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posted by
martyb
on Wednesday June 08 2016, @09:17AM
from the build-a-space-elevator-on-the-moon dept.
from the build-a-space-elevator-on-the-moon dept.
NASA seems hell bent to go to Mars, but can't afford to on its own.
Its international partners have no stomach for that — they would would rather return to our moon and build a base there for further exploration.
Doesn't going back to the moon make more sense? Build a base on the moon, and use its low gravity and possible water at the poles as propellant for further space exploration?
Why not the moon first?
http://www.theverge.com/2016/6/7/11868840/moon-return-journey-to-mars-nasa-congress-space-policy
Links:
From NASA itself, in 2008: https://www.nasa.gov/centers/goddard/news/series/moon/why_go_back.html
The all-knowing, ever-trustworthy: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Colonization_of_the_Moon
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Should We Skip Mars for Now and Go to the Moon Again?
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Wow! Look!! A stray meatball!! Let's interview it!
(Score: 2) by TheLink on Wednesday June 08 2016, @11:44AM
In contrast what I propose is actual science. It would be filling in important blanks in our knowledge. That data would be useful for knowing what might happen to humans if we stayed on the Moon or Mars for long term vs 1G in a space station. If NASA isn't interested in such stuff then it should stop wasting money on manned missions and stick to sending bots.
With our current tech we won't be able to change the gravity/long-term acceleration on Mars that easily but we can adjust it in a suitably designed/equipped space station. So if it turns out that humans can't stay long term on Mars due to insufficient gravity, then it would be better to focus our time and resources on building better space-stations with artificial gravity, instead of wasting any time and resources on building bases on Mars. We can reconsider Mars once we've developed the tech to deal with the gravity problem there.
If NASA's real mission is still about ego-trips and entertaining the masses perhaps they should do a reality TV show called "Vote Them Off The Planet".
* Our finite planet has vast resources but they are not infinite. We are hitting Earth Overshoot Day earlier and earlier each year. Perhaps we still have enough time and resources to waste on such stuff. Whatever it is I doubt I'd live long enough for it to be a big problem for me. To me it's like pointing out an error in someone else's homework.
(Score: 2) by Runaway1956 on Wednesday June 08 2016, @02:08PM
It really doesn't matter a whole lot what the science says will happen to people in space. We're going to go anyway. Look at the earth - men in coal mines, men in copper mines, people in diamond mines, people below the surface of the ocean, more people in Antarctica. People go where they can make a buck, and damn the consequences. If Elon Musk (or anyone else) can provide the transportation, there will be people standing in line to get in on the action. Soon thereafter, corporations will be standing in line to send people to perform whatever tasks seem appropriate.
I'm still waiting for Mary Kay to "discover" that moon dust makes all of their cosmetics more effective. You'll see thousands of rocket drivers making the run to the moon to bring back a load of dust. Rocket driver will become just another profession, like truck driver.
(Score: 1, Redundant) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday June 08 2016, @04:48PM
Rocket driver will become just another profession for AIs, like truck driver.
FTFY
(Score: 2) by frojack on Wednesday June 08 2016, @05:42PM
Pretty much agree with this, other than the dismissive treatment of a return to the moon.
The moon is a perfect test-bed for growing things, and low gravity survival, artificial gravity testing, etc, etc, etc.
In addition it is close enough to serve as an industrial base, from which launching stuff is way cheaper.
We could build structures above and below the surface by sintering local materials.
The single biggest issue will be landing a power plant (or two) large enough to provide for heat, power, water extraction, sintering, smelting, welding and 3D printing.
With spare parts only a month away (maybe mere minutes away with 3D printing) the moon is doable, unlike mars where the first minor breakage probably means a mad scramble that can't succeed for three to six months in the best possible scenario.
Best of all, it will teach us how to get along without an atmosphere, because dreams of building an atmosphere on mars just aren't going to come true.
No, you are mistaken. I've always had this sig.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday June 08 2016, @10:37PM
This is so comically optimistic. We are going to be on Earth forever until it melts or ices over. There is no possible scenario where humans will live anywhere else even in our solar system. Space is utterly inhospitable and we are absolutely suited to this niche. We might send robots or lichen or bacteria but we are HOME.
A power plant on the moon? How about putting a power plant at the bottom of the Mariana Trench? That would be easier, and just as useful. I.e. absolutely useless.
(Score: 2) by jmorris on Thursday June 09 2016, @02:28AM
Not really. The Moon is a perfect staging base to launch out into the rest of the Solar System. Every resource we are going to run out of here is out there, except dead dino. We are going to go get that abundance eventually. The first people will be strictly out there for the money, intending to get rich and then come home, like a lot of people do today working in nasty places. Eventually though there will be enough people out there that a few places will become hospitable enough that people will decide to call it home. And it is actually easier to deal with the cold empty nothing of space than the bottom of the ocean.
(Score: 2, Touché) by khallow on Thursday June 09 2016, @03:31AM
There is no possible scenario where humans will live anywhere else even in our solar system.
Science fiction throws those out all the time. Your scenario of the impossibility of permanent human habitation of space is just as much a fiction. Given that humanity has a habit of doing impossible things (which turn out to not actually be impossible), I really don't see the point of your argument.
Space is utterly inhospitable and we are absolutely suited to this niche.
We already live in space. The engineering problem here is not to figure out how to survive in space, but figure out how to build enough of the environment of Earth to turn the "utterly inhospitable" into hospitable.
A power plant on the moon? How about putting a power plant at the bottom of the Mariana Trench? That would be easier, and just as useful. I.e. absolutely useless.
Unless, of course, you need it to power something on the Moon or at the bottom of the Mariana Trench, then it becomes useful. It's worth noting that we've already powered things on the Moon and at the bottom of the Mariana Trench. They were useful when we did that too.
(Score: 1) by khallow on Thursday June 09 2016, @04:02AM
How about putting a power plant at the bottom of the Mariana Trench? That would be easier, and just as useful. I.e. absolutely useless.
As an aside, the area of the Mariana Trench is about 15 square kilometers. It's a small nook on Earth. The Moon has an area of almost 15 million square km. I find it interesting how the people talking about the impossibility of space colonization pick the most provincial examples on Earth.