Then came Cortex Command.

Shiiiiit.

And night.

Becoming an entire different race of people eventually, causing a battle between moonling and earthling.... etc etc.

I'm tired, going to bed. Gnight.

Hell, if that happened the moon could eventually have its own economy and sell back the shit it makes to Earth.

But the key to that is self-sustainability. If there was this colony, and with whatever technology that was supplied to it it could farm, have adequate water, and be properly ventilated, it wouldn't be anything out of the Earth-dwellers' pockets anymore, save maybe a few repair or supply operations. It would be, for the most part, a one-off payment.

The main problem with that, Doodrgn, is logistics and how much it would cost to support life on the moon. It simply is not economically viable, even if theoretically possible.

Yes, NASA is not closing. It's just the end of the shuttle program and the retirement of the fleet because frankly, it's old technology. Even though the space shuttle is the most complex machine ever built.

People are now capable of building even greater machines. Things like the X-43 and whatever other new craft NASA is going to deploy will do a much better job of whatever the shuttles ever did.

A moon colony sounds interesting, it would serve for research, an intermediate point between the Earth and a target, and I guess population.

Wait a second, how on Earth (and Moon and Mars) did you get the idea of NASA colapse?

They don't use space shuttles anymore for the same reason we don't drive steam cars.

They simply invented new space ship, looks like rocket they normally used many times before, but it's reusable like space shuttles. They will use this new space rocket for all their missions, including launching new orbital satellites and maintaining orbiting ones.

And their new plan (100% confirmed and in works)(was said earlier in this thread) is: Deploy colony on the Moon, sunbathe a bit there and then launch a manned rocket from the Moon itself to the Mars. Then whole internet will fap and NASA will get craploads of easter bunnies from everyone.

Doesn't sound like closing business to me.

Your downfall

^ says the guy with the title "Engineer" wait..what did I just point out?

Truth: manned spaceflight is hardly ever worth the money.

To send anything into space costs about $10,000 per pound. This added to other expenses has a single shuttle launch cost an average $450 million. That, plus the risk of losing life, puts a huge pricetag on the whole operation.

In short, machines > humans. There will be a time when our own technology makes us obsolete as a dominant species, and form of life.

if a colony was built on the moon that would open up massive amount of jobs

So are thousands of people losing their jobs? Way to go economy.

@Tehpwnzer (and everyone else, I guess), Have you heard of the Dawn space probe? It uses ion engines that draw much less power than magnetohydrodynamic engines and still has more fuel efficiency than a nuclear rocket would. It takes a really, really, really long time to get anywhere, but it works!

@Kaede: There is the concern there of someone editing their trolling before the admins can see it, but I'm guessing that would be inside of one hour anyways.

If it's still the last post made on the thread, there's no reason NOT to edit it.

Infact, while still on the topic about editing posts, I'd like to see the 1 hour limit of editing posts be lifted to no limit at all. It would be very useful in suggestions threads where you can simply amend the original post instead of making additional posts for more suggestions you think of. It'd be a lot more tidy.

No, But I see no reason in editing a post that is decently old that most people have read.

EDIT: Fine, Also I'm guessing it was devas

Blankposting had to be added to the guidelines due to a person abusing it, do you really want to make more work for the moderators?

It's not in the guidelines yet so I'm free.

I think it is.. I have merged your posts for you, please do it yourself next time. Thanks ~tGM

Perhaps a rule about multiple-posting purposely should be added to the guidelines.

The edit function is hard to use and people who have already read my previous post will not reread the edit as they will not know about it.

Also not using the edit function is adding tiny amounts of bytes

@Tehpwnzer: You really should learn to put your comments all in one posting. Try the edit function.

It's not the refueling, its the danger of explosions and radioactives contaminating earth. thats why things should be built on other planets, and I'm not trying to point out iron is good, you asked.

Engine designs like these: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Magnetoplasmadynamic_thruster would require a massive amount of energy to use which would mean multiple nuclear reactors, launching 10 nuclear reactors from earth is very dangerous, however launching one from the moon would be little risk for earth. All they need is the matierals and the un radioactive cores.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nuclear_pulse_propulsion

I agree, mining's not realistic anytime soon.

I think the moon might be useful as a sort of container yard, but I don't think it makes sense to land massive ships there just to have them refuel and take off again, since refueling can be done in orbit.

I don't think any amount of iron would justify the investment, it's not like it's a rare resource here on earth.

The moon has a massive amount of iron, And using the moon as a spaceport would be good as if there's a problem the radioactive matierials wouldn't fall back to earth.

Slipspace theory.

Yeah I forgot how useful the moon would be as a launching station, but realistically, it'd have to be for unmanned launches, unless getting people from the space station to the moon would be economically feasible, because actually living on the moon would be very hard.

As for mining, I'm not sure what kind of minerals the moon has to really make that a viable option. It would cost billions of dollars to set up a large scale mining operation on the moon, would it be worth it?

@1337101: Heh, yeah were basically being demoted to where Japan is.

I think that space exploration is pretty interesting, I would like to see more of it going on

@MegaDeuce: To the first part of your comment, that's quite correct, and we've sent some stuff clear out past Pluto and into interstellar space, which is pretty impressive.

To the second part of your comment: That's funny in an awful sort of way.