This really hits on it, putting a lunar observatory on the dark side would serve us 10 times better then the current Hubble telescope in orbit. The moon is definitely where our technical eye should be turned, not only getting people to its surface, but also in/establishing/ a basic life supporting lab/station/lunar base. I simply don't understand how we can be discussing a goal to land people on mars without putting a permanent presence on the moon. The gain/risk ratio in a lunar base is much better by/far/ then a mars based mission for multiple reasons. Aside from the fact that we have proven multiple times the ability for us to successfully land/ perform our spaceman mojo and get back; supplies are only a rocket launch away.
To put it in perspective, we recently spent a large amount of money to fire a probe at mars, not only did we hit the target at the correct vectors, but out remote control car is doing laps around its surface as some cackling geek sits on earth at its controls.. Why has this same type of mindset not been placed towards.. Oh I don't know.. Putting all the supplies and tools that are needed onto the surface of the moon, and then sending some astronaut (dubbed Buzz) to simply slap it all together, or if that is too high risk (can't spare a Buzz), drop a larger RC rover outfitted with the proper tools/controls to enable/it/ to begin construction of my evil lunar- err/our/ Evil Moon Base (TM)
I mean seriously, if we can shoot a RC car to mars, why/don't/ we begin building a base on the moon, it'd be a low gravity lab that has very little risk of suddenly falling back to earth (at least, until we get our hands on it!), a brilliant staging point for/other/ missions (lower gravity to construct/launch a Mars mission from), a great vantage point of both the earth and deep space (no pesky atmosphere, and when there is a mechanical issue, people on-hand to deal with it instead of sending a ship up to capture and slap on a contact lens).
While I agree that jumping headfirst into the larger scheme of 'the automatic car takes me places I go' idea is the kneejerk response, the logical conclusion would be partial implementations, the designers would in no way release a product into mainstream/even/ with disclaimers. Disclaimers are a way to attempt to warn you, but a class action lawsuit would have a quick way of shredding that disclaimer and holding the company liable, and in the end burn a large portion of corperate Karma (pun intended).
The real implementation of this would be specifically targetted to the instances when the drivers fall asleep.. justing eye finding technology it would be a small matter in detecting the divers attention being diverted from the road, for extended periods of time, and the car moving to autocorrect to avoid the chance of accident/while/ both decelerating and alarming to rouse said sleeping driver.. end result- its suddenly safer for those people who fall asleep at the wheel as there are allot fewer isntances of waking up embedded in a gaurdrail, and allot more instances of waking up to crawling down the road at 5 miles an hour with the car alarm blaring..
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Or better yet, what will be the cost to ride it the last few hundred miles or so!
This really hits on it, putting a lunar observatory on the dark side would serve us 10 times better then the current Hubble telescope in orbit. The moon is definitely where our technical eye should be turned, not only getting people to its surface, but also in /establishing/ a basic life supporting lab/station/lunar base. I simply don't understand how we can be discussing a goal to land people on mars without putting a permanent presence on the moon. The gain/risk ratio in a lunar base is much better by /far/ then a mars based mission for multiple reasons. Aside from the fact that we have proven multiple times the ability for us to successfully land/ perform our spaceman mojo and get back; supplies are only a rocket launch away.
To put it in perspective, we recently spent a large amount of money to fire a probe at mars, not only did we hit the target at the correct vectors, but out remote control car is doing laps around its surface as some cackling geek sits on earth at its controls.. Why has this same type of mindset not been placed towards.. Oh I don't know.. Putting all the supplies and tools that are needed onto the surface of the moon, and then sending some astronaut (dubbed Buzz) to simply slap it all together, or if that is too high risk (can't spare a Buzz), drop a larger RC rover outfitted with the proper tools/controls to enable /it/ to begin construction of my evil lunar- err /our/ Evil Moon Base (TM)
I mean seriously, if we can shoot a RC car to mars, why /don't/ we begin building a base on the moon, it'd be a low gravity lab that has very little risk of suddenly falling back to earth (at least, until we get our hands on it!), a brilliant staging point for /other/ missions (lower gravity to construct/launch a Mars mission from), a great vantage point of both the earth and deep space (no pesky atmosphere, and when there is a mechanical issue, people on-hand to deal with it instead of sending a ship up to capture and slap on a contact lens).
While I agree that jumping headfirst into the larger scheme of 'the automatic car takes me places I go' idea is the kneejerk response, the logical conclusion would be partial implementations, the designers would in no way release a product into mainstream /even/ with disclaimers. Disclaimers are a way to attempt to warn you, but a class action lawsuit would have a quick way of shredding that disclaimer and holding the company liable, and in the end burn a large portion of corperate Karma (pun intended).
The real implementation of this would be specifically targetted to the instances when the drivers fall asleep.. justing eye finding technology it would be a small matter in detecting the divers attention being diverted from the road, for extended periods of time, and the car moving to autocorrect to avoid the chance of accident /while/ both decelerating and alarming to rouse said sleeping driver.. end result- its suddenly safer for those people who fall asleep at the wheel as there are allot fewer isntances of waking up embedded in a gaurdrail, and allot more instances of waking up to crawling down the road at 5 miles an hour with the car alarm blaring..