Posted on 09/05/2017 7:25:53 AM PDT by BenLurkin
In May, NASA announced that it would invest funds in 10 mission concepts involving small satellites called cubesats. Recently, the agency released more details about one of those concepts — the Bi-sat Observations of the Lunar Atmosphere above Swirls (BOLAS) mission concept.
The mission would involve two small satellites, each about the size of a shoebox, connected vertically above the lunar surface by a long, thin tether, like some kind of miniature sky crane. The cubesat at one end of the tether would orbit the moon at an altitude of about 118 miles (189 km), which would place the second cubesat about 6 miles (9.6 km) above the lunar surface. From that position, the satellite could study those strange features in detail. [Amazing Moon Photos from NASA's Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter]
To put a lone satellite into orbit around the moon at an altitude of 6 miles (9.6 km) above the surface, for an extended period of time, would require "a prohibitive amount of fuel," according to the statement. This is largely because of irregularities in the moon's gravity along its surface, which can push or pull a satellite out of orbit.
Tethered satellites are therefore "a very natural approach for targeting lunar science," Michael Collier, a BOLAS co-investigator, said in the statement. Collier has been studying tether-based lunar missions since 2015 and called the BOLAS mission concept "groundbreaking."
The satellite would be able to study "lunar swirls," or regions of light-colored material on the moon's surface that, in addition to their lighter color, appear to be less weathered than the dark regions around them. Scientists think the light regions form because of magnetic material in the lunar crust, which would create magnetic-field lines and attract more magnetic material on the surface.
(Excerpt) Read more at space.com ...
Corruption to the max to line the pockets of the politically connected. Hell ain't hot enough.
That’s RACIST!...................
Tanks? Seriously? If 3 feet of rain fell over 1,000 square miles, then you would need a tank 30 feet tall covering 100 square miles. Right.
Now returning to your regularly scheduled Lunar Science article...
“In May, NASA announced that it would invest funds in 10 mission concepts involving small satellites called cubesats.”
I don’t disagree that the tank thing would be worthless, but read between the lines on the above statement taken from the article. It says NASA would invest funds in the mission. It doesn’t say they are fully funding it. Who’s going to pick up the tab? The current price to do what they want to do, without the follow on work on the devices at the moon, is around $2 million dollars. And that’s just to get it off the ground.
Wanna bet they are expecting residual from Uncle Sugar? That equates to your and my tax money to take a closer look at something that makes no difference to us at all and have been around for billions of years and are causerd by the impact of pieces of asteroids and comets. Why do you climb a mountain? Because it’s there. And for no real reason at all. Except to spend money we don’t have.
rwood
Lol...my thoughts exactly.....how bout dealing with weather events and climates as they happen...can’t tax unusual weather events out of existence...
Even the moon has a tramp stamp?
Couple a sensor to the tether and monitor for the moment-to-moment resonant pitch change, which could allow detection of a small concentrated gravitational anomaly. Think of it as prospecting from low altitude for a hidden mass of heavy metals.
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