well the thing is, there are/were plans to go back to the Moon (depends on budget and whoever's the next president) as a stepping stone for a manned Mars exploration program, so it's not strictly factually true that we haven't revisited the idea of going to the Moon. we're just prioritizing our exploration/use of space based on its benefit to our long term goals and practical needs.

however, after the Apollo program we hadn't taken advantage of the microgravity environment of near Earth orbit even a little. all space efforts up until then had been essentially for the purpose of getting the experience and technology needed to get men on the Moon. so next we focused on using space as a laboratory. Skylab was there for research. The Space Shuttle provided manned research space and reusable, manned heavy lifting capacity (crucial in the construction of the ISS, which, incidentally, is also there for research). so it may not be fully accurate to say that the Moon offers us nothing at all in terms of exploration and maybe research, near earth orbit offers us a lot more practical benefit. and if we want to study the stars (which we do) it wouldn't help much to bother doing it from the moon and it would be a lot more risky and expensive.

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Originally posted by R!CH we are the only country wealthy enough to fund a space program capable of landing robots and people on other worlds.

That's not entirely true. The ESA has made tremendous progress in space exploration over the last decade or so. Hell, if we get more Bushs in the White House, the ESA will probably have more funding in space exploration than America as we continue to cut back.

/progression of humanity fail.

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Originally posted by progressiveMOJO so it's not strictly factually true that we haven't revisited the idea of going to the Moon. we're just prioritizing our exploration/use of space based on its benefit to our long term goals and practical needs.

...so we're in agreement

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Originally posted by skizzell That's not entirely true. The ESA has made tremendous progress in space exploration over the last decade or so. Hell, if we get more Bushs in the White House, the ESA will probably have more funding in space exploration than America as we continue to cut back. /progression of humanity fail.

the esa is out there, but it still doesn't have anything close to the number of milestones that nasa has achieved on its own. they still don't have a space shuttle or a collection of space observatories and have never landed anything on an extraterrestrial world or launched anything beyond the solar system. we're still shuttling their astronauts to the iss, which is mostly funded by nasa, and have landed craft on the moon, mars and eros asteroid. when the europeans start aiming above our current objectives, they'll have something to talk about. it's one of the few things we can still claim leadership in...

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another reason why America is failing.

If the economy wasn't so shitty, and Bush wasn't funneling 213123 dollars to the middle east every week we would prolly already be on mars.

All kinds of rovers, satellites, shuttles have been pushed back instead of pushed forward.

Back in the day these projects would be done BEFORE the expect date, now because of lack of funding the research and projects keep on getting pushed back.....and back.....

I have a uncle and a cousin that are employed by NASA, they are not happy campers right now with all the funding cuts...

I would love to meet creautures/people/other life forms from other galaxies. I wonder why they come to check us out, but they don't make contact with any of us. Or have they, but the government is hiding it?

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Originally posted by Miss Julia

Either weather balloons or Defense weapons test. *yawn*

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Originally posted by Miss Julia I would love to meet creautures/people/other life forms from other galaxies. I wonder why they come to check us out, but they don't make contact with any of us. Or have they, but the government is hiding it?

HEY!!

I saw one of those guys Rolling at EDC!!!




Just kidding....

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T.A. Mafia

Member #1

OMG this one is hilarious! UFO abducts a cow...

this one looks real. omg thats freaky

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Originally posted by Miss Julia this one looks real. omg thats freaky

Looked like a crackhead hiding in the bushes to me

it'd be silly to think that we're the only living planet in the universe, but to say that extraterrestrial life has the intelligence and will for intergalactic space travel along with the ability/luck to find us in your lifetime would be a huge stretch of the imagination. it'd be like looking down a ten mile stretch of beach and expecting to locate a specific grain of sand at precisely 10:30:00.00am on a specific date.

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