Forty-five years and one day

cannabineer

Ursus marijanus
since the launch of our last crewed lunar mission. AS-512 (Apollo 17) was our final J-block mission with rover and extended duration consumables. Sic transit gloria mundi

CDR Gene Cernan
CMP Ron Evans
LMP Harrison "Jack" Schmitt

 
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lokie

Well-Known Member


That's a shame. So much time lost.

The Moon seems like an ideal place to stage and practice for colonizing mars.
mars.gif.gif

When I get there I will name my first grow Ziggy Stardust OMG (Officially Mars Grown) or (Original Mars Grown).

Either way folks will still wonder OMG WTF? It will be awesome. :weed:
 
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tangerinegreen555

Well-Known Member
I'm still pissed that 18, 19 & 20 were cancelled (to save money, lol). Even though the hardware was already built.

I always looked at projects Mercury, Gemini and Apollo as scientific endeavors. I think the gov't. at the end just saw it as a competition with the Soviets that we won, no need to finish.

Jerks.
 

cannabineer

Ursus marijanus
I'm still pissed that 18, 19 & 20 were cancelled (to save money, lol). Even though the hardware was already built.

I always looked at projects Mercury, Gemini and Apollo as scientific endeavors. I think the gov't. at the end just saw it as a competition with the Soviets that we won, no need to finish.

Jerks.
I also believed that the space program was about science, knowledge and expanding the human experience. In fact as a youngster watching the glorious progression of machines and missions, I drank that Kool-Aid holding the mug in both hands. Some reading on the subject in the late 90s disillusioned me. It was always about the politics of territory displaced into a supposedly peaceful, noble endeavor ... scratch that, an actually peaceful and noble endeavor. But with the removal of the political threat, the positives of the program did not sustain it.

I was fascinated by the efforts in the early 2000s to focus space efforts on a new Common Enemy ... the small but real chance a larger body is heading toward Earth. But even with a good argument like that ... absent an immediate threat politicians can understand from the media outlets ... there wasn't any real interest.

I think we will get a space program again when there is something in it for us ... resources we can afford to harvest, or some space threat like an asteroid.

sigh.
 

neosapien

Well-Known Member
Not all that related in terms of nonfiction vs fiction but there's a pretty cool show on Syfy called The Expanse that takes place in the future after we've mastered space travel and colonized Mars, etc. The 1st season is on Prime. As you touched on, even in fictionalized space, politics is the driving force.

 

BudmanTX

Well-Known Member
Yeah but we haven't had a president smart enough to realize that til now.:P

(just a joke, don't kill me)
eh i wouldn't go that far...lol....the vision was always there, just the tech wasn't. Now with the invention of ion thruster and other tech, the possiblities are there. The mapping of the moon's dark side, and the knowledge till now, that water is on the moon in ice form. The invention of mining the aluminum, and the titanium that's presant. There is alot of things. You know if you a powerful enough telescope in your backyard you can still see the flags and the lander from back then....kinda cool....i'm goofy like that...
 
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