"And we have liftoff of Hopey-Changey 1, the first solo attempt to bring socialism, economic ruin, and interplanetary weakness to the solar system and beyond."
Honestly, if the laid off engineers were smart and entreprenueurs (they’re not since they’ve been on the gubmint dole living in a bubble) they’d start or work for private companies that wanted to go to Mars or go mine the Moon...I mean I bet there’s new Periodic Elements, rare earth/err, rare Moon elements there.
Richard Branson...the Moon X or whatever that group was...
It’s a lot cheaper to build a minaret than a launch vehicle... and much more in keeping with the new NASA Prime Directive.
Kennedy created the vision of Americans on the moon.
Obama created the vision of Americans never in space again.
I think the W. Bush idea of going back to the Moon and Mars is correct, but the technique is all wrong. Doing manned expeditions at first is reinventing the wheel. Instead the missions need to begin years ahead of manned arrivals, by using robots.
And I don’t mean cute little probe robots going around digging up tablespoon of dirt and analyzing it.
I mean nuclear powered industrial hard rock tunneling robots.
To start with, the problem of Lunar exploration is vacuum, extremes of heat and cold, cosmic and enhanced radiation, and extremely abrasive lunar dust, all on the surface.
And the way around all of these problems is found in mining horizontal caves, likely in the walls of a lunar crater or mountain. Permanent Lunar shelters that can be enlarged and improved between each and every manned mission.
The tunneling robot will be in a ship designed for a one way trip and to be cannibalized for materials used in the tunnel, such as pressure doors, flooring, ceiling, walls and reinforcing rod inserted into the ceiling rock.
As the robot slowly tunnels into the rock, crumbling it, the rock is collected at its base, then put in a tube with conveyor belt to be transported underneath the robot, to far outside the tunnel. The robot does not have to be fast, just an inch or two a day will be more than adequate. In a single year, assuming 1.5 inches a day average, it will have mined a tunnel 45 feet long. Enroute it can insert reinforcing rod into the ceiling, and eventually spray a sealant on the inside of the tunnel against micro-fissures.
Importantly, it will not tunnel when the astronauts are there, so they can use its nuclear reactor for other purposes, such as heat, electricity, reverse osmosis and water purification, oxygen generation from any Lunar ice they find, etc.
All told, the astronauts when they arrive can bring far more supplies and equipment, instead of living habitat. This will extend the duration of their stay considerably, with much more time to do other things.
Acceptable to whom? To those who take the risk? Or to those who sit behind desks while others take the risk?
Space, yet another government-funded program where you can get even a sidearm-wearing, flag-waving super conservative FReeper to turn in seconds into a tax and spend free fairy skittle mooching dependent.
Think Constitutionally, dear friends. If it’s a good idea, the market can support it on its own. If it’s a bad idea, it will need billions in taxpayer dollars.
FIRE HANSEN!!!!!!!!!!!
"And we have liftoff of Hopey-Changey 1, the first solo attempt to bring socialism, economic ruin, and interplanetary weakness to the solar system and beyond."
If that’s the only way to get rid of that parasite cockroach James Hansen, I say let NASA go quietly into the night and start over.