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

[Viviennemary]

With this current fuel crisis it's total madness sending a rocket to the moon. What is the point. Nobody is even going to land on the moon. Doubt therei s any oil on the moon.

There's around 100 million things in orbit around the earth, they'd better be careful not to hit something on the way up then back down.

@ProjectHailMary and you will note that I am talking about the area nearer to Earth. Are you saying we have not polluted any of that area with old equipment etc?

What do you think might be hiding in the shadows?

To the very best of current knowledge, it really is a barren rock so all theories welcome IMO.

It must be great to be as young as you 😀

To the very best of current knowledge,

It's rare when someone trips themselves up so completely 😂

Can't see any issues. All sealed under multiple layers of containment.

Again anytime you have development there's some pollution. Should we just not build anything then because pollution?

I’m not claiming it will be done in 10 years. In 20 though I think we will have cracked it and in 30 it will be rolled out globally. It will and it will transform everything beyond recognition.

What’s your alternative to fix things on Earth? How do you envisage us both feeding the global population, stopping people from killing each other and tackling climate change without scientific innovation into cleaner and more productive, plentiful fuel sources so that people stop attacking each other? Fundamentally pretty much all global conflict is about resources (however it is couched politically in a cloak of morality/ religion/ political system/ whatever) and the underlying resource is ENERGY. When you have plentiful energy, every other problem is easily solvable without having to divide up and fight over resource, because energy PRODUCES resources and makes them easily obtainable. What humanity (and therefore the Earth and all of its other species) desperately need is a clean, plentiful source of energy generation. Then pretty much every other problem goes away.

We should be putting far, far more resources into advancing science as fast as we can.

If you have a viable alternative that doesn’t result in climate collapse/ mass extinction of many species including us quite possibly/ death and suffering and displacement or starvation of a large part of the global population then please enlighten me.

Well, I'll put my hands up to that! 😂

However, it doesn't stop the Moon being a barren rock, although I know there were people putting words into the moon landing Apollo astronaut's mouths about them being watched by whatever, ET's Gran possibly, or the Russians.

When there is a bit of evidence there is any form of life on the moon, happy to recant. It would be interesting.

Okay and?

@ArtemisMission does it not bother you at all?

Again I say, should we never do anything because there might be some waste.

It’s basically a dick-swinging contest. Trump wants the USA to beat China to (re)land on the moon. Agree that the money could be much better spent on the home planet 🙄

I wish I was young.

How is recognising human arrogance and stupidity an indicator of being young?

It’s a story that spans our entire time on this planet so far.

I don’t see how your comments put forward any credible prospect to resolve the issues of facing humanity and the other species on Earth in any realistic way instead of doing this by advancing our scientific knowledge so that we can generate bountiful clean energy which will enable us to meet all human needs and protect the environment.

What’s your alternative?

Do you think all of these scientists are stupid and deluded?

https://world-nuclear.org/information-library/current-and-future-generation/nuclear-fusion-power

https://www.popularmechanics.com/science/energy/a70627756/tokamak-fusion-breakthroughs/

https://www.iter.org

https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2026/03/260303050622.htm

https://www.weforum.org/stories/2026/02/nuclear-fusion-science-explained/

Space is very big, we are very small. The people at risk from our space junk in orbit are us and yeah, it does need consideration but the fact is they can't load up a moon lander with kit and take it down the dump for recycling when they get back. They can't bring it back.

I think for my generation the presence of original Star Trek on our screens as children around the time of Apollo was a blessing and a curse. It had some wonderful ideas and good values on the whole (even if the Prime Directive was largely ignored) but the USS Enterprise made it look easy, and it really isn't.

Even if it's hard though, and imperfect, what else are we meant to do? Sit on the 3rd rock until the sun goes ape or use our talents to go as far as we can, do as much as we can, in the enormity that surrounds us?

Indeed. Those people at CERN wasting huge amounts of energy on their frivolous “experiments”. A disgrace that they should be allowed when politicians want to start wars and spend hundreds of billions on bombs and create thousands of times as much pollution waging wars. How bloody dare these scientists try to advance our knowledge and find solutions to the world’s problems by investigating nuclear fusion, particle physics, engaging in space exploration and advancing our understanding of physics and chemistry when there are so many more important priorities to focus on and their activities may contribute 0.01% of global emissions. The fact we are spending 0.1% of global GDP on space exploration is an outrage!

As I said earlier, this thread makes me wish that Project Hail Mary would come and put me on a spacecraft to Irid if I could take my children with me: I’d happily go and live there with Dr Ryland Grace on his beach (as long as he let me adjust the temperature settings a little).

I really despair of humanity sometimes. What a depressing thread this has been (with a few notable exceptions from posters who have given me a little hope, for which I am immensely grateful otherwise I might go and lie on the beach like Elio now with a colander on my head and write in the sand “please abduct me!”).

But aren’t most of the current issues facing mankind down to mankind?

Okay? And??!?!!?! What is your point? What did you learn at school?

Scientists have developed weapons, is death just a waste product of that?

For anybody who might like to think a little more about the long-term implications for humanity about why understanding the universe we live in is important, aside from the more immediate problems that humanity faces which only science has a prospect of getting us through:

https://waitbutwhy.com/2014/05/fermi-paradox.html

@ProjectHailMary I imagine that many of the people who aren't 100% behind space exploration are against war too.

Anything to do with space is a big fat waste of time and money. I mean who even understands it? Hardly anyone. Anything you are taught about it is designed to make you feel as small and inconsequential as possible. No benefits. You get a few pictures of rocks. A load of rubbish. A licence to print money.

Cavemen developed flints. What’s your point?

You could try to understand it.

I imagine you don’t understand lots of things, like most people. That doesn’t make them pointless.

Reid Wiseman, Victor Glover, Christina Koch, Jeremy Hansen.

4 people, united in vulnerable humanity, taking off to go round the far side of the Moon, the first to do so for 50 years.

I wish them with all my heart a good liftoff, a successful mission and safe return to our grotty little planet home, having actually done something to advance us as a species, because for all the naysayers, it really does.

Perhaps. But if they are anti-science then why are they happy to drive cars, live in heated houses, avail themselves of clean water systems, healthcare and medicines, fly on planes, have any electric appliances in their houses etc?

You cannot pick and choose or blame science for the way that some idiotic world leaders have misused it.

The fact is that most of the people posting here would be dead by now if it wasn’t for science. Those still alive would likely be under 30 and living extremely hard lives and certainly wouldn’t be posting anything on a chat forum because no such thing would exist.

The only solution to the problems with the damage to the Earth’s biodiversity and climate and humanity’s remaining problems of poverty and suffering (already vastly improved by science) is more science.

I’d like to hear what the anti-science people propose as the alternative solution.

Bear in mind that if we abandon all scientific inventions or use of fuel then there will not be enough arable land on Earth to feed the current global population and at least half of people globally will starve to death very quickly. There will be even more pollution because there will be no sewage filtration. People in colder countries will die of cold and people in hotter countries will die from the heat. Food obviously cannot be shipped around because that involves fuel and engines and boats and planes and technology. People will have no medical care so a small cut to your hand or leg may mean you die from an infection. No vaccinations so viruses will spread like wildfire killing hundreds of millions.

It’s idiotic for these people to be posting on the internet using computers and electricity sanctimoniously telling us all that science is bad while they live their cosy lives with central heating and ovens and washing machines and cars and medicines and vaccinations etc.

Mind-bogglingly stupid to blame “science” for some world leaders doing stupid things. The answer is to stop letting stupid people run countries. That’s not an argument for abolishing scientific progress.

How many of these posters would survive a two weeks living off-grid without the creature comforts that science affords to them?