>>36541 No human from any country has left low earth orbit since 1972. Mobile phones were invented in 1973. Apparently humanity lost our ability to space-travel with the invention of the mobile phone. Either that or it was all fake to begin with

>>36588 There was no political impetus for going beyond LEO again, after the Soviets threw in the towel. Now there's a new space race brewing, so a political impetus exists again

>>36541 Space is Fake and Gay

>>36541 Helium 3. Whoever starts bringing it back from the moon gets infinite energy and wins the game of thrones. No human has ever landed on the moon, however. https://wikispooks(Please use archive.today)/wiki/Document:Wagging_the_Moondoggie

>>36628 Helium-3 doesn't matter until someone invents commercial aneutronic fusion

>>36624 Thanks for the deep insight

>>36541 interlegtual technology advancment rape

>>36641 >>36541 it's like a tech/capability showcase >look we can bomb you <but we're flying to the moon instead haha

>>36628 See >>36636 Also, fusion with He3 is overrated and not even thr best candidate for fusion tech even if it was abundant. Also fusion isn't the radioactivity free panacea it's made out to be, byproducts during the reaction are in dact radioactive so you still have to deal with shielding. Also even if you fully perfect and mature fusion technology which isn't happening any time soon you only get about 4x gain relative to old fashioned fission which is what we should be doing and should have never stopped doing. Fears about radioaction are as overblown as covid. Regarding interest in the Moon, the game changer is the discovery of water ice in the southern polar crater, the was only recently discovered in the 21st century which is why the game changed as before that we thought Mars was the only place in the inner solar system with water ice, turns out even Mercury has some in its polar crator too. (This is also why Mars is overrated, it was hyped specifically because of that outdated information and before we discovered it's dirt is laced with poisonous perchlorates making it one of the worst places to attempt settlement) Moon water is a strategic resource for exploiting cis lunar space as it provides the raw ingredients for rocket fuel. Energy can be supplied via nuclear if the contestants are serious. The moon sadly is otherwise geologically uninteresting as its made up of the same stuff as the Earth's crust all the way through making it mineral and metal poor. With enough infrastructure it will be cheaper to fuel ships in cislunar space from the moon than from Earth and then setup for expeditions to asteroids and the rest of the solar system for exploitation. Tl;Dr permanent settlement of the moon is the opening bid for eventual dominance over the solar system at large.

>>36541 It's a prestige thing. It was important during the cold war but is less important now.

>>36541 even without people onboard, just take a look at the voyagers, hubble, jwst . There are so many sophisticated probes humanity invented in the 21 and 20 century, that landing on the moon seems nothing complex. Right now we are staring at lights from the beginning of the universe. Never had to send people in the space again, but will probably happen soon, maybe to mars

>>36541 If that pic is supposed to be an astronaut standing on the moon, THEN WHY IS THE MOON IN THE BACKGROUND?

>>36541 The only political importance is dick measuring and making sure that China, nor anyone else, can establish total control of it. We of course have treaties to prevent that from happening, but treaties can be broken. I don't expect that anyone will break the Outer Space Treaty in our lifetimes, but there is always the possibility of some future discovery or technology that raises the value of the moon tremendously. Having a permanent presence there strongly discourages anyone else from breaking the treaty.

>>36628 Dave McGowan changed my mind on the whole moon landing issue. Guy had great work. Rip nigga

>>37218 That's the joke