August 6, 2012
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A Random Thought
"If they can send an SUV-sized rover to Mars and land it using the kind of technology that the hypothetical offspring of Rube Goldberg and Wyle E. Coyote might dream up, why can't they land a man on the moon?"
Because, you know, they can't. Not any more. If space aliens showed up and said "We've built a moonbase. Come up and visit us, we'll give you infinite free energy, the cure for cancer, and microwave popcorn where absolutely every kernel pops without any getting burned, really, but we're leaving the next time your planet reaches this orbital position.", we couldn't get there. (Heck, by the time they were gone, the bill to fund the Emergency Moon Mission would still be stuck in Congress, because it would have been amended to include pork for every single congresscritter's home district.)
The Chinese might make it, though, come to think of it. It might require them killing half their population to do it, but it would hardly be the first time. Sacrificing minions. Is there anything it can't do?
Comments (2)
I agree with your sentiment, but the problem isn't so much getting the man to the moon, as it is getting him there alive, and getting him back. If we left off the scientific payload, we could probably have sent half a dozen men to Mars aboard Curiosity -- they just wouldn't have had any oxygen, water, food, or a ride home.
Don't get too down, though; We've got Scaled Composites, XCOR, Armadillo Aerospace, Bigelow Aerospace, SpaceX, Virgin Galactic, Blue Origin, and a few others working on it. Yay, capitalism!
Well, all these companies are long gone, but the sentiment remains true.
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