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Innovation

by Michael Ho

Tue, Jan 31st 2012 5:00pm




Filed Under:
apollo, lunar base, manned spaceflight, moon, newt gingrich, orion, space

Companies:
nasa


DailyDirt: To The Moon, Alice!

from the urls-we-dig-up dept

The Earth's moon seems like a nice place to visit, but there are a surprising number of people who seem to want to go there permanently. Manned spaceflight has seen better days, but is it really time to invest in a moon colony now? The land is pretty cheap up there, and no one's making any more of it... but there's a tiny problem of getting there. Here are just a few more links about manned trips to the moon. By the way, StumbleUpon can also recommend some good Techdirt articles, too.

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    identicon
    Anonymous Coward, Jan 31st, 2012 @ 5:12pm

    BEtter question

    What would NASA have accomplished if it had never had the space shuttle program?! NASA could have established a moon base already if it hadn't been distracted by nonsense re-usable spacecraft.

     

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      abc gum, Jan 31st, 2012 @ 5:19pm

      Re: BEtter question

      "nonsense re-usable spacecraft."

      Not sure what you mean by nonsense. Perhaps you should review what was accomplished by that program.

       

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        Michael Ho (profile), Feb 1st, 2012 @ 12:01am

        Re: Re: BEtter question

        Hmm. The shuttle program was pretty cool, but other than showing off that it could be useful in satellite repairwork (eg. the Hubble repair missions) -- I'm not sure what the shuttle program did that a non-reusable rocket system couldn't have done. (And the shuttle wasn't really that reusable since it needed to have its entire heat shield rebuilt after every mission!)

         

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          abc gum, Feb 1st, 2012 @ 4:31am

          Re: Re: Re: BEtter question

          That may or may not be a valid point, however use of the word nonsense is in this case nonsense.

           

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          alan smithee, Feb 1st, 2012 @ 5:40am

          Re: Re: Re: BEtter question

          Michael,
          I believe that many of the shuttle parts were refurbed after every mission, but the "entire heat shield" was not rebuilt. It was inspected.

          Every individual tile was examined for any damage and suspect tiles were replaced as well as any gap fillers or parts designed to be replaced. Certainly a tedious process, but not the same as rebuilding the entire underside of the shuttle.

           

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    abc gum, Jan 31st, 2012 @ 5:15pm

    Ignoring the financial disencentives .... there are many technical problems associated with establishing a permanent base upon the moon.

    Solar Flare - lack of a large electromagnetic field can be detrimental to ones health.

    Incoming - What does one do when an asteroid is heading in your general direction? Keep in mind that a direct hit is not necessary in order to ruin your day, and there is no atmosphere to slow it down.

    Dust - pesky little bits of rock get into everything and cause a real mess.

    Resupply - the bare essentials will not last long, what does one do when, not if, the resupply is delayed.

    I'm sure there are many more ....

     

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      Anonymous Coward, Jan 31st, 2012 @ 10:15pm

      Re:

      "Incoming - What does one do when an asteroid is heading in your general direction? Keep in mind that a direct hit is not necessary in order to ruin your day, and there is no atmosphere to slow it down."

      Conversely, there's no atmosphere to carry a shock wave or create a "nuclear winter" dust cloud around the moon.
      Only a direct or near-direct (within 5 miles or so) impact would affect a moonbase.

       

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        abc gum, Feb 1st, 2012 @ 4:39am

        Re: Re:

        "Only a direct or near-direct (within 5 miles or so) impact would affect a moonbase."

        Shock waves travel quite nicely through the ground, and the moon is not immune to the adverse affects of ejecta.

        Your five mile number is based upon what size of object, and made up of what type of material? This can make a difference. Regardless, what would one do - jump in the moon buggy and high tail it outta there? Based upon our present day capabilities, one would get very little notice prior to impact. Maybe enough time to kiss your ass goodbye.

         

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    Pixelation, Jan 31st, 2012 @ 5:16pm

    "Experts say Gingrich moon base dreams not lunacy"

    We could send the entertainment industry execs up there where no one can pirate from them. Win/win!

    Hopefully a massive explosion will knock it out of orbit into deep space!

     

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    Anonymous Anonymous Coward, Jan 31st, 2012 @ 5:49pm

    Without Patents

    I wonder where they would be if patents hadn't existed?

    Or, an alternate question, what difficulties did they encounter because of patents?

     

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    Anonymous Coward, Jan 31st, 2012 @ 7:18pm

    Are you so sure the Apollo program really made it to the moon?

     

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    WulfTheSaxon (profile), Jan 31st, 2012 @ 7:54pm

    If anybody’s interested in more about our return to beyond low earth orbit, I highly recommend this site: http://www.nasaspaceflight.com/news/constellation/

     

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    Anonymous Coward, Jan 31st, 2012 @ 8:32pm

    I really wish someone would focus on building a space elevator.

     

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      Anonymous Coward, Jan 31st, 2012 @ 10:17pm

      Re:

      "I really wish someone would focus on building a space elevator."

      Progressively-more violent weather conditions make such a project unfeasible with current tech.

       

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    Josh (profile), Jan 31st, 2012 @ 8:33pm

    Returning to the moon is a horrible idea. Haven't you seen Apollo 18?

    What we should do is build a space elevator.

     

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    Joseph B, Jan 31st, 2012 @ 10:21pm

    Moon Technology

    Here's a scary thought - your iPhone has more computer power than the Apollo spacecraft that flew to the moon and back.

     

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    cg15, Jan 31st, 2012 @ 10:38pm

    Moving on Moon

    Moving on Moon sounds wonderful,but the technology can't permit yet~

     

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    Anonymous Coward, Feb 1st, 2012 @ 2:54am

    Space colony

    Wouldn't an orbital space colony be a better idea than a moon base? A Bernal sphere, or possibly an O'Neill cylinder?

    A space colony would have zero-gravity manufacturing capability, and provide an Earth-like environment.
    A moon base would have neither of those advantages. Everyone who lived there would atrophy from the constant low gravity.

     

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    Wolfy, Feb 1st, 2012 @ 5:07am

    If The Soviet Union would have made it ti the Moon first,WE WOULD ALL BE SPEAKING RUSSIAN. Period.

    No two ways about it. If the Soviets had "the high ground", they would have used the military advantage to subjugate the rest of the world.

    They could have just thrown lunar boulders at any country that defied them. The result of such impacts would be similar to an asteroidal impact. It wouldn't take any more technology to do that, than they would have already developed to get there.

     

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    wildcomputerwife (profile), Feb 1st, 2012 @ 5:15am

    mooning ...

    "does not compute ... DANGER! WILL ROBERTSON! DANGER! it's Newt Gingrich"

     

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    Gene Cavanaugh (profile), Feb 1st, 2012 @ 9:01am

    When you consider the expense ....

    So long as the money supply of the middle class continues to be siphoned away in the "No New Taxes" (aka Welfare for the Wealthy) programs, spending that much money on a "grand gesture" (which, by the way, likely gains votes in Florida, where the space program is centered) IS lunacy, no matter what space program advocates say.
    Increase the money supply for the middle class, by bringing the money back from the one percent, and then we can consider it (though I believe it would still be a bad idea).

     

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    nihs, Apr 16th, 2012 @ 2:56am

    Recently i have heard about James Koehler. As i have never heard about him. I have gone through his site that was just too good. He has done just amazing impressive work. Its really good job of him. Everyone can inspire from him. 10k training

     

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