Why?
Am I missing something or is sending a bit of your hair or some dodgy music choice up to a barren lump of rock rather pointless.
Is this another case of doing it just because you might be able to rather than because it’s a good idea?

“I really hope that it has the same effect as Rosetta that so gripped the world,” said Prof Monica Grady, of the Open University

Hmmm.

Many things are pointless, encouraging the public to take an active interest in science and exploring new ways to finance it is not top of that list.

Or we could just sit around doing nothing and never get any nearer to knowing what the universe is all about. If you aren’t curious then fair enough but most people with a hint of intelligence, would like to know more. IMVHO of course 😉

I heard the story on the news this morning and my first thought was that it’ll never happen but that someone might be able to get enough cash to fund their lifestyle for a few years before quietly shutting the project down. I don’t know the background of the consortium though so perhaps I’m just a cynic!

Am I missing something or is sending a bit of your hair or some dodgy music choice up to a barren lump of rock rather pointless.

I think it’s just data? If it’s not then surely there’s ethical/scientific issues that would make sending biological matter to the moon a bit stupid?

Newsflash sometime in the future: “ohh look, we’ve found bacterial life on the moon!”, “ohhh, wait no”, “it’s just more middle class bogey sent up from that crowd funded project 100 years ago”

I’m all for this, remember that Colin Pillinger wasn’t above sending Blur tracks and flakes of Ferrari paint to Mars in order to source funding for Beagle 2.

I’d rather it was a “proper” UK government funded project but if it adds to the sum total of human knowledge then it’s better than nothing.

I should have worded it better. I’m all for space exploration, especially using drones/robots, but this seems a bit feeble seeing as mankind was wandering around the moon 40 years ago. Surely if there was some potential for inhabiting the moon it would have been investigated years ago?
This being the case, why not find something a bit more exciting/worthwhile?

why not find something a bit more exciting/worthwhile?

I thought it was more to do with figuring out what the moon was made up of under the surface, and therefore what the earth was made up of when it was formed?

Lunar Mission One aims to survey the Moon’s south pole to see if a human base can be set up in the future.

I like the idea that a part of me is not here on earth. On a satellite. I dont know why. I suspect it will meet its kick starter target. I also agree, its time the governments of the world got their act together and did something more about exploring our galaxy.

perhaps the data I send up should be that the stinking Hovel that is the Broadway Hotel in Blackpool is fact? Best to let the aliens know before they get ripped off.

This is awesome. Also, putting a sustainable colony beyond Earth gravity is an important step in getting further. A large spacecraft would need to be built off Earth I suspect.