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USA to return to Moon



 
 
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Old January 9th 04, 10:19 AM
Stephen Souter
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Default USA to return to Moon

In article ,
"Dr. O" dr.o@xxxxx wrote:

"Steve Dufour" wrote in message
om...
NASA plans return to moon


By Frank Sietzen Jr. and Keith L. Cowing
UNITED PRESS INTERNATIONAL



NASA plans to scrap its space shuttle fleet to pay for the
agency's new plan to return to the moon and develop human space
exploration systems, senior administration officials said.


Unfortunately, this sounds like another 'footprints' mission. There isn't a
real long-term vision of exploration or commercial exploitation. The thing I
fear most is that once people land on Mars, interest in the space program
will falter, resulting in another long gap between it and the next human
space venture.

What worries me even more is what the impact of this will be on any
COMMERCIAL manned space exploration (i.e. tourism, mining, colonization)
efforts. Does anyone have a clue? Could it be that the X-Prize follow up
will simply be deemed irrelevant because it's dwarfed by the manned Mars
effort?


I'm not sure I follow your logic.

Why should the X-Prize "be deemed irrelevant" simply because the
American government might want to send astronauts to Mars?

I'd have thought that if such a program succeeded it would open up new
opportunities.

In any case, America has spent billions on the ISS yet the X Prize has
not suffered AFAIK, even though what the US has done (and spent) on the
ISS probably dwarfs the X Prize contestants' own efforts on their X
Prize efforts.

Will it dampen or even kill the market for commercial rockets
(non-military vehicles)?


If we're still talking about commercial "manned space exploration"...

What market?

Thus far only the Russians have sent paying customers into orbit, and
they did it using their own hardware and the customers were sent to a
government-paid-for facility.

You can't "dampen" (much less "kill") what does not yet exist. Or which
at best still only exists on paper.

In any case, why would going to Mars dampen the enthusiasm of potential
customers for going on trips into Earth orbit? I'd have thought it would
be more likely to broaden any future market by providing potential new
destinations for the customers to (one day) go to.

How about venture capital not being awarded to some
guy who wants to build a commercial manned orbital vehicle?


Again why?

Does the venture capital market for (say) tourist resorts plummet every
time governments spend billions on dams, highways, or other projects?

Will there be less need for "commercial manned orbital vehicles"? Will
Bush be funding his Mars program using venture capital (as opposed to
taxes)?

Let's not panic just yet. Nothing has been announced officially. It
could just be somebody flying another kite.

--
Stephen Souter

http://www.edfac.usyd.edu.au/staff/souters/
 




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