4 ms·

More importantly, why did it take 50 friggin years before somebody tried this?

jryb 4y ago
There are way more scientific problems than scientists, funding for science is limited and competitive, NASA requires a review process before handing out soil samples...I could go on.
felipellrocha 4y ago
Someone watched the martian and got inspired
somenameforme 4y ago
You probably answered your own question. Humans haven't left Low Earth Orbit since December 7th, 1972! We're just coming up on half century anniversary. What a drear celebration that'll be. I expect there was just relatively little interest in exploring these things in the past when it was clear humans weren't going anywhere. Now there's China + SpaceX. SpaceX is now already launching humans to LEO and their long since stated goal is Mars. And China is also making rapid and major progress in expanding beyond Earth. And China+Russia have already stated a goal of establishing an ideally international manned moon base. The future has never looked brighter for manned exploration of the stars, and that's going to impact motivations.
zimpenfish 4y ago
From https://news.ufl.edu/2022/05/lunar-plants/ https://news.ufl.edu/2022/05/lunar-plants/, "Paul and Ferl applied three times over the course of 11 years for a chance to work with the lunar regolith." Sounds like people had the idea a while back but apparently getting even just 12 grams of regolith from the [checks notes] 382kg NASA have is a bit tricky. (Anyone know why NASA are reluctant to let people have regolith?)
- deleted 4y ago
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- bagels 4y ago
  You can only use it once before it gets earth contamination. It's been 50 years an we haven't got anymore. Even though there are missions planned the might lose funding or fail, so who knows when they might get more? Also, science advanced with time, if it's all used up, we wouldn't be able to use future tech to analyze it.

jryb 4y ago

There are way more scientific problems than scientists, funding for science is limited and competitive, NASA requires a review process before handing out soil samples...I could go on.

felipellrocha 4y ago

Someone watched the martian and got inspired

somenameforme 4y ago

You probably answered your own question. Humans haven't left Low Earth Orbit since December 7th, 1972! We're just coming up on half century anniversary. What a drear celebration that'll be. I expect there was just relatively little interest in exploring these things in the past when it was clear humans weren't going anywhere. Now there's China + SpaceX. SpaceX is now already launching humans to LEO and their long since stated goal is Mars. And China is also making rapid and major progress in expanding beyond Earth. And China+Russia have already stated a goal of establishing an ideally international manned moon base. The future has never looked brighter for manned exploration of the stars, and that's going to impact motivations.

zimpenfish 4y ago

From https://news.ufl.edu/2022/05/lunar-plants/ https://news.ufl.edu/2022/05/lunar-plants/, "Paul and Ferl applied three times over the course of 11 years for a chance to work with the lunar regolith." Sounds like people had the idea a while back but apparently getting even just 12 grams of regolith from the [checks notes] 382kg NASA have is a bit tricky. (Anyone know why NASA are reluctant to let people have regolith?)

deleted 4y ago
[deleted]
bagels 4y ago
You can only use it once before it gets earth contamination. It's been 50 years an we haven't got anymore. Even though there are missions planned the might lose funding or fail, so who knows when they might get more? Also, science advanced with time, if it's all used up, we wouldn't be able to use future tech to analyze it.