Wasn't Japan just there with one of their probes?

If water is proven to be present in significant amounts it will be a race by the Earth's powers to put the first space station on the moon.

It's exciting for me to contemplate. Some of my earliest memories are of the first Earth orbits and the Moon Landing. Now I may be able to witness the creation of a permanent Lunar Space Station.

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I thought the men on the moon were green, not brown....?
oh well, bombs away!

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All I know is, the Moon has been asking for it.

Doesn't anybody remember the aluminum tubes, the bio-weapon trailers, the connection with Al-Martian, and the endless parade of inter-galactic Cessna bombs?

Warm up the Space Shuttles. We're sending enough 30,000lb bunker buster MOPs up to the Moon to bomb them back to the green cheese age. Oh, and establish Democracy, blah blah...

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we're sitting ducks, and the solar system is a shooting gallery.

#@!

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...is exactly right.

This is important research, vital to the survival of humanity and the advancement of our civilization.

One could endlessly argue the case for programs that are more "worthy" of the money. And they may be right.... in the short term. The long term problem faced by humanity is very simple. Get off of Earth or go extinct. This research is a step towards solving that problem, the programs you are advocating aren't.

Babies die while whitey goes to the moon, or crashes a probe into it from afar. People go hungry while money that could have been used to feed them funds CERN so some wacky physicists can search for their 'God Particle'. None of that spending is going to help me. That's no reason to cut off the water supply for the fountain of knowledge.

It is best to let the actual scientists decide how to spend the money that is appropriated to them (far too little, in my estimation) instead of political hacks like you.

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Well, this is what our great nation is known best for; bombing other places.

Ronnie Wright
World Change Cafe

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Just out there making the world safe for mock-ocracy. And then... the checks started bouncing, the giant shrink-wrapped bricks of currency stopped falling from the sky, and suddenly strip-mining bat guano in Nauru wasn't the dream it once promised to be.

So I hopped in my yacht and sailed back to the promised land!

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Somebody tell those fellers from NASA that them illegal aliens ain't from Greencheeseworld. Don't throw bombs at them little fellers up there, if they got spaceflight, they already got themselves that "antimatter", and you know from 'STAR TREK" what that means!

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But NASA is putting it off as their own discovery.

From the Khaleej Times:

"As the country aims to cement its reputation as a serious player in the space industry, the mood among India’s space scientists has gone from disappointment last month when its Chandrayaan-1 satellite mission was prematurely aborted to jubilation with news of a major discovery made in partnership with NASA.

“India should be proud that Chandrayaan discovered water on the moon,” said a smiling G. Madhavan Nair, chief of the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO), at a press conference to discuss the findings.

“For the first time in the history of space research, water is confirmed on the moon. It is acknowledged the world over that this is a real discovery and a path-breaking event for the Indian space agency,” he added.

In one of the three papers published in the latest edition of the journal Science on Thursday, researchers said they had analysed light waves detected by NASA-made instruments on board the Indian satellite and two other US probes."

So how come the American News agencies aren't reporting on this partnership and discovery two weeks ago?

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Sure, Tara, we're in a depression so let's give up all noble goals that aren't necessary. If that is the attitude we take, then I guess George Bush has won, we will be slaves of his disasters forever.

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This reminds me of a Brazilian take on the first Apollo landing: "The norteamericanos go to the Moon to steal rocks."

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A pity so many people who write for alternet took so little time to study any science while they were earning their journalism degrees.

In case you've never read the Limits to Growth, we are running out of critical resources here on earth, and unless you really LOVE strip-mining, establishing permanent settlements for mining resources on the moon, mars, and in the asteroid belt is the only solution.

The moon isn't made of green cheese; it's made of bauxite and titanium ore and iron and nickel. A typical asteroid contains as much metal as an average southwestern state will produce in a decade, and if solar energy is your idea of a solution to global warming, remember the sun is always out in space.

So before you an article that merely showcases your ignorance, and reflects badly on those of us on the loeft isde of the aisle who actually have a comprehensive education, not just a bachelors in journalism (if that), please take the time to become aquainted with the facts. The left didn't just lose power in the 70's because it was polite, it lost power because it became to scientifically ignorant. Let's not ose our shot this time because we're so busy redistributing existing wealth that we neglect to create any new wealth.

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What if the rocket hits a dry patch?

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The elite need somewhere to go when they destroy this world.

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Now the left wants to stop doing science too? I thought it was just the righties that thought they already knew enough. What does the Bible say about moon exploration?

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I agree wholeheartedly! We have so many priorities on our own planet. $79 million could be used to set up Universal healthcare, which would start this country on it's way to doing something positive, for it's people!

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Obama could finish ruining Planet Earth and he would still be given the prize !

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First of all, crashing a rocket into the moon is not "bombing" it. There's no warhead involved.

And being critical of basic scientific research, and space exploration more broadly, is amazingly boneheaded.

Feel free to be a Luddite all you want in your spare time, but maybe try writing about something you know at least a LITTLE bit about.

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I recall being told that the Apollo program returned over $14 for every $1 spent. This was due to the advances being made in such things as microcomputers and integrated circuits and mylar etc. In other words it's very likely that you would not be reading this if not for Apollo. The truth is, we can't afford NOT to be spending this money on research.

America has led the world in the past when it's found something new to make and manufactured it domestically. Things like light bulbs, televisions, and cars. Where do you expect to get the new thing to make from?

America has started to fall behind because its neglected basic research. Other countries have started to surpass it. Why do you think that Japan, Europe, and India, of all places, has a space program? It isn't because they're stupid.

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I am always morbidly fascinated when critics try to equate millions in spending on positive projects those critics don't understand, with trillions of dollars – and lives – of waste on wars and private sector financial plundering ...

Space exploration is one hell of a lot more valuable – and one hell of a lot less expensive – than allowing Wall Street pirates to abscond with trillions of dollars of America's assets. It is also a lot less expensive, and more valuable, than wasting trillions more on useless "wars" in Iraq and Afghanistan; wars started by us not for defense, but to eventually benefit oil companies and construction companies at taxpayer expense.

Without the twin abatrosses of Wall Street theft and war, America could afford to tackle the other problems AND explore space.

Throughout history, exploration has, among other things, been a stimulus to society's creativity and collective mental health – an organizing principle with (usually) positive results. War, on the other hand, is an organizing principle with at best the purpose of preserving what is already, and at worst total destruction.

(Let's see ... war and death and destruction vs. exploration and creation ... golly, tough choice ...)

When individuals or societies stop exploring and learning, and thus turn that energy back upon themselves, the result is often self-consumption as a consequence of self-absorption – as we are seeing today.

I celebrate space exploration; it is the one damned thing we are doing today that can have a visible positive result – and, if you look back into recent history, great benefit to mankind. I cannot begin to list all of the inventions and products that have positively impacted mankind, that would not exist if not for space exploration providing the reason to invent them.

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A yellow journalism rag at the checkout stand today said that the world will end tomorrow (10/11/09).  Maybe the Moon got the message.
  

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.
.
. . . seriously. . .

I've rarely heard any Americans care about the needs or wants of the un-American, unless its something along the lines of move, bitch, get out of the way

...that Ms.Lohan noticed & was moved to cogently address it...?

big props!: good on ya, grrl!!
*applause*



perspective, people.


Perspective.

The Jeff Farias Show: streams FREE & LIVE Mon-Fri, 6-9pmEDT

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As an earlier poster cogently remarked:

"If stupid greedy lazy war mongering piece of shit assholes would use the science we have to make educated decisions on things like Birth Control and conservation and green energy technologies we wouldn't need to go into space looking to find replacements for the resources we have brutally wasted here on earth.

And America is one of the biggest wasters and polluters in the world."

A-MEN. I mean -- 100 per cent. Could we; will we; SHOULDN'T we get our priorities straight? Looking for water on the f'ing MOON already? Give me a break. One thousand farmers in India committed suicide last year because they could not irrigate their fields (no water, stupid), and we put on our magic inch-thick Mister Science eyeglasses with the whirling eyes and zoom off to see if we can find a teaspoons'-worth of water on the MOOOON????? Because....we CAN?

Is this any way to run a human population? What this is: "Science" (e.g. the left brain) run amok, with no compassion (e.g. the right brain), no concern for immediate, TODAY's suffering and ecological imbalances TO WHICH IT COULD ATTEND by concentrating Scientific Methods, capabilities, and/or clever projections towards curing the environmental and social ills that scream for attention right here on Earth.

And just SHADDUP -- I am not anti-science, or anti-the-excitement-of-discovery, or antediluvian in any way pertinent. But all that money spent on such a cutesy, self-indulgent, project makes me sick. And as it turns out, Mister Science, the piddling (no pun intended) amount of Moonwater that was "found" doesn't amount to what one one-thousandths of what would have been needed to water one of the seeds that those Indian farmers died for.

So, now that it has been announced with self-congratulatory huzzahs that >!yes!< -- there is the equivalent of one bucketful, total, of water on the Moon (and it's OURS! ALL OURS!!), how much more money will the Whizzkids spend on extracting it? Instead of spending it on alleviating our real, current, urgent problems here at home?

Oh -- and one more teensy weensy potential problem: we find out constantly, in hindsight, that what the Army Corps of Engineers and others of full-speed-ahead mentality presume is a Good Thing to Do (Forward to Richmond, men), turns out to be an unmitigated disaster. What do we (or do they) imagine might happen if we start chunking off huge parts of the Moon to squeeze out "water"? Hmmmmm. Yes.....those tides.....do we need 'em?

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The cost of getting things back from there or supporting large number of people there in colonies would preclude any general use of the moon for a quarry or a colony.
The really intelligent thing to do would be to solve the problems on the one astronomical body we know much about, Earth.

The problem is that that is too hard because we would have to investigate something much closer first, ourselves.

As a wise man said once, "It is impossible to discover an orderly world outside unless we first discover an orderly world within ourselves.".

The problem is that it takes vastly more courage to explore our inner worlds than it takes to explore the outer world.

Much of the exploration of the outer world and most of our activities are in fact distractions from the inner world. Much of it is mindless activity for the sake of activity.
Examples of our childish, and wasteful methods of avoidance are car-racing, all other competitive sport, most popular 'culture', crap of the sort produced by Hollywood and all of the other 'circuses'.

We as a race need ot grow up, before we destroy the planet and ourselves.

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we were there first. Native Indians were here first but that's an entirely different story, double standards you know.

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Screw the rest of the universe...

this is a pure human "just gotta know moment"

get with the program people, and get your heads out of my ass...

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We may or may or may not discover there is or isn't water on the moon. On top of everything else space exploration may seem crazy, but it may just be as crazy not to.

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Is this any way to run a human population? What this is: "Science" (e.g. the left brain) run amok, with no compassion (e.g. the right brain), no concern for immediate, TODAY's suffering and ecological imbalances TO WHICH IT COULD ATTEND by concentrating Scientific Methods, capabilities, and/or clever projections towards curing the environmental and social ills that scream for attention right here on Earth.Ed Hardy | Tiffany Jewelry

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You point out that $79 million is a lot of money to spend to bomb the moon.

What about the $1,000 or so million spent to carry the war to Iraq (and kill women and children in the process)?

Why not spend half of that, or $500 million to feed the hungry, and another $500 million to develop our mathematics, physics, and engineering knowledge. Heck, we should bomb the moon 5 times while we're at it, if it furthers this knowledge. What do you think?

If you answer that the war in Iraq was necessary, or any war for that matter since the beginning of history, you are deluding yourself.

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