credit NASA / caption is this what return to the Moon means?
In an extraordinary exchange between NASA acting adminisrator Christoper Scolese and the US House of Representatives' committee on appropriations' subcommittee on Commerce, Justice, Science, and Related Agencies chair, Scolese said that the agency was still working on what "return to the Moon" meant and whether that was a outpost, which he went on to describe as expensive, or an extended sortie like Apollo
So much for Apollo on steroids...
Hyperbola hoped to have an audio recording of the webcast but unfortunately Microsoft's sound recorder didn't deliver. Hopefully the appropriations will have a webcast replay accessible soon
on April 30, 2009 12:28 PM | Reply
Apollo on steroids: been there, done that. Visiting the moon with no other intention then to do things that where novel and exiting fifty years ago? What reason can you possibly have to fund reruns.
on May 1, 2009 4:52 AM | Reply
So they have spent all this money and a mission still has not been defined yet ! I remember reading an article back in the 80's that the space station would run up a cost of about 20 billion dollars. It turned out that the 20 billion was spent before any hardware was even sent up to space. Guy's I think SOMETHING IS REALLY WRONG HERE !
Just start building durable and reliable Habitation Modules so we can colonize Mars and do what Robert Zubrin says to do. Live off the land. Forget about the robots "You can't learn to swim without getting wet". Gvt's all worried about costs, and their spending it all up scratching their heads ! Shi_ or get off the pot. Listen now, Scale up Elons rocket to a Saturn 5 capability, and put Roberts mars plan into action. You will save tons of cash and Exceed your wildest expections. No brainer. Whats the wait for ? Rember what Arnold said on Total Recall ?
Brad
on May 1, 2009 8:33 AM | Reply
What a load of rubbish. Smart people know that they never went to the moon the first time. When is everybody else going to wake up?
on May 2, 2009 1:28 AM | Reply
To Nedu Japsi: Flamebait. It needs no other rebuttal.
As far as what can be done on the Moon, there are numerous things that can be done there, and an incredible need for establishing several different kinds of scientific research projects... many of which can only be done on the Moon. A radio astronomy telescope on the far side ought to be justification enough for an elaborate facility, and mineral/"seleological" studies are just scratching the surface.
The problem is trying to let a government operation that is responsible for getting every piece of the puzzle together that costs 10x at each stage, bureaucratic bloat, schizophrenic appropriations from congress tied with trying to please all 335 congressional districts simultaneously... no wonder NASA is floundering in the dark. Having no solid goal is just the tip of the iceberg.
My own solution is to simply let private enterprise do its stuff, and give them the legal protections to mine and exploit the resources of the solar system. Unfortunately, that isn't going to happen either, as the powers that be want to turn the rest of the Solar System into a "scientific playground" that strongly controls any private development... the same sort of legal limbo that Antarctica currently "enjoys".