Moon Base
 

Hey, saw this and thought I'd see how everyone felt about it. Even though they are apaprently trying to start planning it, it is still a long time away, but what do you think are the pros and cons to such an operation?

Moon Base

That would be a titanic expendature of money just to bounce around on a barren, airless rock.

I'm totally for it! I'm still saving up for a trip on Virgin Galactic's SpaceShipOne fleet.

I guess everyone needs a hobby.

Sorry to tell you that NASA is a bit behind. There is the ESA Aurora program wich is a program that aims to get men in Mars at something like 2038 I think. What does this have to do with a moon base? Well one step of the aurora program aims at building a moon base of somekind for testing the rocket. That's if I recall everything right. I am sure there was a moon base involved though, but if you want more information on the subject, please visit http://www.esa.int/SPECIALS/Aurora/index.html

Not to turn the subject to Mars, but there you can see and verify for yourselves if I was actually right.

Mars is part of it. If we can rig a cheap, economical way to get us from the Earth to the Moon, we can use the Moon as a ridiculously cheap and effective way to get to Mars. Now, they had the Venturestar linear aerospike spaceplane which would have cut costs of going into space from $10,000 / kg to about $500 / kg, but the program was cut right after they got it working, so that plan is out the window.

Even so, if they (THEY being EU, China, NASA, or friggin ANYONE) can figure it out, a manned moonbase would work very well, since it has been progrn tha hydrogen and oxygen can be extracted from moonrocks.

And of course the station would in the end be pretty much international. And it would be cool.

Also EU is not the same as ESA. ESA and the EU work together a lot, but ESA was formed before the EU and not all EU members are members of ESA and vice versa.

My bad.

Sounds plenty nifty, the moon would be a great way to get into space easily, since we don't have to overcome so much gravity taking off from earth and can thus have more fuel for longer journeys.

It would also be a great place to build a giant laser to zap things with. :p

In thaaaaat case, I hope the ESA spends its money on this moon base project. It's high time the current American administration practiced some fiscal responsibility, if that means letting some other willing party foot the bill for a moon base, SO BE IT!!

I think we need to sort the problems down here first before we start going to other planets. In my opinion this is just a waste of money.

Ok lets face facts people; we are NEVER going to clean up this mess we call the Earth, politically or pollution wise, so why not go to other planets? That way we can have interplanetary disputes instead of intercontinental ones.

And hasn't everything man kind done in the past 20 years been a waste of money? I'd rather blow off a couple billion making houses on Mars than blow it off on some weirdo program that people say will make the world bettter, but then doesn't and ends up making it worse...