io9 
Enter your username and password.
San Francisco, 7:34 PM
Sat Nov 28
9 posts in the last 24 hours
Tip your editors: tips@io9.com
Editor-in-Chief:
Annalee Newitz | Email
News Editor:
Charlie Jane Anders | Email
Associate Editor:
Meredith Woerner | Email
Assistant Editor:
Lauren Davis | Email
Weekend Editor:
Graeme McMillan | Email
Contributors:
Joshua Glenn
Stephen Goldmeier | Email
Ed Grabianowski | Email
Austin Grossman
Paul Hogan | Email
Lauren Davis | Email
Chris Hsiang | Email
Lynn Peril | Email
Ann VanderMeer
Alasdair Wilkins | Email
Graphic Designer:
Stephanie Fox | Email
Interns:
Tim Barribeau | Email
Julia Carusillo | Email
Alex Eichler | Email
Cyriaque Lamar | Email
Caitlin Petrakovitz | Email
Mary Ratliff | Email
Josh Snyder | Email
Original material is licensed under a Creative Commons License permitting non-commercial sharing with attribution.
07/21/09
I have the greatest respect for these guys, but we are going to need somewhere to test our new fleet of spacecraft. What better place than the moon?
07/20/09
p.s. we will never, ever solve all our problems on Earth.
07/20/09
07/20/09
I would love to be alive when we land on Mars (yet be young enough to know what's going on and not just drooling on myself in front of the TV).
But I'm not convinced it's going to happen. According to Fiction, The NX01 Enterprise is supposed to launch in 2151. At this rate, in the real world, the human race will not even have landed on the neighbouring planet by that time.
07/20/09
07/20/09
07/20/09
07/20/09
Even worse, it stinks of this mentality that you can only focus on one thing at a time - you can't explore space and work to fix earthbound problems at the same time. They're not mutually exclusive folks, even if they aren't necessarily linked either.
07/20/09
Going to mars is an invetment - just as the moon was - not a frivolous expense. the things we learn going to mars and beyond are what will save the human rqace and the earth.
07/20/09
Going to mars adn beyond is an investment, not a frivolous expense. the things we learn in the process and on the journey will help to save the earth and the human race.
07/20/09
Let's build that crazy orbital elevator, or a REAL residential space station, or orbital factories/farms/colonies/casinos/whatever.
Why watch a handful of people going someplace far away. Lets make it so you and I can inexpensively visit, maybe even live in space within our lifetime. That's a far more interesting goal to me.
07/20/09
07/20/09
07/20/09
With all respect to the Apollo pioneers, to go there just because we can smacks of just more of the sort of chest-beating the original Moon landings are criticized for. A big game of interplanetary "FIRST!!!1!".
Yes, we should be on Mars. But why overlook a perfectly good site for a permanent base already in orbit around us. It seems like the ISS will be deorbited before it's ever completed. Maybe in 25 years China or India might rent the US out a room in whatever habitats they'll have in orbit. Heh.
There's a moon in the sky, and it's called the Moon.
07/20/09
How about a permanent colony on the Moon and a large orbital colony, like an O'Neil station? Much more exciting than a boring old Mars landing any day!
(Then we can build gundams!)
07/20/09
A Mars landing would be Very Exciting. But after the thrill..."Gee. we're an awful long way from home."
If there aren't resources there valuable enough to finance regular flights to Earth/Luna and back no one will be able to support a viable colony.
07/20/09
That's another reason that the change from SciFi to SyFy is so disapointing. It throws out the science. It would have been much better to rebrand as the Science Fiction Channel. With and emphasis on the Science.
07/20/09
http://www.nasa.gov/missions/solarsystem/bush_vision.html
07/20/09
Like father, like son.
Where's the Mars Mission that Bush I promised?
07/20/09
07/20/09
07/20/09
07/20/09
Actually, given my age by then, the shock will probably kill me.
07/05/09
(That clip = awesome)
07/05/09
07/05/09
07/05/09
"In other words, "The moon is a lie?""
Of course it's a lie.
Do you have any concrete evidence that the moon is actually there? For all I know, it's just something painted on the sky, just like the stars. I can't believe how naive people are.
Oh, and before you ask, yes, I believe the earth is flat like a good old pancake.
07/05/09
Don't buy into the lies, Sheeple! Do some research and decide for yourself!!
TEACH THE CONTROVERSY!!!!
07/05/09
Hey, Grey, I don't know about where you live, but here in my house I've got some pretty concrete pancakes, so I dispute your theory that they don't exist.
As for teaching the controversy, I've been trying to have the "intelligent moon-painting" theory taught in schools, but without much success so far. Danes seem to be a very naive people, believing in all that "moon as a natural satellite" theory bs.
07/05/09
07/05/09
07/05/09
When Armstrong came down the ladder, there was an external camera that they almost forgot to deploy. When Aldrin came down, they either used the same camera, or Armstrong was using a handheld.
@Dr Emilio Lizardo:
Yes, they do. Which is why the sewed a tube into the top edge of the flag and packed a flexible metal rod that they could pull through it after planting the flag. That was the easy part. The hard part was apparently getting the flagpole to stick in the regolith. It was expected that they'd be able to just jam it in there, but the surface is so dense and rocky with just a fine dusting of loose powder on top that they were only able to get it about 6" deep, and just kind of piled up a bunch of the loose dust around the base to help stabilize it.
07/05/09
07/05/09
Sure, it took a lot of human ingenuity points to even accomplish the landing, but the bulk of that was done by NASA people, most of whom I'm guessing have never left the atmosphere. So, while Aldrin is an iconic figure in the history of science, and the idea itself is fairly romantic, I'm wondering if his qualification as a "hero" is really that clear cut. Were the people on the ground who put Aldrin up there heroes as well?
07/05/09
Or, if that's not enough for you, consider this. If those 'NASA' guys, who did the majority of the work got it wrong: Say, the engineers didn't shield the craft enough, or if the calculations were off and they missed, they feel bad, they scrap it, they try it again later.
...The people in the capsule, meanwhile, hurdle into the void/become incinerated/suffocate/die from space radiation/anything else.
For my evidence heroics see: Astronauts who died due to NASA technical snafus.
07/05/09
thanks guys- exactly.
And if putting someone on the moon isn't a great scientific achievement, then what is?
06/23/09
I really don't know what to think. On the one hand, nothing makes me cringe more than seeing old white people rap for humor. But then on the other hand they have Talib Kweli referencing a Gil Scott Heron song which means that someone there does know what they are talking about.
I'm going to need to mull this one over for a while.
06/23/09
06/23/09
06/23/09
06/23/09
06/23/09
06/23/09
Huh?
A sellout? He's an astronaut, when was he indie?
This is great though because it makes people interested in space that might not be otherwise.
I think the smartest in this group of sites(kotaku/jezebel/gawker/gizmodo...etc) is io9, but then we have people like Ebone saying an astronaut has sold out, wtf does that even mean?
"Yeah man buzz aldrin is such a sellout, I knew him back when he was just starting out and he was so much better then."
"better at what?"
"Being.. in space.."
"oh..."
06/25/09
You don't have to be a recording artist to sellout your values.