DiscussWorldIssues - Socio-Economic Religion and Political Uncensored Debate - View Single Post

**metrocartockasur** · 01-15-2010, 11:44 AM

And why has no other country in the world been there? Referring to manned missions of course.

Two most common explanations I see are, "No reason to." and "Can't afford it."

Two perfectly good reasons! What other reason could you possibly need?

Surely we didn't learn every useful detail of the moon in a handful of trips in the 60s/70s. Even if we did, many scientists spend their entire lives researching useless ****, and use a truckload of cash doing so.

The main point is that there's no reason to send manned missions. Unmanned are much, much cheaper and much, much safer. Manned missions could still only look at a tiny bit of the surface, you're better off sending lots of much cheaper unmanned missions with specific tasks to different parts of the moon.

But actually the moon is really quite boring, and we know a lot about it. So we're focusing our missions on planets and moons we know a lot less about. Sending more missions to the moon is a waste of money.

Advances in technology, especially computers, ought to have driven the costs down significantly. And besides, going to the moon is super cool.

The U.S. government has spent approximately 483 zillion dollars (ballpark figure) since Apollo 17, but couldn't spare a few million for even one manned mission in the past ~40 years?

And no other country wants to hang their hat on the moon either?

Doesn't make sense.

China have a moon program, aiming to go back 2025/2030. And if you think it'd cost "a few million" you are way off. Optimistic projections suggest it'd cost about $125 billion dollars to sent another manned mission, starting from where we are now.

01-15-2010, 11:44 AM	#6
metrocartockasur Join Date Oct 2005 Posts 633 Senior Member	And why has no other country in the world been there? Referring to manned missions of course. Two most common explanations I see are, "No reason to." and "Can't afford it." Two perfectly good reasons! What other reason could you possibly need? Surely we didn't learn every useful detail of the moon in a handful of trips in the 60s/70s. Even if we did, many scientists spend their entire lives researching useless ****, and use a truckload of cash doing so. The main point is that there's no reason to send manned missions. Unmanned are much, much cheaper and much, much safer. Manned missions could still only look at a tiny bit of the surface, you're better off sending lots of much cheaper unmanned missions with specific tasks to different parts of the moon. But actually the moon is really quite boring, and we know a lot about it. So we're focusing our missions on planets and moons we know a lot less about. Sending more missions to the moon is a waste of money. Advances in technology, especially computers, ought to have driven the costs down significantly. And besides, going to the moon is super cool. The U.S. government has spent approximately 483 zillion dollars (ballpark figure) since Apollo 17, but couldn't spare a few million for even one manned mission in the past ~40 years? And no other country wants to hang their hat on the moon either? Doesn't make sense. China have a moon program, aiming to go back 2025/2030. And if you think it'd cost "a few million" you are way off. Optimistic projections suggest it'd cost about $125 billion dollars to sent another manned mission, starting from where we are now.
	Quote