Re: Google/X-Prize Moon Contest
- From: BradGuth <bradguth@xxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Tue, 18 Sep 2007 17:29:10 -0000
The forbidden X Prize: Be it of your idea or not, it seems that our
hocus-pocus NASA wants others to risk far more than everything in
order to figure out how the heck to safely soft-land whatever rover
upon our moon, before either Russia, China or India accomplish the
deed.
Unless our NASA/(taxpayers), Federal Express or UPS intends to donate
the required launch, lunar trajectory and manage the best possible
orbital status on behalf of each final fly-by-rocket lander's orbital
deployment, as otherwise $30 million is not going to make anyone rich
or much less into a happy camper.
$30 million X10 = $300 million = maybe X Prize doable
Lunar Prospector's 4+ stage fly-by-rocket accomplishment at a 400:1
deployment of its GLOW per payload ratio, taking 105+ hours (not
including the Earth launch into LEO or those adjustments for
accomplishing their required mission of orbiting at roughly 100 km).
In other words, having taken half again the Apollo mission time for
getting that wussy little payload of 296 kg into it's final 118 minute
lunar orbit, thereby demanding roughly half the overall applied thrust
energy per payload requirement because, if they were to have matched
the Apollo 3+ day time of getting such into proper lunar orbit would
have demanded that our Lunar Prospector's launch and final orbit
deployment effort would have taken nearly twice as much applied rocket
energy. So, for having gone much slower was in fact a real fly-by-
rocket mission energy saver, and best of all was that not so much as a
single strand of human DNA was ever placed at risk of being
traumatised or otherwise nuked by all the moon's gamma and X-rays.
http://pds-geosciences.wustl.edu/missions/lunarp/schandbk.pdf
at 118.65 t / .2963 = 400:1
It's unlikely that any given one-way mission of hauling a fly-by-
rocket lander would represent a payload of less than a tonne, or
roughly at least four times the mass of Lunar Prospector. Today the
Lunar Prospector mission would likely cost $125 million, and it was
certainly not of any highly complex soft-lander, nor was anything of
the Lunar Prospector mission unproven. Do the math, as $30 million
isn't hardly 10% of what such a robotic soft-lander and rover of what
any such mission capability is going to involve, and there are few if
any of those smart Third Reich Yids available for making all of those
all-important rocket science decisions.
I do not believe a basic 10 km orbiter mission as having a quality
high speed CCD of 50X(one degree or better) optical imaging capability
couldn't be accomplished within $30 million, unless via China or
India, and I do not believe either of those options are on the GOOGLE
X Prize table. Just the terrestrial R&D for the fly-by-rocket soft
lander itself would likely exceed $30 million. Placing multiple units
onboard a given delivery rocket would obviously divide that cost, but
that would also mean sharing a ride with other equipment that may not
behave itself.
I have an even better X Prize idea that's actually doable, as to
achieving the moon's L1, with folks accomplishing as much of a
scientific instrument populated platform(s) as possible (way short of
an actual Clarke Station), of what would thereby accomplish a vast
amount of moon and Earth science from within that interactive
location. Even though it's still too demanding and need-to-know
disclosing for our NASA to accommodate, perhaps we should privately
accomplish this essential phase before China or India sets up their
command depot/gateway within this nifty moon L1 zone. Of course,
along with a few extra SRBs and a service bay chuck full of extra
fuel, beer, pizza and each of its crew having their cache of banked
bone marrow back home, our shuttle could manage to accomplish the
moon's L1.
Why not Russia? As them smart Russians could certainly best utilize
such X Prize loot at being worth ten fold better off than most
anything all-American as is, and use the good PR and scientific status
that could be shoved in our dumbfounded face, for their being the
honest to God first (once again).
On Sep 17, 8:48 pm, nzk <nzknzk...@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:
What would have happened if the Russians went to the moon first? Would the
space race have continued on? To what extent?
Thus far, the only Russian first would have been those one-way hard-
landing probes that for the most part never once accomplished any such
fly-by-rocket of down-range on behalf of covering any controlled meter
worth of flight across that physically dark and nasty surface, much
less tens of kilometers worth and still managing to trek anything
about or rather through that extremely dusty surface as though being
right at home.
So, for Russia to accomplish our moon first via fly-by-rocket soft-
lander, even robotically would in fact be a first, and I for one would
remain 100% in support of seeing their robotic efforts that could by
rights win the GOOGLE/NOVA X Prize, and then some. As otherwise it'll
likely be up to China or India, especially since there's still nothing
within any of NASA's R&D prototype inventory that's offering such a
viable robotic lander, much less robust enough suited for
accommodating the frail DNA of us humans.
Also remember, that from any given meteorite impact that pretty much
unavoidably gives off secondary shards of anything above 1.63 km/s are
going to briefly remain in low lunar orbit before coming into contact
with some other portion of that nasty terrain, or else into contact
with that naked body of whomever's within a given moonsuit. Trust me,
going EVA moonsuiting on the moon w/o anti-static coatings and ductape
is not an option.
- Brad Guth -
.
- References:
- Google/X-Prize Moon Contest
- From: Joe Strout
- Google/X-Prize Moon Contest
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