A Moonbase now. junk the ISS moneypit

[#juan]

Why bother going up a bit to the ISS when a larger shot takes us to a moon? Already the ISS sucks billions for a tin can that will soon fall to Earth in a crash and burn spectacle. A depressing thought to me.

The moon has water, good for people and essential for fuel. The ISS has got nothing.

As for medical care, that is an important concern, but the moon is only a few days away. The proposals to go to Mars I see as nuts because medical care is a year or two away at some points. Not everyone is interested in space, but as it stands now, there is no space future here to look forward to.

That is the whole point. Unless we get serious, any moon base is a disaster waiting to happen. The finest medical care has to be available on the moon immediately. Remember, getting down from the ISS is a couple hours whereas getting back from the moon is a few says. A moon base must be able to support itself for at least a year. How masny transport ships would we need on the moon to get people back and forth? At this point we don't know how available water and other essentials on the moon are. It would be great to have a moon base but it would have to be a complete extension of Mother Earth.

 

[dumpthemonarchy]

That is the whole point. Unless we get serious, any moon base is a disaster waiting to happen. The finest medical care has to be available on the moon immediately. Remember, getting down from the ISS is a couple hours whereas getting back from the moon is a few says. A moon base must be able to support itself for at least a year. How masny transport ships would we need on the moon to get people back and forth? At this point we don't know how available water and other essentials on the moon are. It would be great to have a moon base but it would have to be a complete extension of Mother Earth.

Sure, it's disaster right now because we've done no work to make it possible. Doing nothing makes things worse. They can use robots to send materials to land and have everything ready for astronauts when they land such as medical equipment. The astronauts we will send up will likely be healthy enough to survive a three day trip to Earth if they need to come back.

A few dozen transport ships will be needed but they will have resources on the moon to use also. The moon has WATER, a key element I would say for survival any where. Water makes fuel, another key ingredient to get around the moon. Plus many other minerals that are useful. The tech is old, all this is very possible, it is a political problem.

 

[ironsides]

The completed Moon base that was being proposed would pretty much totally self-sustaining. Yes this is a political problem and with the mind set of today's politicians, I don't see it happening any time soon. A generation has just lost the vision somehow.

 

[ironsides]

To bad, now we will be surprised. Maybe Aliens can do something with our Moon.


The SETI institute has hibernated its Allen Telescope Array, which scans the sky for clues on extraterrestrial life, due to lack of funding. The telescope array, which consists of 42 20-foot-wide telescopes spread across a field 300 miles north of San Francisco, was originally funded largely by Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen, who donated $25 million to the project. However, state budget cuts have all but halted the project, which will for the time being be unavailable for normal use and run by a significantly reduced staff.

SETI Shuts Down Search for Alien Life Due to Lack of Funding - Yahoo! News

 

[DurkaDurka]

To bad, now we will be surprised. Maybe Aliens can do something with our Moon.


The SETI institute has hibernated its Allen Telescope Array, which scans the sky for clues on extraterrestrial life, due to lack of funding. The telescope array, which consists of 42 20-foot-wide telescopes spread across a field 300 miles north of San Francisco, was originally funded largely by Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen, who donated $25 million to the project. However, state budget cuts have all but halted the project, which will for the time being be unavailable for normal use and run by a significantly reduced staff.

SETI Shuts Down Search for Alien Life Due to Lack of Funding - Yahoo! News

From Arctechnica:

Throughout the Bush administration, NASA had been given the goal of preparing for long-duration missions in space, first to the Moon and then eventually Mars. Upon reaching office, the Obama administration performed a detailed analysis of NASA's priorities and budget, which revealed some ugly truths: NASA didn't have the money to build the systems needed to accomplish any of this, and even if it were to get a budget infusion, the schedule was unworkable. The report recommended we give up on Mars, skip the Moon, and focus on developing the technology to enable long-duration space travel.

 

[dumpthemonarchy]

From Arctechnica:

Throughout the Bush administration, NASA had been given the goal of preparing for long-duration missions in space, first to the Moon and then eventually Mars. Upon reaching office, the Obama administration performed a detailed analysis of NASA's priorities and budget, which revealed some ugly truths: NASA didn't have the money to build the systems needed to accomplish any of this, and even if it were to get a budget infusion, the schedule was unworkable. The report recommended we give up on Mars, skip the Moon, and focus on developing the technology to enable long-duration space travel.

That "detailed analysis" seems to support landing on asteroids. What a waste of time. Just like Mars. We can't even get to the Moon on a regular basis and some losers want to go much much farther. Go figure. The ISS is going to fall down in a few years. Great success from that quarter so far.

The Moon would be the biggest construction project in history. From the Moon, after a few decades, we could go to Mars and asteroids. The Moon is the launchpad to be a genuine spacefaring civilization.

Plus, plus, the Moon has water, and water makes fuel and keeps us alive. The tech to go to the Moon has been around since 1969. Very doable.

 

[ironsides]

The Moon is ready for corporations to start thinking about exploiting. Governments will continue to fund projects like deep space probes and travel.

http://www.popsci.com/technology/article/2010-02/nasa-budget-constellation-officially-canned-deep-space-future-bright


Space Probes Cut - San Jose Mercury News

 

[dumpthemonarchy]

The Moon is ready for corporations to start thinking about exploiting. Governments will continue to fund projects like deep space probes and travel.

http://www.popsci.com/technology/article/2010-02/nasa-budget-constellation-officially-canned-deep-space-future-bright


Space Probes Cut - San Jose Mercury News

$26 billion it looks like for not much over the next five years. NASA is one govt bonndoggle now. Probes and robots are dull, no spacefairing civilization here.