Why is nobody paying attention to this?

[fpb]

I had never even heard it, had any of you? And yet it is since 2007 that Germany had announced the establishment of a purely German space program, separate from the European space agency, and intended to go to the Moon. Now Peter Hintze, the German federal director of aerospace, has announced that Germany plans a mission to the Moon within ten years. One of the many ways in which the world media are corrupt is that they never pay any attention to news like this. There is a meme that Europe is lazy and declining, and that the future is in the Far East. Any news that contradict the meme simply are not publicized. And when German spacemen will in fact be walking on the Moon, everyone will be surprised, not knowing that the program had been widely announced.

(the news was reported by today's Italian Catholic newspaper L'Avvenire)

Comments

[fishlivejournal.livejournal.com]

What was the point of going to the Americas? Australia? Any argument that you can make for getting out of bed in the morning will apply to exploring and colonising.

[mindstalk.livejournal.com]

Hoped for access to spices, then gold, silver, furs, and perhaps timber; then tobacco and cotton, and land for colonists. Australia... not sure about the initial draw, but land until they run out of water, and gold and such. And it got found by Cook looking around; after all, with the Americas, that potentially had big payoff.

We've looked in space and have a rather good idea of what's there, and there aren't any resources worth the current access costs.