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"NASA has largely been living off the successes of space projects launched up to a decade ago — including the now 'dead' Mars Opportunity rover. It hopes to launch its first manned space flight since the demise of the Space Shuttle program in 2011.
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But now the Trump administration appears to be determined to get a new Moon project off the ground. And it's eager to pay private companies to carry its cargoes.
NASA has been considering the prospect of a 'Lunar Gateway' space station placed in orbit around the Moon, acting as a stopover point for missions to the surface and, perhaps, Mars.
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NASA documents indicate the earliest date for an American to tread the lunar surface again is 2028." foxnews.com/science/nasas-new-grand-space-race-plan
Hopefully we can speed that one up.
(Score: 2, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday February 21 2019, @09:33PM (8 children)
All Presidents have had bold space ideas, but the nitty gritty of reality keep biting into such ideas.
1. Money: During recessions there's pressure to clip out non-essentials, and recessions typically come about every 10 years. Plus, we have bigly debt now.
2. Politics: Congress has to agree to fund space ideas, and sometimes they will disagree simply because it came from the other party. Party A doesn't want to give Party B bragging points for the next election.
3. Privatization limits: NASA has been trying to increase privatization for a long time. Most space systems are already built by private contractors. The problem is that many missions are often one-off projects such as to not provide the necessarily competition and repetition to push market forces further.
(Score: 2) by bob_super on Thursday February 21 2019, @10:08PM (4 children)
Three reasons while the Chinese will get there first, even if they use old-school rockets and not 21st-century reusable ones.
(Score: 2) by martyb on Thursday February 21 2019, @10:34PM (3 children)
Ummm... "will" get there first? They have already been there [wikipedia.org]. And, they are back at it again, but this time on the far side [wikipedia.org] of the moon; the first time ever by anyone.
Wit is intellect, dancing.
(Score: 2) by bob_super on Thursday February 21 2019, @11:08PM (2 children)
I meant actual Chinese people.
The US got to the Moon when it had a Russian fire under its ass, then decided it had enough boxes checked and ICBM street cred.
Moving to LEO with the Shuttle was driven by military requirements too. Every other human spaceflight has been half-hearted for lack of a clear military scenario.
The Chinese get their turn at proving they are to be reckoned with, but they are doing without trying to be first or biggest, just focused on the long game.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday February 22 2019, @12:38AM
I think you used "while" subconsciously because you're secretly Xi Jinping trying to keep people apathetic while you take over the moon.
We're on to you!!! The Moon belongs to the US, everyone says so.
(Score: 2) by martyb on Friday February 22 2019, @02:07AM
As I understand it, the reason the USA stopped the space race was the general public did not see the value of going to the moon again. At that time, the economy was going downhill and spending $$$$ on space when there were pressing problems and protests down here on Earth which were also vying for funding... well, eventually, Apollo got cut.
As for the shuttle being military. My understanding was that to try and salvage enough funding to get it off the ground (heh!), they needed to form an alliance with the defense department. That resulted in new requirements that made the shuttle more expensive. If NASA could have gotten away with funding the shuttle without involving the military, I'm sure they would have actually preferred that.
Agreed that China is in it for the long game. ISTR they are planning a moon base in not--too-many years. Yup! Here's a link [space.com]. I have little doubt that they are capable of making it happen, too. That just *might* wake up the powers-that-be in the USA to sit up and pay attention. May even get more funding for NASA. OTOH, there would be plenty of funding for NASA, and IMNSHO much more progress, if congress just told NASA what they wanted and left it to NASA to figure out how they wanted to go about getting it!
Wit is intellect, dancing.
(Score: 4, Touché) by DannyB on Thursday February 21 2019, @10:31PM
But all previous presidents, as you say, have been constrained by reality.
The lower I set my standards the more accomplishments I have.
(Score: 2) by tangomargarine on Friday February 22 2019, @03:14PM
Just give them some of the ridiculous amounts of money we spend on the military, damn.
"Is that really true?" "I just spent the last hour telling you to think for yourself! Didn't you hear anything I said?"
(Score: 2) by DeathMonkey on Friday February 22 2019, @07:55PM
All Presidents have had bold space ideas
And they should stop it!
Changing directions every four or eight years on projects that can take decades is completely ridiculous.