perhaps to support a base on the moon in the future ? (guessing)

https://theconversation.com/hy...etting-closer-112958

Have you ever watched a space shuttle launch? The fuel used to thrust these enormous structures away from Earth’s gravitational pull is hydrogen.

Hydrogen also holds potential as a source of energy for our daily activities – driving, heating our houses, and maybe more.

For hydrogen to become a major future fuel, water electrolysis is likely the best method of production. In this process, electricity is used to split water molecules into hydrogen (H₂) and oxygen (O₂).

If India’s lunar lander succeeds it’ll add major insult to Russia’s injury.

I don’t get this at all. So let’s say they find a way to extract the ice/water from the moons surface. Then they have to have a facility to break it down into its components for fuel. Then a fueling facility. Launch pad. Habitat. All of a sudden we are turning the moon into an industrial site with no real oversight by anyone. Plus every nation can theoretically do the same thing. How long till the moon looks like a trashy Mt Everest?

All of the above is to make rocket launches easier. More stuff with a lot less fuel. Ok. To what end? Does anyone really think we are colonizing Mars? Or mining asteroids. Or traveling anywhere that warrants travel?

This seems like a colossal waste of money for no direct gain. I know, humans explore. I still contend that the biggest actual gain from the space program was offshoot technology. Nothing from going to the moon directly benefitted humanity. It is the Velcro argument.

quote:

Russia’s Luna-25 lander could touch down as soon as Monday, August 21.

Good news, comradeski! The lander touched down two days ahead of schedule, though moving slightly faster than anticipated...

quote:

The country’s space agency, Roscosmos,

Have to admit I can't say that without seeing scenes of The Dukes of Hazzard in my head...

I suppose you can say the Russian probe "touched" down.

Hey Russia, looky, looky here...what's this on the moon? Maybe it's transmitting some signals back to earth? Ugh...no.

No rush, but if the human species would like to live forever...we really are going to need to conquer this space travel thing.

quote:

Originally posted by pedropcola: Or mining asteroids.

A quick search of the internet says the mass of the entire asteroid belt is only 4% of our moon’s mass. Also, 35% of the Earth is made up of iron. I’m not putting much thought into it, but if we run out of iron on Earth, we aren’t getting meaningful amounts from the asteroid belt. I’m going to guess that applies to most things humans need.

quote:

Originally posted by bdylan:
No rush, but if the human species would like to live forever...we really are going to need to conquer this space travel thing.

Just don't mess up the space time continuum, don't want to Biff things up....

I STILL think we should research putting penal colonies on the moon. Get that trash off our planet!!! Yeah, yeah. LOTS of logistics to work out...

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Originally posted by erj_pilot:
I STILL think we should research putting penal colonies on the moon. Get that trash off our planet!!! Yeah, yeah. LOTS of logistics to work out...

All the logistics are in order now.
Jamb 260 of them on the space bus and drop the shipping container on the moon,
One trip a month.
For the lifers and death row people

quote:

Originally posted by pedropcola:
I don’t get this at all. So let’s say they find a way to extract the ice/water from the moons surface. Then they have to have a facility to break it down into its components for fuel. Then a fueling facility. Launch pad. Habitat. All of a sudden we are turning the moon into an industrial site with no real oversight by anyone. Plus every nation can theoretically do the same thing. How long till the moon looks like a trashy Mt Everest?

Yes and yup.

Being able to harvest the ice on the poles provides three commodities: Fuel (Hydrogen being a major rocket fuel component element), Oxygen (sustainable breathability for humans) and Water (consumption by humans). Figure out how to utilize and breakdown the resources there and not only can a mission maintain a presence but, allow for exploration on other moons and asteroids; I don't think humans can survive any of the other planets in our solar system. At this point in space exploration, its resource management and innovation for human habitability, getting every single component into space is eye-waveringly expensive and a physics challenge.

So once again my question. To what end? We are going to mine the moons around the other planets and then fly back to Earth with our bounty?

I absolutely believe that if we spend enough money we can kill a bunch of astronauts, ruin the moon, and colonize it. Yet I struggle with the why? Resources? Planetary travel? What?

I want to hear some reasonable end game scenario. Not the bullshit that NASA and corporations that will gain from this endeavor spout. Of course I can find some talking head at NASA that thinks this is a great idea. His retirement plans depend on selling this fantasy.

We have real issues on this planet. That time, effort, and money could fix a lot of stuff here. Or we can have cool color photos of astronauts hitting golf balls on Mars.

^^^^Resources. What resources, damn if I know..new metals, workshops that can create new alloys, I don't know, not a chemist or blacksmith.

People want to fantasize about big bases or, sprawling stations....it won't be like that, at least not in our lifetime. The amount of infrastructure, support and materials needed to just construct such a thing lat alone operate it, is at least several generations into the future, gotta start small, test a little, learn a little, test som more, learn some more.

During the 60-70's all sorts of deep sea exploring was going on, Jacques Cousteau was a big deal, all sorts of seafloor living habitats like SEALAB was being featured, the people living on them were called aquanauts. Today, there's not a lot of featuring on deep sea exploring and living, NASA has NEEMO but, i've yet to see any televised feature on it. We've yet to see something like in The Abyss or, Sphere.

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Originally posted by corsair:
People want to fantasize about big bases or, sprawling stations...

quote:

Originally posted by pedropcola:
Mining the Moon for water and turning it into useable rocket fuel seems like a series of bad ideas strung into one big bad idea. What could possibly go wrong? lol

That's the normal bullshit they always say about their missions, thinking it benefits them from people stupid enough to take it seriously.

Vladimir won’t be happy to see this.

“India has become the fourth country to land on the moon after its Chandrayaan-3 touched the lunar surface Wednesday.
……
Chandrayaan-3 is expected to remain functional for two weeks, running a series of experiments, including a spectrometer analysis of the mineral composition of the lunar surface to determine if there is water ice. …”

DailyMail article:
https://mol.im/a/12436887

“India has nailed another milestone in its smashing Chandrayaan-3 moon mission. Less than a day after the historic touchdown, its Pragyan rover rolled out of the lander and onto the lunar surface.

The Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO) announced the successful deployment of Pragyan, a sanskrit word for wisdom, in a post on X, formerly known as Twitter.

"The Ch-3 Rover ramped down from the Lander and India took a walk on the moon!" ISRO said in the post at about 11:00 pm EDT, Wednesday, Aug. 23 (0300 GMT on Thursday, Aug. 24).

In a subsequent post, the organization confirmed that "all activities are on schedule" and "all systems are normal." … “

space.com article:
https://www.space.com/india-ch...moon-landing-success

Re: “a post on X, formerly known as Twitter”
Reminds me of “the artist formerly known as Prince”

quote:

So once again my question. To what end?

Gotta fend off those UFO's