US announces returning to the moon as a top priority

[woodguyatl]

While space exploration is certainly cool and the idea of colonies on the moon and Mars would be interesting, why haven't we made any serious attempts to colonize our own ocean floors?

I saw a TV a while back that said it would be harder than

Aquaman hasn't given permission yet.

Are you not counting Atlantis?

 

[V-2]

Unfortunately, that's a huge issue right there. Right now, we have all our human eggs in one basket. I don't think enough people are aware of the somewhat long list of events that could knock people back to the stone age or farther. There ought to be a bigger push to branch out to other solar system bodies imo. Note I don't say any of these things is imminent or likely anytime soon, but they are inevitable, pretty much. The Tanguska meteor arrived from off the plane of the solar system so we had no warning of its approach. Imagine if it had been much bigger.

Edit: see if this isn't enough incentive, if Kim Jong Un set off a nuke in the upper atmosphere above North America, the resulting EMP could knock out electronics across the entire US.

I suppose it's slight alarmism on my part, but it's just hard not to feel there isn't a strong anti-science strain pervading the general populace or at the least, a real indifference to the natural sciences as it pertains to interest, investment and personal literacy.

Nature Index got around to updating their tables for high quality research output. It's always kind of interesting to glance at, particularly from the perspective of individual institutions. By country isn't even fair because at this point the United States still blows the world entirely out of the water so badly that it's pointless to even post, this despite China's extraordinary progress. It goes 1) USA, 2) PRC, 3) Germany, 4) UK, 5) Japan. On that note, probably worth noting that the Chinese Academy of Sciences has a number of staff nearly four times that of the Max Planck Society.

NORTH AMERICA

EUROPE

WORLD

This month is actually the centenary of the MPG's Institute for Physics; classic photograph from the archives circa 1928 of (left-to-right) Walther Nernst, Albert Einstein, Max Planck, Robert Millikan and Max von Laue.

 

[Andy Capp]

I suppose it's slight alarmism on my part, but it's just hard not to feel there isn't a strong anti-science strain pervading the general populace or at the least, a real indifference to the natural sciences as it pertains to interest, investment and personal literacy.

No, you're right. It's part and parcel of dumbing down the average American to keep politicians in power that are acting against the best interests of the electorate.

 

[superpunch]

It's quite sad. We went to the moon in 1969. We could very conceivably hit 2069 with no nation on Earth able to put a man on the moon.

 

[superpunch]

That is one amazing rocket, and all with 1960's technology. I'm sure this information was classified at the time and Wernher von Braun was heavily involved. Thanks...

Nope, the US just stopped giving a crap. We could have made it to the stars by now. Instead, we can't even put a man into space. The 1950s and 1960s were a different generation of Americans.

 

[Deleted member 196663]

US announces returning......going to the moon as a top priority

 

[V-2]

Nope, the US just stopped giving a crap. We could have made it to the stars by now. Instead, we can't even put a man into space. The 1950s and 1960s were a different generation of Americans.

A real funding drain as a percentage of the budget that didn't stay remotely even with inflation as the result of a lack of political will and public interest. The people who are involved in and advocate space exploration in tangible ways are still around and haven't changed much. You shouldn't diss the immensely innovative work done in robotic spacecraft and rovers over the last few decades though, it dismisses some of the greatest achievements in space science history. There is no other R&D center on the planet that can pull off the shit JPL does, there is nothing EZ work about it.

 

[Phr3121]

This month is actually the centenary of the MPG's Institute for Physics; classic photograph from the archives circa 1928 of (left-to-right) Walther Nernst, Albert Einstein, Max Planck, Robert Millikan and Max von Laue.

That is a great photo...

The smartest guy in the planet:

Terence Tao: With an outstanding IQ of 230, Tao, 39, was teaching 5-year-olds how to spell and how to add numbers – he was 2. When he was merely 10, he began participating in International Mathematical Olympiads and won a bronze in 1986, silver in 1987 and gold in 1988, becoming the youngest ever gold medalist in the Mathematical Olympiad. By the time he was 16, he had earned his Bachelor’s and Master’s degree – he got his Ph.D. at 20.

Stephen Hawking only has an IQ of 160 making him at par with Albert Einstein.

 

[M3t4tr0n]

Russia and China are heading to the moon so we have to go there first to cover up the fact we faked it all the other times.