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Lunar Mission One Proposes To Take Core Sample, Plant Time Capsule On the Moon
MarkWhittington writes: The U.S. may have foresworn the moon, the venue of its greatest space triumph during the Apollo program, by presidential directive, but that does not mean that other countries and even private organizations are uninterested. The latest proposal for a private moon landing is a British effort called Lunar Mission One, according to a Wednesday story in the New Scientist. Its goal is twofold. The undertaking proposes to drill a 20 meter core sample below the lunar surface for analysis. Lunar Mission One will also deploy the first moon based time capsule. A Kickstarter effort has begun for initial funding.
So, moon-based alpha?
Awesome!!
Of course, all of the Luddites will just spend the next 50 years saying it's a hoax.
'Cuz, Luddites gonna Ludd.
Lost at C:>. Found at C.
Why is it called "One"? It's far from the first mission to the moon.
Are they referring to the Mars One project?
There is a lot of resemblance between those projects. Both depend on crowd-funding to work on a rather unrealistic goal. I guess both projects will pay a very nice salary to the people in charge. The project doesn't have to reach its goal to be financially succesfull for the owners.
If you're going to drill any decent depth you'll have to put together a manned mission with a bunch of roughneck drilling rig workers. They're the only ones that can operate drilling equipment. It can't possibly be taught to other astronauts, and most certainly not some dumb robot.
I'm skeptical of anyone who thinks they can fund a complex lunar exploration mission as a kickstarter project.
All that I foresee coming out of this is a multi-year "consulting study", using the dreams and hopes of space enthusiasts to pay for it. In another words, one space consultant gets a paid multi-year sabatical, with a short assignment report on the Moon at the end as the only result.
But maybe I'm just a cynic when it comes to kickstarter projects and their promises....
I mean, sure bury a time capsule on earth, it's cool for the kids and stuff and we can all reminisce about the good old days when you open it up but it just seems like such a waste to send one all the way to the moon as a PR stunt.
It gets worse when they explain it, it sounds like a scam: "His idea is to charge people £50 or so to place a sample of their DNA, in the form of a strand of hair, in an archive to be buried on the moon,..."
And then: "The catch? He needs at least 10 million earthlings to do this if he's to generate the £500 million the moon shot will need."
I mean, I'm sure you can chop up strands of hair pretty finely and he probably doesn't plan on generating £500 million through the time capsule but you can only fit so many of them on a moon probe while keeping costs realistic. Just from an engineering point of view, imagine trying to chop up 50 000 hair strand as finely as possible. Do you A: Develop a machine to do it / B: Rely on people to chop them and do their best to make the smallest possible cut. Then don't even get me started on the really careful manipulation involved to not lose one of those super small cut of hair.
All it will imply is that it will be another 50 years before we go back to the moon.
20 Meters is a very deep core sample for an unmanned space probe. I wonder if they realize just what kind of equipment they need to send up there to actually dig that deep without complications. Dropping the core sample requirement would let them have a much lighter payload, and might put them realistically within their launch capability as a private effort. I seriously doubt even a project with the backing of a large government could easily retrieve a 20m core sample from an astronomical body.
Did these guys just say "hey let's do a lunar sample return mission! high five!" and throw together a kick starter? They don't even have a target launch vehicle chosen yet. Not only do they want to do a return sample mission (something China has been working on for 15 years) but they want to drill a 60 ft hole in the moon while they're at it. This is, to use a pun, lunacy. The logistics involved of entering lunar orbit, let alone landing are incredible. And they want to throw a 60' drilling apparatus on there that will work flawlessly? Not even the ESA can get their 8" drill to work on the comet correctly and that's just ice.
Good luck with that.
moox. for a new generation.
where they pocket the cash and run.
The time capsule should contain a magnetic anomaly that once unmooned reveals a black parallelepiped whose sides extend in the precise ratio of 1 : 4 : 9 (1 : 2 : 3).
I mean...it seems like so much of the KS ideas are some bastardization of a senior marketing design project and several geeks spitballing crazy ideas after several bottles of cheap tequila. And KS is perfect for it - little oversight, no requirement to actually complete or deliver under any kind of deadline - what's not to like.
They're not going anywhere, and they may not even know it yet. I say they may not know it because the entire team of 5 has a single scientist, and her specialty has nothing to do with aerospace, mechanical, or electrical engineering nor any training or experience in space vehicle design, navigation, and operation. The other four include two administrators, a financial advisor, and a broadcast journalist. But, more importantly, they won't be going anywhere with a million dollars. And if you aren't going anywhere, a million bucks buys a lot of tequila.
Is it just my observation, or are there way too many stupid people in the world?
The more entities propose space programs, the further anyone gets from getting anywhere ... including the moon.
Mission One?... How aspirational. The first successful moon mission was in 1959, duh.
The U.S. may have foresworn the moon,
Aguable. Presuming that more samples of moon material was required, then a probe could be sent to get it, no? So what is missing is rather the reason to make the moon a target, rather than somewhere notionally more interesting as a starting point.
the venue of its greatest space triumph during the Apollo program,
Arguable. What about Cassini? Voyager? The Mars Rovers?
There is a US satellite orbiting the Moon right now, another whose mission just ended, and yet another one 2 years ago.
No, we have not foresworn the Moon.
It's a glorious new age. They'll just send a 3D printer on the Moon, print out the required tool, get the core sample and 3D print a return rocket! All powered by a Helium-3 fusion reactor! Also 3D printed, naturally!
Glorious! GLORIOOOOUS! Ad Astra!
IMO this is a total waste of time and resources. The earth along with the moon are going to be destroyed along with anyone who is left living here at the time. Put a time capsule on pluto or further out hell it might even be livable though not too much space. That's my 2 cents too many poor too many kids not having enough food to eat for a real waste like this.
Jack of all trades,master of none
I just don't understand why they have to bury the Time Capsule so deep.
I would have a sig but I am too busy updating programs and restarting my computer
if you're going to spend money bringing something to the moon, it should be nanobots that self-assemble a moon base.
Remember kids, if you're not paying for the service, YOU ARE THE PRODUCT THAT IS BEING SOLD.
I'm starting to see more and more cases where crowd-funding seems to be supplanting the things that government's used to be necessary for. It seems like many government projects should be handed over to crowd-funding platforms so we can free up tax money to line politicians pockets more. That way we can democratically choose the projects that we feel deserve our money, while lowering politicians incentives to tax us more.
A big black Obelisk measuring 6x9x9 just to upset future archaeologists
No need for a return mission. Just need a Kickstarter for building a teleporter, then use it to beam the samples back. Much less risk, and only slightly less feasible for this team to pull off.