When Iraq and Afghanistan Become Boring, and Israel Hasn’t Attack Iran Yet,
MINT-AND-CORN COUNTRY, INDIANA — You attack the moon!
NASA’s going for full impact Friday, firing a bomb-laden missile at the moon in a dramatic search for water.
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Last month, the online journal Science reported that data from a recent space probe confirmed the presence of traces of water on the moon.
“It’s not liquid water, it’s not frozen water and it’s not gaseous water,” said Jessica Sunshine, a University of Maryland astronomer who studied data from the probe. She said the water is a thin film of molecules on the moon’s surface. But it could mean more traditional water deposits below the surface.
[…]
The discovery could be a potential resource for astronauts, namely drinking water and rocket fuel.
NASA has been working on a plan to return to the moon by 2020, but the plan is currently being reviewed by the Obama administration.
Dear President Obama, thus far, you have given me little reason to think that you believe in limits any more than your insane predecessor did. This incomprehensibly stupid plan is probably too far along to be stopped, but please, please put the kibosh on “Man to Moon, Twenty-twenty!” Man struggles enough on the sphere of which God has made him steward; he hath no business in the celestial realms.
We still await that “change”. Do not bomb the moon!
Please do not start firing at the moon!
Aside from the fact that it has already been confirmed that there is water on the moon, just not to what extent, we also have no idea of the long term effect of such dramatic action. If the moon’s trajectory is altered even slightly by this impact, it may have devestating effects to the gravitational pull of both the moon and earth, our tides, our nights and days, our months and years, our lives may be altered forever. Or there be no effect at all. The point is, we just don’t know.
I am all for the exploration of science and the acquisition of knowledge and understand that sometimes you need to destroy a little to gain a lot, but this is really going too far. I can also understand the amount of money that must be tied up in this and how hard it would be to pull out at this late stage and still save face. But wouldn’t you rather that than the alternative if it all goes horribly wrong? Your children and your children’s children may never know the moon as we do now. At worst they may never see the moon. And although space is our real last frontier, surely our time, energy and resources are better spent making our planet work better for us. There is plenty more we can do here. Think global, act local. Please.
Absolutely right. Why should it take this long to go to the moon and so much money? Didn’t we already go there 40 years ago?
Are you joking? Were I a teenager right now, I’d be wanting off this planet yesterday!
Adam, wanting to be off of this planet yesterday, for a teenager or for anyone else, is a perfectly reasonable feeling.
However, it is the realization of our responsibilities and our limits that mark our ascent into maturity.