Firefly’s Blue Ghost lander has become the first privately owned vehicle to land on another world. The path to a sustainable (and profitable) permanent presence in space will really start to come into being when the achievements aren’t made by NASA — or just SpaceX, for that matter.
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One lander, NASA’s Athena from Intuitive Machines, landed on its side but is still sending back useful pictures. Some of the testing machines can, they think, still do the job. It can’t get enough solar power where its landed so it will die soon.
We have come a long way since Sputnik. And Voyagers 1 and 2 have gone where no man has gone before. Hats off to Capt. James T. Kirk and the crew of U.S.S Enterprise
It occurred to me many years ago (80s, 90s?) that whenever people find they can make money in space, there will be a rush to space that will be unstoppable. The excitement is that we are on the threshold of that time!
The figures quoted today are by definition today’s figures. With the advances in technology just imagine where we will be in five years.
Space Ghost?
Beat me to it – I was trying to think of a good Zorak/Moltar joke to drop!
Lol, I remember Space Ghost. And making those gauntlet things he had out of construction paper, drawing buttons on them and blasting all the other kids in Sunday School.
Did you ever see back in the 90s Space Ghost Coast to Coast on the Cartoon Network? The show was hilarious, and you can watch it now on Adult Swim’s web site
https://www.adultswim.com/videos/space-ghost-coast-to-coast
My curmudgeon brain asks why spend so much to go to a planet that cannot sustain life. After all, voyages to the New World resulted in gold and silver enriching the coffers of the Spanish and Cacao, potato, sweet potato, avocado, and tomato enriching the European culinary palate. Coffee and tobacco mainstreamed – mainlined? – into the culture (the impetus of the “Protestant work ethic”). But the investigative/curiosity-seeking part of my brain knows something will be found, maybe not even material, that will make this exploit valuable. If nothing else, it may get us to realize the uniqueness of our… Read more »
Reason to go to moon? How about massive reserve of ‘clean’ Thorium energy? Moon: Near infinite power for bases, launch facilities, H2O, smelt ores, etc. Moon: Th-ion-engines enable speedy shipping of (non-fissile) Th to Earth Moon: Th-ion-engines power speedy Moon to Mars vehicles (<30 days) That said, the USA needs to get off its fricken @ss w/r/t developing Th power plants. USA has worked with Th since the 50’s (Oak Ridge National Labs), but it is CHINA (again?!?!) that has just got a working Th-reactor online!! The world’s first thorium nuclear reactor operates in Gansu, providing electricity to 1,000 households… Read more »
p.s.
That’s the thing about exploration, Doc J. The people that sailed from the Old World to the New World didn’t know they were going to find gold, silver, cocoa, cacao, ‘taters etc. They had no idea what they might find. What they did know for sure is that if they didn’t go look they wouldn’t find anything at all. That’s always the case, whether exploring a new restaurant, a continent, a world or outer space. If you don’t go look you’ll never know about all the things you might find that will change your life a little bit or a… Read more »
Wow, I can’t wait to see what sort of looney-tunes comment lil’ Donny Lehoux comes up with regarding how the Apollo moon landings never happened, this landing didn’t happen and that the Earth is flat.
C’mon lil’ Donny, set us all straight! Give us the real scoop! After all, you know what’s REALLY going on so please tell us ignorant sheeple more about the flat Earth and all of these moon landing hoaxes!
Question: How do you handle a moon-landing denier?
Answer: Say ‘OH, your one of THOSE people who believes there is a moon.’
LOL, good one. That’s funny right there, I don’t care who you are.
Thank you. I ripped it off of Sunday Smiles or Monday Memes.
🙂 And I confess to channeling Larry the Cable Guy …
Buncha dang plagiarists in here, huh?