'Ang on are we talking a million squid here? Cause that's around 3 mill in Aussie dollars, you'd be a twit not to take the money.

I have two thoughts on this thread.

1. I think it's safe to assume we're talking a million of whatever denomination you choose that would represent a hell of a lot of cashola...period. A debate of which country the money comes having any meaning is irrelenvent to this discussion.

2. There's a hell of a lot more in this life than money...guess you need live a bit more of life to really understand and accept that to be the truth. Moonshot for me, no brainer.

True, money is just a means to an end, but to be able to set myself up so that I don't have to go to work if I choose not to. That would be the ultimate. Then you could do all those things that you really wanted to do with your life without having to worry where your next pay cheque is coming from.

I'm going to go out on a limb and say since Wapcap is from Canada he is probably using the canadia dollar. Its worth less the the US dollar or Euro but it has been gaining as of late.

seriously then, I'd go to the moon. Money is nothing to me....thats right, nothing. I hate my life and money can't fix it. Nor can a trip to the moon, but at least it'll be interesting.

The moon is like stonehenge, grey and boring

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I don't know whether everybody read my last post, so I'm going to reiterate the main point of it. The sensible decision is to take the money - with enough time and investment (and patience may I add), you could live your comfortable life and still have more fulfilling lifetime experiences than you've ever imagined.

The point here is not, which is better moon or money, the point is, do you value a trip to the moon above all of the other things you could experience in life...eg...

A Gambian Safari
A trip up kilimanjaro
An Aztec expedition
A free fall from the inner atmosphere
Flying/Gliding lessons
Deep sea exploration
A visit to every country on the planet

These are just a drop in the ocean of what you could do with a million pounds if you have the patience to stretch it over a lifetime. A trip to the moon wouldn't even contend with the opportunity to visit every country on the planet....sorry...thats just my opinion. I keep hearing people say that there's a lot more to life than money - well let me tell you this - there is a **** load more to life than having the opportunity to look at the earth from the moon. Imagine meeting thousands of people from thousands of different cultures. Experiencing the joys of nature that some of you are obviously taking for granted here. And then, when you've done all that, then you might just qualify imho to see what else there is in this universe. What I'm seeing here in this thread is a bunch of kids who think that a trip to the moon and then a lifetime of playstation games is enough to say that they've experienced "life". Bull****. Travel to a famined area, see the people dieing horribly on this planet due to western neglect, experience what its like to stand on top of one of the tallest mountains in the world, visit the depths of the ocean that only a few have visited before, watch whales as they herd, walk across a desert, jump out of a plane, snowboard down a glacier, catch the aurora borealis, hear the music of a thousand cultures and eat food you never even knew existed. THAT is experiencing life.

</rant>

Couldn't agree more Grom, nice rant!

Ah, what I'd give to spend ages in a cramped airtight space-suit, miles away from anything living or interesting, with only disgusting astronaut food to eat...
That, in case you couldn't tell was sarcasm. I'd take the money any day, although 1 million isn't that much when you think about it.
££

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@gromit

Nice rant I'll say also...but you clearly are missing one extremely important point during your explaination that undermines that concept.

Every single example you mentioned that could be done....CAN be done without the use of a million dollars of whatever denomination you choose. People are doing it right now...you don't NEED the money to pull it off my friend. Sure loads of cash would make it easy, but nothing you men tioned is totally impossible right now rto do it. The only thing holding anyone back is the gonads to just go for ir.

No matter how much someone wants to go to the moon the avenues to accomplish that is so frickin' limited it's not even funny. That why it's a no-brainer to take the chance at the moon. When you come back down, maybe the experience will have changed your life enough to allow you to let go of the one side of the pool and take the chance right now to experience all those other things you mentioned. Nothing is holding you back from doing those but you. It is opportunity that is holding all of us back from going to the moon. Get real.

Ask yourself one question....what really is the chance of a lifetime in this example and be realistic. I could drop my life right now and do everything you mentioned...I will NEVER have the chance to go to the moon.

Edited by - Stinger on 4/2/2004 4:45:26 AM

Stinger, nice try but you missed my point...I was only listing a few things that I could think of off hand...there are lots of things you can't do without money - a couple I mentioned....learn to fly/glide, deep sea exploration, jump out of a plane....the last one I have done and trust me when I say it costs you a fortune, unless of course you're committing suicide Its a nice dream to think that you can travel the world and see everything without money - but thats what it is - A DREAM. Money makes the world go round matee....if you intend to do it without 10 year breaks to build up funds, its impossible without dosh.

Would be interesting to see how you can learn to fly without a) paying someone to teach you, b) hiring a plane and c) fuel. I'm sorry but I know how much these things cost - and unless you're loaded, it ain't happening mate.

And besides if anyone had bothered to read my original post they'd know that imho in this day and age a million pounds invested wisely, with patience, will eventually give you the opportunity to be one of the first space tourists AND still have the lifestyle that you desire.

Nice try, but I'm still yet to be convinced of the moon argument

I'd take the moon since dollars aren't worth much these days.

But here is the question, Be the first person on Mars or get $1,000,000?

First person on Mars!

I'd take the money and then work with it untill I have enough to buy a place on the shuttle

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