The money or the moon?

[Big Dave]

3 hours on a plane gives me the shits. Show me the money.

[firefighter]

You don't seriously believe that bullshit conspiracy do you?

I would choose neither. Going to the moon would not bring me happiness. Nor would $1m. We have enough problems with human nature on Earth alone, so forget taking them anywhere else. Sort the shit out here first. Sort out the poverty, the genocide, the abuse of power. Sort out the apathy and the ignorance to the problems of present day society. Don't look to the past, 'cause the past didn't work. If it did work, we wouldn't be where we are.

Look to the future, find new ways of using your intelligence (however little it may be) to make a difference in the world we live in today.

What the hell have you been smoking? unless it's funny don't write on my threads again whilst stoned please! hahahahahahahahaha

This is a bit of fun not serious stuff......I can't actually give you a million dollars OR send you to the moon!

[Skyryder]

Money. It will last longer.

Skyryder

[hXc]

What the hell have you been smoking? unless it's funny don't write on my threads again whilst stoned please! hahahahahahahahaha

This is a bit of fun not serious stuff......I can't actually give you a million dollars OR send you to the moon!

I wasn't stoned for your information. I was just answering your question, and backing up my answer with a reason. I never said it was fun, nor serious. I just took it how I wanted to take it. Which was a person looking for what other people would do given the chance of $1m or a trip to the moon.

[bobsmith]

those that would goto the moon, please explain what makes you want to go to the moon.

Why do you want to ride a bike???

Why do you want to do anything with your life that doesn't contribute directly to earning money to feed yourself?

Just because you want to? (well for me anyway) For the adventure and self achievement! Because I can. I go out paragliding every weekend not because it benefits me in some way, but because it's fun and it brings me feeling of self achievement and because I'm doing something different. Going to space has always been my dream and I'll take any chance I can to go.

[firefighter]

But what is it that makes people want to go?!, is it only because a handful have been there? why?

Serious question.

Whats so great about going to the moon, most only would want to go i suspect because hardly anybody else has been, those that would goto the moon, please explain what makes you want to go to the moon.

I would choose the moon, so I would then know if we really have been or not, then after getting a farkin amazing trip up there on a shuttle, I'd sell my story back on earth for millions.........and if no-one wanted it you could always black-mail NASA and say that your going to say didn't go and that no ones ever been if they dont pay you out!!!! I'm sure the'd throw a couply mill to shut you up, then you get both and then some......

[awayatc]

black-mail NASA and say that your going to say didn't go and that no ones ever been if they dont pay you out!!!! I'm sure the'd throw a couply mill to shut you up, then you get both and then some......

Heaps of cheaper, faster en and more permanent ways to ensure silence.......

[firefighter]

Heaps of cheaper, faster en and more permanent ways to ensure silence.......

I agree, but it would look pretty suss!

[Wolf]

The moon, definitely the moon.

Though I'd want to be able to do something worthwhile while I'm there - like set up a linear accelerator to launch ships further out or something.

I agree with what the venerable Ixion was saying: far too many people are happy to sit back and achieve nothing for the races greater good - not a bad thing in itself, we can't all be heroes of the age - and then belittle those who do strive and try.

I frequent the forums at ElReg and I'm appalled at the negative comments on any article relating to the likes of Branson and Bigelow and their starry-eyed dreams for cheap transport to and from orbit and space-borne habitats.

Fuck it! If they want to aim for the stars (or at least LEO), let 'em. What is it? Some kind of jealousy from petty-minded unimaginative nobodies that prompts them to demean what they're trying to achieve? Would they rather Branson and Bigelow wasted their not-insubstantial fortunes on pointless trinkets, drugs, booze and wild parties?

Or feed starving Africans? Who'll then grow up to want electricity, food and resources that the world cannot supply because we've used up all our fuel reserves and the entire interconnected economy has collapsed.

NASA has dropped the ball - they, the ESA, the Japs and the Russians are all too busy playing Mickey Mouse Clubhouse on the ISS and fulfilling corporate contracts to put up satellites to give a fuck about innovation and truly reaching for the stars.

The cost and pollution caused by the traditional "cheap-disposable solid fuel booster" method they favour has caused many to question the necessity or wisdom of a space programme. If Branson wants to invest his fortune researching better, more effective technologies for getting a mass into space, then good on him. It's more than what NASA, ESA et al have done in the last couple of decades.

And if Bigelow wants to try to put hotels in space, good on him, too - the spin offs from his enterprise are bound to benefit us as a species.

So what if they also hope to turn a profit eventually? Big deal. If they manage to pull it off, they deserve to make money on it.

I firmly believe that if we don't start getting a decent foothold in space and don't begin harnessing the sun's abundant power directly, we, as a species, are fucked.

If NASA and the Ruskies are too busy playing corporate bum-boys or Happy Families to do it, then all power to those pioneers with the vision and the personal fortunes to make an independant stab at it.

Fuck it, if I were Super-ultra-mega rich, it's what I'd be doing.

I'm not, and so I can't - but I'm not about to demean those who can and do try.

We need more pioneers like Branson and Bigelow. The frontiers are bigger than before, it's not merely an ocean or a continent that needs to be crossed and the costs are higher than they used to be in the Age of Sail or "Africa: The Dark Continent" so we need a richer hero. We need wealthy visionaries who can say "fuck it, I'm going to build a rocket of my own."

Years from now when we're all buying electricity from Bigelow Aerospace or the Virgin Group because they have the largest foothold in space and own all the solar arrays and NASA is having to book passages on BA or Virgin rockets because they no longer have the resources to get to the clubhouse, errrr, ISS, maybe the naysayers will try to make out they were enthused by the vision all along - but I doubt it: more likely they'll just sit playing on their X-BOXes blissfully ignorant of the fact that the only reason we have a breathable atmosphere and sufficient electricity for our over-populated world and our electric transport and our X-BOXes etc is because some multi-fucking-billionaire with stars in his eyes once said "fuck crack cocaine and 13-year-old Asian virgins, I'm going to build myself a rocket and head for the stars instead."

[Swoop]

I'd sell my story back on earth for millions.........and if no-one wanted it you could always black-mail NASA and say that your going to say didn't go and that no ones ever been if they dont pay you out!!!! I'm sure the'd throw a couply mill to shut you up, then you get both and then some......

The poll results confirm how society is being eaten up with greed nowadays.
Perhaps if you had given the unwashed the option of winning the Moto GP/IOM TT OR one million, you may have had a different result.
You cannot take the money with you and some fine memories whilst you sit on your rockingchair with the grandkids.

Also, how many people have enjoyed the movie "Capricorn One"? Possibly the finest "getaway chase" in aviation films.

[mstriumph]

............
You have at least the ability to cling to great ideals and ambitions despite their seeming impossibility. Which is more than can be said of the narrow minded and miserable souls who belittle you (and the dolphins)

"ah take the cash in hand and waive the rest
- nor heed the beating of a distant drum"

[mstriumph]

.......... although ---- ---- there are a few people i'd like to SEND to the moon ..... strictly one way of course ......

mebbe we could have another poll option?

[Forest]

I'd take the money.

I've already been to Invercargill ... so I've got a fair idea of what the moon's surface would look like.