[Nico]

Well, for the water, I always wondered why they keep sending drones to Mars, but they don't send a single one on the moon? They don't like the moon?

[Lt.Cannonfodder]

I read somewhere that Helium-3 can be found on the Moon. The nice thing about Helium-3 is that it's far easier to us as a fuel for fusion reactors than deuterium and tritium.

Now if they'd put a base on Moon to extract Helium-3, maybe we could get the fusion reactors in this century

[Dark_4ce]

Cool, people on the moon again. That'll be interesting.

[Rictor]

Feasability, common sense and priority have just been 0wnEd and are now hiding in a corner whimpering.

This really doesn't susprise me in the least. For a month or so now, the White House has been planning the "next big idea", some grandious scheme thats going to insipre America and win Bush the election. People are starving around the world, and yes, even in America. Essentially, welfare, education and healthcare have been cut to that Bush can be remembered as the guy who sent a manned missions to Mars. America will be illiterate, destitute and dieing of 7 seperate desieses, but atleast you can proudly pump up your chest and tell the world how you're clearly superior 'cause you were the first to land on some rock hurtling through space for no other reason than that its there and you could. We've come to the point where politicians don't even have to hide the fact that billions of dollars are going to a project just to get them re-elected.

Yes, this thread was bound to get a few political posts, so there you go. This **** pisses me off even more than the few recent FBI and immigration threads. Its just such a waste of money, money that could be used to help people here on Earth. I suppose that in the minds of the American citizens, bragging rights are THAT important.

And aside from all of that, the phrase "not a chance in hell" comes to mind. Its like those early scuba divers with the bigass suits and the the oxygen being pumped through a hose. Thats the level of technology we're at now. If you ask me, this is an almost certain failiure. C'est la vie.

[Singh]

we'll never learn unless we try
But your right in the sense that America has a zillion better things to spend that money on- and the fact that they arent even hiding the fact that its for not much other purpose than an election of all things is what disgusts me.

[aldo_14]

What would be nice, would be if the US decided to wipe out the third world debt owed to it - in the same vein as it's asking countries to ignore Iraqs'.

It's interesting, though..... and any advance in technology can only be a good thing.

[Black Wolf]

Originally posted by Nico
Well, for the water, I always wondered why they keep sending drones to Mars, but they don't send a single one on the moon? They don't like the moon?

Well, no, they don;t really. It gets rather irritating after long periods of time. More to the point though, they know pretty much everything there is to know about the moon - it's not all that complex after all - Mars has many more unknowns than the moon, so they're spending more time/money on exploring it.

[Stunaep]

Originally posted by Rictor
*rant*.

Yeah, and instead of spending billions of dollars on making movies, we could just give all that money to the hungry and poor.

What's your point?

[Nico]

Originally posted by Black Wolf



Well, no, they don;t really. It gets rather irritating after long periods of time. More to the point though, they know pretty much everything there is to know about the moon - it's not all that complex after all - Mars has many more unknowns than the moon, so they're spending more time/money on exploring it.

Yeah, they have all sorts of therories they've never checked.
As for the money thing: don't care, not my country

[Unknown Target]

I'm just hoping nothing happens within the next year (probably won't) so GWB still won't get re-elected.

[magatsu1]

just don't mention the EU Ariel (I've spelt that wrong I know) rocket(s) eh ?

[Unknown Target]

They're still not as powerful as the Saturn V Plus, he wants it to be a completely American affair

[aldo_14]

Originally posted by magatsu1
just don't mention the EU Ariel (I've spelt that wrong I know) rocket(s) eh ?

Ariadne? (that's probably spelt wrong too......)

The only rocket to have blown up because no-one thought to rewrite the software when they moved the control computer from an old one.... (Ariadne IV to V IIRC)

[Nico]

Ariane.
And Ariane5 is probably the most powerful rocket around, right now. And the only one that really works economically, besides all the dumb jokes you can do ( it blew up once, big deal )

[aldo_14]

It blew up because - officially - they used the control system from Ariane 4, which was a much smaller and less powerful rocket, and they didn't even bother their arse testing it.

 It's a classic case study for **** software engineering.... although i've heard a rumour that the reason for it blowing up was actually an even more embarrassing software error.

[magatsu1]

doesn't matter how good it is economically if it's just a big pile of scrap on the launch pad....

[Nico]

At least there's no blood in THAT pile of scrap
And the economical part comes from the fact that it flies often and blew up one single time.
Geez, that sounds like the Concorde bashing, which flew for 20 years w/o a single pb, it crashes once, and everybody wants it dead.
They would have done the same with Boeing, it would have gone bankrupt long ago

[Gloriano]

I  Hope it's not just talking that they Forget

because i would be cool if humans could ge to
Mars

[Unknown Target]

Venom, it's the most powerful rocket NOW, but I bet you my bottom dollar that the Saturn V was more powerful.

[Flipside]

Who reckons Spirit found Oil and they're covering it up?