Yay! We're going Asteroid mining, boys!

[Cheryl1]

well

 

[lukep]

I'll choose A, because the scenario you've outlined in B clearly shows you haven't done a damn bit of research on the subject.

You caught me. I was slacking off the day we were supposed to be researching lunar black ops in history class. :moon:

You brought up the moon; would you like to explain why:

1. It doesn't rotate

That's called being "Tidally Captured" and it is an effect of tidal (gravity) friction. Lots of moons are tidally captured to their planets. Mercury is tidally captured to the sun!

2. It's composed of materials older than and foreign to earth

Not what I've heard. In fact the official story is that it is the exact same stuff as the earth but couldn't hold an atmosphere so that's what you're left with when there's no weathering. Makes sense to me.

3. It's completely covered with craters, presumably from objects too big to have burned through the earth's atmosphere, while the earth isn't

The aformentioned weathering.

4. Glass domes and other structures have been found on the dark side of the moon, the sea of tranquility and on Mars

Besides the one lava dome I've heard about capping a lava tube on the moon, I'm going to have to call bullshit on this one too.

5. When there is a solar eclipse, the moon is the exact same size as the sun

Holy space goats!

First of all, It's a big satellite, but not as relatively as large as Phobos is compared to Mars... Secondly, it's not a perfect fit, not at any time of the year... I should know, I've video recorded a total eclipse through my ETX-120. (Along with the transit of venus.)

Third, the moon slowly moves away from earth, around an inch a year. So perhaps in the 1500s or something it would have been a perfect fit... I haven't done the math though.

6. When the apollo 13 discarded its lunar module, it's impact with the moon caused it (the moon, not the module) to ring for hours on end (as if it were hollow)

Um, are you trolling now?

Even if the moon were as hollow as a balloon, who could hear the ringing in the vacuum of space?

7. That we haven't been back in 40 years despite significant advances in technology in all aspects of life.

Because that shit was EXPENSIVE and there wasn't much more to gain from it perhaps? Some more moonrocks?

And that's just the moon.

Thank the space goats! I really wasn't in the mood to talk about "the Face" formation on mars.

There's being open minded to the point your brains fall out your ears, and then there's being closed minded to the point that you're walking around crosseyed from the blinders. You want fall somewhere in the middle, no?

I have personally found that the latter choice is closer to what we should strive towards, because this existence holds way too many distractions for us mortals.

All I'm saying is that if I'm investing gazillions of dollars into a kind of venture like asteroid mining, I'd want to do my damn research with both an open and skeptical mind.

Wouldn't you?

Of course. And the skeptical part is what you clearly lack.

 

[wayn3]

I'll choose A, because the scenario you've outlined in B clearly shows you haven't done a damn bit of research on the subject. You can't seriously spend the energy you do on Ron Paul without remotely considering the possibility of a larger context.

You brought up the moon; would you like to explain why:

1. It doesn't rotate

Im trying to find an example here that is basic enough for you to understand. Its all about scales. If it sucks, ill try to go lower:

Imagine yourself in a very small amount of water that has waves because someone threw a rock in.

you begin jumping up and down inside the water at a constant frequency (this means the time difference between each up is the same). The forces you create are way bigger and youll soon override the rock caused waves entirely with the waves you cause.

Now imagine yourself in the middle of the pacific. somewhere at some continental fault line some crap happens and causes a big tsunami. when it passes you, itll throw you up and down and theres nothing you can do about it.

At one point, the moon had rotation, just like earth. But together they form a system, in which the rock is the earths little insignificant bitch. earth didnt like its rotation so it made the rock quit that shit.

We can go formulas here but i dont believe youd get it.

2. It's composed of materials older than and foreign to earth

Says who? And are we talking chemical elements or exotic compound materials?

I guess youre referring to the first. If thats the case, ive got bad news for you:

Atoms consist of protons and neutrons. These form the core. We can leave the electrons out because they dont matter much for what im going to talk about.

The vast majority of the chemical properties (this is how you notice differences between hydrogen and helium for example). depend only on the number of protons. Lets say youve got X protons. The amount of neutrons doesnt matter and is only responsible for minor differences and often instability (radiation death rays).

Heres the problem: We have found every single one up to X=82 on earth. Anything over is always radioactive. Radioactive elements decay into elements with lower X.

Most of these were known to us before we even began space travelling. On top of that, labs try to create exotic elements (with high X). They can do it but those decay extremely fast.

Again, I can describe the process of radioactive decay in detail, but you wouldnt get it.


Other than that, elements form inside stars. An exploding star big enough to spit out uranium would have wiped out the solar system easily. If they got here before earth existed, theyd have gotten primarily into earth, instead of the moon, because earth is way bigger (that gravity thing). (this adresses your "older than" point).

3. It's completely covered with craters, presumably from objects too big to have burned through the earth's atmosphere, while the earth isn't

presumably, as in you just make a wild guess? what do you think happened over there? evil aliens exterminating evil moonmen, but leaving their far bigger brothers alone? evil aliens which btw seem to have master at least interstellar travel? why would they fight on a moon (instead of just open space)?

4. Glass domes and other structures have been found on the dark side of the moon, the sea of tranquility and on Mars

you got pictures?

5. When there is a solar eclipse, the moon is the exact same size as the sun

you mean when you make the terrible decision to directly look into the sun, you make a highly subjective judgement of "the moon kind of looking as big as the sun"? please elaborate

6. When the apollo 13 discarded its lunar module, it's impact with the moon caused it (the moon, not the module) to ring for hours on end (as if it were hollow)

on this one i have to disagree somewhat with lukep. the sound could obviously have travelled through the space suit, which is filled with air, and into the ear. i dont know if the moon would vibrate if it was hollow like that, but heres a far more fundamental problem. if the moon was hollow enough to produce such an unexpected behaviour, it would lack mass. means its gravity wouldnt be as strong as it IS. now before you come back with some crap about the entire scientific community just lying about the moons amount of gravity: if it was significantly different from the way it is, the earth-moon system would look significantly different. to a point that youd totally notice.

7. That we haven't been back in 40 years despite significant advances in technology in all aspects of life.

you have two minutes. explain to me how cell phones make travelling to the moon easier.

other than that, the moon is a whole bunch of nothing, paired with razor sharp, great beach quality sand, that tears your lungs to shreds if youre stupid enough to inhale it somehow. and it costs a couple billion each trip. sounds like a good reason to me. again, occams razor.

And that's just the moon.

now you wanna make wildly unrealistic claims about celestial bodies that mankind hasnt even been to (thus no nut can claim having seen secret pictures)?



You know, id love to see some aliens. would make for great novelty. but to claim that our alien visitors hid on the far side of the moon so that we dont notice em (for whatever they were trying to do on a tiny insignificant part of a tiny insignificant solar system on the insiginificant outskirts of a tiny insignificant galaxy), is just stupid. you claim they know interstellar travel. if they didnt want us to see em, theyd just aim some of their death rays at earth (dont ask me how that would work - neither do i know how interstellar travel would be even physically possible).

but darpa probably knows. thats why darpa builds bombers that are able to be invisible to radar (using the mundane technology of just reflecting light somewhere else instead of directly back) - if the radar guys dont employ the unbelievably advanced radar technique of just using 3 bases to triangulate (google an explanation on how this works, its not that difficult).

keep in mind that if this stuff was found, wed have used it to build weaponry to enslave the other side of the planet. it was full on cold war back then.


finding technology only 50 years ahead of our time would be mind blown beyond your wildest imaginations. imagine finding something that is probably a could thousand years ahead of our time, including a couple dozen revisions of what physicists think is impossible and whats not. and the only thing that comes out of it is slightly more accurate and deadly lasers, better computers and stealth bombers (most of which wasnt even military research)? seriously?

 

[lukep]

on this one i have to disagree somewhat with lukep. the sound could obviously have travelled through the space suit, which is filled with air, and into the ear

Edit: D'oh, forgot which mission 13 was... Rephrased answer:

About #6; he said "When the apollo 13 discarded its lunar module, it's impact with the moon caused it (the moon, not the module) to ring for hours on end"

When Apollo 13 "Discarded its' lunar module," there were no humans on the moon... They were in lunar orbit, as the empty lunar module is jettisoned from the return vehicle... No suit touching the regolith in order to hear the moon "ring."

 

[wayn3]

Edit: D'oh, forgot which mission 13 was... Rephrased answer:

About #6; he said "When the apollo 13 discarded its lunar module, it's impact with the moon caused it (the moon, not the module) to ring for hours on end"

When Apollo 13 "Discarded its' lunar module," there were no humans on the moon... They were in lunar orbit, as the empty lunar module is jettisoned from the return vehicle... No suit touching the regolith in order to hear the moon "ring."

i kind of assumed that it was a mission where someone actually landed on the moon, because otherwise the claim would just been beyond stupid.

 

[lukep]

^Yep, I started to make that mistake too. Then I remembered the Hanks movie.

Anyway, isn't it refreshing that we scared Mr. Diddley off? I wonder if we just shattered his dreams of meeting aliens and being anal probed on their mothership...