Many folks would like to see us back on the Moon and developing its resources.

Saturday, September 30, 2006

Martian Lava Tubes Revisited - The Caves of Mars

I know we have visited the subject of Lava Tubes recently, still, I think these two links and the ones they lead to, will prove interesting.

They talk about Mars but consider the Moon as well. Lava Tubes might be used as a possible habitats in both cases.
- LRK -

--------------------------------------------------------------
http://www.norwebster.com/mars/lavatube.html
Martian Lava Tubes Revisited
By R. D. "Gus" Frederick

--------------------------------------------------------------
http://www.highmars.org/niac/index.html
The Caves of Mars

Martian Caves??
What do, duckweed, mice, Mother Goose and desert varnish have to do with Mars? Join us as we take you on a Cyber-Journey from beneath the lava flows of Oregon to toxic caves in Arizona, with many exotic side trips along the way, leading eventually to the Red Planet itself!
--------------------------------------------------------------

A bit more about the above links posted below.
- LRK -

Thanks for looking up with me.

Larry Kellogg

Web Site: http://lkellogg.vttoth.com/LarryRussellKellogg/
BlogSpot: http://kelloggserialreports.blogspot.com/
RSS link: http://kelloggserialreports.blogspot.com/atom.xml
Newsltr.: https://news.altair.com/mailman/listinfo/lunar-update
==============================================================
http://www.norwebster.com/mars/lavatube.html
Martian Lava Tubes Revisited
Presented to the
Second Annual Mars Society Convention
Boulder, Colorado. August 12 - 15, 1999
By R. D. "Gus" Frederick

Disclaimer:
One point to keep in mind during the reading of this paper, is that I am not trained as a geologist, and that this paper is purely an exercise in speculation.

Abstract:

One of the key elements for successful long-term human occupation of Mars, is a viable habitation scheme. Countless ideas have been proposed along these lines from converted landers to inflatable domes. The advantages of most schemes thus far are that they are location independent, to an extent. The lander lands and the habitation is set up. In other words, bring the habitat to Mars.

But what if ready-made habitats were available? Select locations on the planet, which with minor modifications, would easily serve as a semi-permanent base of operations? These locations could well be lava tubes.

Lava tubes are caves formed by flows of highly fluid lava--a "river" of molten rock flowing from an eruption source, either volcano or fissure. Often as the flow progresses, the tops and sides solidify. If the flow source stops, the remaining lava may pour out, leaving a hollow "tube" of rock. Not all lava flows produce tubes. Sometimes the flow sides form large "levees" as the sides harden, and the top remains liquid.

On the Earth, the author has personally visited lava tubes on the flanks of Mount St. Helens, in Washington State, Central Oregon, the Big Island of Hawaii as well as tubes formed by fissure eruptions in Iceland. Many of the lava flows identified on the planet Mars feature the same characteristics as terrestrial flows, including lava tubes and levees. The main difference is a matter of scale: The Martian features dramatically dwarf their Earth-based counterparts.

This paper offers some speculations on the utilization of these landforms for the construction of viable human habitats. With examples from many lava tube-related features here on Earth, I will demonstrate how their much larger Martian versions could provide a quick, easy and inexpensive way to provide long-term human outposts on the Red Planet.

Snip
==============================================================
http://www.highmars.org/niac/index.html
The Caves of Mars

http://www.highmars.org/niac/niac01.html
About Martian Caves
Dr. Penelope J. Boston; P.I.

Natural subsurface cavities and subsurface constructs present the most mission effective habitat alternative for future human missions in the high-radiation environment of Mars. Additionally, lava tubes, other caves, cavities, and canyon overhangs are sites of intense scientific interest.

They offer easier subsurface access for direct exploration and drilling, and may provide extractable minerals, gases, and ices. Expanding our NIAC Phase I feasibility assessment of a subsurface Mars mission architecture for the scientific exploration and human habitation of caves and subsurface facilities, we propose a two-part viability demonstration of selected technologies combined into a functioning system. This system can be integrated into both robotic precursors and human missions.

Snip

http://www.highmars.org/niac/niac02.html
Martian Air Breathing Mice
By Denise Murphy

For any future missions to Mars, a simple and effective way for the explorers to survive would be to use the Martian atmosphere and turn it into usable, breathable air. Thanks to modern technology, the atmosphere of Mars can be compressed and adjusted to form a breathable mixture for humans.

We've been experimenting with mice and crickets in sealed environments while pumping through a breathing mixture of 40% argon, 40% nitrogen and 20% oxygen. The purpose of these experiments is to see whether or not humans can survive unaffected when breathing such mixtures. However, this breathable mixture of gases differs from that of Earth, or any other used in Space missions.

Snip

http://www.highmars.org/niac/niac03.html
Duckweed-Eating Martian Cave Mice

How best to effectively demonstrate basic Advanced Life Support Systems in a small, remote location or educational setting? Requirements of space, mass, and logistical factors for many remote research facilities severely limit any sort of full-sized human CELSS/ALS setup. Likewise, building such a full-sized system for educational use would be quite expensive.
Nevertheless, the need for such a system for analog testing use is essential for future Martian endeavors, especially those within the Martian underground.

Snip

http://www.highmars.org/niac/niac04.html
Flat Crops for Mars
Bioregenerative life support on Mars will require more than your 'garden variety' crops. Some the features we should be looking for is rapid growth, low light requirements, wide pH range and high nutrition with minimal wastes. And the simpler the required infrastructure, the better.

Snip

http://www.highmars.org/niac/niac05.html
The Mother Goose Project

Terrestrial lava tube caves are natural receptacles for accumulations of water. Often, due to lower temperatures coupled with the insulation properties of the surrounding rock, these accumulations are in the form of ice. Locating and cataloging similar features on Mars could be of value for the search for life and in helping to determine past climatic conditions on the Red Planet. Such features may also prove useful in future colonization efforts for shelter and as a potential source of water.

But how to explore them? One unique approach recently proposed employs specialized swarms of insect-like mini-robots accompanying one or more flexible rover/relay station robots. Utilizing a robotic fractal approach that starts with a wide view of a promising area, then zooms in to reveal detail at a series of smaller scales, the approach mimics the actions of a scientist in the field.

Snip

http://www.highmars.org/niac/niac06.html
Desert Varnish

For the past decade, we have investigated the idea that the subsurface of Mars is the most likely place to find life or its traces. We have conducted extensive geomicro-biological, mineralogical, and geological fieldwork in a variety of desert caves. We have more recently discovered that some desert surface features (e.g. rock varnish) are microbiologically and mineralogically related to those that we study in the subsurface.

As field scientists, we know that even on Earth the search for biosignatures of present life and indicators of past life depends upon recognition of structures, textures, and other data sets at widely varying spatial scales.

In this sense, life detection for Mars is a classical field science investigation.

Snip

http://www.highmars.org/niac/education/
Educational Projects, Lessons & Resources

The Caves of Mars Project is funded by a NIAC Phase II Grant from the NASA Institute for Advanced Concepts.
Copyright C 2002-04 - Complex Systems Research; Inc.

==============================================================

WHAT THE MIND CAN CONCEIVE, AND BELIEVE, IT WILL ACHIEVE - LRK

==============================================================

Friday, September 29, 2006

Looking up - Who be you? - The Lunar View Is For All-

I am reminded that my looking up here in Tracy, CA is not the only place where folks are looking up.

Peter Spirius in Germany sent me a link to a German web site about the Pioneer Anomaly and Andrew Nimmo sent me information about upcoming events relating to settling space. [See below.]

If folks are looking up near you, feel free to tell me about it and I can share with the whole lunar-update list.

If you have ideas at to what we should be looking for in the way of developing the Moon or Mars, the Asteroids or the Stars, pass that along too.

I am working on an outline of what we might look for on a Lunar Settlement that might be established after we get back to the Moon.

It is mentioned in books about Lunar Settlements that there is this large swing in temperature should you choose the equatorial regions, those two week days and then two week nights.

Some of you have reminded me that if you select for a lava tube you might find the required protection already built in or if you bring along a Tonka Toy Lunar Excavator you can dig down a bit and find constant temperature under the regolith.

A link for your consideration. See a bit more below.
- LRK -
--------------------------------------------------------------
http://www.lunar-reclamation.org/papers/rille_paper1.htm

[This paper is published online in 6 parts, this being the 1st] PRINZTON A Rille-Bottom Settlement for Three Thousand People

FORWARD by Peter Kokh
--------------------------------------------------------------

Thanks for looking up with me.

Larry Kellogg

Web Site: http://lkellogg.vttoth.com/LarryRussellKellogg/
BlogSpot: http://kelloggserialreports.blogspot.com/
RSS link: http://kelloggserialreports.blogspot.com/atom.xml
Newsltr.: https://news.altair.com/mailman/listinfo/lunar-update
==============================================================
This from Peter Spirius over in Germany. - LRK - My German is not that good but was fun guessing at words. :-)
--------------------------------------------------------------
Hello Larry,

maybe interesting to you or to some of your german readers?

There is an article about the "Pioneer Anomaly" in the internet edition of the mayor german news magazine DER SPIEGEL

http://www.spiegel.de/wissenschaft/weltraum/0,1518,437267,00.html

Greetings,
Peter

==============================================================
I asked Andy to let us know when the new web site is active. - LRK - http://homepage.ntlworld.com/andy-nimmo/
http://homepage.ntlworld.com/andy-nimmo/Webpage2a.htm
--------------------------------------------------------------
Dear Larry,

In view of your recent remarks on space settlement your readers may be interested to note that the Space Settlers' Society celebrated our 26 th birthday on July 4th this year. Presently we don't have a website, though some ghost sites from the past may still be around, but like the NSS in a few weeks' time we are about to put up what we very much trust will be a growing settlement website. It will be called space-settlers.com as we are in process of forming our own company to fund and make things happen. When the time comes naturally we will be please to put a link from this to the NSS site if they'd be kind enough to reciprocate.

In view of the fact that next year will see the 50th anniversary of Sputnik One and thereby of spaceflight, in co-operation with ASTRA and the Mars Society UK (Scotland) we are presently holding a joint recruitment drive. To this end we have arranged 4 meetings between now and the end of this year which any spacefans in the Glasgow area at the time of any of them will be welcome to attend. These are:

Saturday 30th September - What's in our Solar System by space author Duncan Lunan of ASTRA

Saturday 28th October - How to Get to Space Without Rockets by Andy Nimmo Liftport Ambassador to Scotland

Saturday 25th November - A Future on the Moon by Ed Buckley Scotland's top space artist

Saturday 2nd Deember - Settling Mars
by Graham Dale Co-ordinator The Mars Society UK (Scotland).

All meetings, which will be free of charge, will take place in the premises of the Glasgow Council for the Voluntary Sector (GCVS), 11 Queen's Crescent, Glasgow (just round the corner from St. George's Cross underground station) from 1800 to 2000 hours.

It may also be of interest that Graham Dale of the Mars Society and Duncan Lunan, plus the members of the Mars Society Scotland are co-operating in writing a book to be called 'Building the Martian Nation' that will be all about settlement. Indeed, I'll be contributing to this myself in a talk The Economics of Settling Mars from 1500-1700 in the GCVS on Sunday 1 st October.

Best wishes, Andy Nimmo
(President: The Space Settlers' Society).

==============================================================
--------------------------------------------------------------
http://www.lunar-reclamation.org/papers/rille_paper1.htm

[This paper is published online in 6 parts, this being the 1st] PRINZTON A Rille-Bottom Settlement for Three Thousand People

FORWARD by Peter Kokh

On our long drive home from the Denver International Space Development Conference in May of 1988, I told some of my fellow Lunar Reclamation Society members about my general idea and what might be possible farther in the future. So this January when the chapter's new think tank, Milwaukee Space Tech(nology) & Rec(reation) - MilSTAR - decided to take Seattle Lunar Group (SLuG)'s Joe Hopkins up on his challenge to enter the NSS 1000-5000 person Lunar Base Design Competition, a rille site became our instant choice. [MilSTAR was later playfully renamed Copernicus Construction Company] http://www.lunar-reclamation.org/page9.htm

At the 1989 International Space Development Conference in Chicago, the Competion winners were announced. We placed second (to an architecture student whose entry did not satisfy the constraints and conditions - but he was an "architecture student"). In our minds, our entry was clearly superior. But we were delighted to receive the second place award, handed us by Hugh Downs.


Part I: THE RILLE AS A SETTLEMENT SITE

Part I previously published in Moon Miners' Manifesto #26 June 1989

by Peter Kokh

Snip
--------------------------------------------------------------
PART I - A Settlement in a Rille Valley
http://www.lunar-reclamation.org/papers/rille_paper1.htm

PART II - Concepts for Rille Architecture
http://www.lunar-reclamation.org/papers/rille_paper2.htm

PART III - Industry & the Three Village System http://www.lunar-reclamation.org/papers/rille_paper1.htm

PART IV - Village Residential Areas
http://www.lunar-reclamation.org/papers/rille_paper4.htm

PART V - Multiple Energy Systems
http://www.lunar-reclamation.org/papers/rille_paper5.htm

PART VI - The Import-Export Equation
http://www.lunar-reclamation.org/papers/rille_paper6.htm

Snip
==============================================================
Peter Kokh - Bio - LRK -
http://www.lunar-reclamation.org/bio_pk.htm
Peter Kokh joined NSS, then NSI (National Space Institute) as "Life Member #2" shortly after it was founded by Werner von Braun in 1974. As a result of an L5 Society chapter colonizing effort by members of the Chicago and Minnesota chapters in September 1986, he helped confound the (Milwaukee) Lunar Reclamation Society (L5) that fall. He led the chapter into NSS two months before the L5/NSS merger in 1987.

Snip

http://www.lunar-reclamation.org/space_backgrounds.htm
Space Background & Border Tiles

by Peter Kokh - permission granted to use any of these, no attribution necessary.

Pete's Collected Space Animation Gifs
http://www.lunar-reclamation.org/anispace.htm

==============================================================
http://adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/1985lbsa.conf..405H

Title:
Lava tubes - Potential shelters for habitats
Authors:
Horz, F.
Affiliation:
AA(NASA, Johnson Space Center, Houston, TX)
Publication: IN:
Lunar bases and space activities of the 21st century (A86-30113 13-14).
Houston, TX, Lunar and Planetary Institute, 1985, p. 405-412.
Publication Date:
00/1985
Category:
Lunar and Planetary Exploration
Origin:
STI
NASA/STI Keywords:
LUNAR BASES, SITE SELECTION, SPACE HABITATS, UNDERGROUND STRUCTURES, CAVES, LAVA, RADIATION SHIELDING
Bibliographic Code:
1985lbsa.conf..405H
Abstract
Natural caverns occur on the moon in the form of 'lava tubes', which are the drained conduits of underground lava rivers. The inside dimensions of these tubes measure tens to hundreds of meters, and their roofs are expected to be thicker than 10 meters. Consequently, lava tube interiors offer an environment that is naturally protected from the hazards of radiation and meteorite impact. Further, constant, relatively benign temperatures of -20 C prevail. These are extremely favorable environmental conditions for human activities and industrial operations. Significant operational, technological, and economical benefits might result if a lunar base were constructed inside a lava tube.

Snip
==============================================================
http://vulcan.wr.usgs.gov/Glossary/LavaTubes/description_lava_tubes.html
DESCRIPTION:
Lava Tubes and Lava Tube Caves

* Lava Tubes and Lava Tube Caves
* Ape Cave, Mount St. Helens, Washington
* Indian Heaven Volcanic Field, Washington
* Lava River Cave, Oregon
* Mauna Ulu, Kilauea, Hawaii
* Medicine Lake and Lava Beds, California ==============================================================

WHAT THE MIND CAN CONCEIVE, AND BELIEVE, IT WILL ACHIEVE - LRK

==============================================================

Wednesday, September 27, 2006

Looking for information about Lunar Settlements and a couple of conferences coming up in 2007 might be of interest.

--------------------------------------------------------------
Space Exploration 2007 - March 25-28, 2007 The Second International Conference and Exposition on Science, Engineering, and Habitation in Space,and the Second Biennial Space Elevator Workshop http://www.sesinstitute.org/

26th International Space Development Conference - May 24-28, 2007 http://isdc.nss.org/2007/index.html

Rutgers Symposium on Lunar Settlements - 3-8 June 2007 http://lunarbase.rutgers.edu/index.php

Space Nuclear Conference 2007 (SNC '07)
Embedded Topical Meeting at the 2007 ANS Annual Meeting June 24-28, 2007 . Boston, MA http://www3.inspi.ufl.edu/space07/index.html
--------------------------------------------------------------

I am sure there are more but was my first look ahead.
Let me know if there are more space conferences in your location and will pass along.
- LRK -

Thanks for looking up with me.

Larry Kellogg

Web Site: http://lkellogg.vttoth.com/LarryRussellKellogg/
BlogSpot: http://kelloggserialreports.blogspot.com/
RSS link: http://kelloggserialreports.blogspot.com/atom.xml
Newsltr.: https://news.altair.com/mailman/listinfo/lunar-update
==============================================================

http://www.sesinstitute.org/

Space Exploration 2007 - March 25-28, 2007 The Second International Conference and Exposition on Science, Engineering, and Habitation in Space,and the Second Biennial Space Elevator Workshop Albuquerque, New Mexico, USA

Conference topics to include:

Planetary exploration, bases, habitation, space station. Engineering and construction in space and on the Moon and Mars. Space access, space transportation. Space elevator technologies and advanced concepts.

Entrepreneurial ventures in space/for space. space power, space resource development. NEO's. Space Commerce, law, education

Special events/activities to include:

Keynote talks/planning sessions/panel discussions on above topics. Student Robotics Competition - an annual event in conjunction with the ASCE Earth and Space Conference Robotics Competition (held on even years). Banquet and Awards.

Snip
==============================================================

http://isdc.nss.org/2007/index.html
26th ANNUAL ISDC
26th International Space Development Conference - 2007 "From Old Frontiers to New"
Dallas, Texas
May 24-28, 2007

The frontier that was the Texas of yesterday has been transformed by determination and hard work into the 8th largest economy in the world and a leader in tomorrow's technologies. In 2007, North Texas will be the place to focus on the cultural and technological frontier of tomorrow --SPACE. The frontier spirit of taking harsh territory and wresting enormous value from it is the foundation of the National Space Society's 26th annual International Space Development Conference. Travel to the Dallas to meet the frontiersmen of tomorrow, the people who will be supplying the knowledge, the machines, and the manpower to turn the frontier of space into a place of new wealth for humanity.

The Nation al Space Society of North Texas is proud to host this conference at the InterContinental Hotel in Addison. The hotel is within walking distance of Restaurant Row and Addison Circle, featuring hundreds of restaurants, bars, cafes and other diversions. There'll be little time for that with all the conference proceedings and exhibits.

The three main program tracks are:

1. Space Transportation: To, Through, From 2. The Moon & Cislunar Space: Developing the Infrastructure 3. Mars & Beyond: Expanding our Reach

Also featured will be medicine, educator tracks, a Children's Program, and best of all, exhibits of space hardware and mock-ups.

Be sure to catch all of the excitement Memorial Day Weekend 2007 in Dallas at the ISDC!

ISDC 2007
==============================================================

http://lunarbase.rutgers.edu/index.php
Rutgers Symposium on Lunar Settlements
3-8 June 2007
New Brunswick, NJ

http://lunarbase.rutgers.edu/aims_and_scope.php
PROSPECTUS

We are organizing for a Symposium that will bring together the leaders in the disciplines that are supporting the Return to the Moon, to stay, as part of the vision of the President of the United States, George W. Bush.

Our interest is to invite pioneering minds in Engineering and Science, Business and Finance, Policy and the Social Sciences, to present current thinking on the Return to the Moon. As important, gaps in capabilities will be discussed and addressed.

This weeklong Symposium will result in new teaming efforts in support of the Return to the Moon. The Symposium will be in New Brunswick, New Jersey, at the main campus of Rutgers University, 3-8 June in 2007.

This Symposium is intended to be single-track, focusing on:

* the technical issues,
* the bio-issues,
* the economical/financial issues,
* the political issues, and
* the social issues

that underpin our manned, permanent return to the Moon, on the way to Mars and the Solar System. We, however, do not rule out multi-track presentations, but in principle believe that attendees would prefer to be able to participate in all the deliberations.

We believe that by the Symposium date, the community's plans and ideas will begin to be crystallized, the international participation level will be better known, and the leaders in many of these areas will be ready to make their ideas more specific.

To broaden the community, professional sponsorship will be solicited from premier societies, beginning with the International Academy of Astronautics.
In addition, the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics will be contacted.

Financial support is to be sought from private and public sources, to make the Symposium most effective, and to help support attendance by experts from nations without travel support.

Distinguished plenary speakers will be sought from the key focus areas of the Symposium. We will involve students at all levels in such a workshop.

Please contact Haym Benaroya for additional information or to be placed on a mailing list.

http://lunarbase.rutgers.edu/important_dates.php
31 October 2006: email benaroya@rci.rutgers.edu intent/interest in presenting or just attending Symposium

1 December 2006: submit abstract of presentation to benaroya@rci.rutgers.edu

Full Papers are not required. Some authors will be invited to prepare a full paper for potential publication in the ASCE Journal of Aerospace Engineering.

28 February 2007: Register online for Symposium. Hotel information will be made available.

http://lunarbase.rutgers.edu/subscribe_email_list.php
Subscribe e-mail list

Snip
==============================================================

http://www3.inspi.ufl.edu/space07/index.html
Space Nuclear Conference 2007 (SNC '07)
Embedded Topical Meeting at the 2007 ANS Annual Meeting June 24-28, 2007 . Boston, MA

About the Meeting

Space Nuclear Conference 2007 (SNC '07) will be the second topical meeting organized by the Aerospace Nuclear Science and Technology (ANST) technical group. NASA funding has been established to develop capabilities for unmanned and manned missions to the Moon, Mars, and beyond. Strategies implementing nuclear based power and propulsion technology, as well as radiation shielding protection, will be an integral part of successful missions of these types.

The purpose of the meeting is to bring together and provide a communications network and forum for information exchange for the wide cross section of research and management personnel from government, industry, academia, and the national laboratory system that are involved in the initiative. To this end, the meeting will address topics ranging from overviews of current programs and plans to detailed issues related to space travel such as nuclear-based power and propulsion systems designs, materials, testing, safety, space environmental effects and nuclear power system radiation shielding for humans and electronic components, and human factor strategies for the safe and reliable operation of nuclear power and propulsion plants.

This conference will have full-length technical papers, which will be peer reviewed and published on a CDROM, available at the meeting. At least one author is required to attend the conference and present his or her paper.

Abstracts Due: December 1, 2006.


Lynne Schreiber, Conference Administrator
Tel: 352-392-9722
Fax: 352-392-8656
Email: space@ans.org
Web: www.ans.org/goto/space07
==============================================================

WHAT THE MIND CAN CONCEIVE, AND BELIEVE, IT WILL ACHIEVE - LRK

==============================================================

Tuesday, September 26, 2006

Lunar Settlement - Search For Materials - How To Pay For -

Accepted Al Globus offer to join the national space society (NSS) space settlement advocacy committee to help find materials about establishing a Lunar Settlement and to add content for their Moon web site.

Was looking for information on the Internet about "Lunar Settlements" and find a lot of offers to sell you Lunar Plots right now, not after you get their and stake your claim.

Some say that your money will go into a fund to provide resources to get you to the Moon. I am just worried that my computer junk e-mail will increase because of where I have been. This is a nice looking piece of paper with legal sounding words. I have a bridge I would like to sell as well. :-) http://www.lunarsettlement.org/

The topic of how will you pay for launching to the Moon is a valid one though. Hopefully when I read again the books I have, I'll be better prepared to talk about costing. For now I will just look for material that you can use and might be useful for the NSS Moon site.

While I am putting GOOGLE to the test you can be looking at the on-line NASA books that have been scanned and relate to space settlements. Will be re-reading them myself. They are found on the Space Settlements web site which you may already be familiar with.
- LRK -
-------------------------------------------------------------
http://www.belmont.k12.ca.us/ralston/programs/itech/SpaceSettlement/index.html
or at
http://www.nas.nasa.gov/About/Education/SpaceSettlement/
-------------------------------------------------------------

Shall we design a Lunar Colony or Lunar Settlement that you could call home?
What would you need to seal a lava tube?

How deep would you need to dig to get a nice even temperature during lunar days and lunar nights?

Any ideas for windows that darken to Solar flare activity or high energy bursts from space?

How would you use the powdered regolith fines that you track in?

What might you distil with your backroom solar reflector?

Have you read Robert A. Heinlein's, "THE MOON IS A HARSH MISTRESS"?
- LRK -
-------------------------------------------------------------
http://www.amazon.com/Moon-Harsh-Mistress-Robert-Heinlein/dp/0312863551/
Amazon.com
Tom Clancy has said of Robert A. Heinlein, "We proceed down the path marked by his ideas. He shows us where the future is." Nowhere is this more true than in Heinlein's gripping tale of revolution on the moon in 2076, where "Loonies" are kept poor and oppressed by an Earth-based Authority that turns huge profits at their expense. A small band of dissidents, including a one-armed computer jock, a radical young woman, a past-his-prime academic and a nearly omnipotent computer named Mike, ignite the fires of revolution despite the near certainty of failure and death. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Review
"We proceed down a path marked by his ideas." --Tom Clancy

[NOTE: There are a number of longer reviews at the above Amazon.com link. - LRK -]
-------------------------------------------------------------

If we can't design a Lunar Settlement, maybe we just need to make one up.
Some of you are working on that, YES, ???

Thanks for looking up with me.

Larry Kellogg

Web Site: http://lkellogg.vttoth.com/LarryRussellKellogg/
BlogSpot: http://kelloggserialreports.blogspot.com/
RSS link: http://kelloggserialreports.blogspot.com/atom.xml
Newsltr.: https://news.altair.com/mailman/listinfo/lunar-update
==============================================================
David Schrunk said that he and the co-authors of "THE MOON - Resources, Future Development and Colonization" are coming out with a revised version next year.
- LRK -
http://www.amazon.com/Moon-Resources-Development-Colonization-Exploration/dp/0387360557/ Paperback $34.95 but cheaper if you pre-order.

Looks like the earlier versions are going as collectors items for some rather high prices.
http://www.amazon.com/Moon-Development-Colonization-Wiley-Praxis-Technology/dp/0471976350 $255.49 I paid $64.95 back in April 2001 for the hardcover version.

At least you can take a look inside here.
- LRK -
http://www.amazon.com/gp/reader/0471976350/ref=sib_dp_pt/002-4543509-3319235#reader-link
==============================================================

Another good reference book.
- LRK -
The Lunar Base Handbook (Space Technology Series) (Paperback) by Peter Eckart (Author) http://www.amazon.com/Lunar-Base-Handbook-Space-Technology/dp/0072401710/

Also his "SPACEFLIGHT LIFE SUPPORT AND BIOSPHERICS"
- LRK -
Spaceflight Life Support and Biospherics (Space Technology Library, V. 5)
(Paperback)
by Peter Eckart (Author)
http://www.amazon.com/Spaceflight-Support-Biospherics-Technology-Library/dp/1881883043/

==============================================================

Two other books I'll be looking at again, and have mentioned in years past, are excellent resources too. I have had them since 1999 and the engineers at Ames kept borrowing mine. :-(
- LRK -

Space Mission Analysis and Design, 3rd edition (Space Technology Library) (Space Technology Library) (Paperback) (ISBN 1-881883-10-8) by Wiley J. Larson (Editor), James R. Wertz (Editor) $54.75
http://www.amazon.com/Mission-Analysis-Design-Technology-Library/dp/1881883108/

Human Spaceflight: Mission Analysis and Design (Space Technology Series) (Space Technology Series) (Paperback) (ISBN 0-07-236811-X) by Wiley J. Larson (Author), Linda K. Pranke (Author) $49.16 "Human spaceflight, or human space missions, include any space missions with humans as passengers or as on-board, active participants in spacecraft control or science..."
http://www.amazon.com/Human-Spaceflight-Mission-Analysis-Technology/dp/007236811X/

Snip
==============================================================

WHAT THE MIND CAN CONCEIVE, AND BELIEVE, IT WILL ACHIEVE - LRK

==============================================================

Saturday, September 23, 2006

Lunar Settlelment as part of Space Settlement -What's On Your Road Map?

Received an e-mail from Al Globus who conducts an annual Space Settlement Contest at NASA Ames Research Center.

In the past I had the opportunity to help grade the papers submitted by students around the world. Haven't done that of late since I am now outside the Ames fence. :-) http://lkellogg.vttoth.com/LarryRussellKellogg/colonies.html
http://www.nas.nasa.gov/About/Education/SpaceSettlement/Contest/
http://hometown.aol.com/oscarcombs/excerpts.html

Al indicated that the National Space Society (NSS) is building a web site that is devoted to space settlement, which will include the idea of building a space settlement on the Moon.
http://www.nss.org/
http://www.nss.org/settlement/roadmap/

He is looking for good materials. Will talk more with him and see what he has in mind. When I have a better picture of what they are doing will pass the information along as I am sure you folks may have ideas as well.

Maybe this will be a way to take you to the Moon at least visually.
See Snips below.
- LRK -

Thanks for looking up with me.

Larry Kellogg

Web Site: http://lkellogg.vttoth.com/LarryRussellKellogg/
BlogSpot: http://kelloggserialreports.blogspot.com/
RSS link: http://kelloggserialreports.blogspot.com/atom.xml
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Hi! Long time no see.

I'm now the chairman of the national space society (NSS) space settlement advocacy committee. Among other things, we are building a web site devoted to space settlement. One section is devoted to lunar settlements. Can you point us towards some good materials? We have a guy who does a great job of taking raw materials and arranging them for the site, but we need materials.
Note: we are interested in permanent more-or-less self-sufficient settlements, not bases.

Also, it occurs to me that you would be an excellent addition to the committee. It would involve a small amount of money to join the NSS, then participating in email exchanges and occasional telecons, and perhaps choosing a project to help with (e.g., the lunar settlement section of the web site). If you have any interest, please give me a call ...

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"Earth is the cradle of Mankind, but one cannot stay in the cradle forever,"
Konstantin Tsiolkovsky

Al Globus
http://alglobus.net
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http://www.nss.org/
Snip
Al Globus, chairman of the NSS Space Settlement Committee, in the news (July 11, 2006)

If we destroy planet Earth, will space stations save us? It's an old adage that says science fiction often becomes science fact. One hundred years ago, writers were keeping readers spellbound at the idea of flying machines and wireless radios.

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http://space.alglobus.net/
Orbital Space Settlement

Today space is mostly rock and radiation. We can change that. In the 1970's Princeton physicist Gerard O'Neill showed that we can build giant orbiting spaceships and live in them. These orbital space colonies could be wonderful places to live; about the size of a California beach town and endowed with weightless recreation, fantastic views, freedom, elbow-room in spades, and great wealth. In time, we may see hundreds of thousands of orbital space colonies in our solar system alone. Unlike earlier colonization events, no people need be oppressed and no ecosystems destroyed for the simple reason that there aren't any out there. If we do it, space colonization will be so important that only the origins of life itself is comparable. Even ocean-based Life's colonization of land half a billion years ago pales by comparison.

Space settlement provides an unparalleled opportunity for the United States.
The U.S. is an expansionistic nation and there's a lot more opportunity to expand in space than on Earth. America has been expanding steadily from the day the first colony was established on the Eastern Seaboard. Today this expansion takes the form of a world wide military presence. This policy has some severe problems. Namely, some of the people in areas occupied by the U.S. military are well armed, royally pissed, and getting way too good at killing American soldiers. These sorts of problems are inherent in any expansion here on Earth. So, what if the U.S. spent it's money on space colonization rather than global military control?

* It's cheaper. The U.S. military budget is about $500 billion per year, far more than needed for space colonization.
* Fewer casualties. America has lost only 17 astronauts in 45 years of spaceflight, compared to over 2,000 American soldiers and a lot more Iraqis and Afghanis in the current wars alone.
* More real estate. The largest asteroid has materials sufficient for 1g living area equal to a couple hundred times the surface area of Earth (distributed into many colonies).
* More energy. The readily available, completely reliable solar energy in space is 625 million times that available on Earth.
* More money to be made. One small Near-Earth Asteroid has about $20 trillion (yes, that's with a 'tr') worth of precious metals.
* And perhaps most important, no one need be oppressed and no ecosystem need be destroyed. Nothing is stolen -- everything can be created from rock and radiation at no one else's expense.

Bottom line, there is a lot more wealth and power to be gained in space and you don't need to hurt anyone. Let's go!

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Parting Words

Arthur C. Clarke once wrote that new ideas pass through three periods:

* "It can't be done."
* "It probably can be done, but it's not worth doing."
* "I knew it was a good idea all along!"

Princeton professor Dr. Gerard O'Neill got us past the first period in the 1970s by showing that space colonies are technically feasible. We're now in the second stage.

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http://www.spacesettlement.org/
The Space Settlement Initiative

Will people ever live and work on the Moon and Mars?

Will the settlement of space take place in your lifetime?

The settlement of space would benefit all of humanity by opening a new frontier, energizing our society, providing room and resources for the growth of the human race without despoiling the Earth, and creating a lifeboat for humanity that could survive even a planet-wide catastrophe.

Unfortunately, it seems clear that, as things stand now, space settlement will not happen soon enough for any of us to see it. But that could be changed! The legislation proposed on this web site would:

# save NASA and the taxpayers the cost of developing affordable space transport by allowing private enterprise to assume the burden of settling space

# make it possible for ordinary people to purchase tickets and visit the Moon as tourists, scientists, or entrepreneurs

# create vast wealth from what is now utterly worthless

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http://www.space-settlement-institute.org/
The Space Settlement Institute

A think tank dedicated to finding ways to make Space Settlement actually happen in our lifetimes.

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WHAT THE MIND CAN CONCEIVE, AND BELIEVE, IT WILL ACHIEVE - LRK

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Friday, September 22, 2006

How would we live on the Moon?

I spent the day cleaning out my garage. That is attempting to clean it out.

Found myself going through old papers and reading some lunar-update posts as well as questions answered for Michelle Mock back in 2001. She has a web site and provides a service for kids to ask questions.
http://www.imagiverse.org/team/
http://www.imagiverse.org/questions/index.htm
http://www.imagiverse.org/whats_new.htm

I copied below an answer I wrote back in 2001 with some updated URLs.
Maybe you have answers to some of the questions I posed but didn't answer.

Thanks for looking up with me.

Larry Kellogg

Web Site: http://lkellogg.vttoth.com/LarryRussellKellogg/
BlogSpot: http://kelloggserialreports.blogspot.com/
RSS link: http://kelloggserialreports.blogspot.com/atom.xml
Newsltr.: https://news.altair.com/mailman/listinfo/lunar-update
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QUESTION:
How would we live on the Moon?

ANSWER: From Larry Kellogg on March 30, 2001

Since we have only been to the Moon with the Apollo missions we have not really lived on the Moon, more like a visit far away with no McDonalds's or gas stations. We didn't even stay a lunar day but got there usually in the morning light to beat the heat of the Sun. (Maybe three of our days. But you had to sleep with the lights on)

When moving to any new location you would have to bring most everything with you to start. Sort of like loading up a wagon train and heading out west in the early gold rush days. Bring your own pans, food and provisions. Bring your own transportation. Bring everything you might need, including your own water and air to start with and at a very expensive price.

It is hard to get up off of Earth and you would probably start out near a full moon if you were going to use solar panels for electricity. The ride to grandmother's house is about 105 hours but varies depending on how far away the moon will be from Earth as its orbit is elliptical, so some months are better than others.

You probably don't want to dive straight into the Moon, but would go into orbit around the Moon and then maybe drop off in a Lander like they did during the Apollo missions. The Apollo Lander only had room for two people. Larger vehicles would be even harder to shoot to the moon, so how many would you need in the first landing party to set up shop. Could you do it with five? Do you bring a doctor along or make one of your astronauts be qualified in more than one job?

Where is your house? Did you bring one or send one ahead on a different spaceship? Did it assemble itself or was it just the rocket turned around and landed like in the movies? Did you bring along a bathroom or a port-a-potty? Did you bring along Sun Block 15 or higher? What are you going to wear outside in a vacuum? What do you do when the sky falls in (meteors)?

What do you want to do when you get there? Did you bring a book, a set of gulf clubs? (Were you going to work seven days a week?) Who did you pick to come with you? Can you get along well in a sardine can or do you punch someone out if they get on your nerves?

There is no air or liquid water for protection from radiation from the sky. You will have to figure out how to get the things you need or bring them all with you. If we really have ice in a dark crater at one of the poles, how will you get it out when down in the bottom of the crater it is very, very, very cold? If you came for iron and it is near the equator, how will you get that water to where you are going to work (and you thought an hour commute was bad)?

The lunar day is two of our weeks long and the night is two weeks long too. About a 300 degree C swing in temperature. (That is really hot to really cold.) You thought waking up on a cold morning took some warming up, how about your car out that has been cold soaked for two weeks and now is going to fry eggs by lunar noon? (the Moon's near side always faces Earth but as the Moon goes around the Earth the Sun line or terminator goes around the Moon too - the far side is lit when we look up at the dark of the new moon)

You probably want your air tight shelter to be buried part way into the Moon's regolith and covered by more cinders and rocks to protect you from those Solar flares and from high energy galactic radiation. Did you bring a John Deer tractor or were you thinking of using a bull dozer? Did you bring your crane to move things around?

Your solar panels could make electricity for a lunar day (our two weeks) but what do you use to read by for a two week night? Maybe a little nuclear reactor stuffed into a small meteor crater would make you some electricity and provide some heat. (Did you have any trouble getting a permit on Earth to launch it into space and did the protestors block your path to the launch
site?)

If we want to process the lunar regolith for building materials or distil water and hydrogen out of it, did we bring along a solar reflector or were we going to use the heat from that nuclear reactor? What were you going to use to sweep up tons of dust to get some Helium 3 to sell to Earth for that new fusion reactor that just came on line? Did you drive that street sweeper or did you use a robot? Did you remember to ship the robot up or were you going to build one on the Moon?

Are you ready to phone home yet? Who is going to put up your TV dish and who was going to listen to you? The Earth is turning on its axis and makes one revolution in 24 hours. You are on the Moon looking down at the blue marble and it takes you one month to go around so where is your dish pointed? Were folks listening in at the Deep Space Network in California, or in Australia or Spain? (Maybe they were listening to someone going to Mars and forgot to point their dish at the Moon.) Who is paying for this? Who insured it and at what premium? (Did you leave any loved ones on Earth?)

This story goes on and on and as you have seen, there are more questions than answers. You can get a lot of information about these things by taking a look at some courses taught at the University of Wisconsin by Harrison H. (Jack) Schmitt. Jack was on the last mission to the Moon, Apollo 17 and is a geologist.

Here are some URLs.

http://fti.neep.wisc.edu/neep602/LEC1/trip.html
A Field Trip To The Moon
http://science.ksc.nasa.gov/history/apollo/apollo-17/apollo-17.html
Apollo 17
http://www.hq.nasa.gov/alsj/frame.html
Apollo Lunar Surface Journal
http://www.nasm.si.edu/collections/imagery/apollo/apollo.htm
The Apollo Program
http://science.ksc.nasa.gov/history/apollo/apollo.html
Project Apollo

http://fti.neep.wisc.edu/neep602/lecture22.html
NEEP602 Course Notes (Fall 1996)
Resources from Space
Lecture #22: Been there! Done that! Bought the T-shirt!
Title: Lunar Base Activation

http://fti.neep.wisc.edu/neep533/SPRING2004/neep533.html
NEEP533 Course Notes (Spring 2004)
Resources from Space
Course Notes - Spring 2004

http://fti.neep.wisc.edu/fti?rm=courses
Course Notes

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WHAT THE MIND CAN CONCEIVE, AND BELIEVE, IT WILL ACHIEVE - LRK

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Monday, September 18, 2006

September 18, 2006 - Just another day in Space

Well spaceship Earth is on its way through space and it would be wise to know what lies on the path ahead.

There seems to be some that are looking up at the many sights to see.

The oxygen generator acted up on the ISS. It makes oxygen, they throw the hydrogen away. When you decide to live permanently off world you had better come prepared to fix it with what you have in your tool kit.
- LRK -
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http://www.popsci.com/popsci/aviationspace/cda75b4a1db84010vgnvcm1000004eecbccdrcrd.html
High Maintenance
Broken gyroscopes, missing parts, air leaks: Is the International Space Station falling apart?

By Dawn Stover | December 2004

You might think that astronauts living onboard the International Space Station spend most of their waking hours observing Earth and conducting experiments. In fact, the bulk of their time is devoted to housekeeping: unpacking groceries, collecting trash, repairing everything from computers to the toilet, and slogging through mundane maintenance checklists. It's not surprising that equipment breaks down occasionally-that's why the space station carries backup systems and spare parts. But now that the station has been permanently occupied for four years, it's beginning to show signs of wear and tear. In recent months, astronauts have had to overhaul essential gear, including space suits, exercise equipment and an oxygen generator.

"The ISS is a disaster waiting to happen," warned a NASA flight controller in an anonymous internal survey done in 2003. But officials maintain that safety hasn't been compromised and that patching up equipment is great training for future exploration missions. "Many of the operational techniques and processes we're developing now, in order to operate without a lot of supply shipments, will be required for those longer missions," says Bill Gerstenmaier, NASA's program manager for the station. Here, a look at recent and future "training opportunities."

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Thanks for looking up with me.

Larry Kellogg

Web Site: http://lkellogg.vttoth.com/LarryRussellKellogg/
BlogSpot: http://kelloggserialreports.blogspot.com/
RSS link: http://kelloggserialreports.blogspot.com/atom.xml
Newsltr.: https://news.altair.com/mailman/listinfo/lunar-update
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As noted in the JPL Space Calendar - LRK -
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# Sep 18 -Hot[Sep 17] Soyuz TMA-9 Soyuz FG Launch (International Space Station 13S) http://www.skyrocket.de/space/index_frame.htm?http://www.skyrocket.de/space/doc_sdat/soyuz-tma.htm
http://www.spaceflightnow.com/shuttle/sts115/060917undocking/index4.html

# Sep 18 - Workshop on Exploring and Using Multi-angle Imaging SpectroRadiometer Data, Adelphi, Maryland http://eosweb.larc.nasa.gov/PRODOCS/misr/workshop/current_workshop.html

# Sep 18-20 - Pale Blue Dot III Workshop, Chicago, Illinois http://www.adlerplanetarium.org/pale_blue_dot/index.shtml

# Sep 18-20 - Meeting: Recent Developments in the Study of Gamma-ray Bursts, London, United Kingdom
http://www.royalsoc.ac.uk/event.asp?id=3188&month=9,2006

# Sep 18-20 - Conference: Astronomical Data Analysis IV, Marseille, France http://www.oamp.fr/conf/ada4/

# Sep 18-22 - 6th Microquasar Workshop: Microquasars and Beyond, Como, Italy http://www.brera.inaf.it/microqw6/

# Sep 18-22 - European Planetary Science Congress, Berlin, Germany http://meetings.copernicus.org/epsc2006/index.html

# Sep 18-22 - Meeting: LISA Astro-GR@AEI, Potsdam, Germany http://www.aei.mpg.de/~pau/LISA_Astro-GR@AEI

# Sep 18-23 - Conference: Physical Processes in Circumstellar Disks, Vidago Palace, Portugal http://www.astro.up.pt/disks2006/

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Space Weather News for Sept. 18, 2006
http://Spaceweather.com

SOLAR ECLIPSE: On Friday, Sept. 22nd, the Moon's shadow will cut across Earth, producing an annular ("ring of fire") solar eclipse. Unfortunately, most of the eclipse takes place over uninhabited ocean, but sky watchers in South America and Africa will be able to see at least a fraction of the display. Visit http://spaceweather.com for timetables and animated maps of the eclipse.

SPACESHIP SILHOUETTES: The space shuttle Atlantis undocked from the International Space Station yesterday. In a moment of cosmic coincidence, an amateur astronomer in France caught the two spacecraft separating just as they passed in front of the sun. His unusual photo, entitled "Spaceship Silhouettes", may be found on today's edition of http://spaceweather.com .

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-- Harmful chemical leaks in space station, AP http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/ap/science/4195265.html

"We don't exactly know the nature of the spill ... but the crew is doing well," said Mike Suffredini, NASA's space station program manager. "It's not a life-threatening material."

"The crew first reported smoke but it turned out to be an irritant, potassium hydroxide, leaking from an oxygen vent, Suffredini said."

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Another matter of nomenclature
---
When Anousheh Ansari made it into orbit Monday, she was called by many the first female space tourist, although not without a bit of controversy. Jeff Foust examines the debate and whether the term "space tourist" itself is all that useful.
http://www.thespacereview.com/article/706/1

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http://dsc.discovery.com/news/2006/09/18/spacetourist_spa.html?category=human&guid=20060918090030
NASA Resigned to Space Tourism
Irene Klotz, Discovery News

Sept. 18, 2006 - It's a busy time aboard the International Space Station, which just got its first new addition since before the 2003 Columbia accident.

The shuttle Atlantis crew has left, a Russian Progress capsule needs to be dumped and a new crew is coming aboard to take over control of the half-built outpost.

Not the ideal time for a space tourist, or spaceflight participant in NASA parlance, but the fourth visitor is en route, nonetheless.

"I think there are risks having non-professionals (aboard)," the station's incoming commander Michael Lopez-Alegria said in an interview. "If nothing else, you reduce your efficiency because you always have to have one guy looking at him out of the corner of his eye."

Unlike the previous three station tourists, this tourist is a woman.

Soft-spoken space philanthropist Aneousheh Ansari, whose family sponsored the $10 million Ansari X Prize for private manned spaceflight, bought a seat on Russia's Soyuz capsule for about $20 million after officials ruled out Japanese-born businessman Daisuke Enomoto for undisclosed medical reasons.

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WHAT THE MIND CAN CONCEIVE, AND BELIEVE, IT WILL ACHIEVE - LRK

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Sunday, September 17, 2006

Good day.

Have passed this link before and even though the papers in it date to 1984 it is a starting place to look at going back to the Moon.
- LRK -

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http://ads.harvard.edu/books/lbsa/
Lunar Bases
and Space Activities of the 21st Century

Papers from a NASA-sponsored, public symposium hosted by the National Academy of Sciences in Washington, D.C., Oct. 29-31, 1984 edited by W.W. Mendell published by The Lunar and Planetary Institute http://www.lpi.usra.edu/ Houston
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I copied a snip from the Table of Contents for the Lunar Base Concepts section.

I am wondering if these items would be of interest to look at more in depth?
I also added it to the links section of my web site.
http://lkellogg.vttoth.com/LarryRussellKellogg/links.html

Maybe I could develop some pictorial representations and add them to the reports section as well.
http://lkellogg.vttoth.com/LarryRussellKellogg/reports.html

Some folks like reading, some looking at pictures, and others just like to listen. Have not done anything with audio or iPod down loads but anything is possible in this digital age.

During the Lunar Prospector mission there were some 3600 readers on the lunar-update list. Since the mission ended in July of 1999, the list has slowly settled to now only 901 readers.

Some of you have been with me from the beginning and some of you are recent readers. The list is moderated to cut down on the amount of spam that now hits e-mail lists. Postings to the list from non-members bounce and I delete them. If you have ideas or topics you would like to hear more about, just send them directly to me. I can pass to the list with comments or not as seems fitting. If you think others might be interested in the topic of going to space let them know they are free to join the list. Here to serve.
- LRK -


Thanks for looking up with me.

Larry Kellogg

Web Site: http://lkellogg.vttoth.com/LarryRussellKellogg/
BlogSpot: http://kelloggserialreports.blogspot.com/
RSS link: http://kelloggserialreports.blogspot.com/atom.xml
Newsltr.: https://news.altair.com/mailman/listinfo/lunar-update
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http://www.amazon.com/Lunar-Base-Handbook-Space-Technology/dp/0072401710
The Lunar Base Handbook (Space Technology Series) (Paperback) by Peter Eckart (Author)

Book Description

Lunar Base Handbook provides an overview about the Moon and its environment, the current status of lunar base design, tools we need to design a lunar base, checklists and flow charts that outline the design process, and technological requirements of a lunar base.

The main audience for this book is engineers, but it is also interesting for scientists, managers, lawyers, undergraduates, and high school students, and readable for the interested layman.

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http://ads.harvard.edu/books/lbsa/
Lunar Bases
and Space Activities of the 21st Century

Papers from a NASA-sponsored, public symposium hosted by the National Academy of Sciences in Washington, D.C., Oct. 29-31, 1984 edited by W.W. Mendell published by The Lunar and Planetary Institute http://www.lpi.usra.edu/ Houston

TL799.M6L83 1985 919.9'104 86-50
ISBN 0-942862-02-3

Table of Contents
http://ads.harvard.edu/books/lbsa/toc.html

This work relates to NASA Contract Nos. NASW-3389 and NAS-9-17023. The U.S.
Government has a royalty free license to exercise all rights under the copyright claimed herein for Governmental purposes. All other rights are reserved by the Lunar and Planetary Institute.

Published by the Lunar and Planetary Institute, 3303 NASA Road One, Houston, TX 77058-4399. Printed in the U.S.A. Library of Congress CIP data available from the Library of Congress, CIP Division, or from the publisher.

Cover illustration: two inhabitants of the Moon overlook an advanced lunar installation from a museum construction site. The original, primitive lunar base lies to the left of a large electromagnetic launch facility, which dominates the vista. An array of solar dynamic generators on the horizon supplement the power from a nuclear reactor to operate greenhouses, industrial processing plants, scientific research laboratories, and a spaceport. Artist: Pat Rawlings, Eagle Engineering Co., Houston, Texas.

Copyright C 1986 by the Lunar and Planetary Institute.
Made available electronically by the NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

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Table of Contents
http://ads.harvard.edu/books/lbsa/toc.html
Snip

LUNAR BASE CONCEPTS 33
http://articles.adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-iarticle_query?bibcode=1985lbsa.conf...33. [needs last . in the URL - LRK -]

Lunar Bases: A Post-Apollo Evaluation 35
Lowman, Paul D., Jr.
http://articles.adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-iarticle_query?bibcode=1985lbsa.conf...35L

Evolution of Concepts for Lunar Bases 47
Johnson, Stewart W. & Leonard, Ray S.
http://articles.adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-iarticle_query?bibcode=1985lbsa.conf...47J

Strategies for a Permanent Lunar Base 57
Duke, Michael B., Mendell, Wendell W. & Roberts, Barney B.
http://articles.adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-iarticle_query?bibcode=1985lbsa.conf...57D

Preliminary Design of a Permanently Manned Lunar Surface Research Base 69
Hoffman, Stephen J. & Niehoff, John C.
http://articles.adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-iarticle_query?bibcode=1985lbsa.conf...69H


Merits of A Lunar Polar Base Location 77
Burke, James D.
http://articles.adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-iarticle_query?bibcode=1985lbsa.conf...77B


Nuclear Energy-Key to Lunar Development 85
Buden, David & Angelo, Joseph A., Jr.
http://articles.adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-iarticle_query?bibcode=1985lbsa.conf...85B


Nuclear Powerplants for Lunar Bases 99
French, J. R.
http://articles.adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-iarticle_query?bibcode=1985lbsa.conf...99F


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WHAT THE MIND CAN CONCEIVE, AND BELIEVE, IT WILL ACHIEVE - LRK

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Saturday, September 16, 2006

Good day,

What to do, what do you want to do, what do you want me to do?

A Lunar Base, what do you see? What to do, what do you want to do?

If you could, would, should, go to the Moon, what would you want to do?

At 68 years young, I don't see me physically going to the Moon even if the powers to be make it so. I had thought though that it might be interesting if I could find some way to go there virtually on the web.

My thoughts tend to fade into dreamland and the wife is tired of hearing thoughts about same with no actual progress.

Don't know if you would want to go with me or not.

Jeroen Lapre' is still working on his short movie, Maelstrom II, based on the short story by Arthur C. Clarke that will take place on the Moon. Arthur C. Clarke isn't getting any younger either, so at least Jeroen is motivated to complete it soonest.
http://home.comcast.net/~jeroen-lapre/ArthurCClarke/MaelstromII/MaelstromII.html

It has been some time since I watched Space: 1999 on TV. Now I suppose you could watch chapters on your iPod should you want to travel to Moonbase Alpha, if only someone would think of making it so.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Space:_1999

Paul Graham wrote "Hackers & Painters, and has a number of essays on the web. I read the book and have been reading his essays and these got me thinking about what it is that you folks might like to see in the way of going to space.

Paul is a Lisp programmer and the company "ViaWeb" he started got bought by Yahoo for making on-line stores. He used Lisp to help build his web application.
http://www.paulgraham.com/road.html
http://www.paulgraham.com/hackpaint.html
http://www.paulgraham.com/index.html
http://www.paulgraham.com/ind.html
http://www.paulgraham.com/articles.html
http://www.paulgraham.com/nerds.html
Why Nerds are Unpopular

My train of thought often runs amuck and on strange tracks.

What I think might be the greatest idea, might give others a reason to throw tomatoes, so if you would like to throw a salad, feel free to throw those leaves wrapped around ideas that you might like to see implemented, discussed, explained, or just laid out on the table.
- LRK -

Have copied a few links about Lunar Base Proposals below just to show that folks have been thinking about it for awhile and that there are different ideas of how to go about getting us there and setting up a Lunar Base.

You probably have some ideas of what we should be doing if you had your say. It is ok, you can whisper it to me, I'll only tell the whole lunar-update list. :-)

Thanks for looking up with me.

Larry Kellogg

Web Site: http://lkellogg.vttoth.com/LarryRussellKellogg/
BlogSpot: http://kelloggserialreports.blogspot.com/
RSS link: http://kelloggserialreports.blogspot.com/atom.xml
Newsltr.: https://news.altair.com/mailman/listinfo/lunar-update
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http://www.space.com/scienceastronomy/solarsystem/lunarbase_euro_020620.html

SPACE.com -- International Team Explores Lunar Base Proposals By Leonard David Senior Space Writer
posted: 07:00 am ET 20 June 2002

A first-of-its-kind workshop is underway in Europe to blueprint extraterrestrial bases for human settlement of the Moon. The international lunar base design study involves the talents of engineers, architects, industrial designers and specialists in medicine and psychology.

The multi-nation moon base conference is being held at the European Space Agency's (ESA) European Space Research Technology Centre (ESTEC) in Noordwijk, The Netherlands, from June 10-21. Experts are hammering out concepts for bases to support a human return to the Moon.

A trio of Moon base scenarios is at the core of the 2002 Lunar Base Design Workshop. Each case study focuses on a 2020 timeframe to establish a small permanent habitat on the lunar surface.

Study teams are comprised of students with a bachelor's degree or higher, versed in a variety of disciplines.

Tin can design: out with the old

Driving the workshop is the need to show the European Space Agency (ESA) that the time for a Moon base project is now, said Paul van Susante, a civil engineer who is co-managing the study. He is also a research assistant at the Colorado School of Mines in Golden.

"We're taking an interdisciplinary, reasonable, and systematic approach," van Susante told SPACE.com. "The lunar base designs of the past are pretty limitedand don't incorporate the specific conditions of living on the Moon for extended periods of time. The tin can design is outdated and not necessary anymore," he said.

Groups of lunar base designers are diving into case studies that involve a six-person outpost, situated near the Moon's South Pole. Some production capacity would be available to habitat dwellers in the year 2020. Lunar surface material, for instance, can be transformed into building materials and simple forms of solar cells. Use of remotely controlled robots is envisioned too.

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http://www.russianspaceweb.com/lunar_base.html

In the 1960s, the Moon Race between the United States and the Soviet Union made many scientists in both countries believe that human colonization of the Moon was at hand. Lunar bases became a frequent subject for the popular press and sci-fi novels; however, the space community also started looking at the problem seriously.

Advocates of lunar settlements believed that a permanent outpost on the Moon would allow extensive exploration of the Earth's natural satellite for future mining of its resources, for the use of its surface as a platform for astronomy research and as a "proving ground" for further planetary exploration.

Early proposals

In Russia, Konstantin Tsiolkovskiy, a visionary of space exploration, suggested use of the Moon as a source of raw materials for the human quest into space. (136)

Project Horizon

In June 1959, Wernher Von Braun and his group working at Redstone Arsenal in Huntsville, Ala., issued the first part of the study of a "Lunar Military Outpost" for the US Army, called Project Horizon. Saturn-I and Saturn-II rockets, whose development started about a year earlier, were to resupply the base. The study estimated that total 245 tons of construction materials, hardware and supplies had to be shipped to the lunar surface. (138)

Korolev studies

In the 1960s, Sergei Korolev, the father of the Soviet space program, was one of the first leaders in the country's space industry, to raise the possibility of building a long-term outpost on the surface of the Moon. In 1960, in the wake of the first Soviet successes in sending unmanned probes to the Moon, Korolev published an article in Pravda, the official publication of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union. In the article, bylined "Professor K. Sergeev," Korolev outlined in general terms his plans for space exploration, including lunar expeditions: "The opportunity for direct exploration of the Moon causes a particular interest, first with the landing of automated scientific probes... and later by ways of sending researchers and constructing a habitable scientific station on the Moon." (137)

In 1962, Korolev further discussed the idea of the lunar base in the "Notes on Heavy Interplanetary Spacecraft and Heavy orbital Station," which were not been published until two decades later. In the "Notes" Korolev discussed developing infrastructure to support interplanetary travel, including a base to store consumables for interplanetary spacecraft.

The topic came up during a meeting of the Chief Designers Council, an informal governing body in the Soviet space industry, when it considered future tasks for the N1 moon rocket.

The consideration of a lunar base than reached the government level, which reacted with a decree on November 17, 1967, giving the green light to a "Galactika" (Galaxy) project. The plan assigned the industry to evaluate a broad range of issues associated with human exploration of the Moon, Venus and Mars.

KBOM studies

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http://www.google.com/jobs/lunar_job.html
Google Job Opportunities
Google Copernicus Center is hiring

Google is interviewing candidates for engineering positions at our lunar hosting and research center, opening late in the spring of 2007. This unique opportunity is available only to highly-qualified individuals who are willing to relocate for an extended period of time, are in top physical condition and are capable of surviving with limited access to such modern conveniences as soy low-fat lattes, The Sopranos and a steady supply of oxygen.

The Google Copernicus Hosting Environment and Experiment in Search Engineering (G.C.H.E.E.S.E.) is a fully integrated research, development and technology facility at which Google will be conducting experiments in entropized information filtering, high-density high-delivery hosting (HiDeHiDeHo) and de-oxygenated cubicle dwelling. This center will provide a unique platform from which Google will leapfrog current terrestrial-based technologies and bring information access to new heights of utility.

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http://www.androidpubs.com/Chap07.htm
The first lunar base will most probably be entirely robotic. The reasons are very simple and practical. First, the costs of maintaining a robotic base will be much lower than the costs of a manned base. Second, due to the absense of humans, there will be no loss of life among the crew. Third, the initial tasks which need to be done at a lunar base can be easily carried out by robots. Fourth, far fewer and less complex facilities are necessary to sustain the robots than would be required to sustain humans.

In order to accomplish any task, only four things are necessary: resources, power, labor, and planning. Some people think that money is also necessary, but it is not. Money is only used to trade for one or more of the other four. On the moon, we will have free resources! That is, nobody will charge us for the materials we find there. This is in marked contrast to the earth, where you must pay someone for every resource you need except air or seawater (if you are near the ocean). The moon also has an abundance of free power - solar power. Again, nobody will charge us for using the solar power we find there. Our labor at the first lunar base will be androids. Since they must be operated from the earth they will not be free, but they will cost roughly the same as earth-bound workers. Most planning can be done here on earth and thus will not be too expensive. Indeed hundreds of companies around the world are already making lots of plans for space, the moon, lunar bases, trips to Mars and so on. Thus we will be able to reap the results of that planning at very low cost.

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http://www.astronautix.com/craft/chirbase.htm
Chinese Lunar Base
Class: Manned. Type: Lunar Base. Destination: Moon. Nation: China.

Beginning in 2000, Chinese scientists began discussing preliminary work on a Chinese manned lunar base. Although not funded, it remains a long-term objective of the Chinese space program in the second quarter for the second quarter of the 21st Century.

Beyond the initial Project 921 programmes for development of a manned earth orbit capability, Chinese scientists began talking during the course of 2000 of more ambitious plans for a lunar base. At Expo 2000 at Hannover the centre piece of the Chinese pavilion was a display of two Chinese astronauts planting the flag of the People s Republic on the lunar surface. On October 4, 2000 Associated Press reported that Zhuang Fenggan, vice chairman of the China Association of Sciences, declared that one day the Chinese would create a permanent lunar base with the intent of mining the lunar soil for Helium-3 (to fuel nuclear fusion plants on Earth). On October 13, 2000, Xinhua News Agency reported a more definite timetable. These seemed to be the dreams of academics rather than a definite funded programme, but at least indicated the expected course of development during the 21st ( Chinese ) Century:

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http://www.astronautix.com/index.html
==============================================================
http://ads.harvard.edu/books/lbsa/
Lunar Bases
and Space Activities of the 21st Century

Papers from a NASA-sponsored, public symposium hosted by the National Academy of Sciences in Washington, D.C., Oct. 29-31, 1984

edited by W.W. Mendell

published by
The Lunar and Planetary Institute
http://www.lpi.usra.edu/
Houston

TL799.M6L83 1985 919.9'104 86-50
ISBN 0-942862-02-3

* Table of Contents
http://ads.harvard.edu/books/lbsa/toc.html
* Index
http://articles.adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-iarticle_query?bibcode=1985lbsa.conf..863.
* Associate Editors
http://ads.harvard.edu/books/lbsa/editors.html


Copyright © 1986 by the Lunar and Planetary Institute.
Made available electronically by the NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

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http://www.spacedaily.com/spacenet/text/lunar-b.html
JAPAN SPACE NET

Talk About Lunar Base Getting Serious
Once simply the fodder for science-fiction stories, building a base on the moon is now being looked at in earnest by Japan.

Tokyo -- December 19,1996 -- Recently some 170 of the world's top space scientists, engineers and mission specialists attending the Second International Lunar Workshop in Kyoto, debating not only an extensive scientific re-exploration of the lunar landscape, but the setting up of a permanent manned presence within thirty years.

Speaker after speaker talked of the scientific and technical benefits to be accrued from exploring the moon. Some pointed to the huge tasks ahead developing critical technology needed even to get there again. But while the problem of raising finance was conveniently skipped during the five day confab, one topic dominated discussions; how to build a lunar base.

An interim declaration proposed by Chairperson Dr. Maria Perino, an engineer with Alevia Spazio, recognized that "The establishment of a permanently human-tended lunar base is the most crucial and decisive step toward human expansion into space." Assuming the capability to get there, itself a matter of intense debate, a 50 member sub-committee spent two days wrestling with some of the thornier issues. These included what the base should be made of, when it should be built and how it should be supplied. "Fifteen years ago a lunar base seemed very exotic...now there is a growing consensus on what a lunar base might be like," said Dr. Wendell Mendell, a planetary scientist from NASA. However, aside from the barest details, while some matters were agreed on by all, other points swirled around a mire of controversy.

Don't expect a city, and don't expect it soon

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http://members.aol.com/dsfportree/rtr.htm
Excerpts from Romance to Reality: moon & Mars plans Copyright 1996-2006 David S. F. Portree.

Author note: I launched the Romance to Reality website in August 1996. At its height, the site included more than 400 summaries of classic, seminal, and illustrative moon & Mars exploration planning documents spanning from 1950 to 2003. Romance to Reality led to my book Humans to Mars: 50 Years of Mission Planning, 1950-2000 (2001), several popular-audience magazine articles, invitations to speak at events across the U.S., information queries from students, filmmakers, journalists, authors, and NASA engineers, and, in 2003, an invitation to join the research faculty of the Mars Institute, which hosted the site during its final three years. I retired the site in July 2006 so that I could apply its contents to print publications. The 53 document summaries that follow (one for each year the website covered) form a fitting epitaph for Romance to Reality.

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[Note: Based on the above link, the links I have posted to David's work will now fail. Wish the best on his future projects. Hope to see David's work in print. - LRK -]
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http://news.altair.com/pipermail/lunar-update/2003-September.txt
Snip
>From larry.kellogg at sbcglobal.net Mon Sep 1 16:52:39 2003
>From: larry.kellogg at sbcglobal.net (Larry Kellogg)
>Date: Mon, 1 Sep 2003 15:52:39 -0500
>Subject: [lunar-update] "Romance to Reality" Comes to the Mars
>Institute
>Message-ID:

Good Holiday here, but a Monday off anyway.

Well we have been looking for Aliens and visitors from outer space and we have thoughts about seeing if there is or ever has been life on Mars. (I could even think of looking in cold storage at our Moon's south pole. - LRK -)

What about the idea of just moving out and putting this life form on some other chunks of rock in Space. Sort of let the other life forms see us coming thing.

But you need a plan.

Plans we do. We write up plans and present them and then write some more.

You think not.

Take a look at all the plans David S. F. Portree has collected over the last
7 years.

Reading assignment.

Read the 300 plans and then see if you want to walk the talk. - LRK -

----------------------------------------------------------
http://www.marsinstitute.info/rd/faculty/dportree/rtr/
Romance to Reality: moon & Mars mission plans It is part of the nature of man to start with romance and build to a reality.
- Ray Bradbury

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WHAT THE MIND CAN CONCEIVE, AND BELIEVE, IT WILL ACHIEVE - LRK

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Thursday, September 14, 2006

How think you about the plans to go to the Moon with only four aboard?

My below comment on the last post prompted a reply from Bill about his concern that the plan to only take 4 people back to the Moon seemed to be much like the Apollo missions and not one for really exploring the Moon.

I have included a snip from his e-mail and my reply for your consideration as well.
- LRK -

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How would you like to spend 02d 23h 17m 08s in a Volkswagen without being able to get out and stretch your legs? My knees hurt just sitting here with the laptop. Hope you have a little more space in going back to the Moon and Mars. :-)
- LRK -
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Bill had an earlier input about signing up for Jonathan's Space Report (JSR) on a Majordomo list server. He discovered that anything you have in your e-mail that is in addition to the subscribe request gets commented on by the list server as not valid commands.
---------------------------------------------------------------
To receive the JSR each week by direct email, send a message to majordomo@host.planet4589.org , with a blank subject line and message body containing the single line "subscribe jsr".
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I was also surprised by this the first time I signed up on a Majordomo list server. When it says "Blank", that means no hidden characters as well, like you get in HTML pages or Microsoft Word Docs. Plain text messages without any tag lines make it easier to find that you have successfully subscribed.

The upside from feeding Majordomo more than it wants is that you usually get an email on how the list server works. I suppose that is a hint to do it their way the next time. :-)
- LRK -

Thanks for looking up with me.

Larry Kellogg

Web Site: http://lkellogg.vttoth.com/LarryRussellKellogg/
BlogSpot: http://kelloggserialreports.blogspot.com/
RSS link: http://kelloggserialreports.blogspot.com/atom.xml
Newsltr.: https://news.altair.com/mailman/listinfo/lunar-update
==============================================================

Snip of Bill's e-mail, and then my reply. - LRK -

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Larry, here you bring up a point that has been bugging me a lot concerning the next generation NASA human spaceflight vehicle (or whatever schmancy moniker they're putting on it). I'm sure you know by now it's just a scaled up and teched up version of Apollo. I find that scary and disconcerting.
In this day and age, we should be looking for the B2 Bomber version of the shuttle, maybe something that's HTOL, SSTO. Without doing a lot of research, I don't know if that's possible, but my intuition says some version of it should be. Maybe TSTO with a mother ship that climbs the initial 50,000 or 100,000 feet. My knowledge base is extensive, but not overly in depth in most areas, but it seems to me that NASA should be able to do a "Better, Stronger, Faster" version of something like what Burt Rutan did that will get us to LEO. Heck, I think with some modifications, Rutan's bird could do that. He'd have more to worry about (heat shields, orbital maneuvering and what not), but the basic craft could get there.

Snip

Ok, sorry, I'll get off my soap box now. My intuition tells me NASA is looking the wrong way on this one. We are the only country on the planet with a viable, if old and cranky, reusable spacecraft, and I think we should be looking to extend that legacy, not squash it. Even if they wind up reusing the new Lockheed Martin vehicle, it's still got to have a whole landing team go get it instead of it landing at its home base.

Thanks for letting me vent.

Bill
--------------------------------------------------------------

Let me share what I answered and maybe some of you may care to vent some about our plans to go back to the Moon.
- LRK -

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Venting is good, Bill.

Our hot water tank did that after the temp got turned up to max.
Shocked some flowers outside from the discharge but saved me a hot water tank explosion. :-)

Soap boxes used to be made of wood and standing on them let you see over the crowd. Not sure I would want to stand on cardboard one today.

My thought about bigger would be better is that I feel we will be lucky if we get anything to the Moon with humans aboard. It is all about money (or lack of) and the changing politics with each administration change. We have had plans to go back to space before and when the cost estimates came in congress dumped them.

When the first charts came out for the Vision for Space Exploration they showed how as the shuttle flights quit the launches to the Moon could take place and not increase the budget by much. Now with the war in IRAQ and Katrina costs, there have been cuts in budgets so the squeeze is on even more.

Our government is borrowing money to pay the day to day expenses. That isn't the way I was brought up. The talk about not enough money in the Social Security fund is partly due to borrowing the money from the fund that could have been invested to grow. Now they don't want to raise taxes to pay it back because the public would cry out. Spending a bundle of money to fix the problem in New Orleans from Katrina is a drain on government money but it has been indicated that the original dike building money was misspent as well, so now you spend it again. The money spent and the lives lost in Iraq would certainly fund a lot of going to the Moon, but you probably would not get the authorization to spend that kind of money JUST to go to the Moon.
The Lunites haven't bombed any trade centers and we don't need to go get them.
http://os.jointhesaga.com/OSWiki/mediawiki-1.4.6/index.php/Lunite

---------------------------------------------------------------
http://www.nasa.gov/missions/solarsystem/explore_main_old.html
NASA's new spaceship is the key to making the Vision for Space Exploration a reality. The Vision, announced by President Bush in January 2004, will extend humanity's presence across the solar system, starting with a return to the moon by the end of the next decade, followed by journeys to Mars and beyond.
Snip
Building on the best of Apollo and shuttle technology, NASA's 21st century exploration system will be affordable, reliable, versatile and safe. The centerpiece of this system is a new craft designed to carry four astronauts to and from the moon, support up to six crewmembers on future missions to Mars, and deliver crew and cargo to the international space station.
Snip
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I think the operative word here is "affordable". Unless the individual states get their share of pork keeping the funding coming is always iffy.

When you start talking about setting up a Lunar Base you will be talking big bucks and probably some International cooperation. All while we dump our obligations for the ISS, an International cooperation exercise.

Four to the Moon doesn't a Lunar Colony make, but then the taxpayers may baulk at paying for others to go live there.

If the desire to develop the Moon after we get some folks there again continues, there will still be problems of putting larger masses into space.


You dump empty fuel tanks and hardware by stages so that you have a chance at accelerating the remaining mass to the required speeds to make it to the Moon with the relatively short kick near Earth. The Russians didn't get the
N1 to work with all those engines firing. Here we are trying to use what we have seen work without having to spend the money to think of something completely new. http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/1883348.stm

There has been a suggestion to launch several stages to Earth orbit, mate them, refuel them, and do the trans lunar insertion burn. When you look back at the Gemini missions you see that sending two vehicles up to later mate up, presented problems and aborts. Florida weather is just one of the variables. Hardware failures and sensor failures come to mind as well.
Launch pad accommodations for more than one vehicle at a time is there as well.

All of these can be worked on if you have the money and the will to do so.

I did get to see the shuttle Atlanta launch on TV this week but watched a lot longer on the Internet. When the buzz drops to just a sound byte on the 6:00 o'clock news, you probably don't have a lot of public support. When you scan the cable channels and see the trash being showed one wonders just were the public interest is. I don't think it is on setting up a Lunar Colony or even a research outpost. You need to have a special interest group large enough to swing votes since that seems to be the way our government works. Just put the envelope in my re-election fund box, please, and I'll see what I can do.

Let the Chinese orbiter find Platinum on the Moon and send a robotic Lunar lander and return scoop of rare earth material and maybe a remote mining consortium will be set up. When the landers break down, maybe a field rep will need to be sent up to fix it. The Russians have already run rovers on the Moon and had rocks returned robotically. No loss of life when they broke down, just loss of face and money.
http://nssdc.gsfc.nasa.gov/database/MasterCatalog?sc=1970-095A
http://www.daviddarling.info/encyclopedia/L/Luna.html

Ok, let me get off my soap box.

Maybe something here for the lunar-update list to chew on. :-)

Thanks for your ideas and looking up with me.

Larry

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WHAT THE MIND CAN CONCEIVE, AND BELIEVE, IT WILL ACHIEVE - LRK

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Moon and Mars - Videos

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