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from the Whatever-happened-to-the-six-million-dollar-*man*? dept.
Gateway Moon station: Canada joins Nasa space project
Canada will contribute US$1.4bn to a proposed Nasa space station that will orbit the Moon and act as a base to land astronauts on its surface.
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said the step would "push the boundaries of innovation".
The space station, called Gateway, is a key element in Nasa's plan to return to the Moon with humans in the 2020s.
As part of the 24-year commitment, Canada will build a next-generation robotic arm for the new lunar outpost.
"Canada is going to the Moon," Mr Trudeau told a news conference at Canadian Space Agency's headquarters near Montreal, according to AFP.
*Canada is going near the Moon.
Also at CBC and Popular Mechanics.
Previously: Russia Assembles Engineering Group for Lunar Activities and the Deep Space Gateway
China Will Focus on a Lunar Surface Station Rather than a Lunar Orbiting Station
SpaceX's Falcon Heavy Could Launch Japanese and European Payloads to Lunar Orbital Platform-Gateway
Head of Russian Space Agency Roscosmos Wavers on Lunar Orbital Platform-Gateway
Is the Lunar Orbital Platform-Gateway the Right Way to the Moon?
Related: Future of U.S.-Russian Space Cooperation in Doubt
ESA Plans to Send Mining Equipment to the Moon
(Score: 2) by Runaway1956 on Sunday March 03 2019, @09:47AM (5 children)
Well, hell, it's going to cost that much to haul a Canadian polar bear up there, with enough food to keep him healthy.
Whoops, my mistake. Need enough food the keep HER healthy, and her cubs when she gives birth. Canada is looking for the "First female to give birth in space" headline. The following TV season, we'll be inundated with broadcasts from the north. "Cubs in Space!"
(Score: 2, Offtopic) by realDonaldTrump on Sunday March 03 2019, @10:52AM
Justin has a Cabinet full of women. And men. He did half and half. Because he likes it that way. He likes both. And that's O.K. Let me tell you, I'm breaking the glass ceiling on behalf of women. In space, the Universe and the everywhere else. Russia, many years ago, sent a woman to space. They sent their best -- Valentina. But, she wasn't a soldier. We're sending our great, and very brave soldiers. True WAR fighters -- true warriors. Space Force. I'm working as hard as I can to get that one started. It is not enough to merely have an American presence in space. We must have American dominance in space. America First!!!!
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday March 04 2019, @12:17AM (3 children)
Trudeau would happily pay $1.4 billion to send his former attorney-general to space. She fucked him real good!
(Score: 2) by Runaway1956 on Monday March 04 2019, @12:33AM (2 children)
That will work too. Can you get her pregnant in time for launch? Do the math, now - we want her at about 8 months at liftoff!
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday March 04 2019, @01:22AM (1 child)
If you've seen her picture, you'll know the answer is no. She's half Indian, half buffalo.
(Score: 2) by Runaway1956 on Monday March 04 2019, @09:19AM
Awwww, man up! Do it for science!
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday March 03 2019, @12:51PM
They came up with one okish pun and plan to coast on that until the singularity it seems.
https://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.ca/en/article/canadarm [thecanadianencyclopedia.ca]
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday March 03 2019, @02:07PM (4 children)
A smart old engineer I know mentioned that he worked at Iowa State in the '50s and was a bit player in James van Allen's discovery/mapping of the radiation belts trapped by Earth's magnetic field. Based on the strength of the radiation (it's very strong), this guy is convinced that no one could have gone to the Moon and survived the radiation dosage. Thus, he's in the "Moon landing faked" camp, even claims that some astronauts nearly drowned while filming scenes underwater...
Without knowing much beyond what I've read casually, I can accept that the combination of choosing a path through a thinner area of radiation (away from the Equator), plus some shielding, kept the dose to an acceptable level.
Any one know if radiation has been discussed relative to current plans for people to go back to the Moon?
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday March 03 2019, @05:18PM (1 child)
i thought the van-allen belt was the space-based oil spill equivalent to the gulf of mexico disaster after the starfish upper athmosphere ..uhm ..err ... well that thing that won the 2nd world war in asia?
unfortunately there are no space-based bacteria that digest that .. uhm ... stuff that lingers after that starfish "experiment" so
it's not a bug but a feature? ^_^
(Score: 2) by takyon on Sunday March 03 2019, @05:34PM
Van Allen belts are natural. Starfish Prime test created artificial radiation belts, but they didn't last for decades:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Starfish_Prime#After_effects [wikipedia.org]
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_artificial_radiation_belts [wikipedia.org]
[SIG] 10/28/2017: Soylent Upgrade v14 [soylentnews.org]
(Score: 2) by takyon on Sunday March 03 2019, @05:20PM
Radiation risks appear to be greatly overestimated.
It's nothing good for astronauts, but NASA's definition of an unacceptable radiation risk is basically a more than 3% risk of exposure-induced death. Which could happen many years later.
https://spaceradiation.jsc.nasa.gov/irModels/TP-2013-217375.pdf [nasa.gov]
Apparently astronauts aboard LOP-G will be limited to stays of one month, or possibly longer [planetary.org]. Compare to ISS stays of beyond 1 year.
If some country actually reaches the surface of the Moon to build a Moon base, they could use lunar soil for shielding or go into a pre-existing "cave" [soylentnews.org].
[SIG] 10/28/2017: Soylent Upgrade v14 [soylentnews.org]
(Score: 2) by MichaelDavidCrawford on Monday March 04 2019, @03:25AM
Just once I've seen an accurately scaled diagram of the Apollo Trajectory; it went quite far South on the way out then quite far North on the way back. Or vice-versa.
That accurately-scaled diagram indicated that it was quite a lot more to the North or to the South than the diameter of the entire Earth.
Yes I Have No Bananas. [gofundme.com]
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday March 03 2019, @05:13PM (1 child)
"
According to Space News, Canadian aerospace companies have been lobbying government for years for a new investment for space programmes.
Key to the construction and utilisation of Gateway is the Orion capsule, built by Lockheed Martin, which will eventually transport crews to the orbiting outpost and dock with it.
Orion will be launched on the new, heavy-lift SLS rocket, which is derived in part from technology developed for the space shuttle programme.
"
spacebased-pork-BBQ, eventually, in the near future, someday, maybe?
(Score: 3, Informative) by takyon on Sunday March 03 2019, @05:30PM
https://www.nextbigfuture.com/2018/09/will-the-us-waste-100-billion-on-sls-orion-and-lop-g-by-2030.html [nextbigfuture.com]
A pile of burning tires, pork, and poop.
[SIG] 10/28/2017: Soylent Upgrade v14 [soylentnews.org]
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday March 03 2019, @09:53PM (1 child)
He'll be gone in October if not sooner. Ironically, he got fucked by a woman.
(Score: 2) by MichaelDavidCrawford on Monday March 04 2019, @03:18AM
While I personally do not regard men as attractive in any way other than for purely intellectual reasons - for their writing, for their code and the like - Justin Trudeau is one of the very few for whom I pop a woody through no other means than the simple contemplation of his photograph.
Yes I Have No Bananas. [gofundme.com]
(Score: 2) by Gaaark on Monday March 04 2019, @01:00AM
He probably just tweeted "Hey NASA, let's DO this!"
What. a. twat.
The only thing worse than having him in government is that when he's tossed out it will probably be a conservative government that will be worse.
--- Please remind me if I haven't been civil to you: I'm channeling MDC. ---Gaaark 2.0 ---
(Score: 2) by MichaelDavidCrawford on Monday March 04 2019, @03:16AM
Of course it's plainly apparent that to supply fuel in LEO orbit or in Lunar Orbit is what we want.
But nobody ever mentions why that's never been so much as talked about:
To launch so very much liquid fuel, to handle such large, inertially-massive tanks of liquid gas would be dangerous.
Just imaging that one hundred tons of LO2 were drifting in your general direction at one inch per second.
Yes I Have No Bananas. [gofundme.com]
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday March 04 2019, @03:32PM
> Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said the step would "push the boundaries of innovation".
He's gonna send prostitutes to the moon?