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Paul Gibney
Byrne Robotics Member.


Joined: 17 April 2004
Location: Canada
Posts: 1070
Posted: 09 August 2020 at 2:52pm | IP Logged | 1 post reply

I’ve been thinking about the Moon-landing a lot lately, as I do every
year about this time. I was 9 to 10 years old at the time. I was very
much caught up in the idea that man was about to walk on the moon for
the first time. The moon has always been there and no one had ever
gone to it. The romance of the thing, for lack of a better term, was
palpable. I assume even more so for people slightly older than me.       

Which leads me to wonder how the moon is regarded by people of,
say 50 years old or less. For you, people have always been to the
moon. Does the idea of a moon mission mean much to you anymore?
Is there any romance about the moon anymore?
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John Byrne

Grumpy Old Guy

Joined: 11 May 2005
Posts: 132135
Posted: 09 August 2020 at 3:05pm | IP Logged | 2 post reply

Sadly, moon missions didn’t “mean much” after XI. Too many other things going on.
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Andrew Bitner
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Joined: 01 June 2004
Location: United States
Posts: 7467
Posted: 09 August 2020 at 4:39pm | IP Logged | 3 post reply

I think a return to the Moon would impress lots of people--but we have no scientific need to return. It's also not all that useful as a jumping-off point for deeper space exploration.

But I can imagine we'll go back one day.
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Peter Martin
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Joined: 17 March 2008
Location: Canada
Posts: 15729
Posted: 09 August 2020 at 7:55pm | IP Logged | 4 post reply

I am one of those people under the bracket of 50 years of less, for whom people have always been to the moon. I regard it as a legendary achievement. I suppose I somewhat took it for granted growing up (though it was still cool), then had a renewed fascination with it in my early 20s (sparked by someone I sat next to at work who bought into the hoax conspiracy theory, which infuriated me) and from that kind of got a little terrified at the notion of how lifeless and distant the moon is. A major takeaway for the Apollo astronauts, as far I can tell, was that the Earth is incredibly precious.
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Conrad Teves
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Joined: 28 January 2014
Location: United States
Posts: 2160
Posted: 10 August 2020 at 1:10am | IP Logged | 5 post reply

Andrew>>but we have no scientific need to return.<<

Why would you ever think that?!  We barely know anything about it, and what we did learn led to more mysteries. Twelve people have visited the surface and gather a few hundred pounds of more-or-less selected moonrock from six places.  Also a few random sample return missions and stuff we learned from orbit. We've lived on Earth for our entire existence, and yet still turn out many new geologists every year to study it. (Checking, there are 32,000 geologists in just the US).  

Small (very non-comprehensive)  list of stuff we don't know about the moon:   https://www.space.com/moon-unsolved-mysteries-after-apollo.h tml.

Solving any of the unknowns mentioned in that article is going to require a pretty big effort.

Even ignoring the enormous convenience of its proximity, there are many scientific reasons to go back.

>>It's also not all that useful as a jumping-off point for deeper space exploration.<<

This is true.
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Christopher Frost
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Joined: 24 October 2016
Location: Canada
Posts: 484
Posted: 10 August 2020 at 6:28am | IP Logged | 6 post reply

I'm under 50 and have always been fascinated by the moon. The closest celestial body to Earth and yet so frustratingly out of reach. Who wouldn't want to walk on it's surface or live in a lunar colony should we ever manage to actually make one?  To this day, I often look up at the moon on a clear night and imagine wandering around on it's surface. So yeah, the moon still  holds a certain mystique for some of us.
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Brian Miller
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Joined: 28 July 2004
Location: United States
Posts: 30833
Posted: 10 August 2020 at 7:57am | IP Logged | 7 post reply

The moon is part of Mars.
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Clint Thompson
Byrne Robotics Member


Joined: 30 April 2004
Location: United States
Posts: 218
Posted: 10 August 2020 at 9:15am | IP Logged | 8 post reply

I'm under 50, and the entire space race has always fascinated me.  Then again, my step-father worked for NASA, and I practically grew up at Goddard Space Flight Center, so it was probably unavoidable.

I have a couple friends a little younger than me, and I'm stunned that they think there's a possibility that the moon landings were faked and were mere propaganda pieces.  Ugh.
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Andrew Bitner
Byrne Robotics Member


Joined: 01 June 2004
Location: United States
Posts: 7467
Posted: 10 August 2020 at 9:41am | IP Logged | 9 post reply

Hey Conrad,
Fair enough, there's probably plenty we could do on the Moon that hasn't been done yet. Figuring out how to live in very low-G environments isn't useless, so my statement above is probably in error in more than a few ways.
The "launchpad to space" thing, though, is a big item for those pushing us to return. We need to be honest about that, because spending billions to establish us there--only to have it turn out to be less worthwhile than building larger and more elaborate installations in orbit, from which to build and launch ships into deep space--would be a waste of time, energy, and effort.
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John Byrne

Grumpy Old Guy

Joined: 11 May 2005
Posts: 132135
Posted: 10 August 2020 at 12:21pm | IP Logged | 10 post reply

I like to gaze at the Moon and dream of days gone by, when we'd be finding ways to zip around the Solar System, and off into the Galaxy beyond. When it would all be so EASY. Like flying from Boston to LA. SPACE ODESSY stuff.

Alas, just in the past few decades science has shown us that it's all so much harder than we imagined. Mars colony? Sure--if you don't mind a one-way trip and having your DNA shredded by the solar wind.

And forget that faster-than-light stuff!

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Brian Miller
Byrne Robotics Member


Joined: 28 July 2004
Location: United States
Posts: 30833
Posted: 10 August 2020 at 1:04pm | IP Logged | 11 post reply

Space Force!
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Eric Sofer
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Joined: 31 January 2014
Location: United States
Posts: 4789
Posted: 10 August 2020 at 5:37pm | IP Logged | 12 post reply

Andrew - It's a long term question about the use of a "launchpad to space" using Luna as a base. But we have to take everything step by step. It would be far, far easier to have some Earth orbit launch satellite stations where military can be based, as well as civilian business (e.g., telescopes with no atmospheric interference. But I don't think we can do that before we establish a lunar base.

My mind hies back to Robert A. Heinlein's universes. Sure, there are huge Supra-Earth satellites, several moon based cities of, say, Cleveland's size, lunar farms and ice mining, and Andy Libby and Woody Smith based engines to conquer the galaxy. NONE of that is possible yet, and we won't gain the know-how until we do it bit by painful bit. Mr. Byrne is quite right; SPACE ISN'T EASY.
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