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U.S. Planning Base on Moon To Prepare for Trip to Mars
Washington Post ^ | March 26, 2006 | Guy Gugliotta

Posted on 03/25/2006 10:58:20 PM PST by West Coast Conservative

For the first time since 1972, the United States is planning to fly to the moon, but instead of a quick, Apollo-like visit, astronauts intend to build a permanent base and live there while they prepare what may be the most ambitious undertaking in history -- putting human beings on Mars.

President Bush in 2004 announced to great fanfare plans to build a new spaceship, get back to the moon by 2020 and travel on to Mars after that. But, with NASA focused on designing a new spaceship and spending about 40 percent of its budget on the troubled space shuttle and international space station programs, that timetable may suffer.

Still, NASA's moon planners are closely following the spaceship initiative and, within six months, will outline what they need from the new vehicle to enable astronauts to explore the lunar surface.

"It's deep in the future before we go there," said architect Larry Toups, head of habitation systems for NASA's Advanced Projects Office. "But it's like going on a camping trip and buying a new car. You want to make sure you have a trailer hitch if you need it."

Scientists and engineers are hard at work studying technologies that don't yet exist and puzzling over questions such as how to handle the psychological stress of moon settlement, how to build lunar bulldozers and how to reacquire what planetary scientist Christopher P. McKay of NASA's Ames Research Center calls "our culture of exploration."

The moon is not for the faint of heart. It is a lethal place, without atmosphere, pelted constantly by cosmic rays and micrometeorites, plagued by temperature swings of hundreds of degrees, and swathed in a blanket of dust that can ruin space suits, pollute the air supply and bring machinery to a screeching halt.

(Excerpt) Read more at washingtonpost.com ...


TOPICS: Government; News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: additionaltaxes; allgone; bankrupt; bleddry; boondoggle; bush; deadastronauts; debt; deficeit; evenmoretaxes; extrataxes; gimme; gimmeall; gimmemore; mars; moon; moreandmoretaxes; moretaxes; nasa; noendtotaxes; nomoremoney; pork; retarded; space; stupid; tax; taxes; taxtax; taxtaxtax; taxwithoutend; turnipblood; unions; waste; wasteofmen; wasteofmoney; wasteoftime; waterfromarock
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To: Lancer_N3502A
Better yet........ moongirls!


21 posted on 03/26/2006 12:12:12 AM PST by Names Ash Housewares
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To: West Coast Conservative
Good news. Time to dream again.

Our nation needs this.....more kids will want to be in the sciences.

22 posted on 03/26/2006 12:34:30 AM PST by zarf (It's time for a college football playoff system.)
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To: Names Ash Housewares
Another bold initiative by Bush.

Good on him.

23 posted on 03/26/2006 12:37:47 AM PST by zarf (It's time for a college football playoff system.)
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To: West Coast Conservative

Cool!

24 posted on 03/26/2006 12:47:10 AM PST by Southack (Media Bias means that Castro won't be punished for Cuban war crimes against Black Angolans in Africa)
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To: West Coast Conservative

best way to build interplanetary vessels on the moon is in sections, launch and assemble them in orbit.

best way to launch sections: electromagnetic mass-driver

bonus: that same mass-driver could easily be used to lob large rocks at terrestrial enemies. boom, with no radiation... and, if done cleverly, with quite a bit of plausible deniability.

let us go back to the moon, please.


25 posted on 03/26/2006 12:56:15 AM PST by King Prout (many complain I am overly literal. this would not be a problem if so many were not under-precise)
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do you really want to imagine a world without velcro?

MORE FUNDING FOR SPACE EXPLORATION NOW!!!!


26 posted on 03/26/2006 1:15:29 AM PST by KneelBeforeZod (I have five dollars for each of you)
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To: West Coast Conservative
When all the money raided from the Social Security Trust Fund is replaced, and the raiding has stopped, then we can talk about funding NASA.

If someone gave you money you knew was stolen, would you be moral in spending it?

27 posted on 03/26/2006 2:15:00 AM PST by Mark was here (How can they be called "Homeless" if their home is a field?.)
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To: West Coast Conservative

No so fast puny earthlings...
28 posted on 03/26/2006 2:45:39 AM PST by Left2Right ("Democracy isn't perfect, but other governments are so much worse")
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To: West Coast Conservative
President Bush in 2004 announced to great fanfare plans to build a new spaceship, get back to the moon by 2020 and travel on to Mars after that.

Pyramid-building is not dead.

29 posted on 03/26/2006 3:02:52 AM PST by Shalom Israel (Actually, it's all done with mirrors.)
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To: King Prout
bonus: that same mass-driver could easily be used to lob large rocks at terrestrial enemies.

Sounds like the outline of Heinlein's book, "The Moon is a Harsh Mistress".

30 posted on 03/26/2006 3:28:05 AM PST by 6SJ7
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To: Alien Gunfighter

This Mars crap is just that, crap. We as a nation now, more than ever, need to carefully balance the returns vs costs. Just what will a trip to Mars cost and what will it give us in return? To find out that maybe, just maybe a few million yrs ago some form of life existed there? A few single cell creatures that have been imbedded in rock?
To me, life on other planets is of no concern unless it is shown to have been intelligent and that ain't gonna happen.
To be honest, I could give a damn.


31 posted on 03/26/2006 3:42:50 AM PST by biff
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Comment #32 Removed by Moderator

To: biff
To be honest, I could give a damn.

Please turn off your computer, since you don't give a damn about the miracle of modern microelectronics that the US space program created.

33 posted on 03/26/2006 4:07:32 AM PST by Knitebane (Happily Microsoft free since 1999.)
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To: West Coast Conservative
Amateur economic modeling via societal simulators show that you cannot sustain a long term space exploration program with the amount of debt this nation carries unless steps are made to reduce the burden of debt. The weight of the continually increasing debt would cripple the economy eventually. The space program would inevitably collapse as the society deteriorates.

I'm all for space exploration, but if we are to venture into space, our society needs to be structured to take the emphasis of subsidizing socialism and geared towards promoting technological advancement. That would begin with education, and then step through emphasis on research via universities and then so on. All the while, social subsidies programs would need to be eliminated en masse.

Today's cultural and political climate is hardly aligned to the requirements necessary to promote a successful space exploration program.

Yet I heartily applaud those who would promote it. I would even support it, given that the right overtures are made on all fronts of the issue.

34 posted on 03/26/2006 4:19:28 AM PST by Caipirabob (Communists... Socialists... Democrats...Traitors... Who can tell the difference?)
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To: West Coast Conservative
President Bush in 2004 announced to great fanfare plans to build a new spaceship, get back to the moon by 2020 and travel on to Mars after that.

"We can fight a war, spend money on social programs like there is no tomorrow, run our deficits into our great-grandchildren's future ... and we can even go to Mars!"

The "Great Society" Part II.

35 posted on 03/26/2006 4:49:54 AM PST by manwiththehands (Islam is as Islam does. Islam is as Islam allows.)
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To: biff

--This Mars crap is just that, crap. We as a nation now, more than ever, need to carefully balance the returns vs costs. Just what will a trip to Mars cost and what will it give us in return?

In the long run, insurance.


36 posted on 03/26/2006 6:00:06 AM PST by bkepley
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To: RightWhale; Brett66; xrp; gdc314; anymouse; NonZeroSum; jimkress; discostu; The_Victor; ...

37 posted on 03/26/2006 9:14:09 AM PST by KevinDavis (http://www.cafepress.com/spacefuture)
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