Moon Science! NASA Needs Experiment Ideas for Commercial Lunar Landers

Space.com ^ | October 18, 2018 01:46pm ET | Meghan Bartels,

[BenLurkin]

NASA is keeping an open mind as to what precisely those commercial landers will look like, although the agency does want projects that have a scientific or technological focus. "We are looking for ways to not only conduct lunar science but to also use the moon as a science platform to look back at the Earth, observe the sun, or view the vast universe," Clarke said. "In terms of technology, we are interested in those instruments or systems that will help future missions — both human and robotic — explore the moon and feed forward to future Mars missions."

In order to be selected, projects must be able to fly no later than December 2021. Proposals are due Nov. 19. But if that deadline is coming up too quickly, don't panic — NASA says it will look for another round of suggestions in about a year.

[BitWielder1]

With proper design a telescope could be useful even when the sun is up, since there is no or very little atmosphere.
If that's not good enough, build two, one near the west and the other near the east far side, the time both are in sunlight at the same time would be relatively brief.
Radio telescopes could be better.

Figure out the best way to make building materials out of available moon material.
Figure out how to best dig down and make underground habitats, which would make better protection against radiation and meteorites than anything on the surface.
Discover and catalogue as many moon minerals as possible and figure out if each of them can be made useful for anything.
Find something that will make the whole adventure pay for itself.

[MAGAthon]

lunar intelligence!

18 Oct: Watts Up With That: Anthony Watts: Apollo astronaut & scientist rejects IPCC climate report
https://wattsupwiththat.com/2018/10/18/apollo-astronaut-scientist-rejects-ipcc-climate-report/

political smarts:

18 Oct: Watts Up With That: TRUMP IS RIGHT TO QUESTION CLIMATE CHANGE CAUSES
By Tom Harris and Jay Lehr
https://wattsupwiththat.com/2018/10/18/trump-is-right-to-question-climate-change-causes/

[ProtectOurFreedom]

Yep, let’s create a colony of moslems and test which moon rock they will bow down to. Can they figure out the direction to Mecca? What if they are actually kneeling to Los Angeles or Buenos Aires? Would they be able to build a return rocket out of indigenous materials?

So many unanswered questions that NASA could investigate.

[Rebelbase]

[BenLurkin]

Excellent!

[PIF]

In order to be selected, projects must be able to fly no later than December 2021. Proposals are due Nov. 19. But if that deadline is coming up too quickly, don’t panic - NASA says it will look for another round of suggestions in about a year.

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To be announced four days before expiration ...

[pfflier]

Develop a lunar lander that seats 200 Hondurans.

[Yossarian]

Dark side of the moon would be a nifty place for a telescope.

Radio telescope, sure.

Optical telescope? Sunlight, gravity, dust, and infrastructure needs makes a pure space-based system better.

[Safrguns]

Cracking Cheese Grommet!

[Safrguns]

Yeah NASA... Right!... we know what your up to!!!
WE KNOW IT WAS ALL FAKE!!!

Now we have evidence the earth is flat too!

Gee.. when u guys gonna give up on all this round earth stuff huh???

[BenLurkin]

http://www.lerctr.org/~transit/healy/jap.wav

[dhs12345]

:)

[CurlyDave]

There is no permanent dark side of the moon. There is a near side we can see and a far side we can’t, but any point gets two weeks of sun and two weeks of darkness.

And, compared to space, it is a terrible place for a telescope.

A major telescope is a large, very precise instrument. The temperature changes associated with going from full sun to full shade make any telescope very hard to design and very expensive compared to the uniform environment of space.

[Grimmy]

Are you saying Pink Floyd lied to me?

[EasySt]

As a serious proposal, they may wish to do some lunar surface experimentation with some Tesla coils and other charged field generating devices, with a view towards learning how to manage and control Lunar Dust.

Managing the destructive persistence of Lunar dust is likely one of the biggest challenges to the long term success of any permanent Lunar operations.

[SunkenCiv]

Automated augering machine to check the temperature gradient and test for strata laid down as impact ejecta.

[jmcenanly]

Some may use an already designed, built and tested model, such as the Masten Xombie, seen here