Newt Gingrich's promise to build a base on the moon by 2020

[caz_manc]

Seriously WTF, there is absolutely no reason to go back to the moon, there is nothing there.

It could cost 5% of the federal budget, so why?

Does anyone think this is a good idea?

[tonym911]

Either he knows something we don't, or (more likely, judging from recent revelations about his not-so-private life) he is a complete spanner.

[V88Dicky]

A permanent base on the moon brings Mars one step closer, plus it beats spending hundreds of billions of Dollars on 'combatting climate change'.

[Sam the Mut]

caz_manc said:

Seriously WTF, there is absolutely no reason to go back to the moon, there is nothing there.

It could cost 5% of the federal budget, so why?

Does anyone think this is a good idea?

Because we can, ffs not everything about money!

[Jimbeaux]

After having seen Newt's wife, it is obviously as a summer home to visit her relatives.

[tonym911]

Jimbeaux said:

After having seen Newt's wife, it is obviously as a summer home to visit her relatives.

Possibly harsh.

[tonym911]

V88Dicky said:

A permanent base on the moon brings bankruptcy one step closer

I've edited that for you. I'm all for space exploration, but not with the technology or mindset we're using at the moment.

[Jimbeaux]

tonym911 said:

Jimbeaux said:

After having seen Newt's wife, it is obviously as a summer home to visit her relatives.

Possibly harsh.

Dude, look around you; what forum are you on?

[tonym911]

Jimbeaux said:

tonym911 said:

Jimbeaux said:

After having seen Newt's wife, it is obviously as a summer home to visit her relatives.

Possibly harsh.

Dude, look around you; what forum are you on?

Sorry yes you're right I was forgetting myself there.

[caz_manc]

tonym911 said:

I'm all for space exploration, but not with the technology or mindset we're using at the moment.

Oh tell me more of your ideas?

[tonym911]

caz_manc said:

tonym911 said:

I'm all for space exploration, but not with the technology or mindset we're using at the moment.

Oh tell me more of your ideas?

Nothing terribly clever I'm afraid. I believe that we don't need to be somewhere, physically, in order to know about it. We should stop wasting huge amounts of money on rocket-propelled human exploration, which is ridiculously limiting, and concentrate our efforts instead on for virtual exploration, using a combination of what we can see and what data we can collect from unmanned probes, and then use intelligence (real and artificial) to build a picture of the universe.
Shipping bags of flesh and blood even around a place as tiny as the solar system is a total waste of resource. It's as likely to produce useful results as asking a mayfly to translate the Bible into Flemish.

[V88Dicky]

tonym911 said:

V88Dicky said:

A permanent base on the moon brings bankruptcy one step closer

I've edited that for you. I'm all for space exploration, but not with the technology or mindset we're using at the moment.

That's exactly my point. The current mindset seems to be the exact opposite of what it was in those optimistic 'we can achieve anything when we put our minds to it' Apollo days.

We seem to be in a downward spiral of human-hating self loathing, blaming ourselves for bringing the world to premature end, all the while living the dream by buying white German diesels on the never never, and 100% mortgages for houses filled with 50" TVs and the latest products from Apple Corp. and telling anyone who wants to know about our pathetic, self-important lives via Faceboak and ttter.

Mankind NEEDS to explore. For his own good.

[tonym911]

V88Dicky said:

tonym911 said:

V88Dicky said:

A permanent base on the moon brings bankruptcy one step closer

I've edited that for you. I'm all for space exploration, but not with the technology or mindset we're using at the moment.

That's exactly my point. The current mindset seems to be the exact opposite of what it was in those optimistic 'we can achieve anything when we put our minds to it' Apollo days.

We seem to be in a downward spiral of human-hating self loathing, blaming ourselves for bringing the world to premature end, all the while living the dream by buying white German diesels on the never never, and 100% mortgages for houses filled with 50" TVs and the latest products from Apple Corp. and telling anyone who wants to know about our pathetic, self-important lives via Faceboak and ttter.

Mankind NEEDS to explore. For his own good.

High five on that. Hopefully we're currently going through a period of realisation about how stupid we've been since the end of WW2.

[tonym911]

caz_manc said:

Seriously WTF, there is absolutely no reason to go back to the moon, there is nothing there.

It could cost 5% of the federal budget, so why?

Does anyone think this is a good idea?

Going back to the OP this is just another example of pure self-aggrandisement and of the burning, short-sighted, feeble-minded need of some very insecure politicians to carve out their names in history.

[caz_manc]

So a forum is not facebook or twitter but in another guise?

On a serious note what about teleporters. We must be nearly there and maybe time travel.

If there was just a way to access the 97% of our brains we could move worlds:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-1673...

[Jimbeaux]

tonym911 said:

caz_manc said:

tonym911 said:

I'm all for space exploration, but not with the technology or mindset we're using at the moment.

Oh tell me more of your ideas?

Nothing terribly clever I'm afraid. I believe that we don't need to be somewhere, physically, in order to know about it. We should stop wasting huge amounts of money on rocket-propelled human exploration, which is ridiculously limiting, and concentrate our efforts instead on for virtual exploration, using a combination of what we can see and what data we can collect from unmanned probes, and then use intelligence (real and artificial) to build a picture of the universe.
Shipping bags of flesh and blood even around a place as tiny as the solar system is a total waste of resource. It's as likely to produce useful results as asking a mayfly to translate the Bible into Flemish.

The Bible has been done in Flemish.....but not by a mayfly.

[petemurphy]

Sam the Mut said:

Because we can, ffs not everything about money!

this

[Jimbeaux]

V88Dicky said:

tonym911 said:

V88Dicky said:

A permanent base on the moon brings bankruptcy one step closer

I've edited that for you. I'm all for space exploration, but not with the technology or mindset we're using at the moment.

That's exactly my point. The current mindset seems to be the exact opposite of what it was in those optimistic 'we can achieve anything when we put our minds to it' Apollo days.

We seem to be in a downward spiral of human-hating self loathing, blaming ourselves for bringing the world to premature end, all the while living the dream by buying white German diesels on the never never, and 100% mortgages for houses filled with 50" TVs and the latest products from Apple Corp. and telling anyone who wants to know about our pathetic, self-important lives via Faceboak and ttter.

Mankind NEEDS to explore. For his own good.

Damn, I just felt compelled to jump out the window, but I don't have one.

[tonym911]

caz_manc said:

If there was just a way to access the 97% of our brains we could move worlds

This is the key. As far as I'm concerned, if we think we've been somewhere, we have been. The sooner we shake off this crazy, macho, flag-raising need to be somewhere in physical form, the better. We've a long way to go to get away from that mentality though.

[DonkeyApple]

tonym911 said:

High five on that. Hopefully we're currently going through a period of realisation about how stupid we've been since the end of WW2.

You mean since we landed that Lancaster bomber there?