You can never be too sure about the future — mostly because it hasn’t happened yet. But absolutely lost in the background noise of a typical news week in 2026 was what might turn out to be one of the most important announcements in human history.
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All this talk of the moon, and not one mention of those poor 3 guys who’ve been up there since the 70’s. Mace and those two other old dudes. And that thumbnail CANT BE REAL!!!! THERE’S NO WIND ON THE MOON! AND THE SHADOWS ARE ALL WRONG! AND THERE’S A “MADE IN BANGLADESH” MARKING ON THAT ROCK OVER THERE! AND CHEMTRAILS, SO MANY CHEMTRAILS ON THE MOON! OH, AND THAT PACIFIC GAS AND ELECTRIC “SMART METER” IS GOING TO GIVE THEM RADIATION CANCER! AND…AND….AND…ARGGGGHHHH!
Lunar chemtrails are the worst chemtrails.
Somebody didn’t get the fact that you were being sarcastic and downvoted you. I fixed that. I get it.
Why the giant orbit and not the low lunar orbit of the Apollo missions?
Since I, at 70, want to view the Mars landing live like I did the Moon landing, anything that makes this more likely I’m all for
Finally, this is the right decision. So many benefits to doing the moon first.
Luna is really the logical first step. Putting materiel in orbit from there is so much easier, and actually possible using mass drivers. Mass drivers are a mature technology. Think railgun. On super-steroids. Without air resistance, 90% of the problems disappear. They’ve already figured out the important things like magnet sequencing. Supercooling? Not a problem on Luna. Aiming? Vary outlet velocity. Ballistics and orbits are “settled science”. Heck, that 2 year interval between launches disappears if you throw equipment into long orbits. then, use fast orbits to beat the equipment to the destination. [yes, I’m using ‘The Moon Is A… Read more »
Hey Scott? Yeah, I hate to be the one to break this to you but rockets that can carry mankind to the moon can also carry thermonuclear warheads to kill everyone there. Any global nuclear war would also by necessity have to take out enemy outposts in orbit or on the moon too. That’s just the way war works. The moon, sadly, is not out of the “blast radius” because it’s not out of the targeting radius.
The key is to not have a global thermonuclear war in the first place.
Spoilsport.
Right, instead of Global Thermonuclear War we need to play Tic-Tac-Toe.
I have a way to play Tic-Tac-Toe that if I go first and you don’t play strict attention, I win every time. And it is NOT starting in the center. Messes with people’s minds
Let me guess…you stomp on their ankle and break it mid game?
Nope. It’s complicated to explain. And if you do pay close attention, it ends in a draw, like if the other person goes first. Since I discovered this, I’ve never lost a game, but the vast majority ends in a tie. And welcome back. You’ve been gone for a while. And darn it, I put up the “Encounter with Neil Armstrong” on the blog along with the %@*^% misspelled “Dr Heimlich of maneuver fame” meeting because you asked for it. And only you. You haven’t commented on either. See if I ever do what you want me to do again😉😏… Read more »
It’s about freakin’ time Elon came to his senses on this matter. For a really smart guy he’s been pretty dumb about the unavoidable, necessary, incontrovertible sequential order required to successfully get humans off planet Earth and out to the stars.
The moon is the first and most vital body to establish a colony and everything else has to come after as far as solid masses to land on and take off from goes.
The moon, NOT Mars, has always been the only possible first stepping stone to the stars for human beings.
Bring on the Lunar Mass Drivers! Control them with a sentient supercomputer. What could possibly go wrong, right MYCROFT?
I have the greatest enthusiasm for this mission,
DavePhil.