Forums / General

Should we rethink it?

As much as I hate what that guy is saying, I have to agree. If we can’t even get back to the moon, how can we even think of going to an asteroid?

I kinda think we ought to at least have a full understanding of our own oceans before we really set our sights on conquering more of space.

I vote Bruce Willis for the mission.

Why land on asteroids when we could BLOW EM UP?

They didn’t even mention where this asteroid is.

If it’s in the Asteroid Belt, Yeah, I think it’s worthwhile. Anywhere short of that… nope.

Go for it! Mine that sucker! Bring back it’s metals!

An asteroid seems… pointless. What can you do on an asteroid? The moon is cool, not too far, it will always be around, we could even build a base there (there’s already an international space station, why not moon station?).

GUISE.
SRSLY.

MOON PLS.

Seriously, what happened to a manned mission to Mars?

I know Mar’s greater gravity makes getting back to earth more difficult but isn’t it easier than trying to hit a further target that’s 1/1000th the size?

My thoughts exactly.

I know where we should go. It’s this asteroid.

@MDF

There are plans to visit Lagrange points in the future so that could be a real possibility. Checking out asteroids in those places would kill two birds with one stone. I totally support sending something down there to research the interesting artifacts that lie within them as well as within the asteroids themselves.

One tiny rock in space holds more clues than some people may think

Of course I trust that such plans to visit asteroids will only be done once they are financially feasible. I’m not blind to the costs and if people say it would be better to focus on cheaper missions, say: The moon again, I wouldn’t ignore them either. Also how’s that Mars mission going?

I am glad that Barack has such enthusiasm in the space program and wants to keep it running, so do I. But I also understand the concerns of NASA getting too far ahead of themselves here because as much as I fascinate myself with astronomy I know that there are still some more important things the president needs to focus taxpayer money on.

But hey, we may be worrying too much. This is NASA. They know how to balance a check book right?

Asteroids have valuable metals in them. Many elements rare in terrestrial rock are relatively common in asteroids.

But we can get back to the moon, its just no one wants to. Astronomy in general has been out of the public eye for so long that there’s no funding for manned missions to anything.

@jack

Fuck the ocean. Thats the kind of thinking thats preventing a manned mission to mars happening within our life time. Its a big damn universe out there and you people are still focusing on our own planet.

At the moment there does not seem to be much motive for going back to the moon again short of finding the lander and saying “I told you so!”

It’s sort of a matter of “been there done that”. It’s not like we need to re-collect samples or re-adjust the lunar mirrors. Meanwhile the Lunar Recon Orbiter continues to map the lunar landscape and provide sufficient data. So the moon is a rather low priority on the list of things to make expensive trips toward