Chinese soft moon landing...

[chunkymonster]

How many folks caught this little tidbit over the weekend?

Chinese moon rover launched successfully

Ramblings about the another psycho in Colorado shooting up a school. Sycophantic ranting about Nelson Mandela. Babbling on about the federal budget deal and the idiot Boehner complaining about the Tea Party. And, more crap about the failure of the ACA and the Obama Administration.

Not one mention of China, their moon rover, and the first ever moon landing in over 40 years.

The mainstream media sucks balls!

 

[chunkymonster]

No surprise it was covered in the UK. My conspiratorial side says the reason it wasn't largely covered in the U.S. because it would bring attention to the fact that Obama defunded and changed the mission of NASA to be perform Muslim outreach. It really is big news! I mean c'mon, it was the FIRST moon landing on about 40 years, by the Chinese nonetheless!

It's funny that you mention mining, as it was stated one of the intentions of the Chinese moon lander was to look for minerals and rare earth elements...for mining!

 

[Saga Lout]

I thought successive Administrations had scaled back on NASA's ambitions. I was semi-serious in my mining remark but if China can make a go of it, the rest of us will have to pay them for whatever they find. I read recently that technology can't go much further without materials for processors and other parts but the US and Russia decided long ago that the moon was nice for a day trip but not a longer holiday or moving house to live there and those decisions are hard to row back on now that we could use some of the minerals.

Things could get costly one day.

 

[musical marv]

How many folks caught this little tidbit over the weekend?

Chinese moon rover launched successfully

Ramblings about the another psycho in Colorado shooting up a school. Sycophantic ranting about Nelson Mandela. Babbling on about the federal budget deal and the idiot Boehner complaining about the Tea Party. And, more crap about the failure of the ACA and the Obama Administration.

Not one mention of China, their moon rover, and the first ever moon landing in over 40 years.

The mainstream media sucks balls!

It was mentioned on CNN and also NBC News.Good for China for this remarkable feat of theirs in space research.

 

[4Ryan6]

Wow that's awesome!

At least some country has not canned their space program past orbiting the earth, mining on the moon, makes you wonder why the US never went back.

I was going to the moon myself when I was about 5 or 6 years old!

My aunt asked me if I would like to take a trip to the moon?

I eagerly answered yes without hesitation.

She told me to go pack a bag, and I did, I was so excited, we left the house hand in hand!

She walked with me down to the corner store and bought me a Moon Pie.

She had a great laugh! :lol:

The thing that caught me the most later, was my lack of hesitation to go, it's no wonder I've been a Science Fiction fan my entire life, I would have gone!

I was packed and ready!

 

[Reynod]

No surprise it was covered in the UK. My conspiratorial side says the reason it wasn't largely covered in the U.S. because it would bring attention to the fact that Obama defunded and changed the mission of NASA to be perform Muslim outreach. It really is big news! I mean c'mon, it was the FIRST moon landing on about 40 years, by the Chinese nonetheless!

It's funny that you mention mining, as it was stated one of the intentions of the Chinese moon lander was to look for minerals and rare earth elements...for mining!

What does this have to do with Muslims?

One more racist rant and your banned for a month.

 

[chunkymonster]

No surprise it was covered in the UK. My conspiratorial side says the reason it wasn't largely covered in the U.S. because it would bring attention to the fact that Obama defunded and changed the mission of NASA to be perform Muslim outreach. It really is big news! I mean c'mon, it was the FIRST moon landing on about 40 years, by the Chinese nonetheless!

It's funny that you mention mining, as it was stated one of the intentions of the Chinese moon lander was to look for minerals and rare earth elements...for mining!

What does this have to do with Muslims?

One more racist rant and your banned for a month.

Sorry Reynod, your witch hunt against conservative opinion in these forums only shows your ignorance of events and liberal/progressive bias! You should ban yourself! I expect you'll have the decency to rescind the accusation of racism, thank you very much!

From ABC News!
A few days ago, in Cairo, Bolden told Al Jazeera that when he became the NASA administrator, President Obama charged him with three things: "One, he wanted me to help re-inspire children to want to get into science and math; he wanted me to expand our international relationships; and third, and perhaps foremost, he wanted me to find a way to reach out to the Muslim world and engage much more with dominantly Muslim nations to help them feel good about their historic contribution to science and engineering — science, math and engineering."

This was part of President Obama’s desire, as stated in his Cairo address last year, to begin a new chapter in the relationship between the United States and the Muslim world, Bolden said.

And, confirmation from Al Jazeera!
Charles Bolden, the Nasa administrator, talks to Al Jazeera's Imran Garda about the US relationship with the Middle East after Obama's so-called Cairo initiative, reaching out to the Muslim world, international contribution to the space mission, the constellation project, Nasa's challenges, militarisation of space, the US leadership role in space, and life in space.

 

[Reynod]

Sorry about that but based on previous experience you haven't exactly earned any respect in this area guys ... so its wonderful to be proven wrong ...

 

[4Ryan6]

Does anyone know the real reason why the US never went back to the moon, surely something could have been mined from the moon to have paid for the venture.

As large as the moon is there has to be something of value in it's content, so mining would have been at least one reason to have gone back and established some kind of facility up there.

I never fully understood why we just quit the program completely, why go in the first place if you had zero goals past getting there and bringing back a few moon rocks?

I do realize it was an expensive venture and a lot more involved than some inland guy driving to the coast to collect some sea shells, but there had to be more there than just what was laying on the surface.

"To boldly go where no man had gone before", may have just been the Star Trek theme, but we were all caught up in those dreams and desires back then as well, in our real space missions, wondering when we may be venturing out to explore other planets.

 

[Saga Lout]

This simple man always goes for the simple answer, Ry - we simply didn't need anything back then. We thought this planet had all the mineral wealth we could ever need and technology forty years ago didn't exist to use up all the rarer elements of which we're now running short. The Chinese stole a march by reckoning they'd need the last of the materials required to run modern technology and develop some future inventions and nipped off in a rush to get their mining rights first.

Did the States have the foresight to stake a claim on the whole place?

 

[4Ryan6]

I know that claims are staked where we actually live, but how could anyone have the audacity to claim rights to the entire moon.

If there's any way we can get there and screw it up, we will!

2050 News Headline, "Due to corporate mining from the rare element discovery, the moon now resembles Swiss cheese and has lost 75% of it gravitational effect on the earth, tides are out of control and 4 more coastal cities have been reclaimed by the oceans!"

 

[USAFRet]

We didn't 'go back' for a variety of reasons.

1. Public support was falling fast. We did it. We won 'the race'. All through the 60's, it was a constant "who's going to get there first? Us or the Russians?" Well, we won. We fulfilled Kennedy's 1961 speech:

"I believe that this nation should commit itself to achieving the goal, before this decade is out, of landing a man on the Moon and returning him safely to the Earth. No single space project in this period will be more impressive to mankind, or more important in the long-range exploration of space; and none will be so difficult or expensive to accomplish."

But after that, it was "OK, next!"

2. Other national issues. Watergate, the end of Vietnam (finally!), gas crisis, etc, etc.

3. We have absolutely zero clue how to mine the moon. Not us, nor the Russians, nor the Chinese. We managed to get two guys up there for a few days. Then two guys and a car. The Chinese now have an RC car up there.

But an actual mining operation is several orders of magnitude harder. Enable dozens or hundreds of people living up there for months, the equipment, the discovery (what, exactly, are we mining for?), the return of said resources...
What we did with Apollo is the equivalent of a guy walking on the beach with a metal detector, vs a full BP oil exploration and mining operation.

If you started today, with a full on concerted effort, it would take decades before the first ounce of raw material was returned. 100 years before it actually turned a 'profit'. IMHO, of course.

Sure the stuff is up there. And eventually there will be mining ops there. But not anytime soon.

 

[4Ryan6]

Good Points!

 

[iissiiss]

I assume the Chinese will just send up a couple million people with pick axes, just to get the mining started. I mean, they can spare the people, right?

Maybe they are tricky people