The moon

[Sandyn]

I’ve had that Pink Floyd tune playing in the background of my head for the last half hour. Looks like it’s going to be there all day, unless I can pass it onto someone else on the dark side of the moon with this post!

Lol. easiest way is just listen to it. That's what I have to do when that happens

 

[Phil Pascoe]

lol, do you not listen to Pink Floyd?

Probably just a momentary lapse of reason.

 

[stuart little]

There is no dark side
of the moon really.
Matter of fact
it's all dark

I'll have to go and listen to it now...

Oh yes there is according to 'The Floyd' !!

 

[Scruples]

Have all the conspiracy theories you like.
Just maybe you are wrong.

The ONE thing that holds back our understanding, is the thing we called science.
Why - because the tools that have served us so well in the past, are limiting.
Our maths is an evolutionary tool - problem is that we cannot get beyond our basic axioms, so it is not evolving.

We have real number systems and complex number systems - but I suspect we have one simple problem in maths. That is the concept of zero.
Imagine a number system where zero did not exist.

No more problems of infinity.
No more problems of time
No more problems related to time travel

So yes, lets spend some money on space exploration.
BUT we should spend lots more on "discovering" a new system of maths.

And yes, I do think we will continue to waste money on "petty" wars. It seems to be a human trait.

We need zero. It is that point from which all else starts. Before I went to buy a cake, I had zero cakes. Then, afterwards, I had one cake. When I'd eaten half of it I had zero point five of the cake left and finally, when I'd eaten it all, I was back to zero cake.

When I bounce a ball it hits the ground at point zero and changes direction, usually upwards. It doesn't bounce at one. and it it did, one would become the new zero.
We have the tools we are clever enough to create and use. There may be more waiting for our mental capacities to evolve. Until then, zero is nothing, right?

 

[stuart little]

Cos they have never been there before lol?

I'm a non believer. Why haven't there been photos of the Stars & Stripes taken from Earth?

 

[MikeH]

There is also the military side. A lot of weapons research comes out of things like space research and a lot of military people work on space based projects. So you can partially fund the miltary and weapons research without telling the public that is where their tax dollars are going, even though most of joe public know anyway. I would also assume that also helps when balancing the budgets and justifying it to the likes of their congress etc.

 

[Garden Shed Projects]

It was a Cold War thing. An exercise in p*ssing the Russians off. In the history of this planet, only 12 men have left their footprints on the surface of the moon. I do not know how many of these heroes remain, but I suspect they will be long gone before another footprint is made in the dust.

Not so much p*ssing the Russians off, well USSR, as saving face. The Americans hadn't had many wins in the space race up untill then. First, satellite, first animal, first man, first woman and the list goes on all to the USSR.

I often wonder if they had have a few more firsts whether they would have bothered with the moon as it was a bit of a damp squib really, no visits since 1971. I agree with the poster who said that it could end up being developed by a corporation and monetised.

 

[loftyhermes]

A lot of what we use today has come from space exploration, there's a loads more than what I've posted if you google it.

 

[doctor Bob]

This thread, plus the cup in a bin thread, and other daft threads, have pushed me into getting a real life.
Bit scary but it's quite enjoyable.

 

[Jacob]

....
Imagine a number system where zero did not exist.

No more problems of infinity.
No more problems of time
No more problems related to time travel
....

Sounds good. No more zero in my bank balance! Or less than zero!

 

[Spectric]

Hows the retirement going @doctor Bob , is this what you mean by a real life where time is all yours and you reap the rewards of a working life?

 

[ajsimmo]

Sorry but if you have to ask that question, then clearly you have not read enough about the subject to make a judgement.

Trust me when I say in a few hundred years the geopolitical situations being played out in the series "The Expanse", or in a sooner timeframe, "For all Mankind" will be a reality.

The amount of minerals and wealth just floating around out there is worth more than the combined value of every single item on earth; you take the value of literally every single man made object for the entirety of history and add that up, and it's insignificant to the wealth just sitting there waiting to be exploited. The english language doesn't even have numbers large enough to explain it.

If the USA doesn't do it, another nation will, and if not another nation, a corporation - it's guarenteed, and if it's a corporation, they will be so wealthy that they would be able to buy ANY nation on Earth and be more powerful than any law ever created.

The race for that wealth and attainment of it will change the basic nature of humanity forever, and be the source of many wars between nations and corporations.

We'll, that's depressing!

 

[ajsimmo]

By 'dark side', it is meant to indicate the side we never see. The same part of Moon is always facing the Earth. The Moon has its day and night too.

He knows that, its a quote from a PF song.

 

[sploo]

I'm a non believer. Why haven't there been photos of the Stars & Stripes taken from Earth?

Short answer... you'd need a telescope with something around a 100 meter diameter to have any chance of making out details that small at that distance: https://skyandtelescope.org/astrono...s-answers/can-you-see-astronauts-on-the-moon/

There's also the problem of "seeing". With larger telescopes (capable of resolving smaller detail at distance) atmospheric distortion becomes more of a factor; so as the article above notes, such a (huge) scope would also have to be in space.

 

[Spectric]

Thinking about

Why haven't there been photos of the Stars & Stripes taken from Earth?

Well as telescopes get better a time will come that someone will be able to say if the yanks ever got onto the moon or not, so realising this they are getting there to put things right and save face.

 

[Thingybob]

We need zero. It is that point from which all else starts. Before I went to buy a cake, I had zero cakes. Then, afterwards, I had one cake. When I'd eaten half of it I had zero point five of the cake left and finally, when I'd eaten it all, I was back to zero cake.

When I bounce a ball it hits the ground at point zero and changes direction, usually upwards. It doesn't bounce at one. and it it did, one would become the new zero.
We have the tools we are clever enough to create and use. There may be more waiting for our mental capacities to evolve. Until then, zero is nothing, right?

What you smokin

 

[Sandyn]

I'm a non believer

I stayed up all night to watch it. I'm sure I saw a puff of dust come off the moon when they landed. I even bought the commemorative coin. Are you telling me I wasted my money!!!

 

[sploo]

Thinking about

Well as telescopes get better a time will come that someone will be able to say if the yanks ever got onto the moon or not, so realising this they are getting there to put things right and save face.

The problem with conspiracy theorists is that supplying proof is simply used as more evidence of the conspiracy...

Make a telescope in Earth orbit that can see evidence of human activity on the moon's surface: it's fake because it's not being seen from Earth.

Make a telescope on the Earth's surface that can somehow see that tiny detail through atmospheric distortion : it's fake because the image is being manipulated.

Fly them to the Moon's surface and show them in person: it's fake because you planted that stuff there yesterday.

Etc.

 

[Sandyn]

The Chinese already have a manufacturing plant on the dark side of the moon. They are currently doing all the Christmas stuff for Amazon

 

[Droogs]

The Chinese are up there, and on the dark side, which must have the US military paranoid.

The US formed a Space Force, so they could police space.(And yes, everyone else too, even your Auntie Mary)

For some unknown reason they designed a camouflaged uniform. Ideal for all those forests or jungles we have in space.

That's because no one is stupid enough to wear the red shirt