Mars Mission a Trojan Horse?

Wired News ^ | 02:00 AM Jan. 16, 2004 PT | Suneel Ratan

[RightWhale]

Light would take slightly over a second to reach earth from the moon. You would want to lead the satellite by 6 miles or so.

[greenwolf]

What it looks like is a village or some such with terracing and rows of rectangular structures. Notice that the corners on what appears to be the leeward side retain their 90 degree angles.

[philetus]

Nasa can save a lot of money if they have the intergalactic roaming module made in China.

[Lazamataz]

One last thing.. the mass launcher could also serve civillian needs of supplying satellites and exploring vessels when not bombing enemy cities.

Yeah, but when's that ever gonna happen?

[templar]

...once there, the US claims the moon as it's private territory, and announces that international visitors are not welcome and will be shot on approach.

I believe this violates international treaties.

... but a lunar rail gun

I believe this also violates international treaties (space based weapons). It'd be cheaper to just put a bunch of nukes in orbit if we decide to just ignore treaties.

[JSteff]

"Yes, I agree with you about that. I think the general direction NASA will head in is as the forerunner in space exploration for everybody else. Currently that means NASA does everything but commercial satellites, and soon sub orbital stuff, but later that may mean they under take missions to the outer planets, while everybody else tools around the moon."

That is how it should be.

[unibrowshift9b20]

So you're saying that everybody keep up the roads in front of their business, house, etc.? Which could then be outsourced to businesses that upkeep roads. That might work I guess. Businesses with the advantage of big roads would then have to pay for them. But then, no house would be on avenues. I guess you could then have a private tollway system. But competing businesses with superhighways or train tracks would sure take up a lot of valuable space.

I suppose that when space isn't at a premium, countries tend to let things go freemarket, but singapore can't afford to even let anybody chew gum on the street, because the metropolitan city is the whole country.

Also, another thing that I think Americans and Libertarians particularly lose is the sense of community. For all the things we say on here rejecting governments that think for the people, we lose something when we push away that sense of societal purpose that comes when someone else tells you what to do. I'm sure everybody here, myself included, will staunchly choose freedom and its risks instead, but when we embrace freedom to the nth degree, we make ourselves the center of our attention and lose track of the importance of other individuals and our community as a whole.

A lot of what makes me like the space program is that its a vision that is so big and so communal, that it will never, in anyone's wildest dreams, be fully accomplished in any of our lifetimes. What an oppurtunity to be a small part of something great! This longing for a common goal in post-modern America could be met in this space vision.

Man, I know I'm gonna get toasted for this one.

Ironically, I could take this to some liberal webpage and get toasted there too.

[af_vet_rr]

The advantages in nuclear propulsion lie in higher exhaust velocities for the propellant, meaning greater fuel efficiencies. The disadvantages are what you'd think they are, plus political mudslinging.

Although, it's initially inefficient, we could always boost the ships with nuclear engines into orbit through convential means and then once they are out of orbit, launch using nuclear means, but I'd bet the enviros would still be raising hell.

[af_vet_rr]

Prometheus gets a new home

Project Prometheus, NASA’s multibillion-dollar nuclear power and propulsion initiative, has a new home inside the U.S. space agency.

Begun as the Nuclear Systems Initiative in 2002, the program was given a new name in 2003, a bigger budget and its first mission: the Jupiter Icy Moons Orbiter (JIMO).

Now, with an ambitious new space exploration agenda handed down by the White House, NASA is making more changes to Project Prometheus.

You might find this interesting, rest of story at article link.