NASA Hopes Water on Moon will Save its own Job

NASA is fifty years old. NASA is an organization without a purpose. Most employees have been around long enough to know how to enjoy the privilege of a tax-payer funded permanent job with no accountability.

So, 'NASA has discovered' there is water on the moon. So what? Does this really mean anything other keeping NASA itself alive? Lets look at the true engineering issues. Going to the moon, or anywhere in space, is the ultimate 'gas-guzzling' venture. The space program is going to be even more expensive and consume more energy and chemicals. Just to send another 'washing machine' to the moon. As the 'biosphere' project showed, we couldn't create a self-contained living environment even on earth, -where we don't have to spend a billion dollars to set up a 'room'. So why are we talking about fantasies? Because NASA has paid people whose job is to, .... protect their jobs and tell us stories, so that we keep funding them.

If we are serious about space exploration, the first and most important thing is to take care of propulsion and a source of energy. Watch any science fiction, and the first assumption they have to make is that we have already solved the energy problem. NASA is not science fiction, -at least it claims it is not. But NASA has done absolutely nothing nor plans to nor is capable of, solving the energy source issue.

And if you have any doubts why going back to the moon is NOT a first step to going anywhere else, -consider this: Going to Mars will require us to carry 1 years worth of supplies (food, water.. about 2 truckloads), fuel to bring us back (another couple of truck loads), and to push all of that out of the earth will take about 100 Saturn V rockets (the one that took the washing machine to the moon). And then what? We will know that the little robots did a better job of proving there is nothing to gain by visiting Mars?

But that does not prevent NASA from talking and, basically, lying. The money spent on the 50,000 'permanent non-fireable' government employees of NASA and their outdated (or rehashed) technology experiments would be much better spent via ARPA or NSF programs for basic research on Fusion, or Bio/Algae, or improvement of solar cells. Or how about spending that money building fast trains, -like europeans are doing.

Going back to the moon to make sure all the rocks are still there is a pathetic. But we have a public that is almost completely ignorant about science, -to the point that they cannot distinguish between good worth while science and propaganda. NASA is very very good at propaganda and self-promotion. They do it with TAX money, -so that they can continue to get TAX money! For entertainment, they have affairs, screwing on the space station, and getting jealous and .... well you know the story. TAX payer money can be spent in better ways.