The moon as a possible energy source?

by Big Tex 60 Replies latest social current

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  Abaddon

  sunny: I don't like the misuse of the environment either; it's a sane postion to take. Extracting He3 from the moon is, with the right controls Earthside, not a misuse. And I said 'people', although I'll say Okram if it makes you happy, as it was their comments I strayed onto whilst addressing your comment "I just love how you technological types get your backs up...". Sorry if you thought I was having a go at you individually, I could have been clearer, it's just a mindset I see in operation...

  stillajwexelder... thus my comments to you; I don't see myself as an 'intellectual', but I do see an 'anti-intellectual' attitude often displayed, thus I wanted you to know I meant good clever not rapist of the environment scum bag 'clever'!!
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  Sunnygal41

  Thank you for the apology, Abaddon. I think that I was just stinging, still from what Gita said. He was pretty in my face snotty. Actually, I do think for myself. Four years ago, I left a marriage, and the Borg at the same time. My mom and sister, my only close family, are still in the Borg. I have supported myself and my two cats all by myself all this time. That takes a pretty sensible, straight thinking person I think. Another point I would like to make about this moon thing is something that was brought up in another thread by Shotgun, who posted some quotes from different sources, that I also had in mind, even tho I didn't use it in this thread: we are willing to spend billions on this stuff, going to the moon, Mars, etc., and yet, here we have rampant hunger and unemployment here on Earth, and other issues that this money could be spent on. We need to take care of our homeless, our hungry, and educate our children before we go off chasing the moon and Mars. Priorities are a little askew don't you think? I'm wondering if Bush is just using this moon/Mars thing as something to divert attention from the whole Iraqi thing????????
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  Xander

  we are willing to spend billions on this stuff, going to the moon, Mars, etc., and yet, here we have rampant hunger and unemployment here on Earth, and other issues that this money could be spent on.

  And, as I pointed out but you don't seem to want to believe...well, let me tie this in again...

  There will ALWAYS be 'other problems'.

  Yet, someday, the Earth WILL be destroyed. It is quiet inevitable. The sun WILL explode, but Earth's core will have cooled long before then shutting off tectonic activity and the greenhouse effect causing a massive ice-age that won't end (you see what Mars looks like now? That's what the Earth will look like when tectonic activity ends. IOW, the JW's claim of volcanoes and earthquakes being a 'sign of the end' is ludicrous in the extreme - volcanoes and earthquakes STOPPING is a 'sign of the end'!!)

  If we keep putting space exploration off, and putting it off, and putting it off....eventually....we all become extinct ('we' meaning every species of plant and animal on the planet).
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  Xander

  IE., your goal of preserving the Earth is laudable, but cannot be allowed to take precedence over technological progression.

  Earth is a fine home for now, but it will not be so forever. Assuming technology progresses as it has - our species (and those we choose to take with us) WILL survive our planet.

  Why are you so opposed to that?
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  Sunnygal41

  Xander, I didn't mean to ignore YOUR post! Gawd!!! Hop up and down and wave your arms will ya?!! I'm not opposed to technology and space exploration, per se...............I just want to see it done for the right reasons, and greed is not the right reason. Sorry, Bush is a big A--hole and I don't trust anything he is involved in. THAT is my concern, bottom line.

  Terri
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  Satanus

  Sunny

  Most advances have been motivated by greed. That's why capitalism is such an engine of ingenuity and developement. I see nothing in history that has worked better, at least where large groups are involved. Nikola tesla is one of the few who didn't care that much about his own welfare.

  SS
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  Sunnygal41

  SS, that makes me even sadder than I was before..................

  Terri
• 

  Satanus

  Sunny

  I'm sorry that this made you sad. It's my conclusion that that is the general trend in history, up to this point. You may show it differently, if you can. No doubt there are other kinds of high points in history.

  SS
• 

  gitasatsangha

  Unfortunately Tesla died pauper. We will never know what he could have achieved had the world been a different place. But it wasn't and it isn't. Westinghouse beats the Teslas of the world every time. :(

  what nature has provided for us.

  Sunny my apologies for name-calling.

  You are putting yourself outside the natural realm? I think that it might be an issue of perspective. No one is about to mine up all the moon and make it look like a ritz cracker with a bite out of it. We couldn't strip mine every asteroid and every planet and "ruin" them (how do you ruin a lifeless uninhabitable body?), if we tried, not in a thousand years. All of this boils down to strategies for a cleaner, more prosperous earth. Renewable energy on earth is uncertain, and also has problems. It is by no means a panacea. For instance, wind-farms are now known to kill certain types of birds, geothermal power is not worth its initial heavy outlay, and solar power does not work well in many climates.

  Even for renewals space colonization offers perhaps a better option. Ffor instance, the concept of orbitting huge solar power generating satellites in space, which beam inexhaustable energy from the sun by laser (or maser) to collection stations on earth. This collection-tramission-recollection method has been tested in scale and does work. The stations could be assembled in orbit by workers and robots up there, perhaps using materials from the moon. Even if that was not the best way to go, there is still another option for getting things to orbit cleanly, one we might seen in our lifetimes if there is funding for it: a literal elevator into space. www.highliftsystems.com is one company working on a method for doing that. All these arguements tear down any radical environmentalist diatribe against space utilization. All that's left are some vaguely shamanistic beliefs that the heavenly bodies have souls.

  "Space is big. You just won't believe how vastly, hugely, mind-bogglingly big it is. I mean, you may think it's a long way down the road to the drug store, but that's just peanuts to space. "-Douglas Adams

  "I'll see you on the dark side of the moon." -Pink Floyd
• 

  Abaddon

  sunny:

  I'm wondering if Bush is just using this moon/Mars thing as something to divert attention from the whole Iraqi thing????????

  Hmmmm... distraction or vanity, or love of science.... hmmmmm... or having managed to raise millitary spending so his buddies get lots of $, he's relaunched the space race to get his buddies lots of $

  gita:

  how do you ruin a lifeless uninhabitable body?

  By using it as an advertising hording? (Imagine the moon with the Pepsi logo beamed onto it...