Golden Spike space firm plans $1.4bn Moon trips

drunkenmaster said:
The car was invented, it was a massive technological leap, travelling to the moon using existing technology, is like driving from London to New Y.....
Click to expand...
ABSOLUTELY agree with you.

Except, the whole Virgin Galactic thing, to me, at the moment I would class as the same as Golden Spike. Branson will not be going into Space but just 70 miles above the earth. So I hardly class this as a launchpad to further space exploration technology :(
 
drunkenmaster said:
The car was invented, it was a massive technological leap, travelling to the moon using existing technology, is like driving from London to New York(you can drive from Russia to Alaska at various points of the year can't you?) just because you can, when the real interesting things were planes being invented that made that trip possible in a fraction of the time.

There was no technologic increase, or change in human life by continuing to use existing technologies to visit a place with no worth.

They aren't talking about making the plane, or improving the car, but using something already invented, to do something already done, more often, for no real reason.

Creating new space based travelling options is likely long term one of the most significant things human beings will ever achieve, but revisiting the moon with the same old rockets, does nothing to achieve anything beyond visting the moon.

If they dumped the 1billion(ish) into technology research for new propulsion and ignored the moon visits, I'd be interested, they've got this completely backwards and it won't take us anywhere we haven't been before.

ultimately 99% of the things needed to for instance, visit the moon safely/quickly/with some reason beyond looking at it, gooing "ooooohhhh, ahhhhhh" and coming back, proper space travel, are all things that earth will need as well and are being researched here and don't need round trips to the moon to push forwards.

New kinds of propulsion, new power sources, new materials, etc, etc.

What Branson is doing is a heck of a lot more useful. A delivery vehicle that can get us too space quickly and cheaply with a lot less hassle, is pretty much essential. Much like the ISS, any serious ship to send to Mars/beyond will be bigger and likely need to be assembled in space, in multiple parts, when we can deliver parts and people to space fairly quickly and efficiently rather than using rockets taking years to plan every trip and using insane amount of fuels and at huge risk for short trips. Well, quick easy delivery to such a staging point in space is crucial for building anything in space in the future.
Click to expand...

For now yes, using old tech isn't really proving or helping. However the more it is used for commercial basis the more something better will need to be developed. It will push technology on as people will want to go more and go further.
 
Morba said:
For now yes, using old tech isn't really proving or helping. However the more it is used for commercial basis the more something better will need to be developed. It will push technology on as people will want to go more and go further.
Click to expand...
So what 'commercial' basis would there be to go to the moon thus pushing forward spacecraft technology thus enabling the human race to explore the far corners of the galaxy?
 
xMarkie said:
So what 'commercial' basis would there be to go to the moon thus pushing forward spacecraft technology thus enabling the human race to explore the far corners of the galaxy?
Click to expand...

Oh I don't know...perhaps enough Helium 3 to provide clean fuel for Earth for the next few million years? Or as a base to mine captured asteroids, you know that have more rare elements than the whole of our planet. Or as a low-G launch point for deep space missions, or as a place to put telescopes that aren't disturbed by Earths atmosphere. To name a few.

Yeah, no 'commercial' reasons at all.

The "Why go to the moon when Africans are staving" backwards Daily Mail attitude is holding mankind back. If the population was reduced (by us shifting to living off world) there would be more resources for those left here. However it appears that long term thinking is beyond governments and Daily Mail readers alike.
 
xMarkie said:
So what 'commercial' basis would there be to go to the moon thus pushing forward spacecraft technology thus enabling the human race to explore the far corners of the galaxy?
Click to expand...

Duggan said:
Summary
"A team of former Nasa executives has launched a private venture to send two people to the Moon for $1.4bn (£871m).
Click to expand...

$1.4bn, a nice amount of that will be profit I'm sure. They more they do it the more they will earn, the more they earn the more they will want to capitalise on it and make it cheaper or increase occupancy meaning new shuttles.
Less reliance on the fitness side of things so that more people can do it will mean different technology to lessen the stresses on the passengers.

etc etc etc.

Thats just a business thing though, there are many benefits to being able to have a permanent base on the moon for the future of science and technology.
 
xMarkie said:
So why haven't they been back to the moon in all that time or sent a person to another planet yet?
Click to expand...

That's got nothing to do with my point. :confused:

If they wanted to go back, they've got the knowledge to do it. When they promised to go it by the end of the decade, they had no knowledge at all and still managed it.

A company starting now wouldn't be starting with zero knowledge.
 
WOW some people daft.......

Space travel is the single most helpful thing we can do as a species, it is high investment area in trying to figure out how to get as much life as possible out of a very small space.........the inside of the space ship.

To say its not useful is incredibly stupid. There is no other research going on that is concentrating on how to get as much food as u can out of a few square meters in area.

Also the person above who thinks space travel has done nothing for man, FACE PALM x2

I cant even be bothered to write anymore, Im just in shock people dont 'get it'.

And another thing, as well as in one massive swoop doing something about the fact earth has to many people and not enough food.......... its also good to point out the dinosaurs died out, because they didnt have a space program - im not being funny, but its factually true.
 
Last edited:
LordSplodge said:
Oh I don't know...perhaps enough Helium 3 to provide clean fuel for Earth for the next few million years? Or as a base to mine captured asteroids, you know that have more rare elements than the whole of our planet. Or as a low-G launch point for deep space missions, or as a place to put telescopes that aren't disturbed by Earths atmosphere. To name a few.

Yeah, no 'commercial' reasons at all.

The "Why go to the moon when Africans are staving" backwards Daily Mail attitude is holding mankind back. If the population was reduced (by us shifting to living off world) there would be more resources for those left here. However it appears that long term thinking is beyond governments and Daily Mail readers alike.
Click to expand...
Maybe the daily mail can use the moon as a tax haven for its business?

ok, so do we have the technology to build a helium 3/downed asteroid mineral extraction plant on the moon? Have we ever done anything more complicated than stuck a flagpole onto the moons surface on the moon?

Perhaps we can send up some Polish builders in space suits to build this moon telescope and low-g launchpad for spacecraft we don't have yet?

A telescope on the moon doesn't sound like a commercial venture to me, unless perhaps its for The Sun to try and catch a sneaky glimpse of some martian breasts....:cool:
Just another example of investing in something to look at things far away instead of investing in technology to visist things far away.
 
Last edited:
xMarkie said:
Just another example of investing in something to look at things far away instead of investing in technology to visist things far away.
Click to expand...

when a journey is estimated to take hundreds if not thousands of years you want a pretty good idea of where your going.
 
xMarkie said:
Aren't things like this fascinating -we don't have the collective ability to feed starving children or cure diseases which kill 1 in 3 people but yet we think up needless ventures to travel to a big rock in the sky.
Click to expand...

It is needed for us to advance as a species and also to help protect us from extinction.
 
Combat squirrel said:
WOW some people daft.......

Space travel is the single most helpful thing we can do as a species, it is high investment area in trying to figure out how to get as much life as possible out of a very small space.........the inside of the space ship.

To say its not useful is incredibly stupid. There is no other research going on that is concentrating on how to get as much food as u can out of a few square meters in area.

Also the person above who thinks space travel has done nothing for man, FACE PALM x2

I cant even be bothered to write anymore, Im just in shock people dont 'get it'.

And another thing, as well as in one massive swoop doing something about the fact earth has to many people and not enough food.......... its also good to point out the dinosaurs died out, because they didnt have a space program - im not being funny, but its factually true.
Click to expand...
Yes agreed.

But look at this scenario. We press ahead with building spacecraft to reach the far corners of the galaxy, in 25 years time we build a craft that can travel at the speed of light, be self-generating power source and can support 1000 passengers.
We explore the galaxy and discover other 'beings' who accept us to their worlds.

So guys, you're from Earth? We've been trying to contact you for decades - why didn't you ever reply back?
"Errr, we only pick up noise with our space telescopes".. oh right.


We've been studying your planet and wondered why a quarter of your planets population is thirsty, hungry and dying?
"Errr, we were too busy building this spacecraft to be bothered with that".. oh right.


Those things with 4 black circles at each corner, which you get into and then slowly move along those long black straight lines on your land and occasionally you pour some liquid into the back of - what are they?
"They're cars, we use them to go places".. Oh right.


That white stuff you had at the top of your planet - what have you done with it?
"Errr, thats ice it melted because of the primative technology used in our cars, boats and planes and then flooded our coastal areas because we didn't know how to solve that problem".. Oh right.


We watched some of your media broadcasts, something called Reuters, is this Earths favourite fictional show as it is always showing humans blowing themselves up or killing each other?
"Errr, no this is just daily life, we haven't bothered with peace in our humanity on our planet".. Oh right..

Err, sorry, we don't think we'll get on as you're a bit too primative for us... see ya... :(
 
xMarkie said:
You're absolutely right, now its only taken us 10 years to develop an electric car that can travel 100miles and costs £25k. We've made so much progress because rich celebrities in California have been buying Toyota Priuses...
Click to expand...

You realise that electric cars are significantly better than that, right?
 
xMarkie said:
Yes agreed.

But look at this scenario. We press ahead with building spacecraft to reach the far corners of the galaxy, in 25 years time we build a craft that can travel at the speed of light, be self-generating power source and can support 1000 passengers.
We explore the galaxy and discover other 'beings' who accept us to their worlds.

So guys, you're from Earth? We've been trying to contact you for decades - why didn't you ever reply back?
"Errr, we only pick up noise with our space telescopes".. oh right.


We've been studying your planet and wondered why a quarter of your planets population is thirsty, hungry and dying?
"Errr, we were too busy building this spacecraft to be bothered with that".. oh right.


Those things with 4 black circles at each corner, which you get into and then slowly move along those long black straight lines on your land and occasionally you pour some liquid into the back of - what are they?
"They're cars, we use them to go places".. Oh right.


That white stuff you had at the top of your planet - what have you done with it?
"Errr, thats ice it melted because of the primative technology used in our cars, boats and planes and then flooded our coastal areas because we didn't know how to solve that problem".. Oh right.


We watched some of your media broadcasts, something called Reuters, is this Earths favourite fictional show as it is always showing humans blowing themselves up or killing each other?
"Errr, no this is just daily life, we haven't bothered with peace in our humanity on our planet".. Oh right..

Err, sorry, we don't think we'll get on as you're a bit too primative for us... see ya... :(
Click to expand...

You dont get it do you?

All those issues can be solved by high investment in space tech :confused: :confused:

People starve because there is not enough farm land, because the planet is to small and the population is to high, we need to get more food out of a smaller growing area.

THE ONLY funded research for this is......space travel and trust me, if they found a power supply to power an FTL ship.......the energy problems on Earth would also be solved over night.

Im just being blunt here, but, think before you post, educate and entertain yourself with logical thought and dont just look at a problem and say its a problem, realize, that they can be solved, and the most likely route to solving them is space travel research.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom