Those astronauts must be slightly insane.

[thinktoomuchtoooften]

I mean obviously they’re highly intelligent individuals and must know what they’re doing… but the risks are so huge and they have families. To me it’s just madness.

Not on this trip. But the objective of the Artemis project is to build a base on the moon so that America can exploit the moon's resources.

You'd definitely have to be a certain personality, wouldn't you? I suppose its the same for any explorer that's ever been.

I watched lift off last night and felt oddly emotional. Not 'weeping' to use a MN fave, bit oddly nervous and a little struck at what was happening. However on earth must their families have felt?!

Yes, I know. I've read a lot about it. That's not the same as "colonisation".

Humanity has never been very good at fixing things. We prefer to move somewhere new and wreck that.

I’m too chicken myself but yes it is super impressive.

Who would you have doing it instead? Russia (not that they can afford it now), China?

All superpowers have questionable ethics, unfortunately. Traditionally, the US has been the lesser evil. Once Trump is out (and he will be), they'll return to that again.

All that bravery, tech, expense and wonder during the first space race didn't bring humanity to a better place., and there's no reason to suppose it will this time, either. This is all about being the first to claim the moon and get rich off its vast resources. Just wait till they start sending prisoners up to the moon mines.

But we haven't learned any lessons here on earth yet so what's the point? Even the most basic of care is denied to vast numbers of people on this planet so spending and 'exploration' on this scale smacks of massive vanity projects.

DH says that we need to look to space for other planets to live on. Mankind genuinely cannot survive off this one. It's 'crazy professor' madness, all of it!

I never claimed it brought humanity to "a better place".
I think perhaps you didn't understand my post.

I don't think there will be an awful lot of 'resources' to be obtained from a cold and inhospitable body such as the moon! But even if there is something of use, why shouldn't we harvest it? Nobody else will (not that we know of anyway!).

There are minerals to be mined, but mostly it'll be about using solar energy and having it as a lauch pad for deeper exploration, namely Mars.

Don't you ever consider the absolutely VAST undertaking it would be to establish even a small base on the Moon? It will be years and years before anything like that could happen - every single building block for the base would have to be transported from Earth. Then consider how people could live and work there whilst constructing any base! It is truly mind-boggling but I am so glad some people/countries have the aspiration to do so.

Once Trump is out Musk or Bezos will still personally own the key elements of space travel. It will be Elon or Jeffs lander that takes people to the moon.

Maybe we are all happy for Musk to take ownership of the moon.

I often wonder what would happen if (heaven forbid) a nuclear war broke out or a huge meteorite hit the earth while the astronauts are in space, they will have no where to go back to and no way of surviving long term in their space craft.

What are these 'vast resources' you speak of? All the oil, flora, and fauna waiting to be exploited? Maybe a few rare metals.

If it wasn't for space exploration we wouldn't have satellites, which provide global communication and enhance our understanding of climate change, which has surely benefitted humanity. See also many developments in science and astronomy that have been enabled.

Exactly, It is a strategic asset. Why else would the US and China be racing to control it.

Quite

Nothing about the space race caused the problems we have now - and it has given us quite a few tools to better understand and even be able to deal with some of them.

Expecting anything to bring all of humanity to a better place full stop, let alone in an historically tiny period of time, is foolish and doomed to failure. No exploration has ever achieved that.

Has space exploration transformed our understanding of the world and the universe? Has it brought us many discoveries or developments that would have been vastly less likely without space exploration?

The answer to both these, so far, is yes.

Humans aren't very good at preventitive measures, but we are very good at reacting and adapting.

I've now got Matt Damon explaining the colonisation of Mars in my head.

😂

Absolutely this.
Think of how we benefit from satellites, alone.

You could stay that about many jobs, so YABU.

er, try $100 billion

Also as a launch point for going to Mars. It would be a lot easier to launch from the moon.