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Nasa Plans Moonbase
I thought the plan was to exclude other nations, but this is what's being
reported today- The New York Times December 4, 2006 NASA Makes Plans for Permanent Moon Base By WARREN E. LEARY WASHINGTON, Dec. 4 NASA announced plans today for a permanent base on the Moon, to be started soon after astronauts return there around 2020. The agency’s deputy administrator, Shana Dale, said the United States would develop rockets and spacecraft to get people to the Moon and establish a rudimentary base. There, other countries and commercial interests could expand the outpost to develop scientific and other interests, she said. Ms. Dale and other NASA officials said the agency envisioned a base at one of the lunar poles, to take advantage of the near-constant sunlight for solar-power generation, and giving it an "open architecture" design to which others can add the capabilities they want. Scott Horowitz, NASA’s associate administrator for exploration, said crews of four astronauts would make weeklong missions to the Moon starting around 2020. As more equipment was set up, human stays would eventually grow to 180 days, permanent staffing by 2024. By 2027, officials said, a pressurized roving vehicle on the surface would take people on expeditions far from the base. NASA gave no cost estimate for the program. Ms. Dale said all plans assumed that the agency would continue operating from a fixed budget of about $17 billion a year. As the shuttle and space station programs end, she said, that money would be shifted to the exploration program, which is to operate on a pay-as-you-go basis. In 2004, President Bush announced a new mission for NASA, a Vision for Space Exploration that involves retiring the space shuttle fleet by 2010 and winding down involvement in the International Space Station in order to return humans to the Moon and, later, going on to Mars. After consulting with space agencies representing 14 countries and experts in space science and commerce, an agency team developed the baseline concept of putting a base on the Moon from which other activities could develop. "The door is open for international and commercials interests," Ms. Dale said. Doug Cooke, the agency official who led the lunar study group, said the plan calls for putting a lunar lander craft down near a polar crater and later adding solar power generating units and living quarters to establish a base. A site in the sunlight near the lunar South Pole, such as Shackleton Crater, would still be near areas that are in total darkness, which may be the source of minerals to mine. From this location, Mr. Cooke said, other nations could add scientific laboratories or observatories or commercial concerns might want to process rocket fuel and other materials from water and other materials that might be found in the ground nearby. "We’re going for a base on the Moon," Mr. Horowitz said. "It’s a very, very big decision." Mr. Horowitz said having a base did not mean every Moon landing by humans would go there. The option remains open for some missions to go to equatorial regions, as the Apollo project lander crafts did in the 1970s, or even to the backside of the Moon. Getting to the Moon and establishing a base will require a versatile, general-purpose lander craft that could set down anywhere and be the core of an outpost, he said. "The nickname I use for the lander is, it’s a pickup truck," Mr. Horowitz said. "You can put whatever you want in the back. You can take it to wherever you want. So you can deliver cargo, crew, do it robotically, do it with humans on board. These are the types of things we’re looking for in this system." Ms. Dale said she and other NASA officials would spend part of next year visiting potential partners in the lunar project, including the space agencies of Europe, Russia and Japan, to see what they might want to contribute. Different aspects of a lunar base might come from many individual or bilateral agreements between the United States and other nations, she said, rather than following the model of the space station of having many partners signing one agreement. While there have been preliminary talks about cooperation in space with China, a growing space power that along with the United States and Russia has the ability to launch humans, it is too early to say if the two nations will agree to work together on such human space flight projects as the lunar base, she said. |
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Nasa Plans Moonbase
".......Ms. Dale said she and other NASA officials would spend part of next year visiting potential partners in the lunar project, including the space agencies of Europe, Russia and Japan, to see what they might want to contribute....." What, no Canadian Space Agency ??.....Aaaarrrggg |
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Nasa Plans Moonbase
Dale wrote in
news I thought the plan was to exclude other nations, And just where did you get that silly idea? -- JRF Reply-to address spam-proofed - to reply by E-mail, check "Organization" (I am not assimilated) and think one step ahead of IBM. |
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Nasa Plans Moonbase
Jorge R. Frank wrote: And just where did you get that silly idea? COMRADE! Space tourists to the Moon! Amerika Felforitagin CosmoAdventures Mockba |
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NASA Plans Moonbase
On Mon, 04 Dec 2006 20:49:01 -0600, "Jorge R. Frank" wrote:
! wrote: I thought the plan was to exclude other nations, And just where did you get that silly idea? LOL- OK, just as long as we keep Canada out... Dale |
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Nasa Plans Moonbase
WASHINGTON, Dec. 4 NASA announced plans today for a permanent base on the Moon, to be started soon after astronauts return there around 2020. Sounds a bit like Antarctic bases over the local winter. In the sense of having a bunch of people pretty much on their own for long periods of time. And be able to handle medical emergencies and such. |
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Nasa Plans Moonbase
"robert casey" wrote in message news WASHINGTON, Dec. 4 NASA announced plans today for a permanent base on the Moon, to be started soon after astronauts return there around 2020. Sounds a bit like Antarctic bases over the local winter. In the sense of having a bunch of people pretty much on their own for long periods of time. And be able to handle medical emergencies and such. Sounds like ISS on the lunar surface, but with fewer visits by Progress freighters. ;-) Jeff -- "They that can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety" - B. Franklin, Bartlett's Familiar Quotations (1919) |
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Nasa Plans Moonbase
On Tue, 05 Dec 2006 21:31:01 +0000, robert casey wrote:
WASHINGTON, Dec. 4 NASA announced plans today for a permanent base on the Moon, to be started soon after astronauts return there around 2020. Sounds a bit like Antarctic bases over the local winter. In the sense of having a bunch of people pretty much on their own for long periods of time. And be able to handle medical emergencies and such. The Moon is actually closer in some ways. In case of an extreme medical emergency and with a ship on standby (standard NASA practice) an astronaut can be back on Earth within 4 days. Getting someone out of the south pole in the dead of winter can take weeks. |
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Nasa Plans Moonbase
On Mon, 04 Dec 2006 17:56:51 -0800, Dale wrote:
I thought the plan was to exclude other nations, Just from the critical path (no more waiting years for Russia to finish Zvezda, side benefits of that notwithstanding.) Complementary associations are welcome. Brian |
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Nasa Plans Moonbase
"Brian Thorn" wrote in message ... On Mon, 04 Dec 2006 17:56:51 -0800, Dale wrote: I thought the plan was to exclude other nations, Just from the critical path (no more waiting years for Russia to finish Zvezda, side benefits of that notwithstanding.) Complementary associations are welcome. So we won't be able to hide our problems behind theirs. ;-) Brian |
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