Water on the Moon

[PQ]

Originally Posted by Zeus

I don't consider it a waste of money. Some of us appreciate intellectual expansion, which is the main goal of NASA.

So then what does it matter how much the NASA budget is compared to the rest.

[Zeus]

Originally Posted by PQ

So then what does it matter how much the NASA budget is compared to the rest.

I'm not the one running around complaining about a budget. Only time I mentioned it was to reiterate how small that budget that your complaining about actually is. My personal opinion is that it should be higher than what it currently sits at.

Originally Posted by 1320junkie

Moon and space exploration is a dominating factor for world super powers. Remember the race to the moon..etc

[POWERFREAK]

Originally Posted by PQ

The first trip out of the atmosphere was unmanned. We could launch satellites.

ok...but weren't we launching unmanned rockets in order to explore space???....this argument could go on forever and is effin painful.

[tones2SS]

Here is an interesting link regarding NASA and it's research; http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/09201/985039-51.stm

[PQ]

Originally Posted by tones2SS

Here is an interesting link regarding NASA and it's research; http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/09201/985039-51.stm

So when do we get our Lightsabres and Ray guns?

[Zeus]

Originally Posted by PQ

So when do we get our Lightsabres and Ray guns?

Military has had ''Ray gun'' Tech for years. The odd's of you seeing them though, are pretty slim....

[len56]

I WANT A RAY GUN!

plz

[PQ]

Originally Posted by Zeus

Military has had ''Ray gun'' Tech for years. The odd's of you seeing them though, are pretty slim....

Only the G.I. Joes get them I guess.

Our military doesn't even get to use them.

[FarmallsForever]

Originally Posted by Number 3

Well I'm not sure about needing water from the moon HERE, but I do believe that ability to NOT have to haul water to the moon is a huge deal. Water is 8 pounds per gallon and you need quite a bit of it to keep a man or a woman alive on the moon......................................for low gravity research and manufacturing.........................which I believe saves human lives.

Surprised by the negativity on this subject. Exploration is (IMO) the essence of mankind. If we didn't explore where would we be today. Or are you just saying we've explored enough and we should just stop now?

Don't get me wrong, I respect your opinions, just surprised a little.

And seriously, just google the things that have resulted from space exploration. Think of things that you use every day that are a result of space exploration. And just think of how happy X will be driving a Camaro on the moon.

I am too. :( Maybe it is because of my background and growing up doing a lot of reading on different subjects. There is in us a drive to look to new horizons and try something new. Many of us take a vacation each year to a place we have never been before. The whole tourism industry is based on that. Many of our ancestors came over to this country at some point in time, because they wanted change or just had the urge to do something different. The drive to explore is part of human development (look at how curious kids are when they are young, some people grow out of it, and others it stays with them), when we cease to have that drive anymore, I believe (and this is just my opinion on the matter ), that humanity will lose a part of itself that makes us unique and life is going to get very dull (and I like excitement very much ).

Anybody ever not use a Teflon pan? That material was the direct result of funding for the Manhattan Project.

http://www.chemheritage.org/classroo.../plunkett.html

How about the microwave. By-product of radar research. Yes not direct funding, but many products that we use today were the result of accidents in projects that were funded by NASA, DOE, and etc.

http://www.gallawa.com/microtech/history.html

Water on the moon is significant because, it can be broken down into oxygen (need it to breath and as a fuel) and hydrogen (fuel to power rockets, fuel cells, etc). Just more one does not have to haul up there. Was reading a paper on helium 3 that had very interesting ideas concerning the generation of electricity by using it in a fusion reaction. Nobody knows how much of it is up there, they know it is there and for the most part in what concentrations, but not for sure. Once up there, you need a way to get it back and that takes fuel. Hence why water is so important.

http://www.space.com/scienceastronom...m3_000630.html

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Helium-3



Don’t want to offend anybody and not looking to change anybody’s opinion. All I ask to look at it from a different angle and keep an open mind.

[PQ]

[Russo]

Originally Posted by 1320junkie

Moon and space exploration is a dominating factor for world super powers. Remember the race to the moon..etc

i remember when unions were necessary but that was a long time ago too...

i'd have to look into our Constitution to see what it says about "exploration"

[CatiaJockey]

Well I'm a supporter of NASA all the way! My son is an aero-space engineer (PWR) working on the test stand that will test fire the rocket engines for the next moon shot. The NASA projects over the years have led to developments that otherwise would have taken decades in the private industry. You're looking to save lives quoted from the NASA web site
"Knowledge gained through space radiation research will contribute to finding the source for possible treatments of cancer. Research and technology development sponsored by NASA's Life Sciences Division promises to improve understanding of how cancer develops and methods of detecting and perhaps even treating cancer. " "NASA researchers are developing 3D MRI's and Sonograms that will give doctors a better look at breast cancer. "

[MrIcky]

Originally Posted by PQ

All those you named were for OUR use. And ALL were either readily available or a direct result of free enterprise. I sure could use a car, a phone, an air conditioner and computer, but somehow I'm missing the part where moon rocks and moon water are helpful to us. We got bigger problems right now.

Those would have been developed anyway. And by PRIVATE companies.

LOL it's like you want to fight. You say in one sentence to show you something invented with your tax dollars, then someone shows you something and you say private companies would have invented it. It's circular logic and this kind of logic makes it impossible to have a real conversation.

Moon Rocks

"The moon’s surface is full of the energy source helium-3, said Gerald Kulcinski, a nuclear engineering professor and director of the Fusion Technology Institute at UW.
“If we could land the space shuttle on the moon, fill the cargo with canisters of helium-3 mined from the surface and bring the shuttle back to Earth, that cargo would supply the entire electrical power needs of the United States for an entire year,” he said."


Here are a few other things that have been invented though because of the space program:

A system that allows doctors to monitor the hearts of outpatients and locate patients if cardiac emergencies develop.
A method for measuring blood glucose without a needle.
Computational techniques to help physicians instruct osteoporosis patients on avoiding the risk of bone fracture.
A device for early detection of cataracts, diabetes, Alzheimer's and other diseases that will allow doctors to test new treatments.
A portable, wireless device that meets the growing demand for monitoring patients with various conditions outside the clinical setting.
A method of cleaning contaminants from surgical implants that will reduce the number of infections and limit soreness and swelling

Now you can say private industry WOULD invent those, but they didn't.

Another site:
http://www.sti.nasa.gov/tto/shuttle.htm


Or here's some very practical medical info:

Every year tens of thousands of people suffer knee injuries as a result of over-strenuous exercise or sports accidents. The ideal cure would be to replace the defective cartilage with new material, having the same properties as human tissue, that is readily accepted by the immune system.
Unfortunately, scientists are not yet able to produce artificial cartilage for implantation, as under the influence of Earth's gravity human cells grow flat, like a pancake, rather than in the form of a sugar lump from which the right shape can be modelled. With the benefit of weightlessness, on the other hand, the necessary growth in all three directions might be achievable.

And that is exactly what scientists from Switzerland, Italy and Germany are trying to test in an experiment to be carried out on the International Space Station. Using a bioreactor, a device commonly used in laboratories on Earth but specially adapted for use in space, the team wants to investigate the factors that make human cells grow in three dimensions.

Then there's the inevitable reasons to be in space. I'd rather be the top country in space research then the bottom country. And water on the moon means you can fuel ships on the moon. And if we aren't there first, we might as well be last. Controlling space IS the next frontier for the military.:

"Just last week, the Chinese air force chief officer called military competition in space "inevitable." For those who thought this was just idle saber-rattling, take a look at what the American Air Force is cooking up this morning: a $50 million bid for better interplanetary weather forecasts, "battlespace surveillance" in space environments and inertial sensors for navigation, presumably in situations where the standard compass isn't effective."
----

Or here's some other energy news:

And the Moon would be more efficient to pull solar energy from because of the lack of atmosphere- there are tests being performed right now to power large lasers on the moon which fire onto a photovoltaic supercell on the Earth. The solar cells on the moon would me more effective by factors of 10s to100s because they can use the full solar spectrum.

I'm not going to be insulting to anyone, I just think there's a lot of practical aspects that aren't being thought through- and if for no other reason than having a presence in space then we need to be there.

Then there's the esoteric- we haven't even explored a 1000th of a pixel in the following map:



Who knows what all we'll find as we increase our exploration.

[SleepWarz]

The moon is our first step off this rock, and with the mentallity of the people on this earth... Stop the ride, I want off.

Seriously though how can people ridicule the space program when much more money is wasted on things like a war under false pretences, bailouts, and general corparate corruption that uses so much more capital than the space program could even hope to spend.

With all the untapped natural resources in space I'm suprised that there isn't more corp interest in attaining rights and planting flags on everything without one. There will always be suffering in human existance, and we are foolhardy to believe we can stomp it out.

Lets get rolling in space asap so we can spread the plague of humanity across the universe for all. Because were nothing more than a parasite on a planatary scale. And right now were all a bit easy to stomp out being singulary located.