US plans for Moon base

BBC ^ | December 5, 2006

[Jedi Master Pikachu]

US plans for Moon base

US space agency Nasa says it is planning to start work on a base on the Moon after astronauts begin flying back there in 2020. The maps and graphics below show how and where man could live on the Moon.

Nasa scientists say the best approach is to develop a solar-powered moon base and to locate it near one of the poles of the moon - such as the Shackleton Crater near the South Pole.

The poles offer moderate temperatures, high percentage of sunlight which means greater potential for solar power and more opportunities to launch.

Nasa says they are also exciting options as they are not as well known as other areas and offer "unique, cold dark craters".

Nasa wants to have returned to the moon by 2020, with 30-day residential missions by 2024, increasing to six months by the end of that year.

Nasa says the global space community has identified six key aims for lunar exploration:

• to extend human presence to the Moon to enable eventual settlement.

• to pursue scientific activities that address fundamental questions about the history of Earth, the Solar System and the Universe.

  MOON TIMELINE 2008: Launch Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter 2010: Last Space Shuttle missions 2014: Deadline for Crew Exploration Vehicle 2020: Return to Moon

• to test technologies, systems, flight operations and exploration techniques to reduce the risks and increase the productivity of future missions to Mars and beyond.

• to provide a challenging, shared and peaceful activity that unites nations in pursuit of common objectives.

• to expand Earth's economic sphere, and conduct lunar activities with benefits to life on the home planet.

• to use a vibrant space exploration program to engage the public, encourage students and help develop the high-tech workforce that will be required to address the challenges of tomorrow.

By 2025, Nasa hopes to have developed the capabilities required to enable further steps into space - possibly expanding lunar exploration and/or manned missions to Mars.

(1) The heavy-lift Ares 5 rocket blasts off from Earth carrying a lunar lander and a "departure stage" (2) Several days later, astronauts launch on an Ares 1 rocket inside their Orion vehicle (CEV) (3) The Orion docks with the lander and departure stage in Earth orbit and then heads to the Moon (4) Having done its job of boosting the Orion and lunar lander on their way, the departure stage is jettisoned (5) At the Moon, the astronauts leave the Orion and enter the lander for the trip to the lunar surface (6) After exploring the lunar landscape for seven days, the crew blasts off in a portion of the lander (7) In Moon orbit, they re-join the waiting robot-minded Orion and begin the journey back to Earth (8) On the way, the service component of the Orion is jettisoned. This leaves just the crew capsule to enter the atmosphere (9) A heatshield protects the capsule; parachutes bring it down on dry land, probably in California

[Jedi Master Pikachu]

Another incentive for environmentalists: mining could be moved offplanet.

[RightWhale]

I still remember an encounter with a Hippy about 1973. He was of the opinion that we should not be allowed to leave earth because we would screw up the rest of the universe just like we had screwed up earth by 1973. Never saw him anywhere near a math or engineering class, nor within ten feet of a science textbook if he knew it was there.

[stbdside]

Well then we getter get a lunar fence built.

[trtwox]

I hope they call it Moon Base Alpha

[anymouse]

That still doesn't explain why the Commonwealth (not only British) English is in the Outpost picture.

Maybe they pulled it from some stock photos from this British sci-fi classic.

[fishtank]

"Byrd!

Shackleton!

Perry!

Don't worry lads! We'll throw you down a line and you'll be back up here with us sipping tea in no time, before you can say "Jack Russell"!"

Ernest P. Worrell, "Ernest Rides Again"

[Jedi Master Pikachu]

From what medium (movie, book, etc.) is that? Sounds as though it is a proper name, though.

[From One - Many]

see post 12

[From One - Many]

outside joke....LOL

[Jedi Master Pikachu]

But they got their picture from NASA, you can see NASA in the lower right. Did they "photoshop" it or something?

[TheBigB]

All Your Moon Base Are Belong To Us!

[burzum]

We should be more demanding of our science teachers. We know what the Theory of Relativity says. Anybody can see that the speed of light applies to light. Unless we are bodies of light we shouldn't be concerned with the ToR.

That is not what the theory of relativity says at all. The special theory of relativity has two conjectures (I'm not going to go into the general theory here): 1) The laws of physics are constant in all inertial reference frames, and 2) the speed of light is constant regardless of the motion of the observer.

If you want to take this to a logical conclusion you will find that it will take an infinite amount of energy to accelerate any object to the speed of light.

[richardtavor]

In other news (from Scrappleface)

Muslims Demand Prayer Room in NASA Moon Base
ScrappleFace ^ | !2/05/2006 | Scott Ott

Muslims Demand Prayer Room in NASA Moon Base by Scott Ott

(2006-12-05) — The Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) today called on NASA to include a Muslim prayer room in its planned moon base, and on all passenger spacecraft shuttling between earth and the moon.

“The moon was the inspiration for the Islamic crescent symbol,” said CAIR spokesman Ibrahim Hooper, “By all rights, Islam should be the official religion of the moon, but we’re willing to tolerate diversity, for the time being, in exchange for protection of our civil rights.”

CAIR, a non-profit organization which promotes understanding, justice and “appropriate limits on freedom of speech” for its ideological adversaries, initially intended to organize a boycott of moon flights to protest NASA’s development of the moon.

“But then we realized,” Mr. Hooper said, “that the only way to reach the moon people with the message of our peaceful religion is to live among them, blend in and act normal, and then periodically to burst into loud cries of Allahu Akbar in public places.”

[RightWhale]

Well, I have Einstein's book right here, his Stafford Little lecures, with appendices, so if we have any questions we can possibly get at least a clue from that. Probably the important thing is that it refers to electromagnetism.

[SouthernBoyupNorth]

Now if only they could tow those expendable rockets to the moon.... They could be turned into habitats with minimum expenditure of time and money.

[Unmarked Package]

"Then they'll have to make a new ship for traveling to Mars, and it'll have to have stronger shielding from radiation, too."

That's correct. The six-person crew to Mars will probably launch from Earth together in one Orion CEV, but then move into a Transit Habitat vehicle for the 130 to 180 day voyage to Mars on a fast transit trajectory.

NASA has a lengthy and dry, but useful concept document for a manned mission to Mars on their web site prepared in 1998, including a summary graphic for one possible Mars mission sequence.

[Calvin Locke]

There are natural, pressurized gases on the Moon, according to analysis of some crater formations (D-shaped, unworn by
micrometeorites, etc.

Speculation is CO, probably CO2, and maybe CH4.

[Aussieteen]

Firstly, to those of us talking about FTL travel. The Alcubierre drive was an interest of mine a bit back, and, although it requires the manipulation of negative energy, it's still interesting to look at.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alcubierre_drive

Light has no mass, and yet it's constricted to travel at lightspeed. And, so far as conservation of energy and relativity are concerned, we're fairly close to bodies of light. e=mc^2, so mass can be converted to energy (the most prominent example of this being antimatter, where an electron and positron can annihilate one another, forming a pair of what tend to be gamma-ray photons).

The problem with exceeding the speed of light is that it's an inverse relationship, as it gets higher, or a hyperbola on a graph. As your speed increases to near-c speeds, a certain portion of your acceleration is converted to mass (of course, that's a simplified explanation, so don't go attacking it for the various.. things I've left out).

As an arbitrary example, acceleration from .9 c to .99 c, for a single atom, might require a few million newtons. (Again, arbitrary. I'm tired, and doing the math right now is beyond me). Acceleration from .99 c to .999c might require the exact same amount of energy, despite the fact that we're accelerating about a tenth as much.

You can't actually *reach* the speed of light if you have mass, as an infinite amount of energy is required to do so. The speed of light is only there as the 'universal speed limit', something we believe nothing can exceed. (although wormholes and Alcubierre drives could *effectively* exceed light, in that they would manipulate the fabric of the universe around them to achieve this travel, the atoms of the spaceship would still not be able to reach, or exceed lightspeed.)

Besides, time dilation is plenty good, if you want to send out colonies. I see the most viable plan for long-term colonisation the construction of massive colony ships, with equally massive engines, reaching relatavistic speeds to make time pass more slowly for the inhabitants inside. Of course, there are a HOST of problems that go along with that one, but it doesn't really require any new discoveries.

After all, the universe has a long time left to go. Even if we put the maximum speed of humanity at .1 c, we could still slowly colonize the galaxy, and eventually the majority of the known universe.

[RightWhale]

Add this: photons can transfer momentum, yet photons have no mass. If you have gotten to the guts of Relativity you are familiar with tensors. An object moving near the speed of light will appear to rotate in the four-dimensional manifold. To get the good stuff out of Relativity you must move beyond Newtonian mechanics. I don't know where you are in mathematics, but anything short of graduate level college math is insufficient for Relativity as it really is.