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UK Announces First Mission to Moon

Tater

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With the global economy in a bit of a pickle, governments are finding it tough to justify spending considerable amounts of money on exploratory space missions that are solely designed to further our scientific knowledge, rather than to generate income.

But it’s not just space exploration that is struggling with the global financial crisis; funding for scientific projects in general can be hard to come by these days. That’s why more and more people are starting to realize the beauty of public funding, and are increasingly using crowdsourcing to give projects a financial kick in the right direction. Crowdfunding is helping to clean up the ocean, turn roads into solar panels, and build floating laboratories, to name a few. And as of today, it could help fund an ambitious new mission to the moon.

Lunar Mission One, which was announced today at the Royal Society in London, will be the UK’s first trip to the moon. It’s an exploratory robotic mission that hopes to see a probe land on the moon’s South Pole within the next ten years, should funding allow. The aim of the venture is to drill through the surface, reaching a depth of at least 20 meters, but perhaps as deep as 100 meters.

By analyzing this 4.5 billion year old rock that has been shielded from cosmic radiation and meteor bombardment, scientists hope to increase our understanding of the origins and evolution of the moon, solar system and even our planet. Furthermore, it should also inform us of the practicality of a permanent manned base at this area of the moon.

Lunar Mission One is reaching out to the public through the crowdfunding platform Kickstarter to get the initial development phase of the project going. If they can secure the necessary $950,000 (£600,000), then the project can move forward and planning can begin. The remainder of the money will be generated through the public sector and commercial backing.

Although they can’t promise you a trip to the moon in return for your money, Kickstarter backers will be given a “memory box” to fill as they please which will also be sent up to and buried in the moon within a time capsule. The time capsule will also contain a publicly assembled record of life on Earth which includes details of human history and civilization and also a database of the biodiversity on our planet. This public archive is also intended as an educational tool which will be made freely available for anyone to access, which they hope will inspire current and future generations to get involved in science.

“There is still so much about the moon that we don’t understand,” Professor of Physics Jim Al-Khalili said in a press release, “we feel we know it when we look up into the night sky, but I think after this mission we will look at the moon in a very different light.”


UK Announces First Mission To The Moon | IFLScience
 

prplchknz

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dude you guys are around 45 years too late



 

cm81

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Well, if it's a private group, why not? But I think their government needs to get their shite together before playing around in space.
 

Mal12345

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"The remainder of the money will be generated through the public sector"

What does that mean?
 

Mole

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When we went to the Moon in 1969 we turned the camera round and looked back where we had come from and discovered the Environment.

We saw for the first time our natural Environment from outside.

So ironically when we went to the Moon we discovered not the Moon but the natural Environment of the Earth. And we are so transfixed by the image of our vulnerable blue Earth against the dark background of Space, the natural Environment has been the top of our agenda ever since.

But the kicker is that all environments are invisible until we can see them from the outside. And so the invisible environment of the Earth became television. And as we can't stand outside of television yet, television remains our invisible environment.

And any environment change us in ways we can't yet know.
 

Cellmold

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When we went to the Moon in 1969 we turned the camera round and looked back where we had come from and discovered the Environment.

We saw for the first time our natural Environment from outside.

So ironically when we went to the Moon we discovered not the Moon but the natural Environment of the Earth. And we are so transfixed by the image of our vulnerable blue Earth against the dark background of Space, the natural Environment has been the top of our agenda ever since.

But the kicker is that all environments are invisible until we can see them from the outside. And so the invisible environment of the Earth became television. And as we can't stand outside of television yet, television remains our invisible environment.

And any environment change us in ways we can't yet know.

I'm interested in trying to see outside one's own personal environment. How can that be achieved?
 

Chthonic

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I can think of hundreds of other projects I would fund before I'd bother with a rock drill on the moon. :huh: Where's that guy making roofing material out of coke bottles again.
 

Mole

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I'm interested in trying to see outside one's own personal environment. How can that be achieved?

It is an interesting question of how to see outside one's own personal environment.

And the answer lies in seeing outside of one's self.

This can be achieved by imagining what it was like in different parts of history, by imagining different lives in literature, by learning another language, by learning another way of looking at the world through drawing, by learning different ways of listening through music, by learning different ways of thinking through philosophy, by learning to think mathematically and scientifically, by learning to think critically, by doing a course in empathy training, by befriending the poor and the mentally ill.

Or we might ask, how can we be beside ourself? And being beside ourself is stepping outside the taken for granted into ecstasy.
 
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