Moon Bombing Scheduled for Tomorrow

[The_Other_Shoe]

Well, first off I found online one of my friends who pointed out this article http://www.examiner.com/x-2912-Seat...ict-with-lunar-extraterrestrial-civilizations , which I found to be extremely biased and flaming. I further searched into google and found this article http://www.abcnews.go.com/Technolog...cross-probe-lunar-ice/Story?id=8775640&page=2 , this one a lot less interested in extraterrestrials.

I am no space person and have no information besides these articles on the topic. I just thought it was interesting and decided to see what people's opinions are here.

The first article seems very conspiracy theory to me, the second to me is much more viable. Although I don't claim any exact knowledge, so who knows maybe there are some space aliens up there .

 

[lwien]

LOL. First Afghanistan, then Iraq, and now................the moon.

We just LOVE to fucking bomb shit.

 

[Happycamper]

Well I thought we had been warned off the moon years ago already by other stuff that is still there.

However I also heard that massive asteroid that might hit us in 2036 is looking less likely it will. It will come so close to the Earth on a earlier flyby in 2029 that it will actually dip below our satelites in orbit!! (the fear is the magnetic pull the earth will have on it will put it on a collision course the next time it comes around)

 

[Lo]

I have been laughing so hard over this. My 16yr old is a riot! Everytime he comes out of his room since reading about this he has a new joke - and he's pretty funnY!

I'm sure they sound funnier when he just randomly spouts the shit - this morning while the nasa footage was on he said:

"Well, it's official - we've looked EVERYWHERE, we can't find Osama"

then about 15 minutes later he comes back out and says!

"What's wrong with this picture? We're in a recession, no jobs, people are broke but we're spending billions to... find water, REALLY?"

15 minutes later

"You know someone is going to start bottling and selling moon water and idiots will buy"

I thought about moon rocks I saw sold in my youth...he might be right!

 

[Happycamper]

Apparently only about 3 people on the entire planet are working on technology to delfect asteroids. I think they should get that figured out first.

 

[Lo]

No kidding Happy!! I think 2 out of the 3 are on vacation too!!

 

[masejl12]

If humans can't figure out how to stop an asteroid from hitting the earth by the time one reaches us, we deserve to die. There is a 100% chance one will hit us, its just a matter of time

 

[SmogTown]

Congress tasked NASA to locate near earth objects, asteroids, and to figure out a way to stop or redirect them. However they didn't give them the funds needed to do that .

 

[Happycamper]

If humans can't figure out how to stop an asteroid from hitting the earth by the time one reaches us, we deserve to die. There is a 100% chance one will hit us, its just a matter of time

I completely agree. However we are for the main part actually relying on people who look at the sky as a hobby to spot these things. (believe it or not).

Edit: what i mean is if an actual asteroid was on a definite collison course to Earth, I really doubt we would actually know about it. What would governments say? How could they inform the planet that we have a date for the likely end of mankind? What problems would that cause? Society as we know it would change significantly/end?

They would remain silent until general public using amature telescopes spotted it imo.

 

[masejl12]

I have a few friends who run an observatory in Louisburg, Ks who actively participate in that NEO (Near Earth Objects) program. They actually found a asteroid, a gigantic asteroid mind you, and did all the calculations to find out that it would either hit the Earth or come very close. They actually had to contact Homeland Security but the scary thing is that when other observatories went to verify this, it was nowhere to be found...scary huh

 

[lwien]

"Two things are infinite: the universe and human stupidity; and I'm not sure about the universe." - A. Einstein

 

[Purple-Days]

Albert was a brilliant man. ^^^

I sorta follow 'space'. http://www.spaceref.com/ is one of my first stops every morning.

Water on the moon is important. That, 'Mission to Mars' crap was never going to play out. The Moon is the logical next step (South pole for several reasons). Then LaGrange points, then Mars and beyond...

Oh, but we are in recession and wasting our money... Shut down the aerospace industry and put them and all the ancillary industries (and research science) out of work and that will solve the problem??? Short sited 16 year olds aren't as smart as they seem sometimes. Funny, but not so experienced. The moon water for sale is pretty funny.

BTW "Updated computational techniques and newly available data indicate the probability of an Earth encounter on April 13, 2036, for Apophis has dropped from one- in-45,000 to about four-in-a million."

 

[t00fatt]

I think even traveling to mars is important, and we have recently made a big stride in making that possible. Going to Mars with out current propulsion technology is a big waste of time and money. New Plasma Rockets could get us to Mars in 39 days now. Once we can learn to harness the power of antimatter we could cut that time down even further and only need to carry less than a few grams of fuel.

 

[lwien]

Water on the moon is important. That, 'Mission to Mars' crap was never going to play out. The Moon is the logical next step (South pole for several reasons). Then LaGrange points, then Mars and beyond...

Oh, but we are in recession and wasting our money... Shut down the aerospace industry and put them and all the ancillary industries (and research science) out of work and that will solve the problem??? Short sited 16 year olds aren't as smart as they seem sometimes. Funny, but not so experienced. The moon water for sale is pretty funny.

We don't have to search for water on the moon to keep the aerospace industry going. Two separate issues, the way I see it. Water on the moon would be very important for extended moon exploration, but there are a helluva lot of other things that could keep the aerospace industry going than searching for moon water.

In my opinion, it's all a matter of priorities and timing and from my pov, this is not the time to be doing this.

 

[Lo]

I have always been fascinated by space and most sciences! I often wish I had gone into a science field when I was younger. I had a couple friends end up working at NASA I also read some lit on what it would take to terraform Mars or another suitable planet and found it absolutely fascinating!

When they did the Mars Rover in 2001 they mounted a cd with a bunch of info including people's names... They sent a certificate to my son and I stating our names were sent to Mars. No martians have called me yet LOL!

 

[Purple-Days]

Read the Martian Chronicals. There will be Martians when we get there.

Yes, they could spend the money better than they do, but when your entire program is at the whim of the next president (who ever that is) and his policy is to promote his own popularity, at any cost, it would be tough to come up with a coherent plan.

Right now we are about to come to the end of our ability to put a man in space. Sure we can buy Russian seats, or those dreamed of 'private enterprise' seats (sure they are) or we wait till we settle on a new design (no it hasn't been settled yet). And all that for low orbit for a space station that is in the 'wrong' orbit and is only funded through 2015 when it will de-orbit without further support.

Without a long-term coherent plan, that is not at the control of next year's politician, we are throwing our money away.

Water is important for several reasons. Not just to drink. With abundant solar energy the H2O can be split into oxygen to breath, hydrogen for fuel cells (2 weeks of dark you know) and reaction mass. The fact that it is at the bottom of the Moon's gravity well instead of the Earth's is massively important (haha).

Anti-matter is the stuff of Star Trek, sure it exists, but it is not useful.

Yes the plasma drive is working well on at least two craft right now (in the 20 Kwatt class). But not quite as spectacular as 39 days to Mars, not yet. I just saw a bit on the latest test of a 100kW Argon plasma engine, running at 200kW as proof of concept. It was awesome for about 1/4 second, they got the numbers, then they shut it down, but you could tell by the hoots that it was what they wanted. A stable, flat, peak production that was double what they needed, plus a little. Bright boys. I would hate to see that kind of science and developement shut down for a few more bowls of soup. It's just short sighted.

 

[lwien]

Without a long-term coherent plan, that is not at the control of next year's politician, we are throwing our money away.

Exact same thing could be said for Afghanistan, eh?

 

[Purple-Days]

Yes, and many, many other items.

Energy and the environment and ... it's a fast food, satisfaction now kinda world.

Cakes and Circuses. The people will vote for anybody who promises 'Cakes and Circuses'. And I'm not pointing at this President in particular, or the last one either. It's a long time trend.

 

[Happycamper]

I did say in my earlier post it is looking less likely for the asteroid to hit us.

However what about the asteroid belt :The asteroid belt is the region of the Solar System located roughly between the orbits of the planets Mars and Jupiter. It is occupied by numerous irregularly shaped bodies called asteroids or minor planets

Collisions between large asteroids do occur, all it takes is for a collision to send something huge flying in our direction, we might not have long to prepare for something coming from this area at any given time.

And then there is the Oort Cloud, where Halley type comets seem to come from into our inner solar system. The outer Oort Cloud is only loosely bound to the Solar System, and thus is easily affected by the gravitational pull both of passing stars and of the Milky Way Galaxy itself. These forces occasionally dislodge comets from their orbits within the cloud and send them towards the inner Solar System.

So if we can't stop an asteroid/comet there is no point to anything else, because it's game over. No point knowing that there is water on the moon in that scenario.

As someone said before it will happen, 100% chance of it, just a matter of time.

Looking back in history to ancient stories and tales (bible stories Ancient Egypt and other ancient civilisations writings and pictures etc etc) it does seem that there were a number of catastrophic worldwide events that happened. And it also seems to be a common theme that unkown terrifying celestrial body/ies were visible in the sky at some of these events.

Maybe Noah's Ark really did happen

 

[willywagtail]

This has really inspired me to read David Levy's book Comets. I was still going to sell it yesterday too, despite wanting to keep it and read it because i remember how nice Levy and Shoemaker were in the national geographic documentary. A review at amazon calling it a "love story in the sky" stopped me selling it, but now I'll read it asap, even though there probably wont be any deflecting asteroid topics in there.

 

[usr/share/vape]

Wow. What a weird thread.

Instead of talking about astronomy, why not pear through a scope? Check with your local astronomy club. New Moon weekend is coming up and that's the time to drag out the scopes. If you want to get really blown away, vape up and spend an hour looking at Jupiter tonight (that really bright thing in the SE just after dark).

If anyone happens to be in the west central FL area any New Moon weekend, come out and join us (me, the dogs and scopes go camping every New Moon). I've got a pile of scopes from 4" to 12.5" aperture, so there's bound to be one you can use!

 

[Lo]

I'm in SW Florida! I've never really looked through a good scope but love gazing at stars My son had a crappy scope as a kid - we looked but I don't think the scope was all that powerful. I might have to look into that! Thanks Usr!

I really like going offshore at night - the sky is really magnificent when away from the city lights!

 

[usr/share/vape]

Io,

Find a club close to you here.

Just as there's a world of difference between dirt weed and sticky bud, there's a world of difference between those scopes you see in Walmart versus a real scope. The sad part is that you can buy a decent scope for not much more than that stuff for sale in Walmart. A 10" DOB won't cost a fortune and will last you a life time of enjoyment.

Offshore... Yea, my neighbor and I go about 20 miles out (by the gulf pipeline offshore tampa area). At night it's mind blowing... Effing mind blowing.

 

[Purple-Days]

If we are 'dead in it's sights' first time we are probably goners, depending on size and impact point and angle and composition. But, there are some pretty bright boys who have thought it out, and have some very valid concepts (that are currently workable) for diverting a NEO given some warning. If we are truely threatened at some point, the knowledge is already there to deflect. It doesn't take much of a push out in space, just time.

Yes, astronomy is a fun thing. Bare eyed, or even with binoculars and a clear dark sky you can see a thing or two, just kick back and be amazed. A nice scope is icing on the cake.

 

[usr/share/vape]

Bare eyed, or even with binoculars and a clear dark sky you can see a thing or two, just kick back and be amazed. A nice scope is icing on the cake.

Absolutely! Some of the best star gazing sessions are spent in lounge chairs with friends - sans scopes and binos. For example, meter showers are best viewed "naked".

However, binos are a must have "first scope". When I'm taking an image, that rig is often tied up for hours (e.g. my avatar). More often than not, I spend that time in a lounge chair (with dog) and a pair of binos just cruising the sky. Very relaxing...