Large quantities of water found on the Moon

Makunouchi · 24 Sep 2009 at 10:14

Cool, I always enjoy reading space related news articles, nice to know we haven't completely ground to a halt in that direction.

The Dread Pirate · 24 Sep 2009 at 10:46

I for one welcome our new water source!

deuse · 24 Sep 2009 at 10:57

JRS said:
Oh, be quiet. We could take all the money used around the world for space exploration and pump it into eliminating poverty, and it wouldn't do a blind bit of good. At least with this they've actually achieved something, and hopefully paved the way for further exploration of the Moon.

Tell that to this little child JRS

Efour · 24 Sep 2009 at 10:59

jesus so what people starve... if anyone "really" cares i suggest they go and actively do something about it, more than giving £2 to feed a *** charity.

JRS · 24 Sep 2009 at 11:09

deuse said:
Tell that to this little child JRS

And there are many more like that child in the world despite the billions spent on attempting to stamp out poverty. So does that mean we should completely abandon all scientific research until we finally drag the whole world, kicking and screaming, up to scratch?

****edit****

And if we're going to go down that route - why stop with scientific research? We should ban Formula 1 and other motor sports, since all they do is pollute the atmosphere and cost billions. Ban football - all that money spent could feed all these starving people around the world. How much money gets spent creating Reality TV shows each year that could be spent instead on poverty-stricken nations?

Where d'you stop?

The Mad Rapper · 24 Sep 2009 at 11:11

gurusan said:
or they could spend that money on feeding themselves...

...and buying deodorant

deuse · 24 Sep 2009 at 11:22

JRS said:
And there are many more like that child in the world despite the billions spent on attempting to stamp out poverty. So does that mean we should completely abandon all scientific research until we finally drag the whole world, kicking and screaming, up to scratch?

****edit****

And if we're going to go down that route - why stop with scientific research? We should ban Formula 1 and other motor sports, since all they do is pollute the atmosphere and cost billions. Ban football - all that money spent could feed all these starving people around the world. How much money gets spent creating Reality TV shows each year that could be spent instead on poverty-stricken nations?

Where d'you stop?

Its a bit like your Ferrari team then.." Put your own house in order before picking on someone else"
you know what I mean

They should put their counrty right before doing anything else.
And this is how much water they found

.

did you see it... WOW

JRS · 24 Sep 2009 at 11:45

deuse said:
Its a bit like your Ferrari team then.." Put your own house in order before picking on someone else"

My Ferrari team?

I have a team?

Guess that means I can ring up Maranello and start making some executive decisions. Lets see, step 1 - hire Mafia crew to eliminate Hamilton....

deuse said:
you know what I mean

No deuse, I very rarely know what the **** you're talking about actually.

deuse said:
They should put their counrty right before doing anything else.

So America better completely can the space programme as well then as a good %age of their population is below the poverty line.

deuse said:
And this is how much water they found

.

did you see it... WOW

What has that got to do with anything? Yes, they didn't find lakes on the Moon. So what? They found the building blocks, and that's great news.

***edit***

Went ahead and looked it up. The Indian Space Research Organisation has a budget for '09-'10 of US$1.01bn. NASA's budget is US$17.6bn for this financial year. So hardly in the same league of spending. Also, a quote from the former president of India Dr A.P.J Abdul Kalam:

Many individuals with myopic vision questioned the relevance of space activities in a newly independent nation, which was finding it difficult to feed its population. Their vision was clear if Indians were to play meaningful role in the community of nations, they must be second to none in the application of advanced technologies to their real-life problems. They had no intention of using it as a mean to display our might.

So yeah, they recognise all the arguments against having a space programme. And quite rightly, they dismiss them as short-sighted.

chucky · 24 Sep 2009 at 12:21

They found where Neil Armstrong took a pee apparently.

Teki187 · 24 Sep 2009 at 17:44

Evangelion said:
Er... slight exaggeration.

"When we say 'water on the moon,' we are not talking about lakes, oceans or even puddles. Water on the moon means molecules of water and hydroxyl (hydrogen and oxygen) that interact with molecules of rock and dust specifically in the top millimetres of the moon's surface," Pieters said in a statement.

Molecules of water in the top millimetres of the moon's surface. Not exactly a deluge.

I do hope you realise i didn't just "make this up" and its not a random theory of mine, if you want to criticise, don't come to me, go to the paper.

Why?

Because it opens up methods of extracting the water and using it for drinking water, making hydroponics a possibility and longevity of potential moon bases.

Why?

Because its nice to see a LEDC venture into space, showing that poorer countries can contribute to science. (not saying they couldn't in the first place)

Killerkebab · 24 Sep 2009 at 18:02

deuse said:
They should put their counrty right before doing anything else.

Why? It is their money, they can do whatever they want with it. They have specialists in several fields of science related to space exploration. Should those men and women be left out of a job because their countrymen are starving? Should Indian nuclear scientists go out feeding the poor?

No country on this earth has put itself right before doing anything else, ours included.