[tomder55]

This is supposed to launched today as part of a 3 launch plan to send astronauts back to the moon. I think that is a worthy goal .But it can be a debatable one

But NASA keeps on giving this PC woke cr@p reason for the launch .

NASA Artemis (@NASAArtemis) / Twitter

.....will land the first woman and first person of color on the Moon.

I have heard the same thing in every broadcast I tune into this morning .
I think we should colonize the moon as a national security imperative. because our strategic enemies will do so. I don't care what gender or color those astronauts are .

[Wondergirl]

WaPo -- CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. — NASA scrubbed the much-anticipated first flight of its Space Launch System rocket Monday after a series of problems with the rocket and the fueling procedures could not be quickly resolved.

[tomder55]

Musk would've launched and had the booster rockets land safely on a platform .I'm all in for a mission to the moon . But not so we can say we landed a woman and a person of color there as if we are filling a quota .I'm sure the astronauts selected will all merit consideration based on competence and mission requirements ......and that is the only reason why they should be selected .

[jlisenbe]

It's a completely stupid idea for a government that hasn't balanced a budget in over twenty years to put tens of billions of dollars into a venture that is completely unnecessary.

[tomder55]

When China colonizes and weaponizes the moon then perhaps you will have a change of heart . Some investments are worth it despite our government's frivilous spending on non-essentials .

[jlisenbe]

When the moon is colonized and weaponized, I'll be dead, you'll be dead, and our children will be dead.

At any rate, I'm OK with going to the moon just as soon as we can have a balanced budget.

[tomder55]

Artemis 1 missions are estimated to cost $93 billion after it's ultimate goal of a Mars landing . Before that 'private space will jump on the program of Moon colonization. Musk's SpaceX program being the most likely vehicle.
We piss away $93 billion on many more trivial pursuits .

As far as the time frame ;from the time of Columbus' landing in the Americas until Spain established a colony in St Augustine was 73 years With that time frame in mind ;2042 would be the time that colonization would happen. But I expect a permanent outpost station would be established before then ;laying the foundation for private companies to build a lunar economy, It will be well worth the cost.

Balancing the budget is easy if there is a will for it . The last time we had one it took only a couple of years to achieve. Debt reduction is more problematic. But what we can't afford is allowing hostile nations to establish a permanent presence there ahead of us. The Chinese are already leaping ahead of us in too many technologies. We may have already lost the AI race cyber warfare race and hypersonic race among others .The high ground is no longer on the Earth's surface.

[tomder55]

This alone would pay for the Artemis 1 program with a large chunk of change to spare .

Penn Wharton says Biden student loan plan could exceed $1 trillion | Just The News

[jlisenbe]

You cannot "pay for" this NASA program by cancelling another program that itself will be funded with borrowed/printed money. The budget cannot be balanced because everyone has projects that just MUST be funded. Closing a budget gap of over a trillion dollars is going to be painful and very far away from easy. Clinton and the repubs had the enormous advantage of a rapidly expanding economy. That is, to put it mildly, not the case now.

If the estimate is 93 bil, then it will end up costing three times that much.

I feel pretty confident in saying there will not be a "colony" on the moon by 2042. A permanent outpost of some sort with a half-dozen people is possible, but even that would be enormously expensive. The moon is an unbelievably hostile place to life. Now an enterprise with essentially robots running the show might be possible. That doesn't strike me as a genuine "colony", but perhaps it will be done by 2042.