Should NASA return to the moon?

[dcshrum]

But with a "pilot at the wheel", the astronaut can make last second decisions and changes that could spell the difference between a successful mission and a total failure.Robots do what they are programmed to do - humans adapt to the situation as it goes.

Yeah... but we can lots of robots for the cost of one person.

 

[JoeLaunchman]

Here's my picture of Buzz at the book signing. I wish he had more time to elaborate on his vision for the future of NASA but as usual, much time was wasted answering the same questions about how did it "feel" to walk on the moon?

His opinion about bypassing the moon for Mars surprised me because NASA has had its best success when acting incrementally and building upon the last mission as during the Mercury-Gemini-Apollo days: suborbital flight-orbital flight-extended orbital flight-orbital rendezvous-rendezvous & docking-lunar orbital flight-lunar approach-lunar landing.

The Orion series, if it gets off the ground, will have to be tested in the same way in the Earth-Moon system before sending humans to Mars.

 

[rdmmdr]

NASA should be closed down, and the tasks given to the private sector.

when the guys that built the hardware tell you not to launch it and it goes boom, that is a management problem.

when you allow two different measurement systems to be allowed for the design and operation of a probe systems, and then wonder why it crashes.

lets not even go to Hubble.

and what part of ice is hard, shuttle is soft did they not understand.

NASA was not intended to be welfare for the aerospace industry and a bunch of bureaucrat engineers, but that is what it has become.

NASA spends billions like i order lunch, but at least i get an eatable meal in the end. NASA has to go back to congress and say we need another billion to maybe finish the job.

NASA lied on the shuttle and knew it, they are lying on constellation and know it.

i am sorry but since i am at a 62% tax basis i am tired of this nonsense. and now with California taxes expected to rise and cap-n-trade, universal health care. i figure that my tax base will rise to about 75%. yes that means that i will work 9 months out of the year to pay for the taxes. and i make less then 75,000 a year

how many more taxes am i expected to pay.
fed income
state income
gas tax
electric tax
phone tax
car tax
property tax
assessments
business license
fire permits
sales tax and sales tax and sales tax
ssl
self employment tax
state board fees
booze tax
smokes tax


heck i could do better in a socialist country at a flat rate of 60%

i am sorry but we have been sending stuff into space for many years. if NASA can't figure out how to do it in a reasonable manor they need to go.

NASA or NASAA

need another seven astronauts again, good people have given their lives to the space program when it should not have happened.

i will not support anything that NASA does until the FBI opens criminal investigations reference the deaths that have occurred due to the gross negligence of NASA supervisors.

 

[dedleytedley]

A crewed mission to Luna should only occur AFTER the confirmation of ice deposits there. It will require the landing of a nuclear thermo-electrically powered rover in the most promising polar crater to do some real sampling. A method and technology of processing this icy dirt needs to be developed. The architecture of space vehicles could change radically with the possibility of lunar refueling making long distance trips more viable.
There are serious problems with radiation exposure to people outside the earth's magnetic field, any long duration flight such as a nine month trip to Mars with current shielding would likely kill the voyagers. Before any real planning of a Manned Mars mission the shielding must be improved.
A more interesting place for people to go is the near earth asteroid Apophis, the erstwhile Doomsday Asteroid. The close approaches it will make in 2029 and 2038 give some great opportunities. Perhaps a nine year mining mission or the possibility of putting it in Earth orbit. Humanity needs a springboard into space like a 270 meter chunk of rock and metal close enough to be useful. I fear that if we don't get a real foothold in space by 2050 maybe we never will. Ted

 

[Sailorbill]

We humans need a challenge, a real challenge. Something that people can do. The exploration of space is such a challenge. Not one to be met with robots only. Send robotic missions as trailblazers but follow up ASAP with humans. Feces happens on any mission and you need a human to make decisions no AI can. Once you leave LEO you you start to experience a time lag between control input, control response, feed back to controller, controller correction, new control input, etc., etc. Pilots have that seat of the pants feeling that lets them correct for things a robot never could.

Lose a robot WTHC, lose a human and you will really work to improve the equipment. Exploration is dangerous and only certain people will have the skills and the intestinal fortitude to go. Let them and they will pave they way for others.

Space exploration will put people to work, not just engineers but support people from janitors on up.

It needs to be taken private so it will not be a political football. Government could provide "Stimulus" money but then they need to step away. The government also needs do whatever they can to eliminate roadblocks.

Technology will make huge strides because it has to.

The idea of getting humans off planet in case of a disaster is as good a reason as any. Having a presence in space to deal with objects from space is also a good idea.

We currently have almost all of the items we need to put people and cargo into space cheaper and undoubtedly safer than the shuttle. They have proved they are reliable and they are MAN rated. Lets use them to get started instead of reinventing the wheel. Then start finding new ways.

The ISS needs to be expanded upon and improved upon. It needs to be made available to all nations that want to participate. This is our proving ground for deep space missions and their effect on humans. We may find that some folks might not want to or need to return to the earth. Move families up there.

Sorry for the rambling. :caffeine:

 

[bobkrech]

i am sorry but since i am at a 62% tax basis i am tired of this nonsense. and now with California taxes expected to rise and cap-n-trade, universal health care. i figure that my tax base will rise to about 75%. yes that means that i will work 9 months out of the year to pay for the taxes. and i make less then 75,000 a year

how many more taxes am i expected to pay.
fed income
state income
gas tax
electric tax
phone tax
car tax
property tax
assessments
business license
fire permits
sales tax and sales tax and sales tax
ssl
self employment tax
state board fees
booze tax
smokes tax

Time to fire, or hire, an accountant, or find another line of work, or move.

 

[Fred22]

NASA should be closed down, and the tasks given to the private sector.

when the guys that built the hardware tell you not to launch it and it goes boom, that is a management problem.

when you allow two different measurement systems to be allowed for the design and operation of a probe systems, and then wonder why it crashes.

lets not even go to Hubble.

and what part of ice is hard, shuttle is soft did they not understand.

NASA was not intended to be welfare for the aerospace industry and a bunch of bureaucrat engineers, but that is what it has become.

NASA spends billions like i order lunch, but at least i get an eatable meal in the end. NASA has to go back to congress and say we need another billion to maybe finish the job.

NASA lied on the shuttle and knew it, they are lying on constellation and know it.

i am sorry but since i am at a 62% tax basis i am tired of this nonsense. and now with California taxes expected to rise and cap-n-trade, universal health care. i figure that my tax base will rise to about 75%. yes that means that i will work 9 months out of the year to pay for the taxes. and i make less then 75,000 a year

how many more taxes am i expected to pay.
fed income
state income
gas tax
electric tax
phone tax
car tax
property tax
assessments
business license
fire permits
sales tax and sales tax and sales tax
ssl
self employment tax
state board fees
booze tax
smokes tax


heck i could do better in a socialist country at a flat rate of 60%

i am sorry but we have been sending stuff into space for many years. if NASA can't figure out how to do it in a reasonable manor they need to go.

NASA or NASAA

need another seven astronauts again, good people have given their lives to the space program when it should not have happened.

i will not support anything that NASA does until the FBI opens criminal investigations reference the deaths that have occurred due to the gross negligence of NASA supervisors.

NASA does the job very well when it's not being forced to bend too much to the politicals winds of the time. It would have been a very different vehicle with a manned booster and much safer to boot if the vehicle did not have its budgets slahed and design complicated by DND requirements.
Why not go to Hubble? As it is it has literally changed our concept of the universe. Check out how many doctorates in Astronomy have used Hubble data? Sure it had to fixed but it was a guts plus mission that demonstrated the value of human astronauts.
The loss of challenger was a tragedy that was systemic and politically driven from the outside. The need to establish train like regularity with the most complex vehicle ever built was a mistake. I wonder if NASA was not driven by the politcal climate of the time if they could have averted the tragedy?
NASA lied on the shuttle? How so? Constellation is having problems but name one major aircraft or space craft that has not?
NASA with it'as tiny fraction of the federal budget is a welfare agency for engineers? Long after we are dead and gone the achievments of NASA will be remembered with fondness and pride. Done on so little compared to say what we spend on pizza in a year.
I fail to unerstand why your problem with the tax system has anything to do with the subject at hand. I would suggest howver if you find the tax burden to heavy in California that you consider lower tax rate areas like Mogadishu. They pay zero taxes and look at the value they gain.
I live in a country that has socilist feature to it's government system and I like it just fine
Your need another seven astronauts remark is I assume some sort of word play on a very poor joke. Progress comes at a cost. That price took some of the finest people to ever grace this planet. Your remark in my mind cheapens what happened to them and ignores the importance of what these people do.
The private sector is what makes NASA vehicles and they do a very fine job most days.
Cheers
fred

 

[thomcat00]

Yes, NASA would benefit from being de-politicized, but practically speaking since the budget is provided by the Federal gov't (our taxes) and has projects and research happening in many political districts, the politics governing NASA will continue. Even with the bloat, look what they have achieved. I'm still awed to look at the Moon and think people have walked there.

Arguments about waste will always exist so long as people have different preferences about how we spend money. Personally I think professional sports should be eliminated, and all the money be redirected to general health and welfare. How much could a soup kitchen serve with a few extra million dollars? Why do more than half a dozen pro baseball teams sport payrolls in excess of $100MM in 2009 alone? How much money, funded usually by the tax payers no less, goes into constructing a stadium?

As for going back to the Moon, I say YES! On to Mars? Again I say YES! Reuseable launch vehicles for LEO? Yes! Money better spent than on yet another unneeded weapons delivery system (B-1 Bomber anyone?). Oooh, I have too much to say on certain topics that'll stray me from the op.