
Trump to start process of sending Americans back to moon: White House - artsandsci
https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-trump-space/trump-to-start-process-of-sending-americans-back-to-moon-white-house-idUSKBN1E51QP
======
nradov
That process has been started and restarted by every President since the
Apollo program. Nothing ever came of those processes, and it's hard to see how
Congress would ever allocate enough funding to make this one fly.

~~~
bb88
I suspect politically it's DOA. Healthcare is on people's minds more than
going to the moon, which has had no strategic use since the 60's, and that was
more or less a propaganda war with the soviet union.

------
pythonaut_16
It'll be interesting to see how this plays out; as we've seen before, there's
often a long path from the president providing a directive like this and
actually getting traction and accomplishing the mission.

Still, this is exciting news for space exploration. I've always wondered why
everyone is so eager to jump directly to Mars and the asteroid belt when we've
still done relatively little on the moon.

~~~
nradov
There's nothing of commercial value on the Moon (Helium-3 mining is entirely
speculative) and the low gravity would probably make it unfit for human
colonization even if the radiation and life support problems could be solved.
So the only point of doing more manned missions to the Moon would be just to
gain experience before going other places. (Geology research and other basic
science could be accomplished far more cheaply with unmanned probes now.)

------
matte_black
If the only good thing to come out of a Trump presidency is that we actually
go back to the moon, it would all have been worth it.

~~~
stephenr
Unless you're taking Trump on a one way trip to the moon, no it fucking won't.

~~~
leoh
Thank you for this, I laughed so hard.

------
hfourm
and anti-trumpers around the country collectively sighed

"....cool"

~~~
ceejayoz
It'd be cool if NASA would be allowed to plan anything long-term. I've watched
every President of my lifetime nix the space exploration program of his
predecessor in favor of a new one.

Maybe we need lifetime appointments for NASA administrators like we do for the
Supreme Court, because right now it's impossible to do anything that takes
more than a decade.

~~~
bb88
It would be cool if the US Congress can just pass a budget for a year or two
years and not just continuing resolutions.

