The far side of the moon is only "dark" in that we can't see it from here. It still gets as much light (and other noise) from the sun as the near side. It might be an OK place for a radio telescope, since it's shielded from terrestrial radio transmissions, but there are other problems, like dust, that space based observatories just don't have. The Webb telescoe for example, can be shielded from the earth and sun at the same time.
Perhaps the Chinese will give us a lift in a couple of years so we can wipe the moon dust off of the flag we planted there 40 years ago. Being the first humans to arrive somewhere gets you a footnote in the history books. Doing something with it will make history. We don't have the balls as a nation to do anything truly important anymore.
I won't say I'm not disappointed, but I'm also not in the least surprised. I always strongly suspected that W initiated the late lamented moon program to curry favor in certain circles but never had the slightest intent of seeing it through. If the Repubs had won the election they'd almost certainly have shut it down much earlier than Obama did, and probably with less reason.
With that said, I was also never convinced that the program was a good idea. Too many elements of it seemed to be there for feel-good and showmanship; it wasn't clear to me that it would achieve its stated goals.
The political economics of this are simple. Look at where a huge chunk of the NASA $ has historically gone. The sunbelt benefitted in a disproportionate way. The senate was packed with senior Democrats when NASA cranked up who made sure the bacon went to TX, FL, AL, MS. This reordering of priorities will probably see a shift to programs with a manufacturing base in what are now Democratic states IL/WA (Boeing) more CA, and less TX. Our GOP asshats are already squealing over how Stennis Test center will lose big if Constellation is killed.
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no subject
Date: 2010-02-04 05:15 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-02-04 05:35 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-02-04 03:52 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-02-04 05:15 am (UTC)Where the hell is Moonbase Alpha - minus those pesky nuclear waste dumps, of course?!
no subject
Date: 2010-02-04 08:09 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-02-04 10:58 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-02-04 09:17 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-02-04 12:52 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-02-04 03:33 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-02-04 01:07 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-02-05 12:13 am (UTC)With that said, I was also never convinced that the program was a good idea. Too many elements of it seemed to be there for feel-good and showmanship; it wasn't clear to me that it would achieve its stated goals.
no subject
Date: 2010-02-05 06:08 pm (UTC)Look at where a huge chunk of the NASA $ has historically gone.
The sunbelt benefitted in a disproportionate way. The senate was packed with senior Democrats when NASA cranked up who made sure the bacon went to TX, FL, AL, MS.
This reordering of priorities will probably see a shift to programs with a manufacturing base in what are now Democratic states IL/WA (Boeing) more CA, and less TX.
Our GOP asshats are already squealing over how Stennis Test center will lose big if Constellation is killed.