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Lunar Polar Ice Not Present

pclark999 writes "The New Scientist reports that radar probes of the lunar polar region has disproved earlier theories regarding large sheets of polar ice in craters permanently in the shade. "

218 of 339 comments (clear)

  1. No ice on the moon??? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Funny

    Can we put Vanilla Ice there?

    1. Re:No ice on the moon??? by Tackhead · · Score: 2, Funny
      > Can we put Vanilla Ice there?

      "...at best, a cubic kilometre of lunar soil would have to be processed to extract just a cubic metre of water..."

      As long as we distribute him like that, I'm all for it.

    2. Re:No ice on the moon??? by linzeal · · Score: 1

      Can we put that in 40oz measurements to spur interest in urban youth space programs? The children there would find it so "whack" yet "respectin'".

  2. Time for plan B by tekiegreg · · Score: 3, Interesting

    Granted there is no water on the moon, we'll have to bring it there ourselves I guess, presumably we're either importing from Earth, or how about nudging a comet towards the moon once the technology is feasible? As long as your aim is good (for the love of god don't miss and hit Earth), we could have a large supply of water available for long term moon usage indefinitely (when we run out, just nudge another comet, but control the landing of the comet if there's already people there).

    --
    ...in bed
    1. Re:Time for plan B by grub · · Score: 2, Insightful


      It's expensive to send water to the moon. Also Earth is pretty much a sealed ecosystem (although we get tonnes of stuff from space every day) so every time we send water to the moon we've removed it from the Earth for good. It's not like the christian myth of Noah and the flood where water can come and go at the whim of a deity.

      --
      Trolling is a art,
    2. Re:Time for plan B by madaxe42 · · Score: 1

      Control the landing of a comet.... If you can come up with a method of making several billion tonnes of rock, ice, and organic chemicals, reaching over several hundred million kilometers, land with a soft thud, please come to the nobel convention immediately.

    3. Re:Time for plan B by tekiegreg · · Score: 1

      Well I didn't say we'd have to soft land a comet now, but with a reverse inertia generator of some sort, we might just have a chance :-) that's star-trek like stuff but hey we can dream :-)

      --
      ...in bed
    4. Re:Time for plan B by HiQ · · Score: 1

      What I did with several comets and meteors that I own, is catch them with an ACME comet catcher (tm). It's basically a net, not unlike the ones used for catching that ever illusive roadrunner.

    5. Re:Time for plan B by HarveyBirdman · · Score: 5, Informative
      Also Earth is pretty much a sealed ecosystem

      Say WHAT?

      (although we get tonnes of stuff from space every day)...

      Yeah, like, uh, sunlight?

      You know... that bright stuff without which 99.9% of this ecosystem could not exist?

      --
      --- Ban humanity.
    6. Re:Time for plan B by madaxe42 · · Score: 1

      Earth is a sealed ecosystem, in that all that comes in is solar energy - this is energy, not matter... although you could argue the two are the same thing, but then i'd have to hit you.

    7. Re:Time for plan B by grub · · Score: 1


      Yeah, like, uh, sunlight?

      No, debris from incoming meteorites, etc. Hundreds of thousands of tonnes of it come to Earth every year.

      --
      Trolling is a art,
    8. Re:Time for plan B by HarveyBirdman · · Score: 2
      I know. I was refuting the idea that the ecosystem is a *closed* system becuase it's driven by sunlight, which comes from an external source.

      I mean, it's even what gives Superman his powers. :-)

      And Ironman.

      And Birdman. :-D

      Now we could work hard to adapt all life on Earth to be able to live off the heat and minerals from deep sea volcanic vents, but you wouldn't like the night life.

      --
      --- Ban humanity.
    9. Re:Time for plan B by Sqwubbsy · · Score: 1

      this is energy, not matter

      What's the difference?
      Ever read Einstein and Infeld?

    10. Re:Time for plan B by Richthofen80 · · Score: 1

      Nothing is sealed, my friend. Water is simply Hydrogen, which a large amount of the universe is made of, and oxygen. We can manufacture it in space or on the moon itself.

      --
      Reason, free market capitalism, and individualism
    11. Re:Time for plan B by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Funny

      I suggest you cancel your suscription to Popular Science...it's obviously rotting your brain.

    12. Re:Time for plan B by Bendebecker · · Score: 1

      Actually every major culture with the exception of Eygpt has a flood myth (the ancient eygptians were dependent on the flooding of the nile each year and so they saw floods as benefial). For example, the mesopotamians believed a god brought the flood becuase humanity was too noisy. Ovid in the metamorphsis recounts a flood myth. Most likley the flood myths are the remanents of oral histroical accounts of the flooding of the black sea. Evidence suggests that the black sea in ancient times was not nearly the size it is today. As the mediteranean eroded the mountains were the city of istanbul now stradles the dardenelles(I think), the water formt he higher elevated agean sea broke through and caused the black sea to quickly enlarge to multiple times its previosu size within the space of only 1 year.

      --
      There's a growing sense that even if The Future comes,
      most of us won't be able to afford it.
      -- Lemmy
    13. Re:Time for plan B by Theodrake · · Score: 1

      Can you please point me to the Aztec and Maya flood myths.

    14. Re:Time for plan B by Short+Circuit · · Score: 1

      Who's to say "Mt Nebo" from the Bible is going to be the same "Mt Nebo" of today? Names change, especially if people forget them at any point.

    15. Re:Time for plan B by Creedo · · Score: 1

      Google for them. I found a lot of references.

      --
      All that is necessary for the triumph of good is that evil men do nothing.
    16. Re:Time for plan B by chamenos · · Score: 2, Insightful

      even if the flood did occur and there was a guy named noah who built the ark, it still doesn't prove a god exists. the bible might have accurate depictions of real life events, but it cannot prove the existence of a god. many christians frequently try to prove the existence of their god by pointing to evidence of that events described in the bible did actually happen, but they fail to see the logical fallacy in their flawed arguments.

    17. Re:Time for plan B by WindBourne · · Score: 1

      We bleed off atmosphere constantly (in small quantities) and we are constantly hit by solar flares, asteroids, meteorites, etc which give us new matter.

      --
      I prefer the "u" in honour as it seems to be missing these days.
    18. Re:Time for plan B by corbettw · · Score: 1

      I've heard another theory, that the flood myths come from the end of the last ice age, when it's conceivable there would've been (at times) catastrophic flooding from severe weather changes. There's a tribe in the Pacific Northwest US with a flood myth, part of which centers on a whale which got trapped inland by the flood. Sure enough, researchers found a whale skeleton that dates from the time of the end of the ice age. (I tried finding an article about this, but couldn't.)

      --
      God invented whiskey so the Irish would not rule the world.
    19. Re:Time for plan B by chamenos · · Score: 1

      the idea that we evolved from apes might not have 100% undeniable proof to back it up right now, but plenty of scientific evidence suggests that is what happened.

      in any case, i don't think you're wrong. in fact, you might be right. what i was trying to say is that the way some christians have gone about trying to prove their point and the arguments are silly :)

    20. Re:Time for plan B by NanoGator · · Score: 1

      "Earth is a sealed ecosystem, in that all that comes in is solar energy - this is energy, not matter"

      Meteorites.

      --
      "Derp de derp."
    21. Re:Time for plan B by jbert · · Score: 1

      Actually, if you take a reasonable heat source to a comet (say...strap a fission pile to a satellite and make a rendevous), you could then get quite a nice reaction engine going.

      Simply vapourise cometary ice and ensure it squirts off in the direction you would like your thrust.

      OK, so your impact would be a bit more radioactive than it would have been otherwise, but then again, you might get away with jettisoning the reactor on a different trajectory as the whole shebang was heading down to the moon.

      I mean, the comet can land pretty hard, we only need to stop it being an astronmical calamity, not get it down in one piece.

      Not far fetched at all I guess.

    22. Re:Time for plan B by mcmonkey · · Score: 1
      I can't prove the existence of God any more than you can prove we evolved from apes.

      That's the difference between a sensable person and a raving nut job.

      Just because belief in the existence of god is an article of faith does not mean all beliefs are faith-based. And just because one unproven thing is unprovable does not mean all unproven things are unprovable.

      The existence of god cannot be proven. It's not an issue of current technology or knowledge. As the old argument goes; god depends on faith. If you prove god exists, that would remove faith involved in believing in god, and hence god would cease to be.

      Direct evolution of humans from other primates, even if not proven at this time, could be proven (or conclusively disproven) at some point with the proper technology. The probability of human evolution has nothing to with its provability. Improbable events happen all the time. Many things that have favorable probability don't happen.

      And the line from War Games is, "The only winning move is not to play."

      None of which has anything to do with water on the moon.

    23. Re:Time for plan B by gobbo · · Score: 1

      "You know... that bright stuff without which 99.9% of this ecosystem could not exist?"

      Point of Correction: Current evidence and resulting theories suggest that the bulk of biological mass on the planet is in the form of bacteria and archaea -- much of which does not rely on the photosynthesis cycle. A significant amount of microbes may dwell in the crust, out of the direct influence of the sun.

      Europa, here we come!

    24. Re:Time for plan B by Cujo · · Score: 1

      Given the enormous bureacratic and political difficulty of launching a samll nuclear reactor to the outer solar system, what kind of flack do you think we'd get if we steered a comet in to the moon?

      Then you have to capture the comet's volatiles before they boil off. you'd have about 14 days if you were lucky, but they'd be scattered over a wide area. Seems pretty unlikely to me.

      Thinking out loud, it seems to me an efficient way to get Hydrogen to the moon would be to send Methane or Propane. You need the carbon for horticulture, anyway. There's plenty of oxygen in lunar soil.

      --

      Helium balloons want to be free.

    25. Re:Time for plan B by the_mad_poster · · Score: 1

      who says that "God" is not an extra-dimensional being that is responsible for the multiverses colliding?

      You're not screwing with my head, that's the whole point of my first paragraph - Big Bang theory creates a problem for science about where the matter came from and what set it off in the first place. Colliding branes is NOT a sound theory to explain that - it's merely an idea that might carry some mathematical weight. I've chosen not to jump to what I perceive to be irrational "super being" conclusions, but I have no alternate explanation to try and beat you in the head with if that's the course you choose. Your belief is then no sillier than my admitting I don't know what the answer is.

      Maybe you ought to take a look at the part of your post I took exception with and try again. I'm not interested in debating floods and I'm not defending the parent AC post you responded to. I'm taking exception with your ignorant tripe hinting that big bang is somehow less believable than "poof, a god just made it all". And don't give me some crap that I sorely misunderstood what you said, because that's not my problem - I'm merely responding to what you DID say.

      I have no problem with people reconciling science and religion. If it hasn't been explained by science and you want to just say "ok, superman did it" that's fine. If nobody has a sound, logical argument that makes that idea silly, then the idea isn't silly. If, however, you pick out a sound, reasonable theory and hint that it's "just a belief", we have a problem such as we do now.

      And, I'm not about to debate the historical accuracy of the bible with you. Who wrote it, why they wrote it, and whether most of the passages are the original text accurately portraying events are of absolutely no concern to me. As far as I'm concerned it's a boring, poorly written jumble of short stories. If you choose to think otherwise, go crazy. I don't care in the least.

      --
      Alito: A vote for Alito is a punch in the eye to put that bitch back in her place!
    26. Re:Time for plan B by saforrest · · Score: 1

      Point of Correction: Current evidence and resulting theories suggest that the bulk of biological mass on the planet is in the form of bacteria and archaea -- much of which does not rely on the photosynthesis cycle. A significant amount of microbes may dwell in the crust, out of the direct influence of the sun.

      So, where does the energy that drives this biomass come from? If it grows by consuming living or dead biological matter, that's not self-sustaining.

      It all comes back to the Sun eventually.

    27. Re:Time for plan B by garyrich · · Score: 1

      "how about nudging a comet towards the moon once the technology is feasible?"

      This doesn't take any technology that we don't have now, just some engineering and a strong enough will to do it. A comet wouldn't be the best thing, it would take a lot of delta v to alter it course. Best would a NEO. Plenty of them about. Take your pick, one full of volatiles for water/methane/etc or a denser one for ores.

      --
      -- your Web browser is Ronald Reagan
    28. Re:Time for plan B by AKAImBatman · · Score: 1

      I'm taking exception with your ignorant tripe hinting that big bang is somehow less believable than "poof, a god just made it all". And don't give me some crap that I sorely misunderstood what you said, because that's not my problem - I'm merely responding to what you DID say.

      Umm... huh? I DID say two lines asking why a shell of water around the Earth was any harder to believe as a theory than the current theory of multiverse collisions. Perhaps there was a miscommunication here?

    29. Re:Time for plan B by gobbo · · Score: 1

      "So, where does the energy that drives this biomass come from? If it grows by consuming living or dead biological matter, that's not self-sustaining."

      Silly human, you think that your puny surface landforms are all that matter. The earth's heat, if I recall high school physics correctly, is thought to be generated by radioactive decay in the core etc. That means there is convection of molten rock, which brings all kinds of wonderful chemicals and elements up to the crust. THAT is what is driving* life down at the vents in the deep trenches: a chemical and thermal soup entirely derived from Mother Earth.

      As far as the bacteria deep in the crust: biologists currently think they're living off of hydrogen and chemicals released from rocks, of which there is an inexhaustible supply.

      You also miss the point that life forms in geothermal and crustal ecosystems can feed off of each other.

      So what was that about self-sustaining? This planet is abundant with energy and nutrients.

      *IANABiologist, and don't know to what degree the deep trench ecosystems use nutrients precipitating from above. Anyone care to elucidate?

    30. Re:Time for plan B by pyr0 · · Score: 1, Troll
      So I've been reading your replies in this thread, and I must say I am astounded by your ignorance of science. You are basically saying that a book A) that was thrown together by humans a couple thousand years ago B) in a time when most still thought the world was flat was the center of the universe is C) just as good as any theories that modern man has come up with today? That is just asinine!

      You say the big bang theory is completely random, I say you are full of it. It is based on verifiable observations that support it directly, for example red/blue shift.

      You say that evolution is a random grasp theory basically. So what that DNA has linked us very closely with other primates? So what that the fossil record where intact also shows progressive physiological changes in similar groups of organisms throughout time? You speak of verifiable historical records? I say these verifiable historical records are recorded plain as day in the rocks surrounding all of us!

      And, don't even get me started on the age of the Earth. Or on the whole Noah flood thing. Basically what I'm saying is what ever happened to rational thought based on factual data?

    31. Re:Time for plan B by rat7307 · · Score: 2, Insightful

      Water is simply Hydrogen

      Don't forget the Oxygen part of the H20 equation... Thats the bit that makes creating it in remote places a tad trickier..

      CR

      --
      Burma?
    32. Re:Time for plan B by cluckshot · · Score: 1

      This whole thing is a classic episode in stupidity. Sitting in Antarctica there is a lot of frozen stuff we could use, but we don't seem to have much interest in it. It would be much more practical to locate a bunch of Nuclear Reactors (Please no anti-nuke comments, This is a comparison not a suggestion) in Antarctica and move a lot of people there then to attempt much on the moon.

      Going to the moon does have some practical value but it is pretty much limited to some communication and science research issues. It might function as a pretty good site for a "Space Station" which could not decay in orbit to quickly. It might also have some other values such as being able to throw large rocks at the earth to obliterate in non-nuclear blasts various offending sites on the earth. But I really don't see a lot of other reasons to go and base people there any time soon.

      The water value was supposed to be to run a base and to make rocket fuel. Knowing the limitations of "Reaction" engines, I view them as simply inadequate for much use outside of near earth activity. Even for an expedition to Mars they are almost useless being as the speeds they achieve take us something like 9 months blasting there. Conversely the return breaking is nearly impossible! This is not proposing solutions which may exist. It is reporting the condition that exists.

      I suppose that hope springs eternal in the NASA types but they forget that the real reason they existed was to push a Public Demonstration of US Technology in Ballistic Missiles in such a way as to preclude Nuclear Exchanges without actually shooting at somebody. The Lunar launches pretty much drove the point home. Now the world knows we can do what we want to do. The Saturn V rocket stands more as a phallic symbol than one of adventure and exploration. This by the way is why China and India are seeking Lunar Flights.

      The reason is gone and so is the money. With the Space Shuttle showing up as an antiquated and dangerous means to go to space, we see NASA casting about false hopes to get the public excited about space flight.

      I would suggest that the Russians have given the world the real use of space for the interim until we develop enough ability to go much further. That is TOURISM! Doubtless this has more prospects for launches and for upgrade of the technology etc than any thing else.

      A concrete suggestion to NASA to get the public more excited in space flight would be to fire 80% of the Astronaut corps and replace them with students from age 16 to 22. I am quite sure we could get good healthy smart energetic young people who would give us better science and might even restore the exploration fever to space and give us real reasons to go! I am also quite sure that in doing so the teachers of America would be advocating and supporting the effort well because they might get one of their students to fly!

      It also would make more sense to pay B. Ratan and the X-Prize team a very few million dollars than do what is being done. A few 10 or 15 million dollar grants or even prizes similar to the X-Prize would be really great in their effect. The great thing about such a prize is that it only pays for success.

      --
      Never Politically Correct ~ I prefer the facts If you don't like what I say, get a life, or comment yourself.
    33. Re:Time for plan B by pyr0 · · Score: 2, Interesting

      "As the nice yellow "enemy" icon informs me. I happily made you a friend just for the hell of it. :-)"

      Damn, and I've been trying so hard to get someone on my freaks list. What can you do though :P

      "How do you know that they believed the world was flat? The Bible certainly doesn't state it. The "flat" world model was an invention of the middle ages. Many things had to be rediscovered due to the impact that the fall of Rome had on science and philosophy. Before that, the Egyptians were building pyramids, the Greeks were figuring out how to use a lever on the earth, and the Romans were building aqueducts and computational devices."

      Regardless of who was building what, the people of that time still had nowhere near the concept of time, space, physics that we do now. Thus, any interpretations of the world using the technology of the time were constrained to what they did know. When something couldn't be explained rationally, it "must have been the gods" doing it. Hell, the motivation behind the Egyptions building those pyramids was so their dead kings could properly transition to their version of the afterlife.

      > You say the big bang theory is completely random "Eh? I did? Where?"

      I went back and looked. I admit I think I looked at so many posts and replies in this whole flamewar thread that I think I mixed that up with you. However you *did* say that evolution is a random theory. I could just as easily have plugged the world "evolution" in for "big bang" and my statement would not lose any of it's meaning.

      "I agree. Do you know how to interpret them correctly? I'm glad you do, because there are a LOT of geologists fighting over that very point."

      So what is your expertise that you can make this statment? I happen to be a geologist actually. Of course, there is always debate of how to interpret rocks. However that interpretation is always constrained within bounds of rational thought. Ideas like "God snapped fingers and *POOF* these creatures appeared" and "a catastrophic flood created all the Earth's sedimentary rocks" are just ludicrous. The arguments between geologists you speak of typically are something like this: "Hey, a fluid passed through these rocks during the Carboniferous, forming some ore." "No, you're wrong...the ore formed at the same time as those rocks 50 million years earlier." Each geologist typically has very sound scientific reasoning for thinking what they do. Perhaps you should read the link in my sig. It pertains typically to the evolution vs. creation argument, but the statement is valid for *any* related theory in "crisis" as the fundie Christians want everyone to believe.

      "I have not and will not state that the Earth is 6000 years old. However, if we interpret the Genesis account correctly, human beings are probably about that age."

      You see, that's the problem right there! Supporting an idea using unverifiable data. Ever heard the phrase "I read it on the internet so it must be true!"? Do those people annoy you as much as they do me? Substitute bible for internet in that statement, and it's the same. And don't even pay attention to the hominid fossil record that has been dated using scientifically sound and peer reviewed techniques? I suppose I can't even make that argument though, seeing as evolution doesn't occur, right? Therefore it doesn't matter how old our ancestors are?

      "Good question. I'm game if you're ready to act rationally."

      I'm always ready to act rationally. My question is, does taking the words of a 2000 year old book as literal truth qualify as rational thought?

    34. Re: Time for plan B by Black+Parrot · · Score: 1


      > Umm... huh? I DID say two lines asking why a shell of water around the Earth was any harder to believe as a theory than the current theory of multiverse collisions.

      Because a shell of water around the earth would have steam-broiled everything on the ark when it collapsed.

      --
      Sheesh, evil *and* a jerk. -- Jade
    35. Re: Time for plan B by AKAImBatman · · Score: 1

      > Because a shell of water around the earth would have
      > steam-broiled everything on the ark when it collapsed.

      I'm not quite sure how you came to that conclusion. In order to "steam-broil" the ark, the water would have needed to maintain an extreme temperature *as it was falling*. Yet it couldn't fall if it was still up to temp.

      That's a bit like saying that ice can't form on a lake because it would fall the bottom and crush all the fish. As one of the odd inconsistencies in our universe, ice floats despite being more dense than water. In the same way, water allows dense air pockets (bubbles) underwater. In fact, if water didn't have all kinds of weird properties, our universe couldn't support life.

    36. Re: Time for plan B by Black+Parrot · · Score: 1


      > > Because a shell of water around the earth would have
      > > steam-broiled everything on the ark when it collapsed.

      > I'm not quite sure how you came to that conclusion. In order to "steam-broil" the ark, the water would have needed to maintain an extreme temperature *as it was falling*. Yet it couldn't fall if it was still up to temp.

      And for some reason you think that supports your model...

      --
      Sheesh, evil *and* a jerk. -- Jade
    37. Re: Time for plan B by AKAImBatman · · Score: 1

      > And for some reason you think that supports your model...

      Are you trying to make a point, or are you just trolling? You need to be more specific than vague insinuations.

    38. Re: Time for plan B by Black+Parrot · · Score: 1


      > > And for some reason you think that supports your model...

      > Are you trying to make a point, or are you just trolling? You need to be more specific than vague insinuations.

      Read up on gravitational potential energy, calculate the amount of water required to cover the higest mountains, calculate the mass of that water, estimate how high in the sky it must have been according to your model, and then calculate how much energy would have been released if you dropped it out of the sky.

      The vapor canopy theory of the global flood predicts a sterile earth, and thus can be discarded on the basis of the evidence.

      --
      Sheesh, evil *and* a jerk. -- Jade
    39. Re: Time for plan B by Black+Parrot · · Score: 1


      > The vapor canopy theory of the global flood predicts a sterile earth, and thus can be discarded on the basis of the evidence.

      BTW, the Creation Science movement tried this and much else about a generation ago, and finally gave it up because they infallibly got results that refuted their hypotheses.

      In this less honest generation Creation Science has been replaced with Intelligent Design, which safely avoids making any predictions at all...

      --
      Sheesh, evil *and* a jerk. -- Jade
    40. Re: Time for plan B by AKAImBatman · · Score: 1

      > The vapor canopy theory of the global flood predicts a
      > sterile earth, and thus can be discarded on the basis of
      > the evidence.

      Fair enough. I'm glad someone has been doing their homework around here. :-)

      As always, there are problems with any theory. A quick Google for "Canopy Theory" will in fact bring up many debates back and forth that this theory is not a valid one. Many will explain that they think the "Hydroplate theory" is far more feasible. Others will argue that the two theories could be combined to explain the amount of water plus longer life spans. Some will reply that the longer life spans could be explained by stronger magnetic forces alone. And yet others will state that the "Hydroplate theory" violates a few laws of physics.

      And what does this all come back to? My original statement that we don't really know yet where all the water came from, but theories do exist. These theories run into the same issues as any other scientific theory. (e.g. Where are the missing links? Why is the geologic column out of order in some areas? etc., etc., etc.) Geologists will debate on, and maybe one day we'll have a nearly irrefutable theory. Until then, we'll just have to keep watching the debates! :-)

    41. Re: Time for plan B by Black+Parrot · · Score: 1


      > And what does this all come back to? My original statement that we don't really know yet where all the water came from, but theories do exist.

      Unfortunately, there aren't any that work.

      Of course, you could just posit that God magicked the water in and magicked the heat out. But some people wonder why God must be bothered with water and heat at all, when he could have just magicked the bad people out of existence to begin with...

      IMO the flood story raises even more theological problems than scientific problems.

      --
      Sheesh, evil *and* a jerk. -- Jade
    42. Re:Time for plan B by GrahamMastaFlash · · Score: 1
      In our ecosystem, Mass is conserved (for the most part), NOT energy.

      Energy enters and leaves everyday but our mass is here to stay, which is why we wouldn't want to send a large amount of water to the moon.

    43. Re:Time for plan B by GrahamMastaFlash · · Score: 1
      According to HowStuffWorks.com's How Terraforming Mars Will Work , sending large ice meteors into a planet will introduce water, but will in the process release as much energy as several billion tons of TNT, causing a 'nuclear winter' that would make the planet uninhabitable for thousands of years.

      Plus, the moon ain't got no atmosphere last time I checked. So who cares if we got water up there? We gonna suffocate anyway.

  3. Shoot. by grub · · Score: 5, Funny


    That means no brewery on the moon. So much for my dreams of being a drunken astronaut.

    --
    Trolling is a art,
    1. Re:Shoot. by SirLantos · · Score: 5, Funny

      You could always join the Russian space program.

      --
      The flying hamster of DOOM rains coconuts on your pitiful city.
    2. Re:Shoot. by azzy · · Score: 1

      Or British Airways... just aim the plane up a bit and hope for the best.

    3. Re:Shoot. by Diclophis · · Score: 1

      In russia the space program is drunk on you.

    4. Re:Shoot. by pclminion · · Score: 1
      You insult Russians, sir.

      Russians get drunk on vodka, not beer.

  4. Out of ice by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Funny

    Right, no ice for beer on the moon, everyone off to mars...

    1. Re:Out of ice by Mindwarp · · Score: 1

      Right, no ice for beer on the moon, everyone off to mars... ...leaving the moon to be colonised by the British, home brewers, and real-ale enthusiasts!

      Excellent! Sign me up!

      --
      The gift of death metal does not smile on the good looking.
    2. Re:Out of ice by advocate_one · · Score: 1

      who in their right mind puts ice in their beer???

      --
      Donald 'Duck' Dunn: We had a band powerful enough to turn goat piss into gasoline.
    3. Re:Out of ice by linzeal · · Score: 1

      Me too, I will work on the mining robotics. Any geologists (areologists) out there to help me find ore bodies?

    4. Re:Out of ice by default+luser · · Score: 1

      I must agree, I wouldn't do this with piss like Bud, let alone a real beer.

      Of course, an ice-cold chilled mug is a diffeent story, but you can chill the mug without water :)

      --

      Man is the animal that laughs.
      And occasionally whores for Karma.

    5. Re:Out of ice by pyr0 · · Score: 1

      Yeah! I'm with you on that! Not too many mineral exploration jobs left here on the earth anyway. Especially in the US ;)

  5. Yeah right... by Rico_za · · Score: 1

    and next they'll be telling us it's not made of cheese! Bunch of heretics!

  6. Dammit! by HiQ · · Score: 2, Funny

    I owned that ice! Who took it????

  7. No polar ice on Earth, either, by Tex+Bravado · · Score: 4, Funny

    before long :-)

  8. An outrage! by DarkHand · · Score: 4, Funny

    This means that my great grand childrens' lunar snow cones bought at LunarDisney(tm) will cost 10 times as much! We shouldn't stand for this highway robbery!

  9. This guy is everywhere! by fitten · · Score: 4, Funny

    Team leader Bruce Campbell

    Did he vanquish the Mooninites, too?

    1. Re:This guy is everywhere! by meta-monkey · · Score: 1

      No, for the Mooninites are advanced beyond all that you can possibly imagine with 100% of your brain. They cannot be defeated by a simple caveman.

      --
      We don't have a state-run media we have a media-run state.
    2. Re:This guy is everywhere! by charlieo88 · · Score: 1

      Did he vanquish the Mooninites, too?

      Moontrap (1989) Walter Koening and Bruce Campbell
      Bruce Campbell: We don't take no shit from a machine!

  10. Re:Make up your minds... by jgabby · · Score: 4, Interesting

    Skiing on the moon would be no fun at all....no wind blowing in your face, a very slow speed...perhaps the only enjoyable thing would be ski jumps with REALLY long slopes to build up speed, then jump over a canyon or something.

  11. Aw, crap by Saint+Aardvark · · Score: 3, Funny

    Now I'll never be able to unload www.luxury-moon-ice-cubes.com.

  12. Little Off Topic by pvt_medic · · Score: 3, Interesting

    I was just surfing the web and came across this Nova article about one of the possible theories over the creation of the moon. Its says that the moon is a result of a asteroid crashing into the earth and was formed by the pieces that were blasted off the earth. Here is a video animation they have on it.

    --
    30% Troll, 50% Underrated, 10% Interesting
    Score:5, Troll
    1. Re:Little Off Topic by AKAImBatman · · Score: 1, Interesting

      That's one theory. Another theory states that the moon is a leftover chunk of a 10th planet that used to exist between Mars and Jupiter. That planet was destroyed in some major event, and its remains became the asteroid belt as well as several moons.

      Back on topic, any settlement on the moon would do best to take various materials containing hydrogen and oxygen, and crack them. Once cracked, the raw hydrogen and oxygen particles could be combined to make water. Hydrogen is pretty easy to come by. A ram scoop mounted on some form of runabout may be able to collect quite a bit. I'm not sure what materials hold oxygen, but I do know that rocks tend to absorb it, and that the moon does have an atmosphere a few feet thick. Alternatively, an efficient enough engine could allow the runabout to scoop off the top of Earth's atmosphere in the same way it could gather hydrogen.

    2. Re:Little Off Topic by Havokmon · · Score: 1
      That's one theory. Another theory states that the moon is a leftover chunk of a 10th planet that used to exist between Mars and Jupiter. That planet was destroyed in some major event, and its remains became the asteroid belt as well as several moons.

      And you thought Alderaan was just in the movies.
      We're living Episode XXIV

      --
      "I can't give you a brain, so I'll give you a diploma" - The Great Oz (blatently stolen sig)
    3. Re:Little Off Topic by Daniel+Dvorkin · · Score: 2, Interesting

      If you have a ramscoop capable of collecting any significant amount of hydrogen in deep space, that means you have propulsion technology that zips you around so fast that going to and from the Moon is child's play. We're talking about a significant fraction of c -- at such speeds, travel time between Earth and the Moon is measured in minutes. And honestly, though I'd love to be proven wrong, I don't expect to see such a thing any time soon.

      I like the idea of scooping up chunks of Earth's upper atmosphere and taking it to the Moon, though. You still need an engine that's orders of magnitude more powerful and efficient than anything we have now, but something like that might at least be within reach.

      --
      The correlation between ignorance of statistics and using "correlation is not causation" as an argument is close to 1.
    4. Re:Little Off Topic by IM6100 · · Score: 1

      WTF is a 'ramscoop'??

      Are you kids fooling around with your paint program again when you should be doing your math homework???

      --
      A Good Intro to NetBS
    5. Re:Little Off Topic by Daniel+Dvorkin · · Score: 1

      If you don't instantly recognize the word "ramscoop," what are you doing in a discussion of space travel?

      --
      The correlation between ignorance of statistics and using "correlation is not causation" as an argument is close to 1.
    6. Re:Little Off Topic by mikerich · · Score: 1
      That's one theory. Another theory states that the moon is a leftover chunk of a 10th planet that used to exist between Mars and Jupiter. That planet was destroyed in some major event, and its remains became the asteroid belt as well as several moons.

      Sorry disproved long ago, the tidal influences of Mars and Jupiter prevent a large body forming in the asteroid belt. There was never a large body in that area of space. Besides, an explosion would not produce the relatively neat distribution of the modern asteroid field.

      The impact theory explains the anomalous composition of the Moon (high amounts of refractory minerals, low amounts of volatiles - indicating high temperature formation, low amounts of heavy metals and isotopic composition very similar to Earth). No known asteroidal meteoric material resembles lunar rock.

      Back on topic, any settlement on the moon would do best to take various materials containing hydrogen and oxygen, and crack them. Once cracked, the raw hydrogen and oxygen particles could be combined to make water.

      That would be water then?

      Hydrogen is pretty easy to come by.

      Not on the Moon - there is a little adsorbed on to the lunar surface, but otherwise zip.

      A ram scoop mounted on some form of runabout may be able to collect quite a bit.

      I think you're talking about a Bussard ramjet which is a: well beyond our current technological level, because b: it needs to move at a substantial fraction of the speed of light to become effective.

      I'm not sure what materials hold oxygen, but I do know that rocks tend to absorb it,

      Rocks contain oxygen in the form of silicates and oxides. The Moon is not short of oxygen. But why would you want to 'crack' them if you've just brought water which contains plenty of oxygen?

      that the moon does have an atmosphere a few feet thick

      The Moon has an atmosphere only in the sense that it temporarily retains a cloud of vapour, the Moon's escape velocity is too low to permanently retain gases. The lunar atmosphere does not resemble that of Earth - for a start its pressure is about 1 millionth that on the surface of Earth. Instead it is made of hydrogen and helium from the Solar Wind, it also contains sodium, potassium and argon - presumably either blasted off of the lunar surface or produced by outgassing from within the Moon itself.

      Best wishes,
      Mike.

    7. Re:Little Off Topic by AB3A · · Score: 2, Insightful

      How about never seeing such a thing. Couple of points:

      First, RamScoop practicality has been debated extensively. Many physicists who examine the problem and the energy expeditures have pointed out that given even an extremely small inefficiency, it would make a damned good brake instead of a propulsion system.

      Second, if you're going anything like significant fractions of c you'd whiz right past the earth's and moon's orbits. Here's a sanity check: Low earth orbital speeds are about 2.5E-5 c.

      Since you are a self described writer of science fiction, I shouldn't have to remind you about the importance of using reasonably realistic science...

      --
      Nearly fifty percent of all graduates come from the bottom half of the class!
    8. Re:Little Off Topic by AKAImBatman · · Score: 1

      > I like the idea of scooping up chunks of Earth's upper
      > atmosphere and taking it to the Moon, though. You still
      > need an engine that's orders of magnitude more
      > powerful and efficient than anything we have now, but
      > something like that might at least be within reach.

      Well, since you'd be skimming the upper atmosphere, the engines wouldn't have to be ultra-powerful, just highly effiicient. Atomic engines would give the necessary power easily. An array of ion engines using materials mined from the moon would work as well, but would make each trip up and down the gravity well far slower.

    9. Re:Little Off Topic by Pulzar · · Score: 1

      I thought you said Hydrogen was hard to come by on the moon? Either its scarce or it makes up a large percentage of the "atmosphere" (along with helium). It can't be both.

      Yes, it can. There is so little atmosphere on the Moon, that even if it was all hydrogen, it would still be scarce.

      --
      Never underestimate the bandwidth of a 747 filled with CD-ROMs.
    10. Re:Little Off Topic by Daniel+Dvorkin · · Score: 1

      Fair enough. Last I heard, there was still some controversy over whether or not a ramscoop could be efficient at high enough velocity; I admit that I haven't particularly kept up on the idea.

      And yes, of course there's no way to travel at xc, where x > 0.001 or so, between the Earth and the Moon and have either of them as a reasonable destination. (Unless you have accelerations that would turn the occupants of the ship into jelly.) What I was thinking was, to make the original poster's idea feasible, you'd have to go waaay out there -- like, a few light-weeks out -- and travel around scooping up hydrogen, then come back and dump it on the Moon. And I rather suspect that by the time we have that kind of technology, if we ever do, we will have licked the problems of Lunar habitation anyway.

      It may, at some point, be meaningful to talk about sucking up large amounts of hydrogen and other useful gases from the gas giants and taking them to places where they're needed elsewhere in the Solar System; but again, that implies that space travel is developed to the point that a trip to the moon is about as routine as a short-hop commuter flight is today.

      --
      The correlation between ignorance of statistics and using "correlation is not causation" as an argument is close to 1.
    11. Re:Little Off Topic by AKAImBatman · · Score: 1

      You don't need much. Water is one part hydrogen and two parts oxygen. As long as you have plenty of Oxygen (cracked from iron oxides perhaps), the Hydrogen could go a long way.

    12. Re:Little Off Topic by AKAImBatman · · Score: 1

      > you'd have to go waaay out there -- like, a few light-weeks out

      That would be outside of our solar system. Considering that the best source of Hydrogen is at the *center* of our solar system, it would make the best sense to fly into the wind, don't you think? Especially when that wind is composed of exactly the material you're looking for.

      That would be far enough out that even the environmental wackos couldn't complain about using atomic engines. Time to revive NERVA or ORION! With those engines, you could go for a stroll toward Venus and pick up as much free hydrogen as you need! WooHoo! Remember, we don't need as much for water. Most of the problems with the ram scoop concept were due to the need for hydrogen as PROPULSION which requires far more material.

    13. Re:Little Off Topic by mikerich · · Score: 1
      I thought you said Hydrogen was hard to come by on the moon? Either its scarce or it makes up a large percentage of the "atmosphere" (along with helium). It can't be both.

      According to NASA, the total mass of the lunar atmosphere is around 25 000 kilograms - less mass than a railroad car. Therefore hydrogen is scarce.

      Best wishes,
      Mike.

    14. Re:Little Off Topic by Grotus · · Score: 1

      That would be HO2 (which isn't a stable molecule) rather than H2O (which is water).

      Water is two Hydrogen atoms and one Oxygen.

      --
      "From my cold, dead hands you damn, dirty apes!" - CH
    15. Re:Little Off Topic by AKAImBatman · · Score: 1

      DOH! You're right. I'm getting confused in the head again. At the very least, hydrogen is still lighter than oxygen, so you may get 2 kilos of water for every 1 kilo of hydrogen.

      * AKAImBatman bangs his head against the wall to clear his thinking

    16. Re:Little Off Topic by Smidge204 · · Score: 1

      Eh... that's one part Oxygen and two parts Hydrogen...

      =Smidge=

    17. Re:Little Off Topic by NanoGator · · Score: 1

      "WTF is a 'ramscoop'??"

      Looks like somebody didn't do their pre-requisite watching of Star Trek before registerring with Slashdot. Hand me your badge, please.

      --
      "Derp de derp."
    18. Re:Little Off Topic by ViolentGreen · · Score: 1

      That is a theory. There are a couple of others though. One is that the moon was actually an asteroid passing by Earth that collided with an second body. It happen to hit just right so that the moon was captured by the Earth's gravitational field.

      There's another theory that it was formed at the same time as earth but there are problems wit that oune.

      A third theory which I believe is the most accepted is that the asteroid was very large but it didn't actually collide with earth. It merely got close enough that it's gravity pulled part of the earth's crust into orbit. From what we understnad, the moon is mostly the same composition of Earth's outer crust.

      Anyway, I thought it was intersting.

      --
      Not everything is analogous to cars. Car analogies rarely work.
    19. Re:Little Off Topic by AKAImBatman · · Score: 1

      > This stuff isn't rocket science. You are so far of it's just
      > plain stupid. Do you even know how many protons
      > oxygen has?

      Oh, cut me some slack. I'm thinking H2O, but I'm thinking 2O instead of H2. If I'd written it down, I'd have realized my mistake immediately. And according to my periodic table, Oxygen has 8 protons and neutrons. No isotopes are listed (not surprising given its low atomic number). It's atomic weight is 15.9994. Yet that still doesn't tell me the realistic output of water to hydrogen. According to the atomic weight, I should get ~13 times the water for the amount of hydrogen I add. Yet a previous poster said it was 9 times. So, I simply make guesstimations and state them as such. Better to err on the conservative side.

    20. Re:Little Off Topic by chainsaw1 · · Score: 1

      Except that molar quanitity is what will be preserved. Oxygen is 16/18ths of the weight of water. Even if that's what you meant, you forget the hydrogen exists as H2 and not free floating atoms

      1 mol H2 + 1/2 mol O2 => 1 mol H2O

      --
      - Sig
    21. Re:Little Off Topic by AKAImBatman · · Score: 1

      > Except that molar quanitity is what will be preserved

      No argument there. But the realistic problems are transportation and amount of drinking water. We're assuming that oxygen can be cracked easily, so that leaves the problem of transporting hydrogen. For transportation to the moon, launch weight is what matters. The launch cost of hydrogen to water would a ratio of 1:9. The resulting molar quantity doesn't matter because we only care about how many resulting liters of drinking water are produced.

    22. Re:Little Off Topic by Eccles · · Score: 1

      [The lunar atmosphere] is made of hydrogen and helium from the Solar Wind

      So why not collect it? Seems to me the tech needed for a ramjet could be used to create a solar wind collector on the moon. Even at a millionth the atmosphere of the earth, a decent area of collectors could get enough to supply a good-sized moonbase. If it's the solar wind, it is constantly replenished, right?

      --
      Ooh, a sarcasm detector. Oh, that's a real useful invention.
  13. Re:Make up your minds... by GearheadX · · Score: 1

    The mother of all bunny slopes...

  14. reliability of conclusion by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Insightful

    (a) similar studies done from *lunar orbit* favor the existence of ice. why is an earth-based study more accurate?
    (b) the article states that only 20% of the permanently-shadowed surface was tested from arecibo. so why the unilateral conclusion?

    1. Re:reliability of conclusion by NanoGator · · Score: 1

      " so why the unilateral conclusion?"

      I blame the Bush Administration!

      --
      "Derp de derp."
  15. You, sir, by mekkab · · Score: 1

    are the winner out of all the lunar-ice jokes. If I had mod points, I'd hit you up.

    --
    In the future, I would want to not be isolated from my friends in the Space Station.
  16. Well, more accurately by Space+cowboy · · Score: 4, Interesting

    it said there was no sheets of ice at the poles. There could still be grains. The previous survey showed a lot of hydrogen up there, and the best guess for how you get lots of hydrogen to stick around is as ice.

    Not sure why you couldn't have methane mind...

    Simon.

    --
    Physicists get Hadrons!
    1. Re:Well, more accurately by vslashg · · Score: 4, Funny

      Not sure why you couldn't have methane mind...

      Because every time you got a good idea, you'd be distracted and say "That smell again! What's that smell?"

    2. Re:Well, more accurately by phayes · · Score: 2, Informative

      Nobody seriously believed that there would be sheets of ice at the lunar poles anyway. When Clementine confirmed the presence of hydrogen at the lunar poles the most commonly accepted source was as hydrates in the lunar regolith.

      There are only sources for the hydrogen according to recent theory:
      - Cometary impacts
      - Cold trapping of the solar wind (this paper details just this scenario: http://fti.neep.wisc.edu/FTI/POSTERS/hhs_space2000 .pdf)

      Cometary impacts were always a looong shot.

      A side note to those who have been saying "Hydrogen is light, we'll just transport some from the earth to the moon".
      - Hydrogen is only RELATIVELY light compared to Earths atmosphere.
      - Tanks that can contain large amounts of hydrogen at 0atm are HEAVY.
      - We need TONS of hydrogen in order to expand our presence in space.
      - Every Kilo of Hydrogen+Tankage that you bring with you from Earth is a kilo that cannot be used for other essentials that we cannot find/make in space. Thinks like food, tools, fuel, etc.
      - The two major uses of lunar hydrogen would be water (for drinking, bathing, cleaning, etc) & as rocket fuel.

      Pat

      --
      Democracy is a sheep and two wolves deciding what to have for lunch. Freedom is a well armed sheep contesting the issue
    3. Re:Well, more accurately by haxor.dk · · Score: 1

      Sorry to bust your joke, but Methane doesn't have a smell.

      http://www.dhfs.state.wi.us/eh/ChemFS/fs/Methane .h tm

  17. Goodbye Colonisation... by Noodlenose · · Score: 1
    Let's see:

    As the chinese would be the next to put a foot on our satellite, a red moon is off then...

  18. Not necessarily... by Zocalo · · Score: 5, Informative
    The BBC News site has been carrying a summary of a Nature article on this since yesterday. The telling quote is "The observations, from the Arecibo radio telescope in Puerto Rico, do not rule out ice". The conclusion seems to have been that the ice might still be present, but rather than being thick sheets can only be in small grains or thin sheets. There is also the possiblity of sub-surface ice since the probes can only reach to a depth of several meters into the surface dust.

    Roll on the ESA's Smart 1 probe next year which will hopefully resolve the issue.

    --
    UNIX? They're not even circumcised! Savages!
  19. Dammit! by Rinikusu · · Score: 1

    I guess I won't be able to open up my Lunar Sno-Cone shop. Can I sue the owner of the Moon for lack of facilities? Or do I sue the owner of the Sun for driving off all the ice?

    --
    If you were me, you'd be good lookin'. - six string samurai
  20. Disproved?? by Polyploid+Pimp · · Score: 1
    OK, let's at least try to speak about these matters intelligently. I am so tired of people discussing hypotheses as if they are theories. First of all, it is a hypothesis that there are large slabs of ice at the lunar poles, not a theory. The latest data do not support this hypothesis. There is a big difference between a theory and a hypothesis, and it can be debated whether or not anything is ever "proved" or "disproved." As a website that provides "news for nerds" I am surprised that most of you can not correctly use basic, high school science class jargon.

    1. Re:Disproved?? by Bendebecker · · Score: 3, Informative

      A theory is an explanation of a particular phenonmen often based on supporting evidence. A hypothesis is a conclusion derived from an understanding of the theory that is often the focus of the experiment. The hypothesis is tested, and depending on its results, a theory is either disporving or it is supported by the hypothesis. It is nearly impossible to prove a theory.

      --
      There's a growing sense that even if The Future comes,
      most of us won't be able to afford it.
      -- Lemmy
    2. Re:Disproved?? by Polyploid+Pimp · · Score: 1

      Well you butchered that. A hypothesis is a possbile explanation for a phenomon (not a conclusion). Hypotheses are evaluated by research; the results of the research will either support or refute a hypothesis. If a hypothesis has stood up to a very large number of independent data sets and analyses, then that hypothesis may be raised to the level of a theory. It doesn't work the other way around ...maybe you should leave science to us scientists.

    3. Re:Disproved?? by Hektor_Troy · · Score: 1
      It is nearly impossible to prove a theory.
      This is of course just a theory, which is yet to be proven ...
      --
      We do not live in the 21st century. We live in the 20 second century.
  21. Dude! by Bendebecker · · Score: 2, Funny

    Where's my ice?

    --
    There's a growing sense that even if The Future comes,
    most of us won't be able to afford it.
    -- Lemmy
    1. Re:Dude! by Pig+Hogger · · Score: 1
      Where's my ice?
      Sorry, the trans-digital freon converter is down. Chode asked me to fix the fucking hyperdrive first.
  22. Re:Moral of the story: Science can be wrong by Cophee · · Score: 1

    That is the whole point/meaning of science - the acceptance of fallibility, and the the willingness to drop old theories in the light of new evidence.
    It doesn't rely on proof through intimidation.

  23. Re:No such thing as permanent shade by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Informative

    This isn't talking about the dark side of the moon; this is talking about craters on the moon's poles. Just like we have nightless periods (and sunless periods) on our poles, so does the moon. If there is a deep enough crater on the moon at the poles, there might be permanent shadows.

  24. Actually, you are dead wrong. by mindstrm · · Score: 4, Insightful

    There are areas in the polar region where the bottoms of craters are in eternal shade, and that is precisely what these studies are talking about.

    And when we say "The dark side of the moon".. we are referring to either a Pink Floyd album, or the side of the moon that is currently in darkness.. so the dark side of the moon is indeed always dark.. just like the dark side of the earth.

    1. Re:Actually, you are dead wrong. by Short+Circuit · · Score: 1

      Well, to be pedantic, many(most?) people refer to "the dark side of the moon" to be the side that always faces away from us.

      It's definately misleading, though.

  25. Re:No such thing as permanent shade by HarveyBirdman · · Score: 5, Informative
    This is a common misunderstanding of the moon. No place on the moon is ever permanently in the shade (excepting something like a cave of course). This comes from the mishandled use of the phrase "dark side of the moon".

    This is a common misunderstanding of what is meant by permanent shading on the moon. Note the phrase "polar ice" is key here.

    In the polar regions, the sun is very low in the sky and there are places in deep craters where the sunlight, at any point in the Lunar day, never reaches.

    It's the same as on the Earth. The bottom of a deep canyon near the south pole would never receive direct sunlight. The sun never moves above a certain altitude in the sky. Heck, the tilt of the Earth's axis give the poles permanent night (well, twilight) for six months. Not sure what the Moon's tilt is offhand, but that's a side issue.

    --
    --- Ban humanity.
  26. Re:No such thing as permanent shade by sznupi · · Score: 1

    Wrong, they're not writing about other side of the moon, but about the craters that are deep enough and are at such latitudes thet their bottom IS always in shadow. Next time, RTFA

    --
    One that hath name thou can not otter
  27. This is a manipulative investigation? by CaptIronfist · · Score: 1

    Beyond that, Campbell believes that the only way to settle the debate is to land a spacecraft. He is part of a team designing such a mission, called Polar Night.

    I think this is called a conflict of interest mister. This study just lost a lot of credibility.

    1. Re:This is a manipulative investigation? by Polyploid+Pimp · · Score: 1

      Actually, I don't see a conflict of interest. Its called research. They examined the hypothesis using one method available to them and published their results. Now they are planning to improve their methodology to collect data to support one hypothesis or the other. It would be a loss of credibility if nobody wanted to do a more rigorous investigation and simply accepted the results without further research.

    2. Re:This is a manipulative investigation? by CaptIronfist · · Score: 1

      Well i might be pulling a tad too much conspiracy theories out of my hat but this looks like it. ;-)

      1. Funded on a project to send a spacecraft to the poles to make sure there is ice.
      2. Participating in an investigation to know if there's possibly some ice.
      3. Contradicting all other studies, and therefor bring more incentive towards afore mentionned project.
      4. Profit!!!

      Well anyways, in the scientific world they usually never give funding only based on one investigation, so i guess we'll have to wait for another investigation to back this one up. Can you say SMART-1 ...

      You are right.

  28. But if there's no ice... by ItWasThem · · Score: 1

    how did all the whalers on the moon get around?

    At least they can still sing the whaling song.

  29. Poor Tintin by Kartoch · · Score: 1

    Too bad Herge is dead, because he would prefer to redrawn "tintin on the moon"...

    --
    Ceci n'est pas une signature.
  30. Obviously! by AmoebafromSweden · · Score: 1

    Its because the aliens have removed it, probably used it all build os support their secret base on the backside of the moon where they leech on all our Cable TV.

    1. Re:Obviously! by HarveyBirdman · · Score: 1
      probably used it all build os support

      No, that's a different kind of ICE.

      Bizarros says, "Typos am fun." (-:

      --
      --- Ban humanity.
  31. Re:No such thing as permanent shade by TopShelf · · Score: 2, Informative

    You missed the "craters" part. They were working with deep craters, the bottoms of which don't get light due to the steep walls. As you get closer to the pole, the sun sits lower and lower in the southern sky, even when it's "high" noon.

    --
    Stop by my site where I write about ERP systems & more
  32. Well maybe it WAS there... by iworm · · Score: 4, Funny

    Let's get this clear: they used a really really really really powerful radar, and then found that the ice "wasn't there". Uh huh. But now the moon does have strange clouds of water vapour... Whoops.

    1. Re:Well maybe it WAS there... by iNetRunner · · Score: 1

      Luckyly they didn't send those radar waves through our atmosphere as that might have had some adverse effects.. eh.. Well maybe there will be then some real water up there, shortly.

      --
      Store with salt
  33. Take heart... by RLiegh · · Score: 1, Redundant

    if some one can sell a domain named 'goat sex', I'm sure there's a buyer for yours too. :)

  34. Polar ice isn't the only myth here... by goldspider · · Score: 3, Funny

    It amazes me that so many allegedly "educated" people have fallen so quickly and so hard for a fraudulent fabrication of such laughable proportions. The very idea that a gigantic ball of rock happens to orbit our planet, showing itself in neat, four-week cycles -- with the same side facing us all the time -- is ludicrous. Furthermore, it is an insult to common sense and a damnable affront to intellectual honesty and integrity. That people actually believe it is evidence that the liberals have wrested the last vestiges of control of our public school system from decent, God-fearing Americans (as if any further evidence was needed! Daddy's Roommate? God Almighty!)

    Documentaries such as Enemy of the State have accurately portrayed the elaborate, byzantine network of surveillance satellites that the liberals have sent into space to spy on law-abiding Americans. Equipped with technology developed by Handgun Control, Inc., these satellites have the ability to detect firearms from hundreds of kilometers up. That's right, neighbors .. the next time you're out in the backyard exercising your Second Amendment rights, the liberals will see it! These satellites are sensitive enough to tell the difference between a Colt .45 and a .38 Special! And when they detect you with a firearm, their computers cross-reference the address to figure out your name, and then an enormous database housed at Berkeley is updated with information about you.

    Of course, this all works fine during the day, but what about at night? Even the liberals can't control the rotation of the Earth to prevent nightfall from setting in (only Joshua was able to ask for that particular favor!) That's where the "moon" comes in. Powered by nuclear reactors, the "moon" is nothing more than an enormous balloon, emitting trillions of candlepower of gun-revealing light. Piloted by key members of the liberal community, the "moon" is strategically moved across the country, pointing out those who dare to make use of their God-given rights at night!

    Yes, I know this probably sounds paranoid and preposterous, but consider this. Despite what the revisionist historians tell you, there is no mention of the "moon" anywhere in literature or historical documents -- anywhere -- before 1950. That is when it was initially launched. When President Josef Kennedy, at the State of the Union address, proclaimed "We choose to go to the moon", he may as well have said "We choose to go to the weather balloon." The subsequent faking of a "moon" landing on national TV was the first step in a long history of the erosion of our constitutional rights by leftists in this country. No longer can we hide from our government when the sun goes down.

    --
    "Ask not what your country can do for you." --John F. Kennedy
  35. I for one .... by HomerJayS · · Score: 1

    am happy that the Chinese will now not be able to procede with their plans to build a self-sustaining lunar base from which they planned to dominate the earth.

  36. Re:Moral of the story: Science can be wrong by Zone-MR · · Score: 1

    Ignoring the fact the above post is clearly flamebait...

    The two theories you mentioned - Evolution and the Big Bang, are both just that - scientific theories. Based on observations, scientists have been able to come up with a 'best-fit' theory, which makes sense, and helps explain and model the world we see around us.

    So far all evidence (background microwave radiation, expanding universe, etc) seems to confirm the theory of the big bang. Of course there are still some occurances which we do not understand, but unless you have a better theory to offer, try and understand why centuries of research by our best scientists has yielded the conclusions it has.

    Evolution is practically common sense. We UNDERSTAND genetics. We know that physical characteristics are INHERITED. We know that creatures not adapted to their surrounding will simply die. Anyone capable of logical thinking can conclude that over generations, species will adapt to cope with their surroundings. It's not so much of a theory than it is fact which can be proven by anything from mathematical models, to observing real life phenomenon.

    "The only thing that has stayed constant for all time is the Word of God."

    Right, umm, yes. Of course we haven't found major indiscrepencies between the bible and reality, once we gained the technology to observe it. We still know that heaven happens to be just above the clouds, ligtning is a result of God's angwer rather than electrostatic potential buildup, and that noah saved life on planet earth by transporting every species on a giant ship. Oh, wait. What we now know to be bullshit is claimed to be "symbolic" of the deeper meaning in the bible.

    You say "everything we get wrong or can't explain is the work of someone superior", and claim you can't be disproved. Scientists do their best to actually EXPLAIN the world in which we live in rather than saying "I dont know a thing, so the explanation is god". And I don't know how the moon-ice theory relates to evolution and secular cosmology. I assume that you don't either.

  37. Re:No such thing as permanent shade by jap · · Score: 3, Informative
    No place on the moon is ever permanently in the shade

    Unfortunately for you, there is such a place. Maybe even more of them, dunno, I left my lunar map in my spacecraft, and I'm not in the mood to fetch it.

    The place is called the Shackleton crater - which is a crater at the Lunar South Pole. Because of it location, the bottom of that crater is expected not to be exposed to sunlight ever.

    As a coincidence, this is exactly the place where the Clementine mission observed radiation patterns indicating hydrogen presence - and which the referenced article also discusses.

  38. Theories can be wrong, observations can be too by Bendebecker · · Score: 2, Insightful

    Dude, that is why they are called theories, not laws. They only think that is what is happening or what has occured based on the best evidence. Science is full of theories that have been discounted. That is in fact one of the main goals of science. You come up with a hypothesis based on your theory, and see if the evidence supprts it. If it does, you have more evidence to support your theory. If it doesn't, then you hav more evidence which you can use to make a better theory. The big bang theory is a theory which not only was supported by the evidence at teh time of its inception but has since been corraborated by dozens and dozens of more evidence that it occured. Evolution has so much evidence going for it that most don't even consider it a theory. There are massive amounts of observations where evolution is the only explanation that makes any real sense. Take a class in psychology on Sensation and Perception if you don't believe me.

    As to Lunar ice, science does not rely on single observations alone but must have duplicatable results. In other words, just becuase one person notices ice on the moon and forms a theory that it exists at the bottom of these craters does not mean that that is the case. Those observations have to be supported by doing multiple observations. In this case, those multiple observations shwed that lunar ice did not exist and that the theory for it was incorrect. We have now have even more evidence from which we can form an even better understanding of the moon. This is the way science works. If no theory ever got discounted, we would never get anywhere.

    --
    There's a growing sense that even if The Future comes,
    most of us won't be able to afford it.
    -- Lemmy
  39. Re:Christian "myth"?!?!? by azzy · · Score: 1, Flamebait

    Calling currently-held religious beliefs "myths" is rather more polite than the general attitude of religious people essentially proclaim such nonsensical fiction as pure unadulterable fact.

    Perhaps we should throw politeness out of the window and call these "myths" what they are, bare-faced lies to manipulate and control the populace.

    By the way, I like jumbo shrimps.

  40. Hydrogen is more important than water by G4from128k · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Although finding water would be nice, the real issue is finding a long-term source of hydrogen on the moon. The moon offers plenty of long-term sources of oxygen as a byproduct of processing moon rocks. But hydrogen may be scarer, unless there really is a concentration of either water or hydrated rock at the poles. Without hydrogen, life gets much harder. Perhaps the moon really is a harsh mistress.

    --
    Two wrongs don't make a right, but three lefts do.
    1. Re:Hydrogen is more important than water by bigjnsa500 · · Score: 1

      I remember something about there being Helium-3 in abundance on the moon. Space.com has a nice article about it and scientists are already at work making it into a usable energy source.

      --
      This is a test. This is a test of the emergency sig system. This has been only a test.
    2. Re:Hydrogen is more important than water by bill_mcgonigle · · Score: 1

      Since there's no atmosphere, could one setup a bussard ramjet's collector and scoop up hydrogen from the solar wind?

      I'm sure the answer is 'yes, but' as I have no idea of the area/volume required for a small colony. Maybe somebody here knows that data.

      --
      My God, it's Full of Source!
      OUTSIDE_IP=$(dig +short my.ip @outsideip.net)
  41. Well sweet goddamn. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

    What are you doing here on slashdot? Better get yourself down there and edumicate some so-called scientists. Shit, if they were so daft to overlook this simple "fact", they don't deserve to call themselves scientists.

    1. Re:Well sweet goddamn. by Daniel+Dvorkin · · Score: 4, Insightful
      What are you doing here on slashdot? Better get yourself down there and edumicate some so-called scientists. Shit, if they were so daft to overlook this simple "fact", they don't deserve to call themselves scientists.


      Thank you. It's too bad you posted as an AC, because your post deserves wider exposure than it's probably going to get. My kingdom for some mod points!

      It seems like every story about any scientific controversy on /. brings out a bunch of trolls -- who don't even realize they're trolls -- who feel compelled to roll out some half-remembered fact from 8th-grade science class to "prove" that what these scientists are doing is clearly ridiculous and doomed to failure. Um ... guess what, guys, the people working on the project in question already thought of your objection a looong time ago. For whatever reason, they've dismissed that objection -- and you can be sure that they had good reasons for doing so.

      And even that lends too much credence to objections like the grandparent poster's. Saying, "there's no ice on the moon because it would have evaporated a long time ago" to a planetary scientist studying the possibility of lunar ice is roughly akin to someone with an elementary-school grasp of mathematics saying, "there's no such thing as the square root of a negative number, so what's with all these idiot mathematicians talking about i ?"
      --
      The correlation between ignorance of statistics and using "correlation is not causation" as an argument is close to 1.
    2. Re:Well sweet goddamn. by IroNick · · Score: 1

      Well, I'm no scientist, but how come Earth's atmosphere has persisted eons in vacuum? My guess is gravity... ;)

    3. Re:Well sweet goddamn. by dustman · · Score: 1
      Oh now that's a critical mind at work! You accept the obviously flawed argument for ice on Mars because scientists know best? Someone brings up a valid point, that ice sublimates in a vacuum, and you counter with blind faith - in scientists. Yeah, don't think about it, they're smarter than you, they must be right.

      O.K. exlain how thick sheets of ice can persist for eons in a vacuum.


      Of course, you shouldn't trust a single source... Google for more, but this one corroborates with all the others I found, and is pretty clear.
      Comets are small, fragile, irregularly shaped bodies composed mostly of a mixture of water ice, dust, and carbon- and silicon-based compounds.
      Our entire solar system, including comets, formed from the collapse of a giant, diffuse cloud of gas and dust about 4.5 billion years ago.


      So, why don't *you* explain why purported ice on the moon *won't* exist? I can think of some possible explanations for why it wouldn't exist (if that's found to be the case): Maybe lunar ice sheets would be thinner than mountain-sized (or whatever) blobs of ice in comets. Maybe the moon receives more energy than the comets (although not directly, given the "permanent shade" of the test sites).

      But still, it's worth looking into, don't you think?

      And in terms of "naivete", is it really all that unreasonable to assume that these scientists might know a little bit more about their field of study, than some random computer geek armed with what he remembers from his junior high "earth science" textbook?
    4. Re:Well sweet goddamn. by sahala · · Score: 1
      I suggest you google "Jan Hendrik Schon" and reflect on your naivete.

      Fantastic. One electronics scientist gets smacked down for falsifying research results and now the entire scientific community loses credibility.

      you counter with blind faith - in scientists. Yeah, don't think about it, they're smarter than you, they must be right.

      I don't think he's out of line. Knowing nothing else who would you trust, established researchers or a gaggle of /. posters? And yes I do realize that excellence in understanding one field of knowledge (computer science/information systems/engineering/hard-drive partitioning/case-modding) predisposes the capacity to understand another field.

    5. Re:Well sweet goddamn. by ruprechtjones · · Score: 1

      so what's with all these idiot mathematicians talking about i ?

      You mean Pi. It's that three dot something something number. i indeed, now you're just making stuff up.

      --
      Kip Hawley is an idiot.
    6. Re:Well sweet goddamn. by cazzazullu · · Score: 1
      O.K. exlain how thick sheets of ice can persist for eons in a vacuum.

      Ice is the solid state of water, and should sublimate in vacuum... But then also should iron (mostly solid, but also melts and evaporates), rock, glass, ... The reason it doesn't is that the cohesion-forces between the molecules are too big to allow fast evaporation. It does evaporate, no doubt about that, but so slow it could indeed be there for a very long time. This is not the case for liquid water. there the intermolecular forces are way too small to prevent sudden evaporation.

      --
      int main(void) {while(1) fork(); return 0;}
  42. Lunar Warming by thejuggler · · Score: 1

    This is a clear case of Humans polluting the lunar landscape by driving those Lunar rovers all over the place. Now the Lunar ice caps have melted and the rest of the Lunar ecosystem is in jeopardy.

    Stop Lunar Warming now!! Save The Moon!!

  43. Mooninites! by lysander · · Score: 1
    Well that sounds like a personal problem.

    Some would say the earth is our moon [We're the moon], but that would belittle the name of our moon, which is The Moon.

    --
    GET YOUR WEAPONS READY! --DR.LIGHT
    1. Re:Mooninites! by Anonymous+Cow+herd · · Score: 1

      Quiet, nerd! Or we will spank you with moon rocks!

      --
      Ita erat quando hic adveni.
  44. too hot by manon · · Score: 1

    it's too hot for normal ice on the sun... i bet what they saw was dry ice.

    --
    42 + 1 = 42
  45. Re:Christian "myth"?!?!? by trick-knee · · Score: 2, Interesting

    please note that there is no mention of truth or falsity in Merriam-Webster's entry for "myth", except in a secondary denotation.

    entries 2b and 3 would seem to be the only ones that should be cause for offense. however entry 1a works just fine in the curent context, unless you want to object to "ostensibly".

  46. misleading title by PhuCknuT · · Score: 1

    They disproved that large sheets of ice exist right below the surface, they didn't disprove that any ice exists.

  47. Re:No such thing as permanent shade by ishmalius · · Score: 1
    True. It is not ever absolutely dark. It is, however, when not directly lit by the Sun, much darker than the Earthside part of the moon is when it is similarly shielded from the Sun.

    Why? Because the nearer side is lit by the reflected light from the Earth! Enormously brighter than moonlight.

  48. Scratch that by Hoi+Polloi · · Score: 1, Funny

    Bummer, I guess I'll have to leave the ice skates at home.

    --
    It is by the juice of the coffee bean that thoughts acquire speed, the teeth acquire stains. The stains become a warning
  49. Re:And of course by Bendebecker · · Score: 1

    What does Global warming have to do with wheter or not here is ice on what amounts ot a large asteroid (known as the moon or luna(latin for moon), an asteroid most likely created from the collescing of debris thrown into high obit from a massive collision between our planet and an asteroid probably aound the size of mars) in orbit around our planet apporximetly 250,000 miles away?

    --
    There's a growing sense that even if The Future comes,
    most of us won't be able to afford it.
    -- Lemmy
  50. Theories? by ThisIsFred · · Score: 1

    How does this affect the theories about the moon being formed after Earth collided with some ancient planetoid? Or am I way behind on the current theories about the moon?

    --
    Fred

    "A fool and his freedom are soon parted"
    -RMS
    1. Re:Theories? by mikerich · · Score: 1
      How does this affect the theories about the moon being formed after Earth collided with some ancient planetoid? Or am I way behind on the current theories about the moon?

      It doesn't. Any ice on the Moon would be the result of a cometary impact in the recent (geologically speaking) past.

      Best wishes,
      Mike.

    2. Re:Theories? by phayes · · Score: 1

      The collision produced two bodies of molten rock. After cooling, both bodies exgassed water & other volitiles. The Earth is massive enough to keep most of it's volitiles. The moon isn't.

      Lunar hydrogen is probably hydrated compounds in the lunar regolith. The most commonly accepted origin for the hydrates is from cold trapping of the solar wind (as I have stated elsewhere).

      Pat

      --
      Democracy is a sheep and two wolves deciding what to have for lunch. Freedom is a well armed sheep contesting the issue
  51. The missing line of the article... by DrEldarion · · Score: 1

    However, they did find mutant Lunar Polar Bears who wore caps. Researchers are quoted as saying, "We knew it was something like that..."

  52. Errmm.. by fluffy666 · · Score: 1

    The main constituent of Moon rocks are basalts, which are generally made up (to simplify) of Silicon, Aluminium, Magnesium and Iron OXIDES. Oxygen is very abundant on the moon, given enough energy.

    Hydrogen, on the other hand, is almost only ever found as water on this planet; this is the big problem.

    1. Re:Errmm.. by AKAImBatman · · Score: 1

      > Iron OXIDES. Oxygen is very abundant on the moon, given enough energy.

      Excellent! That was what I thought. My geology is a little rusty, so I couldn't remember why rock tended to absorb oxygen.

      > Hydrogen, on the other hand, is almost only ever found
      > as water on this planet; this is the big problem.

      Hmm... perhaps it would be feasible to transport the Hydrogen from Earth. Hydrogen is very light, and only makes up one third of water. It's also lighter and smaller than oxygen, so you'd probably be able to make five kilos of water for every kilo of hydrogen.

    2. Re:Errmm.. by Grotus · · Score: 1

      Two thirds of the atoms in water are hydrogen and one ninth the mass.

      That one kilo of hydrogen nets nine kilos of water.

      Unfortunately, transporting one kilo of hydrogen to the moon is a very expensive thing, which is why it would have been nice to have plentiful water already there.

      --
      "From my cold, dead hands you damn, dirty apes!" - CH
    3. Re:Errmm.. by AKAImBatman · · Score: 1

      > Unfortunately, transporting one kilo of hydrogen to the
      > moon is a very expensive thing, which is why it would
      > have been nice to have plentiful water already there.

      True enough. Unfortunately, you can't have everything. Still, for every person you'd probably need about their body weight in water as recycling would help recover waste water. The hydrogen could be delivered to ISS, and a moon ship could take it the rest of the way. Alternatively, the hydrogen canister itself could be launched toward moon orbit and picked up. Efficient and cheap propulsion technologies such as Ion propulsion could be used to keep a constant supply of hydrogen "on the way". At least until we successfully build atomic engines on the moon, as which point we could take a stroll toward our sun and scoop the hydrogen we need.

    4. Re:Errmm.. by Cujo · · Score: 1
      The hydrogen could be delivered to ISS

      How and why? ISS is in the wrong orbit for efficient lunar transfers, and is in no way designed as lunar waystation. It can barely function asw a microgravity lab.

      Efficient and cheap propulsion technologies such as Ion propulsion could be used to keep a constant supply of hydrogen "on the way".

      ? Ion engines do have a high specific impulse, but also have very low thrust and require lots of power. Even a small spacecraft like SMART-1 is taking months to get to lunar orbit on an ion engine, and you've got this little bitty spacecraft with big solar arrays. It's not at all clear that this is the way to go - to get efficient H storage, you'd have to havea cryo container, and that's going to mean some finite leakage rate, and that means short trip times are essential.

      Basically, if there's no source of Hydrogen on the moon (water or Methane), then no lunar bases for a long time. The Space Elevator could change that if we could make it realistic.

      --

      Helium balloons want to be free.

    5. Re:Errmm.. by AKAImBatman · · Score: 1

      > How and why? ISS is in the wrong orbit for efficient lunar
      > transfers, and is in no way designed as lunar waystation.
      > It can barely function asw a microgravity lab.

      No one says the orbit can't be changed. The original intent of the space station was as a lunar waystation. Clinton helpfully killed that idea and now we have to make due. The only reason I suggest it, is because using a waystation is still cheaper than using a Saturn 5 to get hydrogen to the moon.

      > Ion engines do have a high specific impulse, but also
      > have very low thrust and require lots of power. Even a
      > small spacecraft like SMART-1 is taking months to get to
      > lunar orbit on an ion engine, and you've got this little
      > bitty spacecraft with big solar arrays.

      Think "atomic power". Thus the tanks could be strapped onto a big engine and thrusted toward to moon. There would be no real craft. Plus, atomic power means that it could be redirected back to the waystation and used again. Have enough of these en route, and you can keep up a constant stream of hydrogen.

      > It's not at all clear that this is the way to go - to get
      > efficient H storage, you'd have to havea cryo container,
      > and that's going to mean some finite leakage rate, and
      > that means short trip times are essential.

      No, cost is essential. If it costs less to deliver a larger load where only 80% of the original payload makes it, then we'll send hydrogen tanks that loose 20% of their hydrogen. Using a high speed chemical rocket is tremendously expensive.

    6. Re:Errmm.. by Cujo · · Score: 1

      Ok, I'll say it: ISS's orital inclination can't be changed enoug to do any good. Also, the waystation idea is far from a proven winner unless you've got materials flowing both directions.

      No, cost is essential. If it costs less to deliver a larger load where only 80% of the original payload makes it, then we'll send hydrogen tanks that loose 20% of their hydrogen. Using a high speed chemical rocket is tremendously expensive.
      Have enough of these en route...

      Huh? There's the small matter of velocity matching.

      more like 0%. The boiloff would get you in a matter of days, nit months.

      --

      Helium balloons want to be free.

    7. Re:Errmm.. by AKAImBatman · · Score: 1

      > Also, the waystation idea is far from a proven winner
      > unless you've got materials flowing both directions.

      Well, that's kind of the point. The moon couldn't survive without mining and industry beginning in earnest. With a small nuclear reactor plus basic industrial equipment, the moon could mine many of materials needed for various construction and use a mass driver to send materials down the gravity well.

      > Huh? There's the small matter of velocity matching.

      Velocity matching with what? Perhaps I'm missing something here, but the aim is for either earth or moon orbital insertion in all cases. The final velocity can be adjusted by slowing a craft and beginning a retro burn.

      > more like 0%. The boiloff would get you in a matter of
      > days, nit months.

      Eh? I don't know a whole lot about hydrogen transportation, but only a small amount can leak through a well designed container. Saying that it would be gone in days seems extreme. But let's say you're correct for a moment. In that case, the moon could send oxygen down, the water could be combined in lower orbit, and water could then be sent up. You wouldn't even need a tank for water as you could freeze it and mount the blocks on the engine structure.

    8. Re:Errmm.. by pyr0 · · Score: 1
      You forgot anorthosites. The dark areas (marea) are of a basaltic/gabbroic composition, and the light areas (highlands) are anorthosites. A fellow by the name of John Wood (he came up with the model for the Moon's formation!) gave a talk at our geology department seminar a few weeks ago on this. The model calls for a completely molten moon to start with. Because of the density difference between anorthosite and basalt, the moon stratified as a result. During cooling, impacts punctured the anorthositic surface which allowed the basaltic magma to upwell to the surface, forming the marea.

      The funny thing about all this was that he came up with this model before terribly much data had been collected, and it was generally laughed at in a way. However, once they started actually getting real data about the moon's composition, it became apparent that his model actually worked, and has been regarded as the best theory for the formation of the moon as we know it ever since then.

      Now I should say it still doesn't change the validity of your original post. I just wanted to note that the surface of the moon is definitely not all basalt.

  53. Re:Make up your minds... by ThisIsFred · · Score: 1

    Not to mention the fact that those sharp moon rocks would be murder on your wax job. Although you have to admit there are some good slopes in those crater walls.

    --
    Fred

    "A fool and his freedom are soon parted"
    -RMS
  54. Not complete refutation by amightywind · · Score: 3, Interesting

    The radar astronomers admit that they were not able to probe Shackleton crater where Clementine got it positive reading. In any event, I doubt we are talking about much more than frost in the regolith. This is bad news for those who prattle on about stipmining the lunar south pole in order to manufacture rocket fuel.

    --
    an ill wind that blows no good
    1. Re: Not complete refutation by Black+Parrot · · Score: 1


      > The radar astronomers admit that they were not able to probe Shackleton crater where Clementine got it positive reading.

      Also, Lunar Prospector gives support to the Clementine findings, detecting a dearth of medium-energy neutrons from the same regions.

      (Mentioned in passing in a Dec. 2003 article on lunar geography in Scientific American.)

      --
      Sheesh, evil *and* a jerk. -- Jade
  55. we like the moon! by passion · · Score: 1
    --
    - passion
  56. Who did it? by Roadkills-R-Us · · Score: 1

    So, someone stole the lunar polar ice cap? Maybe the FBI is on it. Maybe that's why they don't have time to look into a paltry $15,000 worth of fraud for us...

  57. Re:Moral of the story: Science can be wrong by Darth23 · · Score: 1

    "indiscrepencies"? :^p

    --

    -------- In Soviet Russia, "Soviet Russia" sigs hate Slashdot.

  58. Re:Christian "myth"?!?!? by chamenos · · Score: 1, Troll

    no please mod parent up. besides manipulating and controlling the populace, these myths also serve to give weak-minded people a false sense of security and purpose in life. understandable, but still pathetic.

  59. ObSovietRussia by jarran · · Score: 1

    In Soviet Russia we make ourselves space sick.

  60. Re:Make up your minds... by chamenos · · Score: 1

    too bad there would be the ever-present danger of accidentally attaining escape velocity to put a damper on things.

  61. Wrong by JahToasted · · Score: 3, Funny

    The Russian space programme is a very professional organisation, and I know for a FACT that there absolutely no drunken astronauts there. For shame! They are drunken cosmonauts, not astronauts.

    1. Re:Wrong by jp31415926 · · Score: 1
      ...I know for a FACT that there absolutely no drunken [Russian] astronauts...

      Visions of the MIR crash immediately come to mind. But you really can't blame them! Russia is trying to keep up with the US space program, but can't manage to feed half their people. Hell, I'd have a drink or two in that situation as well!

  62. Re:Well... by hottoh · · Score: 1

    We are told there is water [ice] on the moon, then there is not water on the moon.

    They talk about sheets of ice subsurface being present in the article, or now maybe it is just crystals. What scientific reason would ice remain on the moon? They do not say. Still I am not surprised they cannot find clear evidence of water on the moon.

    They can look and look for whatever they want to find. Point is if water is there, then water isn't there, then nothing is being said. They just as well say, "We are confused."

  63. Re:No such thing as permanent shade by ccpoodle · · Score: 2, Interesting

    Permanent shade is about as common on the Moon as on Earth, as all parts of the moon get sun light on a different schedual, but about the same average as Earth. Permanent shade is rare small areas, and lasts a few million years as the geographic poles of both bodies move over the long term. In my opinion polar ice on the moon, even in permanent shade would be gone in a million years, likely much less, because of energetic ions and photons from beyond our solar system. Most of the Earth-shine photons are not energetic enough to decompose ice at minus 250 degrees f and more than half of the permanently shaded areas from the Sun would also be permanetly shaded from Earth-shine. Neil Please minimise the funny comments.

  64. We still need to return to the Moon. by TerraFORM · · Score: 1

    We were going so well, balls to the wall, in the 60's and early 70's then.....stopped. There are all kinds of reasons to continue our extra-terrestrial presence, not the least of which is ensuring the survival of our species when the next big rock comes. Hopefully, the Chinese efforts of late will spur our return.

    1. Re:We still need to return to the Moon. by Rayborn · · Score: 1

      If you really want to go back to the moon consider joining the Moon Society

  65. We found it , we lost it.. by annisette · · Score: 1

    perhaps we will find it again. Looking for a possible rich water bound sight and then landing there for samples seems lide the best way to know for sure. Going from a solid to a vapor then into space would be a good reason to not find water on the surface of the moon, if water was/is very deep undermoon ground, beyond our abitilty to find from earth or orbiting observation it can still be there and as far as drilling deep for water I do not think that would pose a very big problem. We have to go there to know for sure.

    --
    I eat my grapes at room temperature, cuz the cold ones hurt my teeth
  66. Re:Moral of the story: Science can be wrong by VanillaCoke420 · · Score: 1

    This is obivously a troll, but I'll answer anyway. However, tell me one thing, if the scientific community thought there might be ice on the moon, and if they by further investigations found out it is not, does that mean science is still wrong? No, it means science is doing its job as long as we let them do it. It shows us a good example of the self correcting mechanism. Science is the best way we have to investigate nature.

  67. slighty OT: Jupiter strange spot by Frederic54 · · Score: 1

    remember ? there is a nice explanation here, don't know if it's really valid or not, but still, very interesting

    --
    "Science will win because it works." - Stephen Hawking
  68. slighty OT: Jupiter strange spot by Frederic54 · · Score: 1

    remember this story? there is a nice explanation here, don't know if it's really valid or not, but still, very interesting.
    PS: sorry for the previous post, I clicked submit instead of preview :-/

    --
    "Science will win because it works." - Stephen Hawking
  69. Shadows by Autonomous+Crowhard · · Score: 3, Interesting
    I read this and I have a question... How can they be using Arecibo to detect into the bottoms of those craters? Given Arecibo's location (18.3) and Luna's orbital inclination (5 degrees) and the fact that they are looking at Luna's poles then the angle of incedence would be pretty low (4.13 degrees) for the south pole. From the article it sounds like they are only checking the sides of the craters and not the bottom. Not sure what good that does.

    Also, so what if it takes a lot of processing to get the water out of the soil. It's not like you don't have a great source of energy just over the crater wall.

  70. Regardless by randall_burns · · Score: 1

    There is still a lot of stuff on the moon that could make the place a dang useful place for mining. Hydrogen isn't strictly necessary to make lots of useful artifacts.

    We are in a very early stage of the development of space-and the real agenda now is figuring out just what is out there and how to use it. I suspect that someone will figure out some uses for the Moon even before that inventory is complete.

  71. The term "has disproved" a bit excessive, maybe? by ishmalius · · Score: 1
    I mean, it is just one survey. In the scientific world, that equals one experiment, which should be considered in the context of the others, which are equally valid.

    From what I read, it is 3 things:
    1) A survey
    2) An analysis of the results
    3) A conclusion based on the analysis.

    I don't think that this constitutes proof at all. Maybe the author needs to take a Logic course.

  72. Moral of the story: YOU can be wrong by Goldenhawk · · Score: 2, Insightful

    This is probably a troll, but the parent got modded up, so I hope this could be considered part of the discussion here. I've tried to discuss this WITHOUT any hint of personal belief, so it can be absorbed by both sides of this issue.

    Please note that science frequently requires as much faith as religion does.

    You make a large number of statements that you posit as "fact" without any backing behind them. For example, evolution is NOT practically common sense. Quite the contrary, there are many SCIENTISTS (not religious nuts) who have serious problems with fitting Darwin's theories with observed facts. For example, the idea that DNA could self-organize from bare chemicals is difficult to support, when there are ZERO examples of lower-level compounds that appear to be precursors of DNA; this casts a certain pall on the entire concept of life-as-we-know-it-evolving-from-primoridal-goop. Many people I know actually believe in some middle-ground - like God-directed evolution, where God somehow sparked things off and put certain structures in place.

    One problem many scientists willingly admit is that there are few rigorous examples of "macro-evolution" - huge-scale evolution between species. There are numerous examples of microevolution such as moths changing color in sooty areas of England, etc. But the fossil record, often used to "prove" evolution, contains HUGE gaps that cannot be explained (at this point). If you look at a realistic evolutionary species tree, you'll see lots of question marks and dashed or dotted lines. Granted, these may be simply a lack of having found the right fossil yet - but then again, whichever way you see THAT is a matter of faith, isn't it?

    Much of the things you propose are myth or symbolic imply a disbelief in any deity. Be honest - that sort of invalidates you as capable of accurately evaluating a theological work from a theological perspective. To narrow that statement down, if you DO believe in God, it's not a far stretch to believe that God (by definition all-powerful) is easily capable of using natural phenomenon such as lightning or flood or earthquake or supernova to do his work. If he exists, and is all-powerful, and decided to create enough water to cover the earth, why not? The only reason it seems impossible to you is because you START from the viewpoint that there is no deity. That's a logical fallacy.

    One interesting quandry for a scientific-thinking believer in God is "what did God choose to create?" Many creationists belive God created the fossil record, intact. Some believe that the record was created during Noah's flood. But you can also find people, quite intelligent people, who think that God chooses to use geology, cosmology, evolution etc. as tools to shape the world as we know it. Why not, after all? Why should any rational person try to limit a deity to a particular method of creation (such as the "ex nihilo", or instantaneous out-of-nothing creation)? (BTW, many Christian fundamentalists believe that if you don't believe in a literal King-James-Version interpretation of the Bible's story of a six-day creation, you throw away Truth as a concept. But others see more wiggle-room in the Genesis account - arguing that the original-language word for "day" actually is better translated "time", implying an epoch instead.)

    As to the Big Bang, again, we have no comprehension whatsoever (scientifically) about why such an event would ever happen. Can you PROVE that such an event wasn't sparked by a deity? I don't believe so, any more than a deist could PROVE it was. So you operate on a certain level of faith, while the deist operates on a similar level - just in a different deity.

    For these, and many more reasons, I find it foolish to make absolute statements about cause-and-effect of the universe in a public forum. We simply don't know enough, either way.

    --
    --Brandon / Split Infinity Music

    1. Re:Moral of the story: YOU can be wrong by 17028 · · Score: 1

      I think you may have redefined the word "faith" to suit your conclusions.

    2. Re:Moral of the story: YOU can be wrong by Pig+Hogger · · Score: 2, Insightful
      Please note that science frequently requires as much faith as religion does.
      Absolutely not. Science is understandable to anyone willing to understand the mathematics required to prove it.

      Religion, on the other hand, cannot be proven by mathematics at all...

    3. Re:Moral of the story: YOU can be wrong by cagle_.25 · · Score: 1

      Well...it turns out it's not that simple.
      Mathematicians begin with unproven but accepted axioms leading to powerful computational tools we call theorems. By contrast, scientists begin with observed phenomena and seek connections and relationships between the data.

      An act of faith now occurs: the scientist appropriates mathematical theorems as a model for his data. Is he justified in doing so? Perhaps -- but there's no way to prove it!
      One thinks here of the famous case of Newton's Laws giving way to relativity ... and of Euclidean geometry taking a back seat to Riemannian geometry. For a time, we accepted Newton's Laws on faith, until the evidence of our senses led us to abandon (better: modify) them.
      The notion that math can be a complete guide to truth was given the death blow by Goedel, who showed that any mathematical system must inevitably be either incomplete or inconsistent. By "incomplete", he means "not able to prove itself true." For this reason, mathematicians never ask if a proof is "true" or not, but only if it is "valid" -- that is, whether it has been consistently derived from the unproven axioms.
      The last serious philosopher who took mathematics as the infallible guide to truth was Leibniz. Fantastic mathematician, but dead wrong about the "truth" of math.

      --
      Human being (n.): A genetically human, genetically distinct, functioning organism.
    4. Re: Moral of the story: YOU can be wrong by Black+Parrot · · Score: 1


      > Quite the contrary, there are many SCIENTISTS (not religious nuts) who have serious problems with fitting Darwin's theories with observed facts.

      How many, and how many of them can you actually name.

      > For example, the idea that DNA could self-organize from bare chemicals is difficult to support, when there are ZERO examples of lower-level compounds that appear to be precursors of DNA; this casts a certain pall on the entire concept of life-as-we-know-it-evolving-from-primoridal-goop.

      Suppose you had a bucket of DNA precursors and tossed them out on the lawn. How long do you think they would last on this life-infested world (with an oxidizing atmosphere, no less) before broken down and/or consumed by microbes?

      > There are numerous examples of microevolution such as moths changing color in sooty areas of England, etc. But the fossil record, often used to "prove" evolution, contains HUGE gaps that cannot be explained (at this point).

      The gaps are easily explained. For example, calculate how many great* grandparents you had 1,000 years ago, and then go see how many of their skeletons you can find. Then imagine the difficulty of getting even that poor a record from 1,000,000 or 1,000,000,000 years ago, when creatures were more commonly eaten than buried in a churchyard and marked with a tombstone.

      --
      Sheesh, evil *and* a jerk. -- Jade
  73. Lunar Global Warming? by bs_02_06_02 · · Score: 1

    Global warming. That's the reason. Hey, we've got to get rid of the greenhouse gases on the moon. No SUV's. SUV's generate all greenhouse gases.

    --
    -- No sig for you!
  74. Time for plan C by mcmonkey · · Score: 1
    Yeah, like, uh, sunlight?

    Which is why the post read sealed as in closed, and not isolated.

    Besides, how does the sunlight replace water?

    What we should do is power the ships by oxidizing hydrogen. When they reach the moon, they can drink the waste.

    1. Re:Time for plan C by Mad+Marlin · · Score: 1
      What we should do is power the ships by oxidizing hydrogen. When they reach the moon, they can drink the waste.

      You mean like the space shuttle? That big brown thing strapped to its back holds liquid hydrogen and liquid oxygen, and the huge plumes of white "smoke" are actually steam.

  75. How was the ice supposed to survive anyhow? by Jerf · · Score: 1

    Question for someone who might know: How was the ice supposed to survive for billions (or for that matter, even thousands) of years? Ice sublimates. (You can see it directly that you don't even necessarily need low pressure environments; make ice cubes in your freezer and leave them for a few weeks. The ice cubes slowly but surely shrink.)

    Once the ice/water vapor gets into the sun, it'll leave the lunar surface, since simple observation shows the Moon isn't capable of holding water vapor (or it would).

    So how, theoretically, is the ice supposed to survive, even at the poles? Drop a few million tons of ice onto the Moon, even in a crater, and it'll disappear in a geologic blink of an eye. Maybe I'm missing something but I never expected to find ice on the moon because of this effect.

    1. Re:How was the ice supposed to survive anyhow? by Abcd1234 · · Score: 1

      Hmmm... the linked document doesn't provide information about what conditions are necessary to cause water to sublimate. The experiment described involves low pressures, but it also relies on a temperature gradient. Would the experiment work if the entire tube was cooled with liquid nitrogen, a situation which would more accurately represent the conditions deep in a shaded lunar crater?

    2. Re:How was the ice supposed to survive anyhow? by Jerf · · Score: 1

      The submlimation does not depend on a temperature gradient, it revealed it. The liquid nitrogen re-froze the water vapor that had sublimated so you could see it. The ice sublimated before it "knew" about the liquid nitrogen.

      Like I said, you can observe it in your own freezer, where no (significant) gradient exists.

    3. Re:How was the ice supposed to survive anyhow? by SEE · · Score: 1

      Does ice sublimate at 40 K? Because that's the temperature of a permanently shaded lunar south pole crater.

    4. Re:How was the ice supposed to survive anyhow? by hubie · · Score: 1
      I believe that if your temperature and pressure are low enough, you'll get very slow (if any) sublimation. See the H2O phase diagram here. In that figure if you are down at point "D" you basically stay in the solid phase.

      The example you mention with freezer ice is a bit contrived. You don't need low pressures there because the freezer, by design, is condensing out the water vapor which forces the ice/air interface to not be in equilibrium (the water vapor does not have the opportunity to refreeze because the freezer removes it).

  76. Careful with that planet exploration thingie by pipingguy · · Score: 1

    ...because Mars Needs Women!

    We geeks can't afford sharing the ones we have already what with all the big tentacles, musculature and attractive extra eyeballs. Mhey.

  77. Whalers on the moon? by finelinebob · · Score: 1

    I knew Hartford lost their franchise, but in terms of expanding the NHL this is going just a little too far. No wonder nobody plays them anymore. I wonder if they use roller blades instead of hockey skates in their intra-team scrimages? Hmm....

  78. Why did they suspect? by James+Lewis · · Score: 1

    Whenever the moon was created it had to have been very hot, and so water would have existed as vapor if it existed at all. Since the moon doesn't have enough gravity to hold down an atmosphere, all it's gases, including the water vapor, would have boiled off into space. Why would scientists be hoping for water? It seems to me the only materials that should remain on the moon are those that remain solid/liquid at high temperatures. Am I wrong on this? I would think that the atomosphere would have left pretty quickly, and that there wouldn't have been much time for much of anything to percipatate out of it. Is there any ice of any kind of the moon that we know is there for sure?

    1. Re:Why did they suspect? by James+Lewis · · Score: 1

      Hmmm, I suppose a small amount of water could be deposited that way, but TONS of water? Seems unlikely.

  79. Wrong Iron Man! by HarveyBirdman · · Score: 1
    No, that's the *other* Iron Man! I mean the Tony Stark Iron Man, not the Black Sabbath Iron Man. I have a dim memory of some supervillian cutting Iron Man off from the sun, and the suit being solar powered, or something.

    Man, I know both of those. How old and sad am I? :-(

    --
    --- Ban humanity.
  80. Re:Christian "myth"?!?!? by b-baggins · · Score: 1

    Ah, a classic, textbook case of a "poisoning the well," fallacy.

    Too bad people like Mendel, Newton, da Vinci, Pascal, Augustine, Aquinas, Luther, Calvin, Bach, Handel, Michelangelo, Lincoln, Livingstone, etc. so inconveniently fail to adhere to your conclusions.

    --
    You can tell a great deal about the character of a man by observing those who hate him.
  81. Fundie Creationists: Your God Is Too Small. by Tackhead · · Score: 1
    > Oh, and just because I want to fsck with your head for a minute, who says that "God" is not an extra-dimensional being that is responsible for the multiverses colliding? We don't know what the laws of physics might look like in another multiverse! Not to mention that we still don't have a clue what caused the "bang" in the first place. The multiverse theory helps in that it at least gives a trigger for the initial bang.

    I'm an evolutionist. I'm also a theist. Carl Sagan was an atheist, and put it best:

    How is it that hardly any major religion has looked at science and concluded, 'This is better than we thought! The Universe is much bigger than our prophets said, grander, more subtle, more elegant'? Instead they say, 'No, no, no! My god is a little god, and I want him to stay that way.' A religion, old or new, that stressed the magnificence of the Universe as revealed by modern science might be able to draw forth reserves of reverence and awe hardly tapped by the conventional faiths.

    - Carl Sagan

    Most creationists believe in a piddly little micromanager of a God who slacked off for six days and pulled an all-nighter 6000 years ago. I'm not even sure I'd want to have a beer with that God, let alone worship it.

    But a hypothetical being capable of fiddling with M-branes and bouncing them off each other to see what sorts of universes pop out - is not only consistent with a cursory reading of Genesis (hey, sheep farmers 6000 years ago had enough trouble coming up with words to describe the Big Bang, the freezing-out of electromagnetism from the strong and the weak forces, the formation of the Earth, the condensing-out of water vapor, and the evolution of life from plant to animal to primate)... That's the kind of God who sounds like something worth worshipping. Mad props to you, sir.

    (And when we fully understand string theory, or find another way to reconcile GR with QCD, maybe I'll have to upwardly revise my estimation of this "God" dude again :)

    Another mindfsck - Genesis only purports to describe the creation of our universe. If God exists, He's probably chuckling to himself over that. "Hey, the shepherd didn't ask if there were other universes, so why tell him? The humans wanna learn about the rest of My creation, they can bloody well go learn themselves some high-energy particle physics! I gave 'em a hint when I said the heavens displayed My glory, but I ain't gonna do all the work for 'em! Why the hell do they think I ignored their planet for the 13 billion years it took for them to evolve big brains? What do they think their brains are for, anyways?" :)

  82. Re:Make up your minds... by pclminion · · Score: 1
    Conservation of energy makes this impossible. Your speed after falling x meters is exactly enough, if you turn it back around again, to get you back up to a height of x meters. There's no physical way to fall under the influence of the moons gravity in such a way that you could reach escape velocity for that particular height.

    The ONLY way to reach escape velocity is with an external power source like a rocket.

  83. no ice? by trybywrench · · Score: 1

    no biggie, cheese is better at room temp. anyway.

    --
    I came to the datacenter drunk with a fake ID, don't you want to be just like me?
  84. Here's what we do... by shigelojoe · · Score: 1

    The best way to resolve this potential water shortage would be to have a highly efficient water recycling program so that the little water present could be used effectively.

    For starters, a bodily fluid filter not unlike what they had in "Waterworld" would have to be used. I'm sorry I had to bring that movie up, but I am trying to make a point.

    That alone won't be enough, though, so another procedure will need to be put into place.

    Imagine a lunar colony. Whenever any of the moon citizens die or become sick, old, or disabled (no offense to any of the aforementioned groups), stick them in a giant centrifuge and produce a force of about, oh, 500 G's (whatever would be sufficient to liquify the contents), and strain the moisture out of the resulting goo. Voila! Soylent Aqua!

  85. Re:Moral of the story: Science can be wrong by scosol · · Score: 1

    The only reason the "Word of God" has stayed constant is because it can not ever be proven to be either "correct" or "incorrect".

    Science is able to admit that it is wrong, and refine itself in order to provide a greater truth.
    The "Word of God" is static, refusing to even acknowledge that is may be in any way incorrect...

    --
    I browse at +5 Flamebait- moderation for all or moderation for none.
  86. Dissapointment from space harder than imagined by master_p · · Score: 1

    Too bad space is a so inhospitable environment. I had high hopes for seeing the space age during my lifetime. Now, all I can hope to see is WWIII (thanks to politicians spending millions of dollars for guns instead of feeding the poor of this planet).

    When I watched Star Trek I used to dream about giving commands to "raise the shields", "fire photon torpedos" or to hear lines like "Romulan Warbirds decloaked at 3 o'clock" etc...Now I can do in Bridge Commander, but the dream of travelling to and knowing the stars slips further away each day that passes, with each announcement that new obstacles to space exploration have been discovered...

  87. Right. by mindstrm · · Score: 1

    But when they say that, they visualize the moon.. a full moon. And in that case, they are correct.

    IF we see no moon (because it's dark) there isn't really anything to refer to a dark side of, right? RIGHT?

  88. Re: Per Arecibo radar measure - no ICE MASSES by DarkStarZumaBeach · · Score: 1

    The actual citation is "Nature" 426, 137 - 138 (13 November 2003); doi:10.1038/426137a. I learned to read the "New Scientist" as the Fleet Street News of Science: deliberately sensational, and necessarily incorrect to maintain readership. New Scientist is another example of Rupert Murdoch's and William Randall Hearst's paradigm for making profits with otherwise boring News.

    It is a report about Arecibo's radar measurements of the Lunar South Polar region. With a best resolution of 300 meters across, the Arecibo team reports that the dish did not detect large earthlike formations of ice, BUT the report does not dispute the earlier gamma-ray scattering measurements used to infer the presence of water in the Lunar South Polar Region. Rather it states, that the water is not likely to be in masses of ice - or caverns of ice - that are greater than 300 meters across, and is likely to be mixed into the fine lunar dust as ice granules in a loose permafrost, or extremely thin sheets, or other non-radar reflecting condensate.

    As such, the report doesn't even rule out flocks of lunar penguins as the source of the lunar water signature.

    Given the naturally anhydrous nature of lunar dust - it is also possible that the water is locked into micro aggregations of lunar "concrete," since the sticky lunar dust would ionically bond to any ionized water depositing on the surface of the moon. This form of water would require more energy to release from the lunar soil than simply strip-mining chunks of ice sheets, but a dynamic electro-magnetic lense, perhaps constructed from interfering microwaves, should be able to concentrate solar wind plasma to a high enough energy density to split the water from the soil.

    Dream on gentle readers: The water is there, just not in the form expected for when "The Iceman Cometh." Note: Gentle readers should check out Eugene O'Neill's play of the same name, where delusion provides the only escape from disappointment.

    --
    DarkStarZumaBeachSurfinApocalypseWow
  89. Re:Make up your minds... by Lord+Crc · · Score: 1

    The ONLY way to reach escape velocity is with an external power source like a rocket

    Or you jumping? Ok, perhaps a rather slim chance, but still...

  90. Re:Christian "myth"?!?!? by azzy · · Score: 1

    Oh I'm sorry, did I mention Christianity or Jesus? I don't think so. I wouldn't single out one faith, they're all as bad as each other. I assume you are a christian, and I think it's rather arrogant for you to assume I am talking about your religion alone.

    What strikes me as funny is that many religions have different beliefs about certain absolutes. Now they can not all be right. So it's fairly implicit that each religion is essentially claiming that other contrary religions are wrong.

    So none of us have the higher moral ground on this argument. We all have our beliefs, and we all usually laugh at those of others. The only people I truly respect are those that believe nothing, and will accept anything. It's unfortunate that I spend most of my time laughing at them too, they're just so gullible.

  91. Troll? by AKAImBatman · · Score: 1

    I must really be pissing a few people off. The moderation system is getting abused left and right to mod down these posts. The big question is, is it evolutionists who don't want to learn to get along with creationists, or is it creationists who don't want strong scientific debate?

    I can't do anything about the former, but if it's the later, hear this mods: "For all the law is fulfilled in one word, even in this; Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself." -Galatians 5:14

    Other men may choose to make me an enemy. But I choose to turn the other cheek and offer a hand in friendship.

  92. Re:Make up your minds... by pclminion · · Score: 1

    Sure, by "external" I meant something other than gravitational potential energy. Although muscles would never actually work, because they aren't 100% efficient. Even if you had strong enough muscles to overcome your total potential gravitational energy, so much waste heat would be generated in the process that you'd vaporize yourself :-)

  93. Re: Moral of the story: Science can be wrong by Black+Parrot · · Score: 1


    > How many times over the history of science have scientists had to backpeddle and admit that their theories are wrong?

    Every time the evidence demands it.

    > The only thing that has stayed constant for all time is the Word of God.

    No, the Word of God mutates every time a new denomination cleaves off. And with an estimated 3000 protestant denominations in the USA alone, that should give you some idea of how "constant" the WoG is.

    --
    Sheesh, evil *and* a jerk. -- Jade
  94. Re:Christian "myth"?!?!? by Black+Parrot · · Score: 1


    > Seriously, calling currently-held religous beliefs "myths" is incredibly rude and disrespectful to slashdot christians.

    Given that we've known for 200 years that the global flood didn't happen, and given that people still believe it, what do you expect us to call it?

    --
    Sheesh, evil *and* a jerk. -- Jade
  95. Re:Christian "myth"?!?!? by RLiegh · · Score: 1

    um...'fable'...'parable'...'metaphor'...?

    Just a few suggestions off the top of my more-civilised-than-thou head. ;-)