Re: Why NASA should focus on the Moon, not Mars - Henry Spencer


"Totorkon" <aertrion@xxxxxxxxx> wrote in message
news:9ffedcd6-e1b6-4c74-8573-2200d823d04b@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
On Nov 19, 5:30 pm, Brian Thorn <bthor...@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
On Wed, 19 Nov 2008 08:03:02 -0600, Pat Flannery <flan...@xxxxxxxxxx>
wrote:

When it comes right down to it, in the present global economic climate
arguing about either returning to the Moon or heading on to Mars and the
Asteroids as The Planetary Society argues for is pretty much moot.
It's very doubtful that the funding is going to be there to do either of
those things, and that for anytime in the near future any sort of
exploration of the Moon and planets is going to be unmanned for the
simple reason of economy of such programs compared to manned ones.

Not necessarily. During the Great Depression the Golden Gate Bridge,
Empire State Building, the Jefferson Memorial, and Hoover Dam were
built, and work on Mt. Rushmore was started, among hundreds of other
seemingly "unaffordable" endeavors.

Brian

For its first decade, the ES building was a finacial sink hole. The
GG bridge and Hoover dam had immediate and substantial economic
return.
Robotic exploration is orders of magnitude less expensive and the
technology developement is on a par with the development of ICs for
aerospace, which has led to the dominance of US companys in this
field.... so far.

II keep hearing about people talking about how cheap and flexible robotic
missions are, but in the end it's all moot. If China puts a man on the moon
or does a manned flyby of Mars we'll have people up in arms why 'we' didn't
do it first. Let's face it, robotic missions are infinitely less exciting
than manned exploration missions, even if they are much cheaper, more of
them can be done for the money and there's no real risk involved (except for
some bruised egos). I keep thinking that many scientists and engineers keep
forgetting that fact, and that it's the taxpayers and politicians who make
this all possible. If we embarrass them, by allowing another nation to go
there first and maybe lay territorial claims to it, they might very well
feel inclined to punish the responsible agencies such as NASA.

Let's face it, government backed space programs are all about prestige, and
science is a nice added benefit. Don't for a second think that the moon
probes sent by Japan, India and China were sent for scientific purposes, the
data they produce will hardly increase our scientific knowledge of the moon.

In some aspects the U.S. is much farther ahead since there are already
commercial ventures who have their sights set on outer space (SpaceX,
Bigelow, Space Adventures) and which may result in a new, very profitable
industry with the added benefit that thousands and thousands of
non-government employees will be able to go into space.

As for the Moon, I believe that most nations have half an eye on the
helium-3 that can be mined there, not that it's a very exciting place in
most other respects. It is a good place to get your feet wet, but I'm afraid
we'll be stuck there since there won't be enough money for a Mars program if
we set up a base there. Very little of the spacecraft used in Moon
exploration can be utilized for a Martian expedition.





.

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