Regardless of Bush: Re: Moon Base, then Mars

[zbdent]

Forgetting Politics, military, and the deficit for the moment.

The idea of a permanent moon base as a stepping stone to Mars is not a crazy idea.

Earth's gravity well is many times greater than the moon's. (Isn't the lunar gravity approximately one sixth of the Earth's?)

Liftoff from a moon-based launching station allows a lot less force than an Earth-based launch.

Raw materials may be available on the moon, and a thriving base could conceivably produce the materials needed to construct the rockets used for the missions.

Radiation is always a consideration, but less as a byproduct of our own making, more as a constant presence on the moon itself.

Solar energy could be used much more than Earth could ever generate, since there would be a large area for the panels, and any portion of the moon's surface is subject to solar radiation for roughly two weeks straight at a time. Well placed panel "farms" could conceivably be used for constant energy sources.

Now, back to the original considerations. Can we afford to do this? At this time, no.

Can we get along with the rest of the world to agree to this? Not bloody likely.

Would this have been laughed out of the "serious discussion phase" if it were proposed by a Democratic President? Oh, hell yes!

[Dudley_DUright]

1. A moon base as a stepping stone to mars

is not a very good idea. In the near term, virtually all raw materials would have to come from earth. Even NASA admits that the lunar base would be a test bed for testing ideas for mars habitation and nothing more. Actually, all of this emphasis on manned missions misses the point. We are on mars today and are doing important scientific research. Why muck it up by sending people at a hundred to a thousand times the cost?

[Webster Green]

2. Bush will poison the space program...

Like everything else he touches. Exploration for the sake of research is great, but bush's plan is all about positioning weapons, and enriching halliburton. Nothing new here.

[soothsayer]

3. moon base if for weaponizing space

some say they'd like to install a high powered laser-type weapon just over the rim, towards the dark side, that could be retracted so it couldn't be hit. Then it could strike earth targets and hide itself.

As for mars, that's prolly just talk in order to get the weapons on the moon without us blinking or asking, "um, why are we going to the moon again? we've been there a few times already."

OR, so they say, mars is part of the staged alien invasion the NWO is planning in order to make us pull together as a planet and go for a one world govt.

tinfoil fodder or food for thought. forewarned is forearmed, after all. (ps watch for a staged second coming of christ, too, someday)