NASA video - We Are Going (to the Moon)

From the first video it is clear that NASA is still committed to the Gateway station in the vicinity of the moon. I can't imagine that this station would be manned on a continual basis. The task of supplying such a station so far away would be monumental. And what would be gained by having such a location continually manned? Therefore, it won't happen. Then there is the cost of building such a station itself. The cost will be huge and will soak up funds that could go to important aspects of lunar exploration. On top of all that manned or unmanned lunar exploration does not require such a space station. All previous missions to the moon did not have a large space station orbiting the vicinity of the moon and any return of the U.S. to the lunar surface does not require this.

aerostadt said:

From the first video it is clear that NASA is still committed to the Gateway station in the vicinity of the moon. I can't imagine that this station would be manned on a continual basis. The task of supplying such a station so far away would be monumental. And what would be gained by having such a location continually manned? Therefore, it won't happen. Then there is the cost of building such a station itself. The cost will be huge and will soak up funds that could go to important aspects of lunar exploration. On top of all that manned or unmanned lunar exploration does not require such a space station. All previous missions to the moon did not have a large space station orbiting the vicinity of the moon and any return of the U.S. to the lunar surface does not require this.

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Yeah, I read a great article not that long ago about how not only is the Gateway station a dumb idea, but that the Moon has no significant value as a "stepping tone." I can't find it now because I'm not using the right keywords and the search returns are polluted with all of the news related to the announcement.

Anyway, as far as I'm concerned, it's a great idea (except for stealing limited funds, as the SLS already does, from VASTLY more scientifically productive robotic missions) in the respect that it might, hopefully delay a Mars mission long enough to reach an international agreement to deal with this:

ASTROBIOLOGY
Volume 17, Number 10, 2017
Mary Ann Liebert, Inc.
DOI: 10.1089/ast.2017.1703

Searching for Life on Mars Before It Is Too Late
Alberto G. Faire´n,1,2 Victor Parro,1 Dirk Schulze-Makuch,3,4 and Lyle Whyte5

Abstract

Decades of robotic exploration have confirmed that in the distant past, Mars was warmer and wetter and its surface was habitable. However, none of the spacecraft missions to Mars have included among their scientific objectives the exploration of Special Regions, those places on the planet that could be inhabited by extant martian life or where terrestrial microorganisms might replicate. A major reason for this is because of Planetary Protection constraints, which are implemented to protect Mars from terrestrial biological contamination. At the same time, plans are being drafted to send humans to Mars during the 2030 decade, both from international space agencies and the private sector. We argue here that these two parallel strategies for the exploration of Mars (i.e., delaying any efforts for the biological reconnaissance of Mars during the next two or three decades and then directly sending human missions to the planet) demand reconsideration because once an astronaut sets foot on Mars, Planetary Protection policies as we conceive them today will no longer be valid as human arrival will inevitably increase the introduction of terrestrial and organic contaminants and that could jeopardize the identification of indigenous martian life. In this study, we advocate for reassessment over the relationships between robotic searches, paying increased attention to proactive astrobiological investigation and sampling of areas more likely to host indigenous life, and fundamentally doing this in advance of manned missions. Key Words: Contamination—Earth Mars—Planetary Protection—Search for life (biosignatures). Astrobiology 17, 962–970.

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5655416/pdf/ast.2017.1703.pdf

Maxar Technologies has been awarded a NASA contract to work on the solar powered "ion" propulsion for the Gate Way lunar orbiting station. The solar power will be several times more powerful than what has been done before and will use large amounts of xenon stored in tanks. This really sounds like Obama's asteroid mission project, only redirected. It will really be a diversion from the main mission of returning to the moon by 2024. This is what happens when projects are "vendor-driven" rather than "mission-driven".

https://spaceflightnow.com/2019/05/...ld-keystone-module-for-lunar-gateway-station/

Here is Russia's plan to land cosmonauts on the moon by 2030.

https://arstechnica.com/science/201...plans-to-land-cosmonauts-on-the-moon-by-2030/

Major Tom said:

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@Major Tom how did you put your attachment to the post? By link? or copy and paste? or other methods as I cannot see it. And neither can some other.

Hot off the executive tweeter today, apparently we won't be going back to the Moon (which apparently is a part of Mars).

Good to see the great minds weighing in.

Hot off the executive tweeter today, apparently we won't be going back to the Moon (which apparently is a part of Mars).

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Something that is so low on the totem pole as Moon/Mars is probably going to be lost on the executive tweeter. In any case other news stories say that there is not enough money to make the 2024 lunar deadline. The danger with grandiose schemes like the Gateway space station, etc., is that in 5 years all we will have to show is a motley assortment of hardware in warehouses across the country and incomplete ideas on the drawing boards.

Of course anybody with an IQ higher than warm tap water already knew this, yet a month or so we got all sorts of breathless noise because the assistant tweetboy said we were going back to the moon right away, etc etc.

JStarStar said:

Of course anybody with an IQ higher than warm tap water already knew this, yet a month or so we got all sorts of breathless noise because the assistant tweetboy said we were going back to the moon right away, etc etc.

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NASA tends to fall under the jurisdiction of the VP. This is nothing new. It goes all the way back to the days of vice-president Lyndon B. Johnson under president Kennedy when you think about it. Back when Johnson was V.P. there was a joke that the V.P. had nothing to do. So you can start to think how much clout that this current program really have. IMHO just developing rovers to find water in the south lunar polar region that can operate during 2 weeks of good daylight followed by 2 weeks of really cold night to find natural water or some facsimile, ground-based solar and nuclear power stations that could survive the same environment for making hydrogen and oxygen from water, and compressors/heat sinks for cryogenic liquid production would be enough for a limited budget. Scrap Gateway.

It was just a diversion/distraction for one day anyway. I expect to read soon we're going to invade the planet Krypton.

JStarStar said:

It was just a diversion/distraction for one day anyway. I expect to read soon we're going to invade the planet Krypton.

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Don't you know it exploded when Superman was sent to Earth as a baby?

Angie said:

Don't you know it exploded when Superman was sent to Earth as a baby?

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Maybe, it is the planet Klingon.

In any case Bush The Elder said we should go to Mars. It didn't happen. Bush The Younger said we are going to have Constellation. It didn't happen. Obama said we are going to have Asteroid Rendezvous and retrieve mission. It didn't happen. That makes 3 presidents and about 25 years with lots of plans, drawings, parts and hardware. We are now on the 4th administration with grandiose schemes. We might as well muddy the waters to cover our tracks for when it doesn't happen. The nice thing about the GateWay lunar space station is that we can later hook it up to a big xenon/ion engine and move it toward an interplanetary orbit aimed at Mars and we will have accomplished parts of all these proposed space programs.

Angie said:

Don't you know it exploded when Superman was sent to Earth as a baby?

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Fake news?

aerostadt said:

Maybe, it is the planet Klingon.

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You mean the planet Kronos (or Q'uonoS ).

NASA is estimating that $4 to $5 billion per year for the next 5 years is needed to send men to the moon or up to $30 billion.

https://www.chron.com/news/space/article/NASA-s-Artemis-moon-plan-will-cost-up-to-30-13997819.php

https://www.space.com/nasa-moon-2024-return-cost-revealed.html

The federal government is good at buying the most expensive product possible, when something far cheaper will do. This would be fine in a more perfect world where defense, medicare, social security, interest on the national debt, etc. were not making demands on the federal budget. In all likelihood this expenditure is not going to happen. I just started reading Robert Zubrin's new book, "The Case for Space". A lot of TRF'ers would love this book. For an idea of a lower cost to the moon read this book.

aerostadt said:

The federal government is good at buying the most expensive product possible, when something far cheaper will do.

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Hey, when you own the world's reserve currency and a huge economy, your credit card has a very high limit. All kinds of people will loan you all kinds of money because your fiat currency is "the least dirty shirt in the laundry." Until it isn't...