NASA rules out manned Moon mission in the foreseeable future

http://www.theverge.com ^ | April 7, 2013 11:58 am | By Aaron Souppouris

[redreno]

NASA administrator Charles Bolden has dismissed the idea that the space agency will attempt another manned Moon mission. Speaking with contemporaries, Bolden said "NASA will not take the lead on a human lunar mission... probably in my lifetime." Bolden added that if the next administration reverses NASA's decision it would set back the manned space program in its entirety. He warned that, should we divert resources towards a manned moon mission in the future, we would probably never "see Americans on the Moon, on Mars, near an asteroid, or anywhere" in our lifetimes, explaining that "we cannot continue to change the course of human exploration."

[Nowhere Man]

Very soon, there will be no more people alive that have been on another planet.

I know, that is a true, "minority of a minority," people who have walked on the Moon. In known history, there have only been twelve and already four have passed on. B-( Also, to remember seeing a man walk on the Moon live on TV, you have to be over 40. It was an amazing time, despite our problems with Vietnam and other things, we did manage to reach out to the stars and space and then we retreated and turned back. We wasted those 40 years plus and are still doing so now. I support the ISS, we do need to be up there somehow but we should have done better. A side note, I'm an amateur radio operator, they have a ham radio setup aboard the ISS so I might try to contact them as they orbit over.

[Jack Hydrazine]

I guess NASA’s new trailer, “We Are the Explorers,” is just a melodramatic flight of fantasy.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e7DEw70LVWs

Let commercial space take us to the stars.

[Nowhere Man]

A sad day for the USA to leave space travel. Heck even the Russians are still in space and they are in deeper Doo Doo that we are. They are making space pay! They won, not by skill but persistence.

In a way, the space race was a tie. We made it to the Moon but the Russians simulated long duration space flight, something that needs to be studied unless we find a much faster way to get to Mars and beyond. I got to hand it to them, they have problems as you pointed out but they are still chugging to put people up there.

[HenpeckedCon]

The Moon? I thought NASA’s main mission is to make Mooselimbs feel good about themselves?

[Atlas Sneezed]

The Space Race (to the moon) is over.

We won.

---

And manned spaceflight then was at the brief moment in history when computers were just good enough to help man get to the moon, but still bad enough that the men were needed.

Men are no longer needed in space, and robots can do 10 times as much for one tenth the price. Consider 500 robotic missions to Mars over 25 years, each building on the knowledge and technology from those that preceded it. Compared to efforts to send a couple men to Mars, which might happen in 25 years, learn virtually nothing, possibly fail tragically, and cost 10x as much.

[St_Thomas_Aquinas]

Human beings in space makes a gripping story. It’s about marketing.

[dfwgator]

[Verginius Rufus]

The solution is to send Muslims to the moon. I suggest John Brennan, Louis Farrakhan, and Keith Ellison.

I'm not saying "send them to the moon and bring them back."

[dfwgator]

[LachlanMinnesota]

I don’t mind waiting, because the cost of constructing the Mosque in Lacus Mortis would be prohibitive, and it is hard to bow facing Mecca when it is up.

[MasterGunner01]

Not enough Muslim outreach in it. Their flying carpet’s software isn’t space flight qualified.

[yefragetuwrabrumuy]

Sending manned missions makes less sense than sending robotic missions. Specifically a nuclear powered tunneling robot on a one way mission.

The idea is that once the entire spacecraft carrying it lands on the Moon, the robot will disembark, then move to likely the horizontal wall of a crater. Trailing behind it will be a tube with a “conveyor belt” within, that will take the dirt and crushed rubble from the base of the front of the tunneler, and carry it outside to a tailing heap.

As the robot begins to tunnel into the rock, it does not have to be fast, just thorough. Even an inch a day is good, as there are no people around, and in a year it could tunnel over 30 feet.

At intervals, it could drill into the ceiling rock and insert reinforcing rods, which is standard practice in hard rock mining on Earth, and protects the tunnel from collapse.

Then, as it backs out of the finished tunnel, it sprays all surfaces with sealant against micro-fissures.

Its spaceship can now be cannibalized for auto-sealing pressure doors at the tunnel entrance, as well as floors, walls, and ceiling, already wired to carry electricity.

The tunneling robot then tunnels its own shelter next to the entrance of the primary tunnel, with its own door, and a cable connecting it to the outer pressure door of the main tunnel. Thus it provides electricity and heat to the tunnel when the astronauts arrive.

The tunnel can even be pressurized, to check it for leaks over an extended period of time.

The purpose of the exercise is so the astronauts can carry much more supplies and equipment with them, and so that from that point on, Lunar missions will be cumulative, not just one-shots.

[hopespringseternal]

Men are no longer needed in space, and robots can do 10 times as much for one tenth the price. Consider 500 robotic missions to Mars over 25 years, each building on the knowledge and technology from those that preceded it. Compared to efforts to send a couple men to Mars, which might happen in 25 years, learn virtually nothing, possibly fail tragically, and cost 10x as much.

That is just ignorant. A robot can only answer questions it was designed to answer when it was designed years before on earth. As soon as it comes across something unexpected it is completely worthless.

And we do good to get a mission in every couple of years, and most of the time it ends up being longer than that. That means 12 missions in 25 years. In no way would 12 robotic missions compare to one manned mission.

But you don't need to worry: NASA will never go anywhere again. They are a make-work federal bureaucracy, ever notice how they never plan to get anywhere quicker than the next couple of administrations? That pretty much guarantees anything initiated will be canceled and they know it.

Bolden is absolutely worthless, but he is more honest than most administrators in that he admits NASA will never do anything truly worthwhile again. We don't need to spend .5% of the budget to send probes to Mars. A university could do it (actually, a university does do the actual spacecraft part of it) for a lot less and just contract the launch out.

[Carbonsteel]

REALLY!!!!

Since we don't even have a manned space program at the moment and have to rely on our enemies to get to our own space station NOT GOING TO THE MOON WAS A FOREGONE CONCLUSION!

Thanks for the news flash though. You can go back to your Muslim outreach now.

Try not to leave chapstick on Obama’s ass.

[OKRA2012]

Space should still be explored, but that exploration does not need to be done by actually having humans on spacecrafts. Instead, automated systems can do all that humans do and at a smaller cost.

[colorado tanker]

I still remember exactly where I was watching the first moonwalk. Wow, that was special.

[1217Chic]

I miss cranking up the launches so my TV would shake ):