Must be an election coming up soon :devil:

http://www.gizmag.com/go/6556/

It's amazing! That conceptual art is just as goofy looking as the stuff that was drawn back in the 1960's!

This looks like something off Space:1999:

http://www.gizmag.com/pictures/6556_61206104135.jpg

One of these days, Alice, one of these days... *BAM*

Oh, that back to the moon. I'm cautiously optimistic. Conceptual drawings, NASA and other budgetary priorities aside, I think it's a good plan.

Great plan, but I question whether we have the budget and the will to do it again. I despair of ever seeing humans on Mars in my lifetime. Scratch that - of ever seeing AMERICANS on Mars in my lifetime!

"This strategy will enable interested nations to leverage their capabilities and financial and technical contributions, making optimum use of globally available knowledge and resources to help energize a coordinated effort that will propel us into this new age of discovery and exploration."


When they talk like this about a given program, you know that it is doomed to fail (or more likely be still-born). This is just hollow bureaucratic double-speak. When you work for an aerospace prime, you hear this sort of thing a lot and you soon learn what it really means (managers churning budgets to keep themselves busy via paper projects). Unfortunately NASA still has no idea WHY we are going back to the Moon and until they figure it out, we will continue to be subjected to these paper shuffling so-called "projects" being announced and then being cancelled or "re-directed" via a new "steering committee". It all adds up to the same thing, bureaucrats keeping themselves employed.

I believe that the prime reason to return to the Moon is to get humans living on more than one world in a self sufficient manner. Simple as that. As long as we remain on one planet, we risk the extinction of the entire species by collision with other chunks of rock in space (such as the one that nearly got us recently when it passed us at less than one third the distance from the Earth to the Moon!). But this seems to be too abstract a goal for those involved to get inspired about. Stephen Hawking stated recently that he believes this to be a prime reason for further developments in space exploration too but who listens to him?

Meanwhile, the industries which are needed to accomplish an exploration/colonization program such as this one are being allowed to die and for the most part, are already long gone. By the time NASA is finally ready to actually build the hardware, they will discover that there is no one left to do it.

Yes, I am bitter about this.

Idiots! We were on the moon, should have built a base then. Just like when Skylab was up there in orbit, they should have used it to expand to larger space station.

I thought we were going to the moon so we could still eat Burger King and weigh less at the same time!

Huzz

Yes, I am bitter about this.

With good reason, sir! :thumbsup:

They just want to go and get the stuff from the first landing and sell it on ebay.

or

Just tell them there's a terrorist training base up there.

... with a big frikkin' "lazer" as part of the base. :D

They just want to go and get the stuff from the first landing and sell it on eBay!That should be their first objective--pack out our trash from the previous missions.

I wonder what the moonbase will look like. If I remember correctly, we saw only 3 moonbases in sci-fi movies/tv: 2001, UFO and Space 1999. 2001 and S:99 were very very semilar, as in UFO well that one looked funky.

Steph

and Austin Powers, as pointed out above, and several B movies too.

Meanwhile, the industries which are needed to accomplish an exploration/colonization program such as this one are being allowed to die and for the most part, are already long gone. By the time NASA is finally ready to actually build the hardware, they will discover that there is no one left to do it.

Yes, I am bitter about this.

I happen to work in one of those industries that support NASA, and we are already bidding on contracts for the new hardware. It's going to happen, first the moon to see how things works (closer to home, easier to work out bugs...) then on to Mars.

If I remember correctly, we saw only 3 moonbases in sci-fi movies/tv: 2001, UFO and Space 1999.http://www.mst3ktemple.com/images/project_moonbase.jpg[/IMG-LEFT]


Who could forget these immortal classics?


[IMG]http://www.mst3ktemple.com/images/111-moon_zero_two.jpg

Here's the official NASA mock-up of the proposed Moonbase.


https://www.culttvman.biz/pics/aoshimaufomoonbaseo1.jpg

Where are the female personnel in purple wigs?

I'm a little skeptical about the new spacesuit designs:

http://www.progressiveboink.com/justin/Futurama/moon2.jpg

http://www.refgrafika.com/blogo/Barbarella30.jpg

http://ufoseries.com/music/beg.mp3 how they get around on the moonhttp://www.starshipmodeler.com/other/mm_lsid.jpg

http://ufoseries.com/character/ellisClothesChange.jpgoh yeah ! living on the moon could be cool

http://ufoseries.com/hardware/lunarLanding-M.jpghere is another shot

I was pleased to find photos of her in a play...neked.

What movie or TV show is your pic from, lisfan? That's one kewel lookin' toy, too!

Hi

It Is From Gerry Anderson's Ufo Show. It Is The Moonmobile

Oh, wow. See, shows how often I've watched the show! I tried to catch it the last time it was re-running on the SciFi Channel, but never did get to watch very many episodes.

Pretty kewel, regardless!

I'm a little skeptical about the new spacesuit designs:

http://www.progressiveboink.com/justin/Futurama/moon2.jpg

http://www.refgrafika.com/blogo/Barbarella30.jpg

I kinda like it. :devil:

Jeff, that is the cute-as-a-bug and hot-as-heck miss Gabrielle Drake.

http://inpayne.com/temp/gabrielle%20drake%20000.jpg
http://inpayne.com/temp/gabrielle%20drake%20002.jpg
http://inpayne.com/temp/gabrielle%20drake%20007.jpg

I was pleased to find photos of her in a play...neked.

Me too, and I was pleased to see she was everything I'd imagined, and not a product of clever special effects underwear. ;)

please send me the pics if you can
thanks

She was defying gravity before she got to the moon.

Hi

It Is From Gerry Anderson's Ufo Show. It Is The Moonmobile

Remember the sound it was making on the moon.... Euuuuuuu (http://www.ufoseries.com/soundEffects/moonMobileTravelLand.mp3)

As for Lt Ellis, she was indeed very nice, even with her funky wig. I like that show (got in on DVD) but like in Space 1999, there's 1 thing that makes me go crazy: those non-sense computers, with those useless keyboard (without anything written on the keys!!!) How the hell can you enter intelligent data without knowing what button you need to press??? I still don't understand that nobody ever noticed that while filming those series. Hummm we are very far from how the real moonbase will look like aren't we???

Steph

i think i might have a garage kit of it im gonna have to look for it in my stash. i know the guy i bought the straker car had one. cant remeber if i bought it

there's 1 thing that makes me go crazy: those non-sense computers, with those useless keyboard (without anything written on the keys!!!) How the hell can you enter intelligent data without knowing what button you need to press??? I still don't understand that nobody ever noticed that while filming those series. Hummm we are very far from how the real moonbase will look like aren't we???

Steph

I always noticed that on Star Trek, or most sci-fi. No keyboard, just a bunch of identical buttons. Each button must be a complete sentence, and combining them changes the final meaning.

Remember the sound it was making on the moon.... Euuuuuuu (http://www.ufoseries.com/soundEffects/moonMobileTravelLand.mp3)

As for Lt Ellis, she was indeed very nice, even with her funky wig. I like that show (got in on DVD) but like in Space 1999, there's 1 thing that makes me go crazy: those non-sense computers, with those useless keyboard (without anything written on the keys!!!) How the hell can you enter intelligent data without knowing what button you need to press??? I still don't understand that nobody ever noticed that while filming those series. Hummm we are very far from how the real moonbase will look like aren't we???

Steph

You guys are missing the obvious, obviously they are braille keyboards, and obviously everyone in SHADO is visually impaired. How else do you explain the purple moonbase wigs, Straker's office, and the uniforms on Skydiver?

http://www.uform.org/images/SkyDiver.jpg

with all the hotties running around half naked who was looking at the key board..... we dont need no stinkin" letters on the key board. plus they they were drinking and smoking back then too during duty.

How else do you explain the purple moonbase wigs, Straker's office, and the uniforms on Skydiver?
Easy. It was the Sixties.

As for the blank buttons, that was probably done for the same reason Star Trek used Stardates and Warp Factors. It prevents you from getting locked down in specifics. If the buttons are blank, that means they can do whatever the story requires them to do. Then it's just up to the actors to make it look like they know what they're doing.

I understand that perfectly but it still makes no sense. Even back in the beginning of the '70, prehistoric computer keyboards where almost like today's keyboard (The QWERTY design was patented by Christopher Sholes in 1868). Personnally, that's the kind of details that itch my neck, that doesn't make me believe in what I see and makes me say ''WTF is this''. The same goes for the useless wave forms on the S:99 and UFO monitors. But got to say that CGI was only a dream back then so they had to come up with something. These annoying things were improved in BG 1978, probably because they were using real Tektronic test equipment. Maybe all these things makes a unique moment, a timewarp when we're watching these shows. But it's ok ya know, if it would bother me too much, I would'nt watch them. I still like watching these shows, it's a real Modelers festival.

Steph

I always figured the buttons on Star Trek had writing I couldn't read on them. Perhaps (fictionally) they even have raised bumps so that you don't need to have any writing on them. Or maybe they each give off a certain electrical impulse that differentiates them by touch or maybe . . .

I recall a Space 1999 ep where a character had to input a specific code into the computer. The camera lingered in closeup on the wall-mounted keypad while someone read off numbers and he input them - on a block of perfectly identical unmarked buttons. :freak:

[IMG-LEFT]http://www.hobbytalk.com/bbs1/attachment.php?attachmentid=35496&stc=1[/IMG-LEFT]

How about this functional, believable bit of futuristic hardware?

Science fiction movies and TV shows are full of unlabeled buttons and switches, useless dials and blinking lights, and meaningless technobabble for one simple reason: The producers think the audience is DUMB. How else do you explain the fact that, whenever something comes up on a computer monitor in a TV show, the visual display is inevitably accompained by superfluous sound effects — little bleeps and clicks — that real computers never make?

You know what drives me nuts? All those movies and TV shows where the roar of spacecraft engines can be heard in the vacuum of space. Clearly the filmmakers hold the audience in complete contempt.

[IMG-LEFT]Science fiction movies and TV shows are full of unlabeled buttons and switches, useless dials and blinking lights, and meaningless technobabble for one simple reason: The producers think the audience is DUMB. How else do you explain the fact that, whenever something comes up on a computer monitor in a TV show, the visual display is inevitably accompained by superfluous sound effects — little bleeps and clicks — that real computers never make?

Or the lead character, by no means a computer wizard, can receive a new piece of photoshop software and instantly know not only how to operate it, but manipulate it to crank out whatever it needs to crank out to move the plot along. Must be the legendary and hard-to-purchase Microsoft McGuffin®TM©.

"little bleeps and clicks-that real computers never make ? "
you mean yours doesn't ??
hb

You know what drives me nuts? All those movies and TV shows where the roar of spacecraft engines can be heard in the vacuum of space. Clearly the filmmakers hold the audience in complete contempt.
It's all about the dramatic mood and ambience (and yeah, I realize you know that, but it just feels like it needs to be pointed out). I ain't got a problem with it. Hell, my models go Swooshing about my room on occasion. How realistic is that...? :D

I sort of like the bottle-rocket smoke that came out of the spaceships in the old Flash Gordon serials. Charming. And it's amazing how many Theremins there were in Outer Space in the 1950s.

I was forced to sit through "Futureworld" recently. In two scenes, one of the characters has to input a code into a numeric keypad mounted on the wall. In BOTH scenes, as he reads off the code, he says aloud the number "6" and clearly pushes the button that's in the "0" position on the keypad.

Would it were that this was the ONLY thing wrong with that movie!! Yul Brynner forced to reprise his "Westworld" role as the Gunslinger, only in Blythe Danner's romantic dream fantasy, was too much to bear.

You know what drives me nuts? All those movies and TV shows where the roar of spacecraft engines can be heard in the vacuum of space. Clearly the filmmakers hold the audience in complete contempt.

Yep, that's another funky thing in sci-fi shows, even in the new ST movies. They didn't do that mistake in the new BG, anybody noticed? I don't know, maybe THEY (the producers) think that without sound effects (even out of proportion SFX) the viewers would'nt get into it. I personally think that attacks our intellect, that they can do anything and that we won't notice. They are WRONG, just by reading what you guys have to say on this subject.

Computers in sci-fi shows makes weird funky sounds: well if they wouldn't, the user on the terminal would have to yell and bitch at the computer 'cause they never do what they're supposed to do, expecially when you're on a Windows OS...... LOL

Hey John, I know the episode '' Ring around the moon'' . A technician and Helena Russell were possessed by a mental alien and they were transmitting computer data to it. We could clearly see that nothing was written on the key pads (remember WE are stupid!!!!). Here's what I'm talking about (http://www.space1999.net/%7Ecosmos1999/04/tiratmpahook.05.html). Here's another shot of a useless monitor (http://www.space1999.net/%7Ecatacombs/main/images/space/dod/spdod000.jpg).

One thing I always wanted to have, the binoculars (or should I say monoculars) they were using in S:99 (http://www.space1999.net/%7Ecatacombs/main/images/space/tls/sptls131.jpg) and in Star Wars Empire Strikes Back (Luke is using them on Hoth when he was looking for Han in the snow storm). I always though that was much more normal then what's available right now on the market.

Steph

Yep, that's another funky thing in sci-fi shows, even in the new ST movies. They didn't do that mistake in the new BG, anybody noticed?

The large capital ships don't seem to but the small ships make a little, whiny, fly-by sound.

http://www.space1999.net/%7Ecatacombs/main/images/space/dod/spdod000.jpg

Wow! The old X5 series! I remember those. They could do anything that was needed of them. :p