It will be really interesting to see what the Chinese mission uncovers if they are able to successfully land on the far side of the moon.
A little bit away from your post, I've always thought it was really strange that the space race in the 1960's was such a huge deal and then just like that, we've never sent another human to the moon. I am not fully convinced that we have actually landed on the moon. I'm not saying we haven't either, I am just skeptical of the evidence put forward and the lack of progress made after the supposed mission.
The evidence coming out from independent observers is very interesting. It does point to some sort of extra terrestrial life form or perhaps maybe even human activity.
I think the universe is too big for us to be alone. As Neil Degrasse points out, why should we think that we are so special to be the only multi cellular organisms in the galaxy.
I'm excited to see what the Chang'e mission uncovers, do you know when it is scheduled to land?
It's extremely odd that after 20 (unofficial) Apollo missions in the 1970s we would just decide to close the program and deem returning to the moon to be unimportant, too expensive or not technically feasible. In the 70s and 80s there was a lot of talk about establishing moon bases for research and experimentation. Today, it's never mentioned, the focus is on space stations and Mars. Why would we not practice for Mars on the Moon?
Some people believe that the Moon landings didn't happen, but I think they did (with some footage being faked). I think it's more likely that they discovered something like a civilization or were warned off the moon by another species (or multiple species). It just doesn't make any sense that NASA/USA has not returned to the moon.
I did search for the Chang'e 4 launch date but I think that the exact date may be a guarded secret. It appears on space.com's schedule but only says it will be launched in May.
https://www.space.com/32286-space-calendar.html
As the old adage goes, anything we consider technological advancement in terms of civilian, commercial use has been or was being used by DARPA 30 years ago. I believe it was the former director of Lockheed Martin "Skunk Works" who said this - a credible source.
That said, my thinking is that rather than direct more attention than necessary, the US power structure tried to squash all interest in the moon and any space programs by officially announcing that they were over. What is more realistic, is that they immediately set to work on how to leverage access to the moon into a militaristic strategy advantage.
It is very plausible that the next war is going to be via cyber. When you think about it the primary vital utility to any functional military is communications. After all, how are you able to effectively coordinate millions of moving parts, supply lines, strategy,intel collection, distribution, and mobilization efforts without communications? You cannot.
Knowing where the next military edge was going to be, the US, China, and Russia set out to focusing on satellites and the moon. This is so that if (when?) a cyber black swan event occurs, or an EMP within our atmosphere wipes out comms. these soverign military forces have the ability to re-establish communications, GPS, and surveillance. Never underestimate how often militaries lean on these weapons.
This is not even going into the can of worms that is extraterrestrial life. That is a discussion best had offline with a cold beer!
Great comments, I think a couple of cold ones is required no doubt!
I like your point about Skunk works and how military technology is always well in advanced to the tech the population has at their disposal. No doubt American weapons are far in advance of anything we could imagine at this point.
I don't believe for a minute that the secret black budget for the military space program was only 200 million ( i think that was the number). It must be several orders of magnitude greater than that.
Maybe one of the reasons why the Star Wars programs were shut down was simply because they wanted to take it off the table and away from public scrutiny. Let the public believe they had won but really give the industry carte-blanche to develop all the space weapons and tech they wanted.
Yeah you might be right. I still remember my mom telling me about the moon landing and the whole world watching. It seems more plausible that they found something up there rather than have faked the whole mission. But the 4 decades since, never attempting to set up shop on the moon or do more explorations, that smells really fishy to me. Especially now in the Elon Musk era, we are just gonna bypass the moon and go straight to mars? Something just doesn’t add up