International Effort Could Put First Canadian On the Moon

A long-term plan created by 14 cooperating space agencies around the world could mean that a Canadian astronaut may get to visit the moon sometime close to 2030. The International Space Exploration Coordination Group, of which Canada is a part, released last week an updated roadmap laying out intended projects, including a lunar visit. "[CSA space exploration director Jean-Claude Piedboeuf] suggested astronauts could again be moon-bound in about 15 years. It would be the first human visit to the shining orb since 1972, when NASA astronauts Eugene Cernan and Harrison Schmidt spent 75 hours there. This time, there could well be Canadian visitors. Their specialty: robotics. 'We're proposing a vision where Canada could have an astronaut, effectively a Canadian who will be in lunar space, either in orbit or on the moon and could operate a Canadian rover in the same way that Canadians operate a Canadarm on the space station,' Piedboeuf said."

Comments

May I suggest Justin Bieber?

[Begemot]

Pleaaaaaaaaase....

Re:May I suggest Justin Bieber?

[rubycodez]

There is a severe fuel cost for putting massive objects into orbit, on the order of 100 to 1 for fuel to paypload weight

Re:May I suggest Justin Bieber?

[lunatix]

I believe their egos would be disproportionally heavier than their actual body weight.

15 years?

[rubycodez]

from Kennedy's challenge to first man on the moon was 8 years. just from that, I'd say this is mostly not planning to go anywhere in the next 20 years.

Re:15 years?

[DerekLyons]

from Kennedy's challenge to first man on the moon was 8 years

Only because of the years and years of preparatory work already done. Development of the F-1 started in 1956. Much of the design and engineering for the Apollo capsule was already complete (although as a general purpose earth orbiter). The same goes for the engineering and development of the Saturn family of boosters.
 
One of the reasons Kennedy chose a moon landing as a goal (over the other options considered) in the first place was because so much of the necessary groundwork was already in work.

Re:15 years?

[Noughmad]

One would think there is even more groundwork done now than there was in the 60s. The main difference is that between a president making a commitment and a committee making a presentation.

Re:15 years?

[DerekLyons]

Some of the groundwork has been done - but this project isn't getting the thing that made the real difference... a huge budget. Which wasn't a direct result of Kennedy's commitment - he was actually looking for ways to scale it back. The huge budget came because he died in Dallas and LBJ pushed for the program as a monument to Kennedy.

Re:15 years?

[timeOday]

Only because of the years and years of preparatory work already done. Development of the F-1 started in 1956.

The V2 rocket is what really started the space age. It was the first thing humans ever built that reached space. It wasn't easy; the Nazis poured vast resources into that research. And there is a direct lineage from the V2 to the moon program.

Re:15 years?

[rubycodez]

wrong! even if we take the entire Apollo program which had other purposes before Kennedy's challenge, that was $25.4 billion as reported in 1973. That's 102.3 billion dollars now. Or the cost of the U.S. nuclear arsenal which is two thirds of a trillion dollars every decade. A fraction of cost of a war with no purpose and no results (other than a few hundred thousand dead Iraqi citizens), for example. Space exploration is very cheap.

The really sad thing...

[CrimsonAvenger]

...about all this is that means we're farther from putting a man on the moon than we were the day I was born.

And I was born years before Gagarin flew.

Re:The really sad thing...

[Mitchell314]

Let go? What do you replace it with?

Re:The really sad thing...

[tompaulco]

Even more sad is that someone your age can't let go of the symbolism of a dead era.

I wasn't born in that era, but I understand the sentiment completely. During the late 50's through the mid-70's, we experience the pinnacle of technology and humankind has been going down hill since. We had rockets that went to the moon. We had supersonic transport. We built the fastest airplane ever, we built several different airplane models that are still in production and have yet to be surpassed. We invented what eventually became the internet. Since then, we haven't done much of anything except squabble and fight and sue. One might also notice a correlation in the diminishing of funding for education and research to our newfound stunning lack of achievement.

Re:The really sad thing...

[Type44Q]

Since then, we haven't done much of anything except squabble and fight and sue. One might also notice a correlation in the diminishing of funding for education and research to our newfound stunning lack of achievement.

Yeah but the ultra-wealthy can enjoy thousand-horsepower all-wheel-drive supercars and cheap replacement organs from healthy, grass-fed South American kids...

Re:The really sad thing...

[Noughmad]

You all tend to forget that people receiving social aid have faster computers in their pockets than the whole world had during that "pinnacle of technology" time. The transition was from super government projects (flight to the moon, Concorde) to commercial developments, and from "cool stuff" to "convenience".

Re:The really sad thing...

[Kjella]

Things die for business reasons, not technological reasons. And I'd say rovers that explore Mars on their own is far more advanced than having humans do everything like on Apollo. The Concord died yes, but there are supersonic jets in private ownership (ex-military), it's all a matter of cost. Some things haven't changed much but smart phones, medicine, lots of things have become very much more technologically advanced. It just depends on where you're looking, I'd much rather be in a hospital in 2013 than 1963, thank you very much.

Re:The really sad thing...

[dryeo]

America probably has more prison labour then China. Those private prison companies need to make money with their guaranteed prison population.

This assumes the world isn't broke in 2030

[Nova Express]

With the way national governments keep piling up debt, it's unreasonable to assume any of those governments will be funding space exploration in 2030.

Re:This assumes the world isn't broke in 2030

[rtaylor]

Democratic countries only. Most of the communist ones, including those that went through financial difficulties in the 80's/90's are in pretty good shape debt wise.

Re:This assumes the world isn't broke in 2030

[blahplusplus]

"With the way national governments keep piling up debt"

That debt is to private banks, you do know that each nation is supposed to have it's own national bank making that kind of debt impossible? The worlds banking cartel launched a coup against most nation states to keep them under their control via national debt.

Don't think so? Why not look at what even these canadian politicians have to say. Money is political fiction, the national debt exists because private power wants it to exist to prevent progressive social change under the fear mongering of national debt.

http://www.ohcanadamovie.com/

Don't stop there

[hessian]

How soon before we can send the rest of them?

Re:May I suggest Justine Bieber?

[MysteriousPreacher]

Leave her alone!

Re:Tresspassing

[Chris Mattern]

We claimed it, planted flags there and all.

Well, since the flags are all white now, I guess we surrendered it all.

(Truth! The unfiltered solar radiation on the Moon has long since bleached all the flags we left up there pure white.)

And a Tim Horton's by 2035!

[DaveyJJ]

Awesome news. If we can hit the 2030 mark for a Canuck, then we'll certainly have a Timmies on the moon by 2035 or so.

Re:Not only first Canadian. First human on the moo

[jfdavis668]

Best argument that the Moon landings were real. Nixon couldn't cover up Watergate, how was he to get every nation on Earth to help cover up fake Moon landings? Don't you think a Bradley Manning or Edward Snowden type would have let the cat out of the bag? Don't you think the Soviet Union would have blown the cover? Get real.

Re:Not only first Canadian. First human on the moo

[Beardo the Bearded]

Look, the moon landings were faked. Just not the way you think.

They were filmed on a sound stage on the moon. We've had a base on the dark side since the 50's.

A human Canadian?

[ebno-10db]

Are they going to send a human Canadian? Ho-hum. Humans on the moon is a been-there-done-that kind of thing. Now, the first moose on the moon, that would be be cool!

Bart Sibrel, is that you?

[tlambert]

Bart Sibrel, is that you? http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bart_Sibrel

No more hollywood fakes. Nothing this time will hide from high definition cameras. Will have proof and can trace every step from the start to the moon. No more lying, no more fake Apollo flights.

Add to your list: No more getting punched in the mouth by Buzz Aldrin for being an asshole.

Re:Correction

[dryeo]

American prisons use torture (long term solitary confinement) to force the issue and some States such as Arizona do have laws requiring every able bodied prisoner to work with wages of 10 to 50 cents an hour. Googling "American prison labour" shows much horrible stuff, perhaps not as bad as China but the big difference is America pretends to be free as they get less free constantly whereas China does not claim to be free and things are generally improving over there.