NASA is canceling a water-seeking moon rover because of cost overruns and launch delays. The space agency announced the news Wednesday, days before the 55th anniversary of the Apollo 11 moon landing.
Very sad state of things. But being fair, I think NASA might be able to get at least a small injection of money if they stick to getting people on the moon again. Actually seeing humans land on the moon again would get more people excited about space (no matter which nation(s) end up doing it).
The robots, non-earth orbiting satellites, telescopes, and probes are very great for science but aren’t “exciting” to a lot of people. We always hear about cool ideas about future possible manned missions to moons and planets. But it is always super far off and no real plans that would be anytime soon. We really really need missions that show humans making steps on something.
A rover for future follow-up missions will be needed. But after so many years, just doing dumb human shit like jumping around in low gravity and picking up a few rocks would be effectively the same as if the old landings as far as excitement. Shit like that can be something that humans from all nations can feel some amount of pride.
For sure. Would be a big motivator for getting actual shit together and would then mean the next push would be Mars. Though I am hoping that China (with maybe some follow-up missions that include some joint stuff with other socialist nation members) will make it Mars first. Would be a missed chance to have the history books record that “the reds take the red planet” otherwise.
Very sad state of things. But being fair, I think NASA might be able to get at least a small injection of money if they stick to getting people on the moon again. Actually seeing humans land on the moon again would get more people excited about space (no matter which nation(s) end up doing it).
The robots, non-earth orbiting satellites, telescopes, and probes are very great for science but aren’t “exciting” to a lot of people. We always hear about cool ideas about future possible manned missions to moons and planets. But it is always super far off and no real plans that would be anytime soon. We really really need missions that show humans making steps on something.
A rover for future follow-up missions will be needed. But after so many years, just doing dumb human shit like jumping around in low gravity and picking up a few rocks would be effectively the same as if the old landings as far as excitement. Shit like that can be something that humans from all nations can feel some amount of pride.
I’m expecting that once China lands people on the moon, then there’s gonna be a big rush to catch up from US.
For sure. Would be a big motivator for getting actual shit together and would then mean the next push would be Mars. Though I am hoping that China (with maybe some follow-up missions that include some joint stuff with other socialist nation members) will make it Mars first. Would be a missed chance to have the history books record that “the reds take the red planet” otherwise.
totally