Honestly, if pictures like the ones below (try e earth rise over the moon horizon and the "pale blue dot") of our "blue marble", or accounts from Attenborough, astronauts and other explorers have not managed to convince mankind to respect Earth already, do you really think that aiming to colonize Mars will?
I am doubtful, to say the very least.
The reality is that we ALL have to realize that we are ALL in this TOGETHER... and if we do not manage to share more of the wealth around and relieve our "pressure" on the environment by consuming less and better, well, then I am not sure we will make it as a species.

And sadly, I am definitely not confident we will... but I hope to be proven wrong, for the sake of my kids and future generations.

 

AK47 rifle ... 1949..... not much has changed / has successfully killed millions to date ... Its a physics thing and we have topped out on the ratios until we get a big technical jump in terms of propellants - so it is incremental until CERN gives us anti-gravity drive

 

@MTROIS

With Omega being famous for the Moonwatch and all it will attract some people with an interest in Spaceflight. I am not sure why those threads are now frequently derailed by planet saving and relative spend discussions – over say automotive / golf / firearms etc which seem to avoid such comments. For example, there are 40,000 golf courses and I think the industry turns over £80 Billion or so – must be a better way to use that wasted capacity and prime crop growing land. There are food shortages don’t we all know – all people do here is waste time spotting what watches those golfers are wearing :0)

Thanks to you we have the laudable ‘’Our home Earth is crumbling in front of our eyes thread’’ (link below) which seems to cover the message well and strikes me as a good place for those wider green debates, so other threads stay on topic a bit more for people / content creators that enjoy them maybe.

https://omegaforums.net/threads/our-home-earth-is-crumbling-in-front-of-our-eyes.134132/#post-1821187

On that note I still think rapid overpopulation is the key driver – so we need less people.
Some countries need to have the standard of living go up a lot, and some need to go down and change a bit.

Now I am off to get a life for a few months/ no more tail chasing and a nice long break from here :0)

 

Sigh … still no inertial dampeners.

 

I didn't mean to derail this thread and was responding to a point that was made and which I didn't particularly agree with.

I am certainly a big supporter of space exploration... but with a true purpose, not a pi$$ing contest between two billionaires.
Anyway, @Omegafanman , I wish you a great break and please do know that I envy you, so may have to do the same as you...

 

Thanks for your well wishes. Likewise for you with any plans.

I would add that aside from the never ending Weapons programmes, Apollo is the result of the biggest pissing contest in history... which resulted in the Moon landings. Once the contest stopped so did the budgets. Politics and short termism will not give us inertial dampers (even Kennedy considered pulling the Moon shot as you probably know). With the available technology / move to reusable and safer tech (space shuttle odds 66:1 …modern missions 6000:1 of a catastrophic human life loss) the private companies are making the necessary progress. £85K per kg down to £900 per Kg and 100% reusable delivery systems are a step change IMHO with more to follow.

And with that, for now I really do bid all adieu :0)

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Sunrise (or sunset) on Mars.


I still cannot get my head wrapped around this. We have a picture of a sunrise on another planet. How is that even possible? Our technology has so far exceeded our imagination.

Just as in the blue marble photograph, we can't truly comprehend space or our place in it. We're toddlers just learning to walk.

 

Thought this was hilarious...

 

Pissing contests between billionaires is called competition
It's whats progressed the human race since time began.

 

Letter dated 28/12/16… poignant as John Glenn died 08/12/16. He clearly had hopes to see us move forward in Space exploration.
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had to pop back on as I thought this was interesting … maybe we (manned flight) will get back to the Moon and beyond... and with viable abort systems :0)

Blue Origin owner Jeff Bezos wrote an open letter to NASA on Monday offering a $2 billion discount to allow his company to build a Moon lander.
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https://news.sky.com/story/jeff-bez...chance-to-take-part-in-moon-missions-12364641

 

I'll keep my comments mostly constrained to watches... I wouldn't buy one of these "space tourist" Blue Origin Speedy's if they came available. I have absolutely no interest whatsoever, at any price.

 

Just stick with the Olympics then I guess....

International Olympic Committee: Jerks? The IOC’s corruption, COVID carelessness in the Olympic Jerk Watch. (slate.com)

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2021/jul/24/tokyo-olympic-sport-displacing-athletes

 

I still think Elon’s starship will be better at landing / living on the moon than any of the competitors outdated and tiny designs. It just makes most sense…

 

I tend to agree with you but there is a higher risk factor / depends on public sentiment to a crew loss (which has diminished over time)

Why Starship won't have an abort system... but should it??? | Everyday Astronaut

 

Well, taking a pragmatic guess here : apart from Earth take-offs (and arguably the moon, but that too depends), an abort system is a pretty useless redundancy as if the rocket fails anywhere else they are all pretty much screwed in anycase no?

 

Another fair point. In terms of earth gravity and atmospheric pressure an escape system seems a good risk / reward bet when combined with the potential for rescue. The Apollo 13 incident showed the value of redundancy and duel systems when further out. I am not sure what has been built into both Moon lander options considering they are in earlyish development. There is also the potential for advanced robotic ships / duel launches. The starship HLS solution does look like overkill / higher risk from the pictures below. Then again that might be a case of what I am used to seeing in a Moon lander and the HLS would probably scale quicker for other grander missions. It would be nice to let both run their course and not have all eggs in one basket. I am sure a lot would be learned from both programmes. The Starship HLS looks huge compared to the Blue Origin / Blue Moon lander concept.

 

@eugeneandresson
This is probably the best comparison on the different options I have seen. It is complex and the Starship HLS is a big leap in terms of ambition. It will also need a lot of extra launches for fuel. I do see the Moonbase potential but (no expert here) I always thought long term habitats would be low down or underground to allow more opportunity to add mass for radiation protection. Interesting to see how this all plays out and if boots are on the ground (and watches hopefully) in 2024...

https://everydayastronaut.com/artemis-vs-apollo/

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