NASA accepts delivery of European powerhouse for moonship

Associated Press ^ | November 16, 2018 | Marcia Dunn

[Olog-hai]

NASA has accepted delivery of a key European part needed to power the world’s next-generation moonship.

U.S. and European leaders gathered at Kennedy Space Center on Friday to mark the occasion.

The newly arrived powerhouse, or service module, will propel NASA’s Orion capsule to the moon during a test flight without passengers planned for 2020. A mega rocket under development by NASA, known as SLS for Space Launch System, will launch the combo. […]

Orion and the attached service module are meant to fly near the moon, but not land. Future missions will carry astronauts, with the goal of building an outpost just beyond the moon that could enable lunar landings and Mars expeditions. …

[Morpheus2009]

What if you built a station on the surface of the moon? Plenty of solar energy, although making sure sewage was maintained properly is another story, not to mention Oxygen.

[adorno]

...making sure sewage was maintained properly is another story

What's to worry about? Just let the sewage out in the open to get nuked by the sun and other space radiation, and, nothing should survive, not even the stink.

[Olog-hai]

I hope you didn’t mean for a moon base to be built on the daytime side of the moon, where surface temperatures exceed 200°F.

[fso301]

Plenty of solar energy,

Yep.

although making sure sewage was maintained properly is another story,

NASA has been recycling astronaut sewage for 50 years

not to mention Oxygen.

Lunar water can be split apart into oxygen and hydrogen

[blueunicorn6]

So the moon ship is not actually going to the moon?

“Ladies and gentlemen, the moon ship is now pulling into Peoria. This is the moonship’s last stop, so please be sure to collect up all of your belongings.”

[Empireoftheatom48]

There is no “daytime side of the Moon”, it rotates just like the earth.

[Billthedrill]

What if you built a station on the surface of the moon?

We'd have to fight for it.

[Olog-hai]

I did not say there was a permanent daytime side; I apologize if I mistakenly implied that. However, daytime on the moon lasts 13 days on Earth. Notwithstanding, a moon base that is stationary faces those problems I mentioned.

[Kickass Conservative]

It does rotate slowly, but the same side of the Moon always faces the Earth.

That’s why we can never see the Nazi Base on the “far” side of the Moon.

[Morpheus2009]

It is 13 days of daylight. The astronauts and their spacecraft were okay in the Sun, not to mention solar powered Rovers that operated in the sunlight.

[Morpheus2009]

That would mean getting the ice in the craters for Lunar water. Water on the surface would get vaporized and float away.

[ASOC]

LSLS actually carry something into space - by 2020?

Bawhahahaha (gasp) hahahaha. So late and massively over budget.

Maybe they can get a lift from Space X

[Governor Dinwiddie]

Moonships? My first thought is not now. Let private enterprise build their own "moonship". "Moonship" sounds like a project for Jerry Brown.
 

[Olog-hai]

That’s true, but maintenance of a more permanent structure would have to require a high degree of self sufficiency, and the expense to withstand the higher daytime moon temperatures could be prohibitive (what was experienced in space flight was extremely low temperatures, down as far as –454°F).

[reg45]

A station at either of the lunar poles would not suffer from the 13 day day / 13 day night problem.

[A Formerly Proud Canadian]

200°F
A foretaste of future glowbull warming, per Algore? < snark>

[PIF]

What if you built a station on the surface of the moon? Plenty of solar energy, although making sure sewage was maintained properly is another story, not to mention Oxygen.

---

Not to mention gamma rays and solar flares ... build under the moon in one of the lava tubes discovered recently.

[fieldmarshaldj]

*ping*

[SunkenCiv]

Thanks fieldmarshaldj.