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Is anyone else geeking out on the fact that SpaceX and SpaceIL are 3 hours away from a moonshot?

I don't want to say it's boring, but we've successfully flung crap MUCH farther.

Call me when a human is on board or it's still operating 15 years after it's life expectancy.

I'm sure they'll get back interesting data and pictures that we'll all oooh and aaah over, but it's time to show we can bring such probes back home and that we can do it with a human in spite of all the Health & Safety garbage NASA didn't have to deal with way back then.

5chn3ll wrote: ↑Thu Feb 21, 2019 12:49 pm Is anyone else geeking out on the fact that SpaceX and SpaceIL are 3 hours away from a moonshot?

SpaceX!...Elon Musk! I thought he was dedicating all his efforts building a tunnel for cars under LA? However, the "return to earth" rocket boosters were very cool!

True - but the lander is hitching a ride on the booster into an eccentric orbit; the lander will modify its own Earth orbit, then insert itself into a lunar capture orbit when the moon passes closer to Earth - then out of an elliptical lunar orbit into a low-moon orbit - and then it will autonomously land.

That's all some cool shit - and the fact that two private companies are doing the slinging makes it even cooler. More compelling than chucking Elon's Roadster into deep space...

gnat wrote: ↑Thu Feb 21, 2019 1:01 pm I don't want to say it's boring, but we've successfully flung crap MUCH farther.

Call me when a human is on board or it's still operating 15 years after it's life expectancy.

I'm sure they'll get back interesting data and pictures that we'll all oooh and aaah over, but it's time to show we can bring such probes back home and that we can do it with a human in spite of all the Health & Safety garbage NASA didn't have to deal with way back then.

Oops, sucky YT vid. Will replace with a less sucky one. Maybe.