To think millions of litres of fuel shouldn't be wasted on sending a rocket to the moon

List of inventions that unimaginative people once thought were “pointless”

• Light bulb — Experts called Thomas Edison’s efforts a “conspicuous failure”; many doubted electric lighting could ever replace gas or candles practically.
• Telephone — Dismissed as an “electrical toy” with too many shortcomings to be a serious communication tool.
• Automobile — Seen as an expensive novelty that would never replace horses or bicycles due to high costs and impracticality.
• Airplane — Labeled a mere “scientific toy” with no real military or practical value.
• Bicycle — Ridiculed as a dangerous fad; some predicted the “popularity of the wheel is doomed.”
• Printing press — Initially viewed skeptically despite its potential, as it challenged traditional manuscript copying.
• Fork — Mocked as an effeminate or unnecessary utensil when introduced to Western Europe; people preferred hands or knives.
• Umbrella — Considered a ridiculous accessory for men or a sign of weakness when first popularized.
• Television — Predicted to be a commercial disaster and financial flop after early demonstrations.
• Laser — Called “a solution looking for a problem”; early papers were rejected as pointless extensions of existing work.
• Xerox (photocopying) — Rejected by over 20 companies; executives asked, “Who the hell wants to copy a document on plain paper?”
• Personal computer / Internet — Early versions and concepts were downplayed as niche or military-only tools with limited everyday use.
• Mobile phone — Often seen as an overpriced luxury gadget that few would need beyond business elites.

Some people just have very small minds. And that is OK.

Happily some of us think bigger than scratching in the dirt for survival.

Well it's not.

😆

I agree.
Giant boys toys in many ways.

Brain power???

Jeez, it's not rocket science....

I completely agree with you. It’s totally unnecessary.

Anyone who is opposed to space exploration lacks normal human curiosity imo. Why the heck don’t you want to know more about the universe? Every small child looks up and shows interest in the stars - it is a normal part of being human to ask questions about what we see up there.

Space travel is expensive and takes lots of brain power? Except that it doesn’t really, not when you look comparatively. NASA currently costs 0.35% of US federal spending. They employ fewer than 14k people (out of 170M workers in the US). These are actually depressingly low amounts.

It's also fun watching them launch when on holiday in Cape Canaveral,

This is the kind of gold that kids ask Chatgpt (or Google in my day)

@Viviennemary Favourite part is the implication that either the mission was to find an alternative oil source (well it would bypass the Strait) or that they were hoping to offset their oil use by bringing some back with a potential source that only NASA is aware of. Love it.

I agree. Let’s concentrate on what we currently have, and try not to kill it.

Rocket fuel is hydrogen and oxygen. I’m not sure what we could do with that, other than send a rocket into space.

Nobody is even going to land on the moon.

What do you mean by this?

Maybe they would have been except for GPS that literally requires satellites to function but it was the unique challenges of being in space that speeded up their development

I always wonder that we are slowly destroying Earth one way or another, should we be going into space to ruin that too

@Creativeher do you not think those things would have been invented anyway

Neither will I but that is a common thing you'll hear from people who've been up there

It's also a very unifying endeavor as many astronauts/cosmonauts and taikonaut's will tell you that seeing earth from space is a stark reminder that despite our differences we are actually stuck on an incredibly fragile little rock. Hopefully the more we establish ourselves in space the more it will push all humanity to work together rather than pursuing silly conflicts like the current one causing the petrol crisis.

Hmm all sounds very worthy, but I won’t hold my breath…

The amount of technology you use every day that has come out of the space industry is enormous. That's the point. The cutting edge becomes the mundane.

I’d just like to find the Soup Dragon and the Iron Chicken.

Please no... Imagine if the first humans Aliens met were British politicians...

Unless they can take kier Starmer and leave him there. Would make it a worthy trip IMO

We'll have to leave the planet eventually. If humanity doesn't spread out, one global killing asteroid could wipe us all out in a single blow. I'm talking something 50 times of the Dinosaur killer. Not even bacteria would be left.
Within 200 years they'll be sending slower than light colony ships in - ironically - hollowed out asteroids to other star systems. I have zero doubts on this.

How else are we going to be certain about what kind of cheese the moon is made of? 🤔 🚀 🧑‍🚀 🌛🧀