Water on the moon

[Pat]

I'm guessing you've all heard about plans to deliberately crash a space craft into the moon to find water under the surface of the moon, well results show there is water on the moon!

Spacecraft that crashed into the moon last month kicked up a relatively small plume. But scientists have confirmed the debris contained water ? 25 gallons of it ? making lunar exploration exciting again.

I think its a wonderful discovery! Dreams of living on different planets and moons may be a reality, not in my lifetime or my childrens lifetime, but sometime in the next million or so years. Excellent!
Read more here:
http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5g_WHHFPrQjvdnQhVIvx5o9a-v66AD9BV87LG1

[Delicious]

Perhaps less then a million years... I saw this on the news, and it's quite exciting to know. Thank you for sharing.  :)

[DarkTrinity]

I saw it on the frontpage of msn. It's pretty sweet.

[Titan]

Humans as a race are more innovated then people realize.

I'd say within 150-200 years before people are living on the moon. If that.

[Pat]

I hope we'd be able to visit it in my lifetime, that'd be awesome.

[Chaos]

When you take into consideration the EXPONENTIAL rate that technology is advancing, I wouldn't be shocked if it were in our lifetime.  Consider this:  CDs only came into popularity about 2 decades ago.  DVDs became popular within the past 12 years or so.  Blu-Ray, within the past 2 years.  Hell, look at my old Windows 95.  It had 2.5 GB of harddrive space between TWO drives, and we got that in '96, and that was a LOT.  A decade and a half later, a computer can easily have over 1 TB of space!

[Jake]

When you take into consideration the EXPONENTIAL rate that technology is advancing, I wouldn't be shocked if it were in our lifetime.  Consider this:  CDs only came into popularity about 2 decades ago.  DVDs became popular within the past 12 years or so.  Blu-Ray, within the past 2 years.  Hell, look at my old Windows 95.  It had 2.5 GB of harddrive space between TWO drives, and we got that in '96, and that was a LOT.  A decade and a half later, a computer can easily have over 1 TB of space!

Yup. I think if you factor in the exponential increase of technology like you mentioned, people living on the moon in 50 years or less isn't out of the question. Don't underestimate the speed of progress.

[Jackabomb]

People only started flying in 1903. Now they're off into space. Would it really be unreasonable to say moon colonization within the next 50 years? Personally, in the state of a global emergancy, I think we could pull it off now if we had to.

[Red October]

People only started flying in 1903. Now they're off into space. Would it really be unreasonable to say moon colonization within the next 50 years? Personally, in the state of a global emergancy, I think we could pull it off now if we had to.

Now we just need another John F. Kennedy!

[Jackabomb]

No, we need a John G. Kennedy. Otherwise, all the new-age and wiccan paganistic radicals will start babbling about, "spirit of a great man, returned from the grave" and so-forth. Essentially the same guy though...

[Lingus]

People only started flying in 1903. Now they're off into space. Would it really be unreasonable to say moon colonization within the next 50 years? Personally, in the state of a global emergancy, I think we could pull it off now if we had to.

Now we just need another John F. Kennedy!

Exactly. I think the point is that it would be possible to start colonizing and/or exploring the moon in the next 50 years, but it's not likely to happen unless people start working towards that goal. Considering there has been no effort to send another manned expedition to the moon for a very long time, it doesn't seem like people care enough. At least not the right people.

[Red October]

People only started flying in 1903. Now they're off into space. Would it really be unreasonable to say moon colonization within the next 50 years? Personally, in the state of a global emergancy, I think we could pull it off now if we had to.

Now we just need another John F. Kennedy!

Exactly. I think the point is that it would be possible to start colonizing and/or exploring the moon in the next 50 years, but it's not likely to happen unless people start working towards that goal. Considering there has been no effort to send another manned expedition to the moon for a very long time, it doesn't seem like people care enough. At least not the right people.

There been a reason why there hasn't been an attempt to go the moon again. It's just so boring. NASA just can't the audience for such a mission, becuase well... think of this way. After the 3rd time you play a game it gets boring. This is the same as the moon missions, there wasn't enough interest from the world.

[ARTgames]

space colonizing sounds cool any ware in space. I just don't want to be the one of the first groups. I dont think i could ever be an astronaut.

[LeGuy]

Within a million years? That's ridiculous. So far we've had about 5000/6000 years or so of recorded human history, and since then we've gone from the most basic agricultral tools to space travel and speed-of-light communication. And, as Chaos said, now that all the people smarter than us can communicate and work together, I'd say if not within our lifetimes, our children's, we'll definitely have colonies on the moon. And within 500 or so years, interplanetary travel doesn't seem unlikely, and the moon might very well have normal people just living their lives on it. (As opposed to strictly astronauts and scientists.)

[Aqua]

Assuming that we haven't all killed each other in WW III and IV.

Anyways, interesting, always liked the astronomy stuff.
~aqua