Obama Will Stick with Bush Moon Plan
- Thread starter jmc247
- Start date
I suppose the question needs to be asked: What does the moon provide that the ISS doesn't?
I'm no expert, but one obvious possibility: A testing ground for offworld bases which is nearby enough to make the effort relatively low-risk (as these things go). An emergency return would not be out of the question, for one thing. You can do all the experiments you want in the Sahara, but until you actually try building a base on another rock, there are a lot of problems you won't anticipate.
I'm no expert, but one obvious possibility: A testing ground for offworld bases which is nearby enough to make the effort relatively low-risk (as these things go). An emergency return would not be out of the question, for one thing. You can do all the experiments you want in the Sahara, but until you actually try building a base on another rock, there are a lot of problems you won't anticipate.
Cheese.
Not a single mineral economically mined on Earth has ever been present in the low concentrations that Helium 3 is on the moon.
You would have to mine and process a million tons of lunar soil on the average to produce one ton of Helium 3.
If we ever need Helium 3 for fusion reactors, we'll be getting it from the atmospheres of Uranus and Neptune.
NASA's budget, when compared to those of the HHS and the DoD, is a pittance yet yields a greater return.
It takes less fuel to leave Luna's gravity for starters and the ISS can't be used as a staging platform for anything seeing as how it's too small and fragile. It's designed to hold 6 people and occasionally a few more and that's it.
If you want a low-Earth orbit launch platform then you'd have to design and build a totally new station.
Will they find a sentient alien gas cooker with a fondness for skiing, though?
It seems to me that building a new station in space versus building a new station on the moon isn't going to be much different in terms of difficulty.
Now that that's staying, will we find whalers on the moon that carry a harpoon? Also, when will Luna Park open?
:Mallory walks into a auto scrap yard:
"Excuse me, do you have a fender for a 1972 NASA Lunar Buggy?"
"Excuse me, do you have a fender for a 1972 NASA Lunar Buggy?"
i'm getting my towel ready to throw on a deckchair at Lake Armstrong. get in before those German buggers! they always nick the good seats!
It's also much more efficient and practical to build space hardware on the ground than in orbit. Roberto Orci says so.
