Posted on 07/21/2010 5:54:40 PM PDT by KevinDavis
Not so! One face of the moon always faces the Earth, but all of the Moon's surface gets sunlight during the 28-day lunar month.
When the Moon is new, the far side is in full sunlight; when it's full, our side is in full sunlight.
You Luddites are piss poor Americans.
One side is always toward the earth not the sun
The moon has sunrises and sunsets.
No earthrise or earthset though
I don't follow- how can an isotope of hydrogen decay into an element with one more proton?
Tritium nucleus has three elementary particles in it: one proton, two neutrons.
Tritium is unstable; it undergoes "Beta decay", with a half-life of 12.5 years. This means that one of the neutrons in the Tritium nucleus emits a Beta particle, otherwise known as a high energy electron, and becomes a proton. The resulting nucleus contains one neutron and two protons. It's Helium.
Recall that a proton has a positive electrical charge, an electron has a negative electrical charge, and a neutron has no electrical charge. Also a neutron has slightly greater mass than a proton. The difference is approximately the (much smaller) mass of an electron.
The Europeans didn't, and they benefitted from exploration.
The Europeans didn’t, and they benefitted from exploration.
And the Indians didn’t. You have something against the Indians?
Irrelevant, unless you are concerned about the Martians, a la Avatar.
Good luck, Mr. Gorsky
Progressives are incapable of colonization, that’s why they are the ones left behind.
Progressives tried colonizing North America. They died like flies.
When collectivism was cast aside in favor of individualism, the colonies thrived. The hard conditions of the New World created a new kind of person.
Now the New World and its people are becoming indistinguishable from the Old World.
When the time comes to move from space exploration to space colonization, the hard conditions there will have the same effect of forging a new sort of person steeped in individualism as the colonization of the New World, provided they are in a position to break their ties as effectively as the colonists of North America did. If the colonists are living under the thumb of Old Earth, as many of the colonists in other parts of the New World were, then it will only be an extension of collectivism into space.
Which is will be will be determined by who goes, and why. It can either be colonists seeking a new way of life free frfom the entanglements that limit their freedom, or victims of mass resettlements performed as a stunt to demonstrate the power of the state. Sometimes one becomes the other, witness Australia.
But before anyone can go, either by choice or not, the basic techniques of getting and surviving there for short periods, at least, need to be worked out. Such is the role of human exploration. Sending humans is important, even when it is only a few, to begin with.
You can’t say you’ve been to the Grand Canyon if all you’ve done is look at pictures taken by a robotic camera. If someone else has been there, you have from them a testimony that the pictures don’t do it justice. Now we can get there by pulling the family car onto I-40. But first the explorers, then the builders had to come. 150 years ago people wondered why bother going. Now that we can easily, thousands do every year. And there are quite a few people who find it worthwhile living in Flagstaff and the surrounding area. The same goes for the Moon.
It’s hard to get there now, and will remain so if we keep destroying the infrastructure to do so each time we arrive. If we keep and build on it, however, we can improve it, open the way to more people, making it easier and easier until ordinary people can expect to go.
Meanwhile those who go earliest, to stay, will be in a position to thumb their noses at the powers that be here on Earth, and thrive in a place where others see only wasteland. Just as the North American settlers taught the folks of the Old World a thing or two, so would the first space colonists teach the people of Earth that it’s possible to live with greater personal responsibility, simpler laws, and industry—in a place so hostile that you can’t even get the air you breath for free. It might even be enough to make people wonder why they let their government tell them what sort of light bulbs they can use on the front porch.
But if we just sit here, that perspective will be lost. The Great Age of Exploration was started by governments on the make, but its benefits were realized by those who went to a free place to live.
“Without a good reason, once more going to the moon is pure waste.”
The nations that lead on the frontiers, dictate the course of human history.
Long term survival of the species.
Training ground for exploration and colonization of the solar system.
Exploit lunar energy... helium 3
We are blessed with a natural satellite only three days from home that now we learn has water. Water can be turned into fuel and oxygen.
Teh moon screams at us each time it is in the night sky...
what the hell are you waiting for!
Now, in order for any government to stop them, that government would have to have a presence here first...
Your postulated private company would never get past the formative stage before both the gov and the UN Space Treaty stopped them cold.
Your postulated private company would have to begin/form outside of Earth control, then get all of its resourses and financing also outside of Earth control...
what the hell are you waiting for?
The US is waiting for a new socialist utopia, fueled by welfare checks for the unemployable and welfare checks for the unemployed.
Not waiting:
Russia is buliding an 800 million dollar space port;
China is building eerything it can to get Chinese into space in a big way;
Japan, India, and Europe have simular plans.
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