Stories
Slash Boxes
Comments

SoylentNews is people

posted by Fnord666 on Wednesday September 16 2020, @01:12PM   Printer-friendly
from the going-back-to-the-old-neighborhood dept.

Bridenstine hints Artemis 3 could land near Apollo site

NASA Administrator Jim Bridenstine suggested Sept. 14 that NASA would be open to sending the first Artemis human landing mission to a location other than the south pole of the moon.

In remarks at an online meeting of the Lunar Exploration Analysis Group (LEAG), Bridenstine said there could be benefits to sending a mission to the moon's equatorial regions instead, including the vicinity of an Apollo landing site.

"If you're going to go to the equatorial region again, how are you going to learn the most? You could argue that you'll learn the most by going to the places where we put gear in the past," he said, referring to the equipment left behind at the Apollo landing sites.

"There could be scientific discoveries there and, of course, just the inspiration of going back to an original Apollo site would be pretty amazing as well," he said. He also cited creating "norms of behavior" for protecting those sites from other expeditions.

NASA has been working toward returning humans to the moon at in the south polar regions, where deposits of water ice thought to exist there are both of scientific interest and may provide resources to support human exploration.


Original Submission

This discussion has been archived. No new comments can be posted.
Display Options Threshold/Breakthrough Mark All as Read Mark All as Unread
The Fine Print: The following comments are owned by whoever posted them. We are not responsible for them in any way.
(1)
  • (Score: 2, Interesting) by khallow on Wednesday September 16 2020, @01:29PM (6 children)

    by khallow (3766) Subscriber Badge on Wednesday September 16 2020, @01:29PM (#1051689) Journal
    It'd strengthen legal claims to protect such sites as heritage sites too since the US would actually be using the site as such.
    • (Score: 3, Insightful) by legont on Wednesday September 16 2020, @02:44PM (5 children)

      by legont (4179) on Wednesday September 16 2020, @02:44PM (#1051728)

      It would also allow to establish such a site in case, you know, no site ever existed.
      I am not in the moon landing conspiracy camp, mind you, but it appears we do everything possible to keep it going.

      --
      "Wealth is the relentless enemy of understanding" - John Kenneth Galbraith.
      • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday September 16 2020, @02:51PM (4 children)

        by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday September 16 2020, @02:51PM (#1051735)

        fuck it. I initially didn't care where they'd go, but now I really want them to go to the first landing site, just to feed into the conspiracy theories. it's good to have an easy "are you crazy" distinction to clean up the social bubble.

        • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday September 16 2020, @03:17PM (2 children)

          by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday September 16 2020, @03:17PM (#1051758)

          I'd be curious as to how they're going to haul a new "old" lunar lander, new "old" flag and new "old" footprints up there

          • (Score: 1) by khallow on Thursday September 17 2020, @12:24AM

            by khallow (3766) Subscriber Badge on Thursday September 17 2020, @12:24AM (#1052037) Journal

            I'd be curious as to how they're going to haul a new "old" lunar lander, new "old" flag and new "old" footprints up there

            It's a long way to the Mojave Desert studio, amirite? ;-)

          • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday September 17 2020, @04:18AM

            by Anonymous Coward on Thursday September 17 2020, @04:18AM (#1052088)

            there are people who claim that the earth is flat and gravity is simply the result of the earth accelerating "upwards", just like Einstein explained with general relativity. i'm certain an explanation for the recreation of the Apollo sites will be provided.

        • (Score: 2) by barbara hudson on Wednesday September 16 2020, @05:07PM

          by barbara hudson (6443) <barbara.Jane.hudson@icloud.com> on Wednesday September 16 2020, @05:07PM (#1051848) Journal
          Didn't you get the memo? They believe covid isn't real, so they don't take precautions, so they are eliminated from the gene pool. Self selected for stupidity , their deaths will increase the general populations intelligence.
          --
          SoylentNews is social media. Says so right in the slogan. Soylentnews is people, not tech.
  • (Score: 1, Flamebait) by c0lo on Wednesday September 16 2020, @01:46PM (2 children)

    by c0lo (156) Subscriber Badge on Wednesday September 16 2020, @01:46PM (#1051700) Journal

    Is this like the warm fuzzy feeling of "remember those times we used to reminisce together?"

    --
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aoFiw2jMy-0 https://soylentnews.org/~MichaelDavidCrawford
    • (Score: 3, Touché) by ikanreed on Wednesday September 16 2020, @02:07PM

      by ikanreed (3164) Subscriber Badge on Wednesday September 16 2020, @02:07PM (#1051714) Journal

      It's because it's cheaper than building a totally new set.

    • (Score: 2) by takyon on Wednesday September 16 2020, @02:26PM

      by takyon (881) <reversethis-{gro ... s} {ta} {noykat}> on Wednesday September 16 2020, @02:26PM (#1051721) Journal

      "If you're going to go to the equatorial region again, how are you going to learn the most? You could argue that you'll learn the most by going to the places where we put gear in the past," he said, referring to the equipment left behind at the Apollo landing sites.

      That argument isn't terrible. It's similar to the idea behind CAESAR [wikipedia.org] which would have revisited an already visited comet, collecting a sample but also looking to see how conditions changed between the two missions (luckily, Dragonfly was picked instead). Maybe the Artemis astronauts can study some old astronaut poop bags while they're at an Apollo landing site.

      You could also argue that the first landing mission is a test run and it doesn't matter as much where you go. Later missions in the Artemis program would have longer durations (60 total days vs. 30 days), enabled by a "surface lunar outpost known as the Foundation Habitat along with the Mobile Habitat". Those should be sent to the south polar region.

      https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Artemis_program#Planned_missions [wikipedia.org]
      https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Artemis_3 [wikipedia.org]

      Many of the assumptions about the Artemis program are still intact: a landing as soon as 2024, the inclusion of a Lunar Gateway, and the use of SLS. All of that could end up not happening, so why commit to a particular landing site?

      --
      [SIG] 10/28/2017: Soylent Upgrade v14 [soylentnews.org]
  • (Score: 1, Offtopic) by sjames on Wednesday September 16 2020, @03:20PM (1 child)

    by sjames (2882) on Wednesday September 16 2020, @03:20PM (#1051760) Journal

    But I wanted to see pictures of the moon penguins!

    Meanwhile, I can just hear the moon-landing-is-fake nutters now. "Can you believe it? NASA actually landed on the moon to prove that they landed on the moon! Is there any length they won't go to to maintain their little hoax that Man has visited the moon?".

    • (Score: 2) by barbara hudson on Wednesday September 16 2020, @03:49PM

      by barbara hudson (6443) <barbara.Jane.hudson@icloud.com> on Wednesday September 16 2020, @03:49PM (#1051787) Journal

      We could offer to send them all there, in "B Ark" scenario.

      And then spread the conspiracy theory that instead of their vessel blowing up, they actually made it and don't want to come back because the Heinlein story of the moon being covered is n diamonds is true, and de Beers has a huge operation on the far side. And moon mermaids.

      Proof? Well, they didn't come back, did they? And tee explosion? Didn't you read Operation Capricorn? Or see the movie? It's all documented!

      --
      SoylentNews is social media. Says so right in the slogan. Soylentnews is people, not tech.
  • (Score: 1, Offtopic) by barbara hudson on Wednesday September 16 2020, @03:41PM (2 children)

    by barbara hudson (6443) <barbara.Jane.hudson@icloud.com> on Wednesday September 16 2020, @03:41PM (#1051778) Journal

    Go ahead, ruin another historical site.

    If you're going there, at least pick up the shitty diapers you left behind on the last visit. And forget about testing for signs of life there - that site is contaminated.

    --
    SoylentNews is social media. Says so right in the slogan. Soylentnews is people, not tech.
    • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday September 16 2020, @09:26PM (1 child)

      by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday September 16 2020, @09:26PM (#1051965)

      There is the argument that the footprints are historic since they last forever. So a 2nd set of footprints is a bit gauche.

      • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday September 16 2020, @11:26PM

        by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday September 16 2020, @11:26PM (#1052011)

        Yes, but they will be a woman's footprints.

  • (Score: 3, Funny) by DECbot on Wednesday September 16 2020, @05:28PM

    by DECbot (832) on Wednesday September 16 2020, @05:28PM (#1051868) Journal

    I guess they found the original Apollo movie sets and props used to film the moon landings then.

    --
    cats~$ sudo chown -R us /home/base
  • (Score: 3, Insightful) by ElizabethGreene on Wednesday September 16 2020, @10:35PM (1 child)

    by ElizabethGreene (6748) Subscriber Badge on Wednesday September 16 2020, @10:35PM (#1051998) Journal

    Setting aside the jokes about how good the CGI will look this time... We've visited 6 spots on the moon and we still have unopened rock samples from each of those locations. I don't see the compelling argument for going back to the same spots. We can do some cool materials science on the junk we left behind (from before I was born), but It's a huge moon, and we've seen very little of it.

    Lets get some samples from inside large permanently shadowed craters, identify some Lava Tubes, confirm that the Young scarps are from contraction, or visit Montes Apenninus so we can understand the mechanics of mountain formation on a world without obvious hydrology or tectonics.

    That would be cool too, I guess.

    • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday September 17 2020, @02:21PM

      by Anonymous Coward on Thursday September 17 2020, @02:21PM (#1052180)

      It does seem like optics over science. Shocked to see such a thing from this administration.

(1)