Universe TodaySpace and astronomy news

Cool! It reminds me of the MARS underwater cabled observatory off the coast of Monterey and Santa Cruz.

http://www.mbari.org/mars/general/why.html

This is largely the way to go. Robotic systems on the moon could be used to expand a growing infrastructure, which in time could involve constructing astronomical iand other scientific instruments. If there ia a manned presence at all it should be employed as a facilitator in the deployment of systems and maintenance or repair work beyond the abilities of robots. Yet in general I think the space frontier is going to be inhabited by robots.

LC

I don’t care who is going up, as long as I have a front-seat and a live web cam that I can follow what they are doing.

And I hope they visit the Apollo landers to see how the materials aged all this time.

Kind of a small base, looks like maybe two drones.

The one problem I have with robots is that it is claimed they can’t (yet) do the job of trained geologists or paleoanthropologists when surveying geology respectively life traces. But yes, if that capability can be achieved, there is no other exploration purpose to go to the Moon beyond the research. It is not necessary for exploring other sites, say Mars. The systems are tested out here first in any case just as for Apollo. Practice could be good but if not it is a moderate risk to find out on Mars that you need to cut the trip short because the infrastructure doesn’t fit the task. The one component that absolutely need practice is the crafts, and… Read more »

And when I say “practice could be good”, I’m not including the cost in increased NASA budget and the added years of time, if the project is to visit Mars. The current plan is the cheaper, faster one, and what is not to like about that?

Looks like Heinlein’s vision of an Asian-colonized Moon looks more and more plausible every day. I just hope they name the central computer at the robotic base Mycroft.. and that it is complex enough to develop sentience On a serious note though, robotics are really the way to go for the moon. It’s completely uninhabitable, has no prospects of ever being terraformed, has few resources to support a dome (or underground) base, and no real mining potential other than Helium-3. Why not have robots do the job? The radio lag time between here and there is an annoyance, certainly, but not nearly as extreme as anywhere else in the solar system, and so close that near real-time operation… Read more »

take my love
take my land
take me where I cannot stand
I don’t care
I’m still free
you can’t take the sky from me

take me out
to the black tell ’em I ain’t coming back
burn the land
and boil the sea
you can’t take the sky from me

have no place
I can be
since I found Serenity
but you can’t take the sky from me

no real mining potential other than Helium-3 Which has no market besides research use which apparently is supplied well enough from cheaper sources. I’m not sure why it is mentioned at all. It is a common plot device in scifi, apparently at some time or other proposed on weak grounds as a preferable fusion fuel source. This article explains the problems with that. If we proceed from D-T fusion, D-D fusion is the natural technology as it has the same range of containment criteria and over all radioactivity as other reactions beyond D-T. And since there is plenty of lithium to make tritium and another order of magnitude of containment needed for other reactions, we are talking generations… Read more »

[weekend] Aaah, lager… om nom nom.

Well, the Japanese are doing the logical . 1st a robotic mission to build and establish a base! This is what the US should do as well. step 1 Establishing a robotic base on the moon before 2015, step2 between 2015 and 2020 humans could be inhabit the base build by robots. step3 using the experience gained from step 1, a robotic base can be established on Mars by 2020 preparing the arrival of mankind. step4 with the experience gained man may establish a robotic base on Titan by 2025, again to prepare for the arrival of man. Why the hurry? For one we are running out of time and must look for alternative land to colonize. By… Read more »

@ikepod

Lol @ your timeframes. Very cute post.

“before water levels rise on earth preventing any future attempt.”

Somebody has been watching 2012 a little too much. (=

I don’t know if there will ever be large scale colonies on the moon or elsewhere. The idea of lunar tourism is of course a bit nuts, for only billionaires will be able to buy a ticket. Heinlein was in some ways on track with the idea of an Asian lunar colony, at least to the extent that Asia is coming to dominate the world. Heinlein also had the US falling under a theocracy, which in part I think is going to happen. The Obama period is just a sort of political indian summer in a multi-decades long process whereby the US declines into extreme right winged politics and theocratic control.

LC

The idea of lunar tourism is of course a bit nuts, for only billionaires will be able to buy a ticket. I wasn’t really considering if the tourism resource was feasibly extractable, but I would agree with you that there is at least a small market. Mass market will be a long time off, let’s see what happens with the current orbital and coming suborbital tourism first. [Actually tourism would likely expand on the exploitation, since LEO/Moon transfer cost will mostly lie in the lift up Earth gravity well. There could be a reasonably cheap path to expanding a small exclusive market by lifting the Earth-Moon transfer fuel (liq H and O) from the much smaller Moon (H2O)… Read more »