what kind of space mission would cause the same buzz as apollo?

[apis]

Right, both the US and Russia can wipe out humanity with the push of a button already. How big a change would it be for either of them to have a mass launcher on the moon?

On the other hand, If a moon presence is seen as a major threat, and since the Chinese appears to plan on building a moon base. Maybe that will motivate another space race between NASA, ESA, ISRO, Roscosmos and others. If only to keep an eye on each other.

[coppercone2]

you know if that thing from 'the moon is a harsh mistress' by HL is true, then you can have lunar terrorists building shit on the moon to shower the earth with. I really think you eventually need some kind of earth point defense system run by a local government after you put people on the moon.

I mean I dunno what the chances are someone can dig out a big piece of iron and launch it into the earth with a portable power source? maybe its not possible.

[coppercone2]

i mean its either space police, some kind of defense system or just being ready to blow up suspicious activity on the moon at no notice (like iraq).

It would be nice to know its not feasible. \

but who knows what kind of degenerates you can end up working on the moon if you just hire out corporate. Like the game System Shock with the mining laser run by a shitty company (trioptimum corporation). Especially if its highly automated and not manned very well.

I mean chances are if some machine shop goes rogue and starts to build big bertha some one will end up calling the police on earth. On the moon though?

Or does it need to be really big like saddams project babylon?

[apis]

You could probably have orbital defence systems at both earth and the moon that would activate and intercept rogue missiles and make sure they fall down out of harms way.

[coppercone2]

yea. I wonder if someone would try to build some rapid fire lunar artillery gun to attack the earth, if its all buried under the regolith. you may have to be ready to strike the moon in case of a overwhelming attack. I don't know if you can make a rapid fire electromagnetic rail cannon pointed at earth too easily though.

The sensible thing would be to have some kind of police force so such activity can be reported. At least a sheriff or something. Independent body of nations control on development of dangerous lunar systems? It would need to be backed by someone powerful.

[BrianHG]

Careful now, "In Vacuo Veritas' is going to have an aneurysm...

[coppercone2]

Careful now, "In Vacuo Veritas' is going to have an aneurysm...

i dunno alot of the other stuff the scifi authors came up with came true (i.e. powered exoskelletons).

[apis]

Damn, we're too late: https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=moon+city (EDIT: maybe I should add a considering the forum lately)

[rdl]

To shoot the Earth from the Moon you would need a pretty powerful gun since orbital velocity of the Moon is over 1000 m/s.

[coppercone2]

the cheapest way would be to bore holes in the side of mountains to make barrels maybe?

[apis]

There are rifles with higher muzzle velocity than that.

It would be very hard to hit something important though.

[coppercone2]

can't you steer it with a radio signal so long it gets out of orbit? it should not be hard to aim it into a big city as a terror weapon or some kind of shakedown tool (i.e. pay lunar terrorists off).

[apis]

You couldn't just launch a rock in that case. You would have to have a missile with reaction control system, etc, and that would probably not be something your run of the mill terrorist could put together in his basement without anyone noticing. The bigger and more expensive it is, the harder it would be to fire and easier it would be to intercept.

[Red Squirrel]

I'm thinking another moon landing would get some level of attention, but what will really get more attention is a manned Mars landing. I think that is the next big thing everyone is kind of waiting for.   Though the BFR manned lunar mission is going to get quite a lot of attention too.  Mostly because it will be "somewhat" average joes on there, and probably one of the few times people are sent that far in space privately.

What's crazy though is that space missions are so common now that they're almost routine and most people have fallen less interested.  Like the probe that was put on Mars recently where they can study seismic activity.  I think the fact that they can do this stuff is still incredible.   If you've ever played Kerbal Space Program you probably tend to use the map view a lot and eye ball stuff.  Well imagine having to do all the calculations and only go by numerical data to know where you're going.  There is no "map view".   Takes some serious skills to do that.

Heck even docking with the ISS is a pretty incredible thing to do and happens so often it's hardly news.   We've kinda taken our space advancement for granted I'd say.

[Electro Detective]

Ongoing 'Next Gen' iPhone and Samsung 'launches' will get more public gas    than any future Mars money pit proposals   

nowadays, it's all about 'the phone...'   


Even Captain Kirk would sell The Enterprise for cheap to a Ferengi pawn station to own the latest smart phone   

[apis]

Even Captain Kirk would sell The Enterprise for cheap to a Ferengi pawn station to own the latest smart phone   

TOS had pretty snazzy phones

[Electro Detective]

Yep, the perforated goldanium flip up antenna had an unbelievable bandwidth,

and no touch or cracked screen snafus to think about, when a landing party mission went south

[BrianHG]

 https://what-if.xkcd.com/157/

[Bud]

Careful now, "In Vacuo Veritas' is going to have an aneurysm...

If he is, we won't know. He is now banned, seems the Mods had enough of him.

[Red Squirrel]

Ongoing 'Next Gen' iPhone and Samsung 'launches' will get more public gas    than any future Mars money pit proposals   

nowadays, it's all about 'the phone...'   

Lol it's kinda sad but true.   I wonder how people bring a tent to a SpaceX event, vs an iphone release. 

[Mr. Scram]

I'm thinking another moon landing would get some level of attention, but what will really get more attention is a manned Mars landing. I think that is the next big thing everyone is kind of waiting for.   Though the BFR manned lunar mission is going to get quite a lot of attention too.  Mostly because it will be "somewhat" average joes on there, and probably one of the few times people are sent that far in space privately.

What's crazy though is that space missions are so common now that they're almost routine and most people have fallen less interested.  Like the probe that was put on Mars recently where they can study seismic activity.  I think the fact that they can do this stuff is still incredible.   If you've ever played Kerbal Space Program you probably tend to use the map view a lot and eye ball stuff.  Well imagine having to do all the calculations and only go by numerical data to know where you're going.  There is no "map view".   Takes some serious skills to do that.

Heck even docking with the ISS is a pretty incredible thing to do and happens so often it's hardly news.   We've kinda taken our space advancement for granted I'd say.

This is true. Unfortunately, people get complacent and jaded very quickly. Even the Apollo missions already had this problem. Apollo 11 was huge, 12 already got a lot less attention and 13 was pretty much a simmer until things went awry. Within not even a handful of flight, the shining example of human ingenuity had already become mundane for the public at large.

[Nominal Animal]

Apollo 11 was huge, 12 already got a lot less attention and 13 was pretty much a simmer until things went awry. Within not even a handful of flight, the shining example of human ingenuity had already become mundane for the public at large.

On the other hand, gossip and human stories seems to keep people hooked.  Look at the popularity of astronaut videos from ISS, for example.

It is kind of funny that NASA hasn't realized that to get public interested, they only need to drop the dull Earth control center stuff and voiceovers, and have the astronauts speak to the viewers.  You know, like Big Brother in space.

Just look at Chris Hadfields videos from ISS (one Youtube playlist here). Millions of views for every single one.

Set up a moon base, with a big swimming pool for relaxation, and lots of young, fit scientists and astronauts and a live feed to Earth, and you've got a keen audience for sure.

[apis]

That is very true. It's hard to relate to a remote controlled car, or even a billionaire sending another billionaire into moon orbit. It needs to be something more people can feel part of or at least relate to.

[GK]

Yes, this is it, NASA is so not hip and really needs to start scraping the bottom of the pop culture barrel. NASA should rocket Freedia (the queen of bounce) up to the ISS to get those stodgy astronauts bouncing and getting it on (yeeahahhhhhh!!!) with each others booties. How about Ink Master, weightless challenge!? Or maybe a weightless reefer rolling competition? F*ck That's Delicious, f*cking spaceman food edition? I think there's just not enough monosyllabic prose in NASA press releases in general. Word. Bitch.

[apis]

Yeah, because videos from ISS is like that? They do have real people talking that people can relate to though.

One doesn't have to choose the worst kind of modern tv programming as an example. Simply following the lives of people working at a moon base would probably generate a lot of interest and get people more interested in science, technology, engineering and mathematics.