U.S. Moon base approved 2008

Originally posted by JackJuice

As we move out and start gathering resources from asteroids and doing low gravity construction on the moon than it would be obvious that we would want a military base on the moon to protect those assets. At the moment a military research base on the moon might be so remote that it would be easy to keep secrets there, plus you could put it on the dark side so no one can see what your up to.

In the long term I can understand why the U.S. Government would want a base on the Moon to protect assests, but I don't think they would be protecting them militarily. Who is there to fight in space? Even once other countries have developed space programs a war in space would be very costly for both sides. There are more than enough resources out there to go around. Far more than there has ever been on Earth. I think a military base on the Moon would probably be used to launch emergency rescue/repair missions to other outposts or ships in distress.

Originally posted by jra

Originally posted by infinite8
Too many eyes in the skies these days and with new technology being able to read a book on the moon surface from earth, things might start being discovered.

What? There are no telescopes on Earth that can resolve anything the size of a house, let alone a book on the Moon's surface. Nor could it be done from the Moon to view the Earth in that kind of detail. If you want to get high detailed images of a place. You have to have a satellite in orbit of that place. And I highly doubt even the best US spy satellites could read a book from orbit. Maybe they could see a book (as in it being several pixels in size) but not able to read it.

Originally posted by Flyer
There can be no scientific reasons for this IMO.

Well they are already planning to use the Very Large Telescope to spot some the lunar modules,
"Trained on the moon, such astonishing resolution should enable it to see the base of one or more of the six lunar modules that NASA insists landed on the moon between 1969 and 1972."

Read Full Story Here

As of 1999 there were already satellites that could view at 4 cm resolution. That was a very long time ago.

Originally posted by infinite8
Well they are already planning to use the Very Large Telescope to spot some the lunar modules

But at how much detail? I'd guess not that much, but we'll find out I suppose.

As of 1999 there were already satellites that could view at 4 cm resolution. That was a very long time ago.

You can't really compare Satellites that view Earth from orbit to a telescope on Earth that views the Moon (or vice versa). Even at 4cm/pixel, you still couldn't read a book from Earth orbit. But regardless of all that. I think it would be impractical to spy on Earth from the Moon. It would be much cheaper to stick with satellites.

This is terrible! A study has already been done on this and the results were catastrophic.

Link to Study

Originally posted by Langolier

In the long term I can understand why the U.S. Government would want a base on the Moon to protect assests, but I don't think they would be protecting them militarily. Who is there to fight in space? Even once other countries have developed space programs a war in space would be very costly for both sides. There are more than enough resources out there to go around. Far more than there has ever been on Earth. I think a military base on the Moon would probably be used to launch emergency rescue/repair missions to other outposts or ships in distress.

We also have to remember that one of America's largest technological Booms occured during our first trip to the moon, not that our technological discoveries are slowing down, sometimes having a mission forces a nation to develope technologies that otherwise wouldn't have been developed.

In all the history of man almost all technologies were developed from a need on the battlefield. Now we have an opportunity to develope technologies without having to goto war. If we need to use defense as a means to get the money to do so, well I'm all for it.

Your also right, while the military will be there for strategic purposes, they will most likley be there to support. But they will be able to have the infrastructure in place to weaponize it quickly.