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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.
The best Mars-simulator available to humans is Antarctica here on Earth. Lets compare.... Atmosphere? Mars and Earth have one, Moon none. Weather? Well, with atmospheres come weather. Sorry Moon. Diurnal period? Earth's day = 24 hours. Mars day = ~24 hours. Moon day? About a month. Temps? Antarctica very good imitator of Martian temps; Moon swings hundreds of degrees just between light and shadow. The only thing Moon and Mars really share relative to us is that humans have to get on a rocket to go to either place. That's about it.