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NASA's Plans To Build A Human Settlement on The Moon (discovermagazine.com)
Nine private spaceflight companies are bidding on contracts to deliver robotic NASA payloads to the moon -- and Thursday NASA said they'd like them to start flying "this calendar year."
Discover magazine reports NASA envisions this "as the first step toward returning to the moon, this time for good." The first tasks will be to practice launching and landing on the moon, as well as answering questions about its surface... They will test habitation for future crewed missions. They'll prove that they can collect materials from the lunar surface and return them to space or Earth. And they'll establish communication networks between robots on the moon's surface, way stations in lunar orbit, and mission control on Earth.
But NASA also wants to deploy demo technology that can mine the moon's resources "to pave the way for human settlement," Space.com reports: The main lunar resource to be exploited, at least initially, is water. The lunar surface has lots of this stuff, locked up as ice on the permanently shadowed floors of polar craters. This water will aid lunar settlement and further exploration, and not just by slaking astronauts' thirst, NASA officials say. Water can also be split into its constituent hydrogen and oxygen, the chief components of rocket fuel.
The Commercial Lunar Payload Services program is just part of NASA's broad moon-exploration plan, which prioritizes an open architecture that encourages cooperation with many commercial and international partners. (Indeed, NASA wants to be the commercial landers' first, but not only, customer.) One of the most critical pieces of this plan is a small space station, called the Gateway, which NASA aims to start building in lunar orbit in 2022. Gateway will be a hub for many kinds of lunar exploration, including sorties to the surface by landers both crewed and uncrewed.
If everything goes according to plan, NASA astronauts will take their first such sortie in 2028 -- 56 years after Apollo 17 crewmembers left the last boot prints on the lunar surface
Discover magazine reports NASA envisions this "as the first step toward returning to the moon, this time for good." The first tasks will be to practice launching and landing on the moon, as well as answering questions about its surface... They will test habitation for future crewed missions. They'll prove that they can collect materials from the lunar surface and return them to space or Earth. And they'll establish communication networks between robots on the moon's surface, way stations in lunar orbit, and mission control on Earth.
But NASA also wants to deploy demo technology that can mine the moon's resources "to pave the way for human settlement," Space.com reports: The main lunar resource to be exploited, at least initially, is water. The lunar surface has lots of this stuff, locked up as ice on the permanently shadowed floors of polar craters. This water will aid lunar settlement and further exploration, and not just by slaking astronauts' thirst, NASA officials say. Water can also be split into its constituent hydrogen and oxygen, the chief components of rocket fuel.
The Commercial Lunar Payload Services program is just part of NASA's broad moon-exploration plan, which prioritizes an open architecture that encourages cooperation with many commercial and international partners. (Indeed, NASA wants to be the commercial landers' first, but not only, customer.) One of the most critical pieces of this plan is a small space station, called the Gateway, which NASA aims to start building in lunar orbit in 2022. Gateway will be a hub for many kinds of lunar exploration, including sorties to the surface by landers both crewed and uncrewed.
If everything goes according to plan, NASA astronauts will take their first such sortie in 2028 -- 56 years after Apollo 17 crewmembers left the last boot prints on the lunar surface
I plan to wrestle London Andrews and then gape Yasmin Pires' tranny butthole.
Ain't gonna happen.
Just like this Moon nonsense.
We all know what eventually happens if you store nuclear waste on the moon.
Capâ(TM)n Kirk is fuckin all the hot aliens
Not only will we get practice in living on another planet, and a chance to build some lunar-based space industry, but having a working colony of humans off-world is good against the possibility of some major catastrophe on Earth.
NASA's sudden interest... cause (China) and effect.
Just asking, because otherwise declaring a state of emergency on the moon might be the only way to get this funded.
The "private" boogaloo.
It ain't happening, too.
I would love to see this put in motion, but with the political climate in the US, not going to happen. The fights over NASA funding has been happening since 1970 and I doubt NASA will ever get decent funding.
My guess is China or possibly India will have a better chance of accomplishing that than the US
that purple hair or a purple wig is part of their uniform. /s
The first fucking Moon missions were because of Russia.
Now, it's because of China.
Make America Race Again After The Race Is Lost Before It Starts
It little behooves the best of us to comment on the rest of us.
Sure, let the national space agencies build settlements on the Moon. There is no commercial viability in those places. Commercial organizations will go where the money is -- deep space asteroids and Mars.
The Moon will be very costly to maintain humans on. The "plentiful" water on the Moon is in very relative terms. It's likely to take days of work for a glass full enough to drink. And the extremely abrasive regolith and pitch-black-only shadows plus zero protection for radiation is all going to add risks and work.
Still, I do think some inflatable habitats on the Moon, once buried in regolith will have their uses, in terms of science and long term commercial uses.
On Mars, north and south of the equator hold hundreds of large, fresh water glaciers more than 2 km deep. The soil elsewhere holds about two liters of water per square meter of regolith. And the regolith is very soft and less abrasive than soil on Earth. Metals in Martian rock are all the same as Earth except about twice as much, in proportion. Martian Basal is near ore-grade for iron. Waving a magnet over the surface is all you need to do to collect very rich iron ore. And the atmosphere and gravity make it easy to launch this stuff into orbit on single-stage rockets.
Although the Moon is closer and therefore easier to send help from Earth, it's also far more likely that help will be needed. It won't take much to become self-sufficient on Mars.
However -- I would prioritize exploration of lunar lava tubes. It's reasonable to think that larger concentrations of water ice might exist in them. If that's the case then settlements in lava tubes on the Moon could be very profitable.
Get back to me when we can have a space station even somewhat similar to that seen in 2001: A Space Odyssey.
The best we've been able to do so far is SkyLab (crash and burn) and the ever broken down International Space Station (ISS).
Until you're able to have a half-decent space station orbiting our planet, don't talk to me about building colonies on the moon.
Elon Musk will have his Mars Colony up and running by then.
So does china and Russia. The question is who will get their first and have prime real estate, as well as the bonafide for being first base.
I prefer the "u" in honour as it seems to be missing these days.
China is powerful, growing, but also vulnerable. Dictatorships tend to be grossly inefficient, as without a civil society there is nothing to stop nepotism and corruption. Sure, Xi Jinping is trying to have both Dictatorship and Economy, but I think that it will eventually falter.
China also needs to import food if its people are to maintain the high protein diet to which they have recently become accustomed..
The real danger is that as China's economy reduces its growth rate from the currently very high rate, politics will become messy. And then Xi might pull the standard trick, produce an external enemy. And "Unify" Taiwan.
So do not be too sure about China. It is complex, and potentially dangerous. There is currently no quiet way to get rid of Xi, it would take bloody revolution.
The carryout is great.
A git like you needs to go back Xi's knob, or crawl back in your big.
NASA couldn't find its way out of a paper bag nowadays.
Bureaucratic money pit that has accomplished near nothing in decades.
Next, "let's go to Mars".
Yeah. Sure.
And call it a peacekeeping mission for our glorious nation. It will get bipartisan funding no problem.
Framing things in manners that are political suicide to stand against is 9/10ths of lobbyist and politicians jobs.
The anti-vax quarantine problem.
Have gnu, will travel.
Libtards have been screaming that Trump is going to prison for what, 2+ years now? Still hasn't happened. You know what? It's never going to happen!
Just this week, the Senate has uncovered no direct evidence of conspiracy between Trump campaign and Russia.
Sure, let the national space agencies build settlements on the Moon. There is no commercial viability in those places.all we need is just peace of mind. https://hitsalbumuk.com/
honestly its so funny, how do dey expect the poor to live on it, because we all know they would want too. #SAVE THE POOR
It's non.
learn the difference to blend in like a native.
Didn't they teach you that in training?
Did someone show Trunp the IronSky Movies and this is what happend after he spoke with the NASA folks and he realized Mars isn't an option?
The US is $22 trillion in debt. Our infrastructure is crumbling. Vets are sleeping outside in the freezing cold and not given the health care they entitled to. The US cannot healthcare for it's poorest citizens. And I could go on.
How much would it cost to put a colony on the moon, and what is the payoff? What do we have on the moon that we don't have on earth?
Supposed to launchpeople in 2014. 2023 at earliest. The human program is a joke unlike its science branch.
Don’t build “Gateway” in lunar orbit. Build it at L5. Constant communications with earth, not much difference in cost to get there from the lunar surface, and easier station keeping. Put an LPS system of sats in orbit though. They can also relay from the far side of the moon as well to enhance exploration.
- Tjp
I am in wallow with my inner money grubbing capitalistic pig. ... Oink!
I'm so tired of us using 1950's technology.
Its time to pry open the doors of skunkworks, and other black op programs.
It was 20 years, I seen an interview, was about Blackhawk helicopter, I think,
the person being interviewed, said this will be the last conventional helicopter
we develop. The next generation will be ANTI-GRAVETIC (his word not mine)
I have been looking for a copy of that interview ever since.
We have technology that is locked away, its time to open the doors and break out
from the this false low tech paradigm and quit practicing rocketry, and lets show
the world what we have for the future.....
Trump is a career criminal, and supporting him on this level is willfully aiding and abetting criminal activity, dude.
"You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"
Best done here, of course, but I can't think of a better application. Send an automated manufacturing colony up that can make more copies of itself as it extracts useful things for humans. Wait a few years, have tons and tons of resources waiting, habitats built.
Don't tell me this is beyond our current tech. It's within reach. Certainly closer than the original moon shot was fifty years ago.
Does anyone know why they aren't building a mass driver or something like that to do this?
Fuel is the biggest cost prohibition and humans won't mind the 110 g's or whatever because its just got robots.
I'm shocked at the inaccuracy of your comment.
First, the US is without question the most advanced spacefaring nation. Our probes are Roving Mars now, exploring asteroids, and of course New Horizons and let's not forget Voyager. Russia is obviously a close #2.
Our discussion has to start with that understanding.
NASA obviously gets "decent" funding....funding enough to do the most advanced spacefaring in human history.
The idea that NASA can't get funding to do a project is clearly contradicted by several successful examples currently exploring the universe.
China is a polluted cesspool with a population crisis and it is broke. It has no resources like intellectual base, creativity, or experience to do this. The country is a constant disaster and all the Chinese government can do is keep things from imploding day to day.
Same with India...only worse. I'll grant you that over time, India will eclipse China due to the deterious effects of communism on a populace. India at least values free thinking.
Plus, China and India have no experience, compared to the US's 60 years of sending people and machines to other worlds
Thank you Dave Raggett
Why the specification that it will be a "human" colony? Is there some other kind of colony NASA is capable of setting up?
Does NASA have some greys under wraps at Area 51??