By the way, I really liked James Cameron's idea. The whole capsule
being a moon car. It lands, the wheels pop out and off you go.
Jeff Miles
[email protected]
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On Sep 10, 2009, at 11:16 AM, Allen Firstenberg wrote:
On Thu, Sep 10, 2009 at 1:30 PM, Constance Warner <[email protected]>
wrote:
You might also remind your senators and your congressman that China
and--surprisingly--India both have space programs and, among other
goals,
are aiming for the moon. I don't necessarily want the U.S. to do a
land
grab and claim the entire moon, but I don't want China to do it
either.
Legally, we cannot do this. Neither can China. Neither can about
97 other
nations who are parties to the Outer Space Treaty.
(Among other things, the moon could be a dandy gun platform, if an
unfriendly government got hold of it.
Not really. Although there have been scifi stories with this theme,
they
assume that you have a colony there already that has a mass driver
already
built.
It is also in violation of the Outer Space Treaty, as an aside. But
I'm
willing to assume that someone who wants to use it as a weapon is
willing to
ignore that fact.
But the problem is that you still have to deal with orbital
mechanics and
distance and that pesky lunar gravity. Not to mention that we'd
have a
pretty good idea if somebody tried to build a gun there and have a
reasonable amount of time to do something about it.
And, of course, the moon is the gateway to the rest of the solar
system.)
Well... um... no. Not in the way I think you mean, anyway.
The moon is a good "small step" when it comes to a space program...
but its
a lousy gateway. Nobody would put a station there with the purpose of
launching missions to the rest of the galaxy from it. It does not
seem like
a good environment for any industry whatsoever, so any launches
would have
to import both fuel and launch vehicle... and why bother with lunar
gravity
(even if it is smaller than Earth gravity) at all in that case?
The gateway to the rest of the solar system is an orbiting space
station and
manufacturing facility. Yes, you still have to deal with the
gravity well
of getting parts and fuel up there, but you don't have the
limitations of
fitting an entire trip inside a single launch vehicle.
$3 billion, which is a lot of money but pocket change when you look
at the
stimulus program, would put NASA's moon program [as well as other
programs]
back on track--it's dead in the water right now, for lack of funds.
Huh? I thought NASA's moon program is, unfortunately, still alive
and sorta
on schedule. We're abandoning our plans for a space station after our
commitments are done and putting all our eggs into Ares/Orion.
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