Would you rather humans go to the moon again or go to mars?

[killamch89]

Honestly, although I'd rather humans stay on Earth since I don't want our kind to go ruin another planet/star, I'd rather humans go to Mars because the harsh conditions might get rid of most of them. What's your pick and why?

[The Blackangel]

I’m going to catch mountains of shit for this, but I’m a moon denier. I don’t believe we ever landed on the moon, hence we can’t go back to a place we have never been to. But being an astronomy lover, I would be more interested in seeing firsthand accounts of what life would be like on Mars.

[Empire]

People been to the moon and back 100s of times now, it's old and it's just pointless, Can't live on the moon like you can with mars 😛 

I rather try the next step in life and go to mars 🙂 

[The Blackangel]

Where do you get the "100s" part?

[Crazycrab]

3 hours ago, Empire said:

People been to the moon and back 100s of times now, it's old and it's just pointless, Can't live on the moon like you can with mars 😛 

I rather try the next step in life and go to mars 🙂 

 

No, in fact there's only been 6 manned missions to the Moon.  I do agree that there is not much reason to go back there.

 

A manned mission to Mars would be useful but it's easier said than done.  Sending a probe, well that's not easy by any means but we got it nailed down because machine's don't need food, sleep, air or have to make a return trip.  For a manned mission you would need to build a spacecraft that could not only get there and back but also be cable of carrying the supplies and equipment required to the crew alive for at least 14 months, that's more than double a typical stay on the ISS that has a steady stream of supply's.  Even for a crew of only 3 or 4 people it would have to be massive.

Edited June 1, 2021 by Crazycrab

[killamch89]

My main issue is what would happen to the moon if a large enough asteroid were to hit, would it simply blow up and suddenly disintegrate? Or how drastically would its trajectory change?

[Crazycrab]

21 minutes ago, killamch89 said:

My main issue is what would happen to the moon if a large enough asteroid were to hit, would it simply blow up and suddenly disintegrate? Or how drastically would its trajectory change?

 

There is no known object on an Earth crossing orbit that's large enough to do that... Nothing even close.  It's always possible something could arrive from outside the solar system (which actually happened quite recently with the "ʻOumuamua") but the odds of this are infinitesimal..

[killamch89]

1 hour ago, Crazycrab said:

There is no known object on an Earth crossing orbit that's large enough to do that... Nothing even close.  It's always possible something could arrive from outside the solar system (which actually happened quite recently with the "ʻOumuamua") but the odds of this are infinitesimal..

I'm aware that nothing in our current solar system could do that - it was more of a worse case scenario kind of thing no matter how improbable the odds. 

[The Blackangel]

That's actually not entirely true. Granted you would need something the size of a small planet to make the moon blow apart, but in both asteroid belts there are more than enough asteroids that are large enough to more or less destroy the moon. They both also have some that are so massive they're in the category of planetoids. And this is the asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter that I'm talking about. The Kuiper belt, which is the one outside Neptune's orbit, contains asteroids almost the size of Pluto. The belt is massive. If one rogue asteroid was to cross paths with them, ad had enough gravitational force, or enough impact force, we could be looking at a situation similar to the movie Armageddon. And even if the earth wasn't hit, but the moon was, it could still mean the end of life here. The moon has more of an impact on the earth than most will ever know. One small example is the tide. That's all under the control of the moon. Without her, we're all screwed.

Ceres is an asteroid in the main belt between Mars and Jupiter and comprises about ¼ of the mass of the entire belt. It's the only object in the belt large enough to be rounded by it's own gravity and is actually dwarf planet. The only one inside Neptune's orbit.

Edited June 1, 2021 by The Blackangel

[killamch89]

19 hours ago, The Blackangel said:

That's actually not entirely true. Granted you would need something the size of a small planet to make the moon blow apart, but in both asteroid belts there are more than enough asteroids that are large enough to more or less destroy the moon. They both also have some that are so massive they're in the category of planetoids. And this is the asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter that I'm talking about. The Kuiper belt, which is the one outside Neptune's orbit, contains asteroids almost the size of Pluto. The belt is massive. If one rogue asteroid was to cross paths with them, ad had enough gravitational force, or enough impact force, we could be looking at a situation similar to the movie Armageddon. And even if the earth wasn't hit, but the moon was, it could still mean the end of life here. The moon has more of an impact on the earth than most will ever know. One small example is the tide. That's all under the control of the moon. Without her, we're all screwed.

Ceres is an asteroid in the main belt between Mars and Jupiter and comprises about ¼ of the mass of the entire belt. It's the only object in the belt large enough to be rounded by it's own gravity and is actually dwarf planet. The only one inside Neptune's orbit.

That's actually very interesting.