Story here.
I’m of two minds about this. On the one hand, America needs a lot of other things right now a lot more than it needs another expensive dog-and-pony-show-to-the-Moon with no economic return or strategic purpose and no scientific work a robot probe can’t do. OTOH . . . come on! It’s Space! It’s The Future! It’s the Final Frontier! Ad Astra, motherfuckers! :mad:
Sorry, no moon for you.
NASA is never going to get anything accomplished for no grander reason than because any reasonable project will take 20 years, but every 4-8 years the new President changes their budget and priorities.
Personally, I think that rocket-based launch offs have proven themselves infeasible. We need to build some sort of infrastructure that makes getting off the planet a reasonable task. Whether that means a mass-driver, space fountain, or space elevator I don’t care, but we would be better to focus our attention in that direction.
I’m utterly batshit about space exploration. Got a total woody reading the proposal for the Hubble telescope, waited years on tenterhooks, did back-flips when they got it there, sank into suicidal despondency when it didn’t work, re-born when the fixed and hallelujah! it was all worth it!
But its true, and there’s no real getting around it: people ain’t the way to go. Gotta be sophisticated machines, there’s is no way we can efficiently lift enough mass to the moon to keep people fed, watered, etc. Plus, if they don’t go nuts, they probably already are. And three years to Mars? Forget it.
Not worth the risk. All we really want is information, and we can get that without risking anybody’s ass.
It was idiotic. I love space exploration and moon stuff, but manned exploration is a waste right now, and going to the moon is barely exploration. When we have a solid grasp on getting to Mars, I’m behind it, and if it involves the moon in some sensible fashion, that’s great, but the ideas behind Constellation seem half-baked to me.
To follow my point up, we’re only interested in information because that’s all that’s feasible with our platform for reaching the stars. And, like you note, that’s really only true in the case of unmanned exploration.
Presuming that there’s any resources worth mining on the Moon, then we wouldn’t only be interested in information if it was economic to harvest the resources there.
What would going to the moon accomplish at this point.
Nothing.
We have better things to think about.
Wait. You’re telling me if a plan gets $9 billion or more spent on it and doesn’t get immediate results it gets cancelled? Really??? What happens to $1,000,000,000,000 projects with even worse results? Please tell me it gets canceled. Please!
Like how to finance Pelosi’s bar tab on Air Force 3.
Why should our sole reason for going to the moon be based on whether and how economically we can strip-mine it?
Could you name some things better to think about that we’re not already thinking about but would be better to think about than going to the moon?
Also, since I suspect you’re a “feed the hungry first!” kind of person, could you lay out your plan for making sure any money not spent on NASA will go to one of the “better things to think about?”
Money not spent on NASA has never gone to anything else worthwhile, unless you can provide a cite that shows otherwise. I don’t know why people are so quick to fall for this perennially boring and predictable game politicians play. They make taxpayers feel good by shutting down a project that budget-wise is chump change no one would notice anyway, and then spend trillions on things they never consult taxpayers on.
Factcheck reports that the misleading headline was pulled out of the ass of ‘Judicial Watch’ by a “reporter” from World [del]Nut[/del] Net Daily.
Because going just because we can is bloody stupid. Unless you can think of an alternative reason that would justify a manned mission to the moon, we shouldn’t go.
To fight the aliens on their current turf and steal all their gadgets and 3-breasted womenfolk.
Sold! When are we going? 
I think that space travel has reached the point where handing over to the private sector for trips into orbit and, eventually, to the moon makes sense. NASA needs to be focusing its resources on whatever comes next - exploration of Mars, building a better space station, space elevators or something else entirely. Unless we’re preparing to build moonbases, going to the moon would essentially be just to prove we still can, which is not worth the billions it would cost.
C’mon, NASA - we need a new concept! Hire some hard SF writers and get planning!
I’ve already enlisted as one of Richard Branson’s Virgin Army advance guard. Do you want a recruitment brochure?
Well, I have to admit that the fairly sizable chance that the Orion launcher might pogo itself to death on liftoff probably played a big deal here.
I’m not that concerned: SpaceX will launch the Falcon 9 in May or earlier, and the X-34 lives in the Air Force. Let a thousand projects bloom.
I’m a little confused as to why the OP is linking to a news story from 2 months ago.
Other thread here
No.
Damnit.
Here’s an area in which the private sector won’t work, because the returns aren’t there. This is an area in which the government’s ability to outlay massive amounts of cash with no requirement to show return on investment is essential.
And it can’t always be just equipment. It’s got to be people, because man needs to leave this planet and spread out to the universe.
Megametastasize.