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

[jordan179.livejournal.com]

However, it's very easy to overestimate the wealth to be gained in hostile environs. Antartica and the nickel/manganese nuggets on the sea bed come to mind, of vast resources that aren't economically feasible to mine.

Yet.

fpb said "ever." I would be astonished if, say, a thousand years from now, Antarctica or the seabed remained unexploited. Or Luna.

[fishlivejournal.livejournal.com]

oh, granted. But consider the 19thC maxim, "no railroad can be considered viable unless it has been bankrupt at least once". The majority of space pioneers will regret getting involved.

[jordan179.livejournal.com]

The majority of space pioneers will regret getting involved.

Well, yes. And most of the big money will be made by a few very canny and lucky developers, and those who sell supplies to them and to all the other pioneers.

That's how it always works on a frontier.

Quite a lot of space pioneers will succeed moderately well, though. That's also how it always works on a frontier.

And a vast number will fail, for levels of failure up to and including horrible death.

[fpb.livejournal.com]

One of the features of American frontier history that is not frequently discussed is the numerous cases of cannibalism.

[jordan179.livejournal.com]

I'd heard about the Donner Party ... to which other cases were you referring? I'm sure there were some ...

The notion that the hardships of space pioneering would be or are too great for humans to ever endure always amused me. Bone loss, solar flares, cosmic rays, sure ... but nothing as bad as was scurvy (and other vitamin dificiency diseases before the late 18th to early 20th century) and the overall lack of adequate food storage technology before mid-19th century canning practices. Between disease and storm, long-duration 16th-17th century sea voyages might expect to lose 1/3 to 2/3 of crew, and some expeditions fared even worse. Travel times were comparable to interplanetary flight.