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Dreams of the Moon

Posted by michael on from the green-cheese dept.

Iron Sun writes "The Mars Institute has an interesting overview of past studies into sending people to the Moon, ranging from pre-Apollo plans by Werner von Braun to NASA studies just a few years old. Timely, given the continuing speculation as to whether the US is going to go back."

4 of 216 comments (clear)

  1. Re:Some things to think about... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Informative

    If you haven't, read "The Moon is a Harsh Mistress" (by Robert Heinlein) for a war between a lunar colony and Earth story...

  2. Re:Aerobraking for the moon? by BabyDave · · Score: 4, Informative

    Reading through the rest of the article, it seems the aerobrake would be used at the end of the return journey, to get the LOS into a similar orbit to the ISS - i.e. in Earth's atmosphere.

    I suppose they could try using aerobraking to adjust the orbit around the Moon, but given the extremely low density of its atmosphere (someone more knowledgable can provide numbers ...), it's unlikely that it would have a noticeable effect.

  3. Re:Space Race by Wyatt+Earp · · Score: 3, Informative

    Actually, many of the stories in the last few months have been about President Bush talking about going back.

    http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,104800,00.ht ml
    http://www.cnn.com/2003/TECH/space/12/04/us.moon /
    http://www1.chinadaily.com.cn/en/doc/2003-12/05 /co ntent_287740.htm
    http://science.slashdot.org/scie nce/03/12/04/03122 14.shtml?tid=134&tid=160
    http://www.nationalrevie w.com/comment/powell200312 030858.asp

  4. Re:OT: Did the USSR ever have a manned moon missio by WegianWarrior · · Score: 3, Informative

    Short answer; No

    Long answer; Read this excelent artcle about the various soviet lunar programs.

    --
    Everything in the world is controlled by a small, evil group to which, unfortunately, no one you know belongs.