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NASA To Cancel Lunar Resource Prospector Mission (theverge.com)
New submitter XXongo writes: NASA has told the Lunar Resource Prospector Mission team to cease work on developing the mission by the end of May. The proposed mission was in development to send a rover to the lunar pole in 2022, with the objective to drill into ice frozen in permanently shadowed craters. Use of such ice has been proposed as a resource that could be processd into rocket fuel, oxygen, and water for life support systems.
The cancellation apparently is partly due to the mission having been shifted from the Human Exploration directorate of NASA, which is excited by the possibility of lunar resources supporting exploration, to the Science Mission directorate, which does not consider lunar ice a high priority for science. The cancellation of the mission has gotten some controversy from the lunar science community, with the members of the Lunar Exploration Analysis Group (LEAG) writing an open letter to new administrator Bridenstine protesting the cancellation.
The cancellation apparently is partly due to the mission having been shifted from the Human Exploration directorate of NASA, which is excited by the possibility of lunar resources supporting exploration, to the Science Mission directorate, which does not consider lunar ice a high priority for science. The cancellation of the mission has gotten some controversy from the lunar science community, with the members of the Lunar Exploration Analysis Group (LEAG) writing an open letter to new administrator Bridenstine protesting the cancellation.
Send Boston Dynamics to the moon.
Establishing a permanent lunar base is the logical first step towards a Mars trip.
I heard someone once say that if you want to grind a 6 inch telescope mirror, it is faster and more prudent to grind a 3-inch mirror first and then a 6-inch mirror than to try to go for the 6-inch mirror on the first attempt.
Robots are the future of space exploration.
NASA doesn't want to disturb the Nazi base under the Lunar ice cap, so they cancelled the project. And all because the president said they were some "very fine people".
You are welcome on my lawn.
They're obviously worried that a lunar mission will impact their primary focus of making Muslims feel good about their history.
We need an XX prize. First one "mission accomplished" gets $50 million prize. Tired of supporting NASA inefficiencies and politics. $50m + 10% overheads, and that's all.
We need to industrialize space first, but NASA isn't the way.
So, what's the agenda? can't this water be used as a fuel source for unmanned missions? Isn't this a logical step in any further space exploration?
I wonder if it was orchestrated by the Mars Underground. Unlike missions such as Curiosity, many lunar missions are short-lived so not good long-term employment.
Sorry but this "lunar base is essential for Mars settlement" is a bankrupted expression. Otherwise everybody will start working on a lunar exit strategy before we can simply show we can put something on the moon that can do something useful (hey, how minable is that water ice?). Or put a man on the moon and bring him back safely. If we can't do these "simple" things, lots of luck expanding humanity into the solar system.
mfwright@batnet.com
How do you know they don't pay taxes?
SpaceX and The Boring company pegged to drill ice on moon!
"A person is smart. People are dumb, panicky dangerous animals and you know it." - K
Well, I'm all for electing Hillary to be put on a rocket and blasted off to the Moon. She won't be the first women President, but she'll be the first woman Resident.. of Luna.
Look back up at my post, now look back down, you're on the Internet. Now look back up. I'm a signature.
Trump Ended The Korean War Today.
No, Mr. President. You're wrong again. I'm not tired of all this winning.
Taxes are not being spent how they want. They weren't elected and don't get to decide a budget for NASA. If they want to probe the ice in the lunar pole, let them write a check. Elon must wanted a human on the red planet, he wrote a check.
The only idiots here, as has become the norm, is the slashdot commenters:
1. Trolls;
2. clueless ignorants;
3. Basement dwellers with their worthless lives who delude themselves into thinking that they're smarter than NASA people.
Would it be so easy for him to do if he didn't have a fat NASA contract.
He earned those contracts himself.
Stanley Kubrick, RIP.
First they had him "fake nukes" (Dr. Strangelove), then they had him "fake space" (moon mission, for which "2001" was his job application).
fixed version:
The only idiots here
has become the norm,
is the slashdot commenters:
Yes he did. The taxpayers requesting that their money be spent on something they're interested in also earned that money that they paid taxes on. Are you suggesting that people who pay taxes should be required to pay the full amount for everything before they get a say?
4. People who think Slashdot is still relevant today as it was 20 years ago.
Are you suggesting that people who pay taxes should be required to pay the full amount for everything before they get a say?
No.
Speaking of budget, when you work out how much the US spends per person roughly a year. For military it's about $1,800. For NASA it's about $50! Sort of sad when you think about it.
A lot of taxes I've paid over the years have not being spent the way I want. I have never been elected to anything. Are you saying I should shut up, be quite, go away, stop complaining, etc.? If so, then you really don't have a clue.
its terrible for all of us I think we should destroy all the things https://leadcoder.blogspot.com
Maybe NASA could have an ED that would focus on building capabilities for both the science missions and human exploration?
...They will suddenly become very interested and possessive, again, on this piece of rock.
Rwe obliged 2 save our future by choosing:O3 hole-greenhouse effect instead of accepting everydays gossip-nonsense chat?
We need an XXX prize. Big Giant Orange Head wants to bang some voluptuous Martians or Venusians.
Besides, when they want to talk to the public about it, he can have them banned for, ah, er, terrorism!
"Space Force! Think about it, Space Force. Let the Space Force deal with those dirty, nubile, voluptuous Martians! And our big, beautiful Space Wall will keep out those nasty, sexy, naughty Venusians! Jupiter is going to pay for that wall, believe me!! But we need holes in the Space Wall so we can spy on the Martians and Venusians dressing, because, ah, um, they are trying to take jobs from Americans! Believe me!"
Makes sense, kind of like when England sent their criminals to Australia.
Fuck the Moon. What has it done for us lately?
Oh here we go yet again with that same old BS argument that somehow 1) "The money could be better spent here on Earth" and 2) "We should solve every single problem here on Earth first, even if it means remaining here forever". This deluded, worn out cliche falls apart on a number of fronts and every time it is dredged up it remains completely unchanged and it adds NOTHING new or useful to the discourse. To counter these stale assertions will argue two of these points:
First, the idea that the money will ever be redirected to anything that will actually improve our quality of life is absurd. It doesn't work that way and it NEVER WILL. The way it works is that any unused funds in any given fiscal year are plowed back into the General Fund, where it is then reallocated towards the top national priorities for the next fiscal year. The top priorities include servicing our national debt and maintaining a permanent state of military readiness to fight the Forever Wars around the world. Concerns about science, education, non-porkbarrel jobs and infrastructure are only paid lip service and in reality are de facto at the bottom of the list as well. Since all other space activity outside of the military and/or a tiny little superficial bump for science and limited commercial satellite launch (just to keep up a hollow appearance that we haven't totally abandoned our capabilities and become a technological backwater) lay so far down the priority list that it might as well not even be on it, political support for Civilian space activities has always remained broad but shallow and there is never enough of it to ensure serious discussion and consensus on a coherent vision. Rudderless and lacking in any Required Immediate Justification, NASA (and its Manned Spaceflight program in particular) is forced to limp along under a cobbled together kludge of pragmatic and aspirational arguments that by themselves individually are not enough to justify the existence of a non-military space program. Our civilian space program only continues to exist because it is joined at the hip to the military industrial base and because we are bound contractually to a small handful of international science projects. Donald Trump and Mike Pence don't actually give a flying f**k about anything else but weaponizing space as fast as possible and enabling a tiny little bit of nationalistic economic activity so long as it pleases the base. However, since infrastructure and public education spending are not actually real priorities either, not a single red cent will ever be spent the way you wish it to.
My second point is that the "stay here and fix it all first" argument is often one big Fallacy of the Excluded Middle. Either we're preparing to abandon our homeworld to become the very type of rapacious, greedy alien invaders we depict in so many science fiction movies, strip-mining every planet we come across until there's nothing left and moving on to the next one while leaving the rest of our kind here to die, or there's literally nothing out there that can ever be converted to a useable form, we're all completely alone as the only intelligent lifeforms in the universe and we might as well forever limit our physical, intellectual, spiritual and socioeconomic horizons to the surface of this Pale Blue Dot and stop dreaming of what could be Out There. No middle ground. Many contrarians argue that space exploration, technological development and exploitation of resources beyond Earth - and practical humanitarian concerns down here on Earth - are mutually exclusive. I argue otherwise on several grounds. Sure there's always the spinoff argument, and the aspirational goals such as the quest for life beyond Earth, and all the other romantic angles, etc. Sure I could argue till the cows come home that Earth's problems will never fully be absolutely 100% solved but that's no excuse not to do both space exploration and working to address the earthbound challenges of our civilization down here. I could and would argue about how space technology materially improv
As for the "escape hatch for the wealthy" and "insurance for humanity" arguments, those don't quite hold water either. A small early settlement cannot just survive on its own. For a significant length of time, possibly a few centuries, It will be mostly reliant on supply lines from Earth. If catastrophe were to befall our homeworld before these settlements can grow large enough and master ISRU and waste recycling to become self-sufficient, then they will die out soon after Earth does. Questions of legal enforceability aside, the current treaty framework also "tethers" these settlements to their respective terrestrial nation states. Until full self-sufficiency is achieved, full political independence may not be possible. That said, the "insurance for humanity" argument often touted by the likes of Elon Musk might be valid inasmuch as we need to start paying into the policy now, but there's always that risk that the whole endeavour could fall apart before we get a million-strong Martian city.