British space lawyer Joanne Wheeler has collected the thoughts of many current space leaders.
I think there are more false lessons from Apollo than valid ones. It really did create a damaging mindset for the next half century, from which we’re only starting to recover.
(Note, the format is a little confusing; the quotes come before, not after the names.)
Is there any truth to the story of how the Apollo project got named?
I mean, “Mercury” makes sense, the first mission named after the first planet (from the sun). “Gemini” for the mission of testing orbital docking between two more or less twin craft. But going to the moon itself with a project named after the mythical god of the SUN? What happened?
I heard it was the astronauts going all Right Stuff — A Pollo, or “Without Chickens”. But I wonder …
“In-Situ Resource Utilization. Obviously, one source of propellant needed for deep spaceflight would be the source we have been tapping since the beginning of the space age — our own planet. But if we are to open the solar system, we will have to learn to “live off the land,” just as our forebears did when settling the American West….”
If there was 1 million kg of water in Earth orbit, how much would it cost tax payer for NASA to convert the water into rocket fuel?
I think it could be cheaper to ship rocket fuel from the Earth surface.
I think it would be difficult for any entity to make rocket fuel from just 1000 tons of water anywhere in space, though just 100 tons would be even more difficult.
And I don’t think NASA needs to mine water in space, in order to explore the Moon or Mars, but I think NASA should explore the Moon and Mars to determine where water can be mined.
With Moon I think best place which one mine about 20,000 tons of water would be needed, and with Mars, best place to mine a billion tonnes of water.
A place on the Moon where one can most easily mine 20,000 tons lunar water {assuming it was in the polar region} could be location to commercially mine lunar water. And site on Mars with 1 billion tons of water, could be a good place for Mars settlements.
It seems it’s in NASA interest {as it’s in the nation’s interest} to determine if and where one can profitable mine lunar water.
And it seems that if or when there is commerical lunar water mining that will make the Moon a destination for a variety of purposes and it will make Mars settlements more viable.
Let’s imagine there was a 5 billion dollar prize to get to Mars orbit from Earth’s hill sphere in less than 3 months. You don’t have to land on Mars surface, but it can’t be a Mars flyby.
How could it be done?
I searched through the entire article and didn’t find a single occurrence of the word sustainability or even its root, sustain…
The company I work for is one of those working on a design for a crewed lunar lander. I was discussing the project with an engineer who is working on the study. He said that the NASA people working on the project are stuck in the old ways. Instead of using modern model-based systems engineering or digital engineering techniques, they want everything delivered in massive paper documents. Why? Because that’s the way they ran Shuttle for over 30 years. If anyone seriously believes NASA will land people on the moon in 2024, they’re bound to be seriously disappointed as long as this rigid and bureaucratic mindset rules.
” If anyone seriously believes NASA will land people on the moon in 2024, they’re bound to be seriously disappointed as long as this rigid and bureaucratic mindset rules.”
” If anyone seriously believes NASA will land people on the moon in 2024, they’re of their heads” FIFY.