Timothy Birdnow

President Trump is expected to sign a directive today that may order NASA to pursue a return to the Moon.

According to the Space.com website:

" A White House schedule of the president’s activities, released late Dec. 10, includes a 3 p.m. Eastern "signing ceremony for Space Policy Directive 1." The schedule doesn't provide additional details about the event or the document.

The event would coincide with the 45th anniversary of the last crewed mission to land on the moon. The Apollo 17 lunar lander touched down on the moon on Dec. 11, 1972.

That timing has led to speculation in the space community that the directive will involve a formal policy statement directing NASA to return humans to the moon. Statements from administration officials, including Vice President Mike Pence, has have made clear their interest in human lunar missions."

End excerpt.

Forty five years away is a long time, entirely too long.
Look, we didn't even explore the Moon, just wandered around a couple of landing sites. It is as if Columbus landed at San Salvador, walked down the beach, picked up a few sea shells, and got back in the Santa Maria and sailed for home. That is the extent of the Apollo missions.

Since then a couple of unmanned landers have dropped there, largely by foregin countries. And this, an entire planet, hovering over our heads, just a three day trip. It's beyond stupid.

But there are space entusiasts opposed to going back to the Moon:

"Some space advocates fear that a renewed emphasis on a human return to the moon could delay plans for eventual human missions to Mars."

End excerpt.

Mars is a pipe dream, at least for now. It is MUCH farther away and would require the better part of a year just getting there. If something goes wrong on the way or on during the stay the mission is kaput. A Lunar mission is so much shorter and can be salvaged. In fact, there could possibly be a rescue mission, since we now have assets in space (where during the Apollo mission we had none) while Mars is way the heck out there. And the cost is literally astronomical to go to Mars, while the Moon is a far cheaper thing. Oh, and the Moon offers things that we don't get with a Mars mission, like the prospects of building a mining/industrial base on the Moon which can be used to profit Earth. Mars is a financial sinkhole, a place too far away to be of any Earthly good. The Moon has Helium three, a valuable commodity. There are plenty of other things that make the Moon valuable to someone who wants to settle there. Mars is the equivalent of Australia in 1500; had the Europeans known it was there they could have gone there, by why would they bother? They needed a series of advancements first. They needed better ships, better supply lines, better knowlege of the route, bases, etc. Mars is like that; here we have barely established ourselves in our own orbital system and we want to run off to another "continent" aka planet. By doing so we waste resources better reserved for development, which is what a return to the Moon does. The Moon is the key to building orbital facilities and working out our technical capabilities.

Doubt me? We can TALK to the Moon in almost real time; Mars, on the other hand, has a speed of light time delay between three and 21 minutes, depending on where it is 1.3 seconds.

We've got a lot to learn about deep space before we can go to Mars. Our efforts at the International Space Station have all been done in the comfortable and secure low Earth orbit where we don't have to worry about cosmic rays or dangerous solar storms or whatnot. We don't even get to see what happens when human beings are separated from the Earth's magnetic field, which may effect our brain wave patterns in ways we do not yet know. The Moon is outside of the magnetic field, subject to all of these things. We have only the experience of a few days there. The astronauts saw cosmic rays as flashes on their retinas. None of that happens at the ISS, and we need to know these things for a nine month one way trip to Mars.

When the Europeans began exploring they first visited close Atlantic islands like Madeira and then went to Amrica. They didn't try for Australia or Fiji.

We need experience. We need infrastructure. We need a reason to go. The Moon offers all of this, Mars offers none. You gotta walk before you can run.

At any rate, it's great that the President is serious about getting us back into space exploration. If America is to lead the world we have to lead on the high frontier.

Posted by: Timothy Birdnow at 11:26 AM | No Comments | Add Comment
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