Slashdot Mirror

← Back to Stories (view on slashdot.org)

Project Orion to Bring U.S. Back to the Moon

Posted by ryuzaki0 on from the guess-you-can't-take-the-sky-from-me dept.

ganjadude writes "Thirty-seven years ago yesterday, Project Apollo put the first humans on the surface of the Moon. The next time the U.S. launches its astronauts to Earth's natural satellite, they will do so as part of Project Orion." From the article: "Under Project Orion, NASA would launch crews of four astronauts aboard Orion capsules, first to Earth orbit and the International Space Station and then later to the Moon. Two teams, one led by Lockheed Martin and the other a joint effort by Northrop Grumman and The Boeing Co., are currently competing to build the CEV. NASA is expected to select the winner in September."

2 of 399 comments (clear)

  1. Re:inherent scientific value? by erice · · Score: 5, Interesting

    That a few simple organisms once existed on mars, and that Mars once had water? But don't we know this now?

    Finding even simple organisims that evolved on Mars would be of fantastic value. Right now all we know about life is derived from one sample point. A lot of what we assume to fundamental about life could be proven completely wrong if we find out the Martian life does it differently. It could be that Earth life has unnecessary complexities and finding Mars life is the key to creating life from scratch in the lab. All sorts of amazing bio-technology could result.

  2. Re:inherent scientific value? by blueturffan · · Score: 5, Interesting
    but if we want to prioritize, wouldn't billions of dollars be better spent focusing on fixing our own messed up planet?
    Billions and billions of dollars have been spend trying to "fix our own messed up planet". This was exactly the reasoning that got the budgets for Apollo 19 and Apollo 20 cancelled. (People pointed to the Vietnam war, the homeless, and so forth and asked, "Why are we spending money on the moon when we have so many problems here on Earth??") The sad fact is that we had the most awesome heavy lift capability this planet had ever seen and we threw it away. Even with minimal funding for Apollo / Saturn hardware, we could have built a real space station in just a few launches. Put another way, the US went from first sub-orbital flight (Alan Shepard, Freedom 7, May 1961) to "concluding man's first exploration of the moon" (Apollo 18, December 1972) in 11 short years. Since 1972, we've just been going in circles.

    As far as the value of "putting men on a rock in space" is concerned, it's more than just the science value. That is not to discount the science value which is very real. I heard of an experiment that was done with a simulated "alien" environment. First the unmanned probes (may have been rovers) were given their chance to explore the area. They found nothing remarkable. Then they sent in the *HUMANS* who within seconds discovered a soda can that obviously did not belong in the simulated environment.

    That may be an urban legand, but I believe it makes a valid point. A trained *HUMAN* scientist can quickly determine what is relevant and what is not, and focus on the relevant. That is not to say that all exploration should be manned. I believe the manned and unmanned missions should be complimentary, not competitors.