Friday October 9, 2009, 10:43 pm
noted thankyou

Saturday October 10, 2009, 4:44 am
Excellent article dearest Katie, this is noted.

When I first saw the news on how they were going to allow a $79 million dollar rocket crash into the moon, I thought...Oh my, what next, and why? I saw no reason to "dabble" this particular crashing and why waste the tax payers money on this? Sorry, my opinion only. I know we love to explore, but at what cost? This could have gone array, and missed the moon, and could have caused irreputable damage to us all~ Think about it ~

Blessings all,
FreeSpirit...

Saturday October 10, 2009, 6:56 am
Nuts

Saturday October 10, 2009, 8:42 am
Thanks Katie. This isn't the only money wasted by NASA. The are spending millions of dollars now on projects building vehicles and shelters for man to set up on the moon to stay there for extended periods. I guess the Government is looking ahead for when they have used up the earth. I guess they will start destroying the other planets now. We can't have health care or balance the budget or even feed Americas hungry and homeless but we have money to waste on this. I would suggest tat spending like this be postponed until America gets back on its feet again.

Saturday October 10, 2009, 11:51 am
IMO 79Million dollars just got wasted. Our Planet is literally falling apart but yes let's see what's on the Moon!! Am I missing something here?

Saturday October 10, 2009, 12:28 pm
I agree with everybody above.

Saturday October 10, 2009, 12:55 pm
Sorry, but I can't agree with ANY of you. We spend about 2 billion dollars per week to kill and maim people in Iraq and Afghanistan. That amount is about 25 times greater than the $79 million, we did this ONCE, but we keep spending the money in Iraq and Afghanistan, week after week after week.

You make it sound as if the $79 million disappeared. It didn't. Most of it went for salaries and research HERE on Earth and high-tech developments needed to be able to remote-sense in real time what was happening 1/2-million miles away. Spinoffs from things like this have gone towards miniaturization of computers that have kept this country #1 in the world in tech-applications, medical improvements in monitoring, and probably updates to the same kinds of communications networks that allow your cell phones to operate.

So, think a little bit more long-term, and you'll see that this sort of stuff is worthwhile - and I haven't even mentioned what we'll learn about the Moon in the process. We learn about Earth and its environment by studying other worlds and seeing what they're like. They are experiments in stuff we DON'T want to do to the Earth.

Saturday October 10, 2009, 1:17 pm
Steve I think it's a question of priorities. First things first. Lets get Earth healed first.

Saturday October 10, 2009, 2:05 pm
I have to go with Eureka's comment. LOL
Tx Katie

Saturday October 10, 2009, 2:13 pm
If it's a question of priorities, Janet K., then let's end the wars and feed the hungry.
It's the satellites that NASA has launched to study Earth that have shown us El Nino problems, tsunami wave patterns, stress regions where there could be earthquakes, and storms on the horizon a couple weeks before they hit the mainland. It is NOT the technology that needs to be limited at this point, which includes imaging from orbit any troop movements in war zones or where levees are breaking. Infrared scans from orbit can show impending crop failures months in advance by detecting water losses in agricultural areas. ALL of these were outgrowths from the R&D needed to remote-sense planets.

If there are priorities, then let's get all our Senators and other Congress-critters to disclose their stocks and other investments, many of which -- we'll find -- are tied to health-care interests.

If it's a priority to help people, then let's not end the development of medical experiments on-board the International Space Station that would help make drug combos in low-g orbits that we can't make on Earth.

Please don't be short-sighted, folks! That's what got us INTO a lot of these messes!

Saturday October 10, 2009, 2:27 pm
The Earth will only heal once the human race has left it! This small step towards finding water/ice on the moon will help us achieve that - The rest of our solar system is dead rock and gases, by exploring, colonising and living on places like the moon, we will be expanding the area that life can survive and florish on!

This money hasn't been wasted, all the money stayed on earth, going into the pockets of the workers who produced this rocket - all the workers, right from the ones who mined the metal to the ones who pressed the red button sending it on its way!

Humanity has to leave its cradle, this is just one of our baby steps!

Saturday October 10, 2009, 2:39 pm
Thanks Katie

Saturday October 10, 2009, 3:25 pm
Apparently the human race is running out of natural landscape to desecrate here on Earth and must move on to destroying other celestial bodies.

Saturday October 10, 2009, 3:33 pm
Well? Having looked at two different aspects of the situation of this "rocket" hitting the moon, we have two choices that we are left to make. The first one is, Are we going to sit and criticise or the second is ARE WE PERSONALLY GOING TO GET OFF OUR BUTTS AND DO SOMETHING THAT WILL HELP OTHERS BETTER THEMSELVES?

Doing something constructive to help others starts with just ONE person with an idea and saying "I think I can". Then that person will be inundated with a whole lot of criticism from all those who think the money should be spent elsewhere. The originator of the idea will fight the uphill battle until others join him or her and then they move on to greater achievements. Meanwhile the criticisers are attacking those who join the originator of the idea.

There are more criticisers in this world than there are people who get off their butts and do something physically constructive like going from the idea of checking if there is water on the moon to actually sending the rocket to check it out.

Most homes have something called Tupperware in their cupboards. (Some of us are totally turned off with the parties) BUT that is just one of the spinoffs from the space race. There are really hundreds of thousands of others that we take for granted and I do not see that there is an end to it as it will get to be more and more as time goes on. The only problem that I do see is that there will be a problem with the junk left of stuff being worn out and nowhere to get rid of it. If someone wants to do something positive, why not put the critical mind to discovering a better recycling method for this stuff so that it can be used again instead of just being discarded. They could use the money they make to help feed the poor and improve the lot of the downtrodden and generally be a service to mankind instead of just being a criticiser. Remember one thing. IT IS ONLY THE ONES WHO "DO" SOMETHING POSITIVE WHO ARE REMEMBERED. The criticisers fade into oblivion. The real difference here is whether one wants to do something or to knock someone else for having done it. Which party are YOU going to be part of?

Oh yes! you may ask what I am doing,Yes? I fight the uphill battle of prejudice against using the very best food supplementation because "I" might make some money on the fact that people are sick and that is a NO NO. Well, big Pharma do that all the time and those same folks support them ALL the time. With the extra money I make, I send this food supplement stuff to help others who are less fortunate and who the "drugs" have not been able to improve the lot of. I get a lot of criticisers but i also get the letters and photos of children that I have helped and the thankyous are from folks who can never repay me for my help. THAT my friends is what I am asking you all to do. Get off your butts and do what you can with the small resources that you have personally. The rewards are NOT financial, they are far better than anything money can buy. KNOWING THAT "I" MADE A DIFFERENCE IN SOMEONE ELSE'S LIFE. Try it for yourself, its fantastic.
Actually, that is REAL Christianity and I just love it and the unfortunate that I am able to help. Come join me or criticise me, you only have two choices.

Saturday October 10, 2009, 6:02 pm
Why look for water on the moon? Because clean, fresh water is getting scarce and has been polluted on earth?

We should be looking after the earth first -- and that to me includes stopping the invasions, and all the harm to ecosystems, humans and animals, the waste of the earth's resources, waste of money and goodness knows how many emissions that war / invasion entails, as well as not wasting money on space exploration / exploitation that could be otherwise helping the earth's biosphere.

Saturday October 10, 2009, 6:39 pm
The one positive thing about moon exploration I heard about 20 years ago but have not been hearing about
during the latest 8 years of moon urging. That is the presence of Helium Isotope 3 that would work as a starter for nuclear fusion reactor power. Otherwise I see nothing directly useful except for trying out robots for planetary exploration and widening the comparisons between the moon and earth primordial geologies.
Scientific curiosity is vital resource but it must be directed with common sense and not playing with matches anf firecrackers.

Saturday October 10, 2009, 7:48 pm
$79 million?! Think of how that money could have been spent to help people here on earth.

Saturday October 10, 2009, 10:32 pm
Mankind I don't think has evolved enough for us to explore satellites, planets, stars etc. too thoroughly, we have to understand the ramifications of our explorations. What we've done to our planet, the nations, the people and how we've treated each other. We still have a lot to do. We can't be a harm to other life forms like we've treated fellow human beings, our planet and it's life forms, be it the animals, fauna, water, air, etc.

Sunday October 11, 2009, 3:22 am
The human race is clever, but not wise. Do we really know the moon is "dead" ? That such structural disturbances are harmless ? Is a big bomb the only way to determine if there is water ? I think not. This is not simply curiosity at work. It is violence & dominion.

This disrespectful, arrogant behavior is what is destroying the Earth. Time to move on from the mechanistic, Newtonian model and be guided by the view of interconnectedness.. Time to stop regarding everything that exists as commodities for human use !

Sunday October 11, 2009, 5:55 am
I decided on continuing to oppose money spent for moon exploration as long as money and power are available
for weaponry for world domination thought to be the solution for American security.

Sunday October 11, 2009, 6:24 am
Yes, I agree that it's important for humanity to learn how to leave the cradle, but there will never be a wholesale migration of humans to other worlds -- too many people and too expensive. The best we can do is to establish colonies elsewhere, carrying the best of what humanity has to offer.

Next, it wasn't a bomb. There were NO explosives. And, no, there was no easier way to do this seeing as we've never landed anything anywhere at night (shadowed polar crater) in a non-photographed terrain before.

The Earth itself is hit by at least 100 tons of interplanetary debris each day. (Some estimates go as high as 2000 tons -- most of which is just dust and burns up or floats down through the atmosphere.) The Moon is smaller, but it has about the same flux per square meter -- with NOTHING to stop it, like an atmosphere.

And, yes, humans have trashed and CONTINUE to trash the Earth's surface and oceans, but I think we're seeing a general awakening and caring. Hopefully it's not too late.

But let's not stop our exploration in how to treat the Earth well, and PART of that is to study other worlds and see how they've turned out. All of that is a benefit to our understanding of Earth.

Sunday October 11, 2009, 12:45 pm
The US is flexing its muscles - there's more to this than meets the eyes. Thanks Katie.

Sunday October 11, 2009, 12:49 pm
Will we ever evolve enough to appreciate nature without having to "discover" it? I love this poem by Rumi~

The sky was lit
by the splendor of the moon
So powerful
I fell to the ground


Your love
has made me sure

I am ready to forsake
this worldly life
and surrender to the magnificence
of your Being


- Rumi

Sunday October 11, 2009, 1:50 pm
I was a tad concerned they would mess something up and have catastrophic results. But who's to say they haven't messed up something up and the results are just too subtle at the moment for anyone to notice? Even the tiniest things humans do to objects we don't yet understand can drastically affect them. Anyways, I feel so indifferent to this mission...

Monday October 12, 2009, 6:35 am
Ten NASA inventions you might use every day:
http://science.howstuffworks.com/ten-nasa-inventions.htm

When basic research is being done, there is NO telling what the actual, helpful spinoffs might be!

Monday October 12, 2009, 8:45 pm
We should solve a few more problems on earth before spending money to blast the moon for research purposes. That money could be spent on health care, energy, environmental problems, education, animal welfare, our roads, bridges and airports.

Monday October 12, 2009, 9:58 pm
Saving pennies by scrapping basic research instead of saving dollars EACH WEEK by stopping a war, running Guantanamo, giving away money for oil, and letting health care CEOs buy homes worth hundreds of millions of dollars is penny-wise and pound-foolish. We're not going to solve ANY problems by giving up on research.

Take a look through these 10 inventions from NASA you might use every day, and if they're not worth it, then we'll talk -- but not on your cell phone, because the miniaturization of the circuit boards and the placing of the satellites and the theory and practice behind the communications belong to NASA originally:
http://science.howstuffworks.com/ten-nasa-inventions.htm

Tuesday October 13, 2009, 3:56 am
You know what Steve, that's fine that NASA had the theories for all of these inventions, I believe we all are smart enough to know that ~ however dear, that's not what I was saying.

I am saying that if NASA goes messing around "up there" in space with some more things like crashing rockets into the moon, that maybe something could have happened down here on Earth to us, now what? I still say that since NASA has been messing around in space that a lot of things on this planet, including our weather has changed, significantly.

I understand that we have this "need" to "explore", still in all at what expense? I think OUR PLANET ~ EARTH ~ is the jewel of the universe and I'm hoping that nothing will happen to OUR MOTHER EARTH. Let's all do what we can to save our planet.

Besides, I really don't think many of us humans would want to live on the moon. If they have water on the moon, we need to select a different way of finding it then, if they really feel the need to do so.

I'm believe someone else here said, let's worry about our planet first, I shall have to agree. But thanks for the site Steve.

In peace,
~ FreeSpirit ~