Vote now – should NASA’s next $10 billion be spent growing mushrooms on the moon, or on a reliable astronaut shuttle?

Photo above - the Nokia 1100 was introduced in 1998. The same year the International Space Station was launched. There was no plan to grow mushrooms on the moon, yet.

Mushrooms on the moon! When I read the headline, I honestly believed this was a satire. Or a movie concept, like “Fast and Furious goes into orbit”. Turns out mushrooms on the moon was dreamed up by actual NASA scientists working on the government payroll. See link at bottom.

This mushroom plan may have been inspired by the plotline of “The Martian”, where Matt Damon grows potatoes in his own excrement, in a desperate attempt to survive. If you think I’m joking, google “potatoes can grow on mars”, and you’ll see links to where NASA scientists are experimenting right now with THIS, also.

Clearly NASA has too much time on its hands. Or the wrong scientists. Too many mushroom and potato guys, and not enough actual rocket scientists who can figure out how to get our astronauts to and from the ISS. Both Space X and Starliner have been grounded at various times during 2024. Blue Origin has been grounded since 2022. Can we pick up the pace here? The Russian half of the ISS is leaking badly. They might have to move into the American half. Or the whole thing might experience “explosive decompression”, and then we’ll have to endure years of congressional hearings. (“Why weren’t we given advance notice? How could this have been prevented? Is this related to Climate Change?”)

I’d have fewer issues with another manned Moon mission, or a Martian adventure, if there was some science involved beyond farming in space. Or looking for some elusive fossil that proves one celled microbes once existed billions of years ago on the red planet. I don’t think actual astronauts are going to succeed at fossil hunting where our 6 Martian Rover robots failed. The last rover - Perseverance - is still on the job. It recently sent back photos of its damaged wheels, as if pleading for retirement or replacement. Perseverance cost $1 billion. Imagine what astronauts growing mushrooms on the moon could cost.

I get it . . . we just HAVE to beat the Chinese to the moon. Nobody wants to see 3 smirking Chinese Taiko-nauts (their word for astronaut) hitting golf balls on the far side of the moon, and singing “The East is Red”. They probably wouldn’t go there just to grow mushrooms. It might possibly be to set up some sort of surveillance or hacking gear. All your moon are belong to us, now!

I hope everyone will join me in praying for the safe return of all 11 astronauts on the ISS, before that leak gets any worse. The ISS has been in orbit for 25 years. For reference, that's the year Apple released the first iMac, Word 98 went on sale, and everyone on earth wanted a Nokia 1100 feature phone. If you still have/use any of those products now, please reply in the comments section to this post.

I’m just sayin’ . . .

NASA’s wild plan to grow mushroom houses on the moon (yahoo.com)