# Cancelled Apollo Missions



## Starbeast (May 20, 2011)

*NASA space missions were stopped after Apollo 17*​


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## The Ace (May 20, 2011)

Yes, but we knew that.

It was a real pain, but I suppose the project was just getting too expensive.  When you consider that a very expensive skyscraper went up and a tin can with three men in it had to be fished out of the Pacific at the end, it should surprise no-one that the bean counters got their way.


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## Nik (May 20, 2011)

Could the Vietnam War's escalating budget and widespread malaise have anything to do with it ??

Also, IIRC, one mission missed a killer Coronal Mass Ejection by a couple of weeks. Had that super-flare caught an Apollo crew, they might have been too debilitated to fly the return leg and die in their beds...

I still miss watching those hours of footage from the Lunar Rovers...


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## Starbeast (May 20, 2011)

The Ace said:


> Yes, but we knew that.


 

There is no point of going back away, nothing on the moon but dirt, rocks and a great deal of craters.


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## J Riff (May 20, 2011)

Yup, NASA is just a wing of the Govt. They are as corrupt and liable as any of them, should be kept an eye on, esp. when it comes down to where all the money is going.
Of course, before I re-learned what was going on with this gang, I was all for the space program.


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## Starbeast (May 20, 2011)

*Cancelled Apollo Missions, and please cancel Mars missions*



J Riff said:


> Yup, NASA, where is all the money going? I was all for the space program.


 

The NASA rover has been on Mars for five years. My tax dollars are wasted on an remote controlled vehicle roaming around in the dirt. (sighs)


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## Nik (May 20, 2011)

IIRC, the ~380 kgs of assorted Moon rocks returned by the various Apollo missions (Plus the half kilo via sundry Russian robots) are still being 'mined' for valuable insights on the early solar system.

Without them, the 'Big Splat' origin of Earth / Moon we know and the 'bang dwarf planets together' route to rocky planet formation would just be wild ideas, uh, marginal hypotheses...


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## iansales (May 20, 2011)

The Apollo programme cost each individual tax payer about $2 a year for ten years. How can you begrudge that measly sum, given what they achieved? I suspect a great deal more of your tax dollars are going on fancy weapons which will never ever be used, and which exist for no reason other than military oneupmanship.

And NASA was never corrupt. After the Apollo years, it was mismanaged and ineptly-run. But never corrupt. Besides, you can never spend too much money on science.


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## Starbeast (May 20, 2011)

*Secret sales*



iansales said:


> I suspect a great deal more of your tax dollars are going on fancy weapons which will never ever be used, and which exist for no reason other than military oneupmanship.


 
That is for sure, plus, instead destroying outdated weapons, the U.S. sells them off to anyone wants to buy them. Even President Reagan admitted he didn't want to know that weapons were being sold to any country under-the-table.


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## Pyan (May 20, 2011)

Starbeast said:


> There is no point of going back away, nothing on the moon but dirt, rocks and a great deal of craters.



Sigh...

Ever heard of Helium-3, SB? And don't you think it's odd that, if the Moon is so useless, both the Chinese and the Japanese are making plans for lunar bases?

http://english.peopledaily.com.cn/90001/98649/7376599.html 

http://news.cnet.com/8301-17938_105-20006075-1.html


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## Starbeast (May 20, 2011)

*Return to the Moon*



pyan said:


> Ever heard of Helium-3, SB? And don't you think it's odd that, if the Moon is so useless, both the Chinese and the Japanese are making plans for lunar bases?


 
Yes, I'm aware other countries have interests in the Moon. I read an article a few years ago talking about plans to return and build bases. But I doubt average people will move off Earth in my lifetime, I'd imagine that may take another two to three hundred years. And hopefully by then humans will stop fighting with one another, clean up the environment and share resources.

However, there are always unforeseen circumstances like natural disasters (Earth changing it's tilt, volcanos, floods, etc.), contamination (pollution, nuclear waste, etc.) along with food & water shortages that could hinder human efforts.


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## RJM Corbet (May 20, 2011)

I fully support space exploration but I always think that before man seriously colonizes other planets he can start by colonizing the sahara desert etc. Perhaps what is learned by space exploration will make that possible.


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## Starbeast (May 20, 2011)

RJM Corbet said:


> I fully support space exploration but I always think that before man seriously colonizes other planets he can start by colonizing the sahara desert etc. Perhaps what is learned by space exploration will make that possible.


 
I highly agree, there are huge areas of land on this planet that could be used to experiment with biospheres, and if a problem happens, scientific observers would be close by to help. Hopefully, the occupents in the experiments will get along with each other, unlike in the first biosphere experiment.

However if all works out well, humans could spread out into areas on Earth that were deemed uninhabitable to minimize overcrowding.


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## J Riff (May 21, 2011)

Oh, NASA was corrupt like you wouldn't even believe, as bad as the CIA, and will not address certain large issues to this day. A tiny overlooked fact. All about money, not moon shots. 
And research that uhhh well never mind, it never happened. No children were fried alive like those astronauts were. There was no connection to MKUtra experiments, which(deleted) and (deleted) torture (deleted) permanent psychological damage(deleted).
 Absorbing those Nazi scientists at the end of the war was a bad idea.


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## mosaix (May 21, 2011)

Starbeast said:


> There is no point of going back away, nothing on the moon but dirt, rocks and a great deal of craters.



And water-ice and Helium-3 as Pyan has pointed out.


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## mosaix (May 21, 2011)

iansales said:


> The Apollo programme cost each individual tax payer about $2 a year for ten years. How can you begrudge that measly sum, given what they achieved? I suspect a great deal more of your tax dollars are going on fancy weapons which will never ever be used, and which exist for no reason other than military oneupmanship.
> 
> And NASA was never corrupt. After the Apollo years, it was mismanaged and ineptly-run. But never corrupt. Besides, you can never spend too much money on science.



Good post, Ian.


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## iansales (May 21, 2011)

Well, you know my feelings on the Apollo missions - see here


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## Starbeast (May 24, 2011)

*New Missions - Return to the Moon*





 
*NASA Promo*​


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## Starbeast (May 24, 2011)

*New Missions - Return to the Moon*


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## Starbeast (May 24, 2011)

*New Missions - Return to the Moon*


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## Starbeast (May 24, 2011)

*New Missions - Return to the Moon*


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## J Riff (Jul 19, 2011)

Great! More time and money for more secret missions now!
That is some fabulously detailed nonsense Ian, I agree.


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## Dave (Sep 7, 2011)

Probe pictures Moon landing sites:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-14813043

Probe can pick out the LRV parallel tracks, astronaut boot tracks and all the assorted litter left behind.


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## mosaix (Sep 7, 2011)

Dave said:


> Probe pictures Moon landing sites:
> http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-14813043
> 
> Probe can pick out the LRV parallel tracks, astronaut boot tracks and all the assorted litter left behind.



Thanks for that, Dave. But cue the 'anyone can use photoshop' posts.


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## J Riff (Sep 8, 2011)

The airbrushing of the 70s Mars photos is so blatant it's just silly.


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## Huttman (Sep 8, 2011)

We should eventually put a moon base alpha....er...moon base up there. It would be a staging spot to further out. Mining it would be a good idea if there is suitable raw material to build more habitats and structures there. Then we could mine asteroids so as to not strip the moon like the Earth is being. Of course, fixing our planet should come first, otherwise it would probably turn into the premise like in the movie Moon. Incredible film, check it out.

Actually, I think the Eagle spacecraft from the TV show Space:1999 (did you get the reference above?) is an incredibly well designed ship for that job. And it's cool looking too. Would love to post a picture, but it keeps saying upload file failed, and no, it's not bigger than 100kb. ???


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