck of the woods this time )


*near similar-looking location of first filming har har

This is why it's so fucking hard to get science done. We've been there a few times, a sum total of less than thirty days. It's a big fucking rock and there's a lot to learn.

We've learned a lot already, like how to get there and back safely. We've learned a lot about our own planet's history. So because we've already learned some stuff we should stop? that's like saying, "Fuck Calculus, I already learned addition, subtraction and even long division. I don't need to know any more than that."

Since we don't even have the plans for the old vehicles -- and since we have a many newer, better materials available -- we have to start all over in making extraterrestrial transports and landers. We got to the Moon through two decades of baby steps. Are people so damned ignorant that they believe that to go to Mars we should just be able to cobble a few rockets together and land? Maybe as a crappy plot for some bad scifi book or film but real life doesn't work like that.

The Moon is chock full of He3. If we can collect the stuff in quantity on the Moon and bring it back, that alone would be worth thousands of times more than the cost of going. $20B is rather cheap and much better spent on further our knowledge with a space program than in furthering our destrution with weapons systems. The US has pissed away 15 times that amount on the war in Iraq already.

woof.

Forgive my ignorance but what is He3?