TO THE MOON, MARS, AND BEYOND

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

Tuesday, October 21, 2014

THE EARTH, MAY WE VIEW FROM ....

Geoff in New Zealand sent me several links which I will pass for your consideration.
As you will note, our astronauts are getting better at communicating with the general population and hopefully they will generate an interest in not only looking up, but in looking back down at us on mother Earth.

Maybe today's social media will spread the word and generate an interest in space, as a new frontier.
I know I enjoyed my small part in letting us see what Lunar Prospector was doing as it went around the Moon.

Today we have even more robotic craft at the Moon, Mars, and Beyond, and it sounds like real time tweets from the ISS are generating a following as well.
Hope we have the money to add more to what has already been done.
- LRK -

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Subject: 'Forget Mars, we should live on the MOON': Chris Hadfield says the red planet is too big a leap for Nasa at the moment | Daily Mail Online
Canadian Chris Hadfield tells MailOnline we should go back to the moon
The former astronaut says current plans to go to Mars are too ambitious
Instead we should be looking to live on the moon for 'generations'
He also responds to comments from Nasa chief Charles Bolden last week who said he had 'raised the bar for astronaut'
Hadfield does not think he put pressure on astronauts to engage more
And he wants to see more cooperation in space in the future
Hadfield was speaking after the launch of his new book 'You Are Here: Around the World in 92 Minutes'
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I tend to agree that at least at first we should learn how to live is on the Moon.
Either place will be extremely hard to accomplish and expensive so we will need to find some way to make the risk worthwhile. 

Cost - Benefit 

Probably a lot easier to send Tweets from the Moon with only a one and a half second OWLT to the Moon vs 4 to 24 minutes to Mars. :-)
- LRK -

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Subject: The real space oddity, Chris Hadfield, is down-to-Earth | Ars Technica 
by  - Oct 19 2014, 11:00am PDT
http://arstechnica.com/science/2014/10/the-real-space-oddity-chris-hadfield-is-down-to-earth/
The real space oddity, Chris Hadfield, is down-to-Earth

Ex-NASA man wants to give everyone the chance to know what it’s like in space.
NEW YORK—What do you do after you’ve achieved the ultimate goal of your avocation—not once, but three times? That’s the question facing Chris Hadfield, who capped 25 years of NASA service by commanding both the International Space Station and an audience of millions on YouTube and Twitter. Hadfield gave a partial answer recently during a public talk at the American Museum of Natural History: get as many people as possible to understand the experience and try to use that to keep the public supporting a program of space exploration.
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Hope he continues to excite people with his tweets and books. Sounds like he took a LOT of pictures. 
- LRK -

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Subject: The View From The Best Office In The Solar System
The View From The Best Office In The Solar System - http://huff.to/1rWM0kK
Incredible Photos Taken From ISS By Alex Gerst Are Quite Simply, Breathtaking
The Huffington Post UK
Posted: 20/10/2014 12:00 BST 
Updated: 20/10/2014 12:59 BST


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I guess if we can't look back at the Earth from the Moon, we will have to settle for pictures like these from closer up on the ISS..
 
Thanks for looking up with me.
- LRK -
Published on May 12, 2009
We are living in exceptional times. Scientists tell us that we have 10 years to change the way we live, avert the depletion of natural resources and the catastrophic evolution of the Earth's climate....
I have enjoyed watching this several times - even if the music is a bit eerie.
Thought provoking and if you watch to the end there are suggestions we are taking note and making changes.
This was published 5 years ago. I wonder what they would say now.
- LRK -
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http://photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov/catalog/PIA00452
PIA00452: Solar System Portrait - Earth as 'Pale Blue Dot'

Original Caption Released with Image:

This narrow-angle color image of the Earth, dubbed 'Pale Blue Dot', is a part of the first ever 'portrait' of the solar system taken by Voyager 1. The spacecraft acquired a total of 60 frames for a mosaic of the solar system from a distance of more than 4 billion miles from Earth and about 32 degrees above the ecliptic. From Voyager's great distance Earth is a mere point of light, less than the size of a picture element even in the narrow-angle camera. Earth was a crescent only 0.12 pixel in size. Coincidentally, Earth lies right in the center of one of the scattered light rays resulting from taking the image so close to the sun. This blown-up image of the Earth was taken through three color filters -- violet, blue and green -- and recombined to produce the color image. The background features in the image are artifacts resulting from the magnification.
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WHAT THE MIND CAN CONCEIVE, AND BELIEVE, IT WILL ACHIEVE - LRK -

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Monday, October 06, 2014

LUNAR BASES and Space Activities of the 21st Century

LUNAR BASES and Space Activities of the 21st Century

W.W. MENDELL is the editor of a 1985 book with the above title.  So much information.  Papers dealing with various aspects of a manned lunar base and more. Many of the papers were delivered at a symposium on the subject hosted by the National Academy of Sciences in Washington CC, October 29-31, 1984. The program of the symposium reflected the  structure of the Report of the Lunar Base Working Group, that was held during the week of April 23-27, 1984, at the Los Alamos National Laboratory to discuss the scientific, technological, and social issues associated with a permanently crewed facility on the lunar surface.

You can read here or buy the book. http://www.lpi.usra.edu/publications/books/lunar_bases/ 

If you found the topics covered of interest you might want to down load the whole book. We could look more at what is covered.
 
Along the same line, you can read the papers from The Second Conference on Lunar Bases and Space Activities of the 21st Century held on April 5 - 7, 1988.

- LRK -

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Scientists reveal design plans for future lunar base

Scientists at the Global Lunar Conference in Beijing unveiled a preliminary plan Wednesday of what a future lunar base on the moon would like when it is built in the year 2050.

The first lunar base will be constructed underground and will include a biological experiment module, research module and straining center module, said Bernard H. Foing, executive director of International Lunar Exploration Working Group.

At least 26 nations were represented at the international gathering.

He said that it would adopt the streamline design similar to the undulating lines on the moon’s surface.

“There will be a round dome inside, from which we could see that the blue earth is running in the universe with a great view of the midnight sun,” he said.

The base will also be equipped with an emergency underground shelter and workers would have individual working and sleeping units.

With technological improvements, the biological experiment module should contain a greenhouse to provide fresh vegetables, fruits and crops for people and to feed mice living inside.

Moreover, scientists could conduct experiments to look for iron ore or water in the research module.

“The material for the wall can maintain the temperature inside and prevent oxygen leakage. Every worker will be equipped with an isolation mask and a spacesuit to protect them from cosmic rays,” Foing said.

Since the time on the moon and the earth is different, participants would need to undergo some unique training.

In the preliminary phase, fuel will be sent to the lunar base from the earth, together with four to five groups of people to establish life there.

“While later, we will sent about 20 to 40, or even more ordinary people to be involved in it and extract zinc from the ores for raw material of the fuel supplied to the aircraft,” he added.

People will gradually realize a self-supporting life on the moon.

“We hope in the year 2050, we will witness the birth of the first lunar base for human beings,” Foing said.

Even as Americans watch the country’s aspirations to revisit the moon fade, other nations are willing to pick up the slack.

Chinese experts were asked to look into caves in Yan’an of Northwest China’s Shaanxi Province to get inspiration for what the moon’s base would be like.

“The cave can be seen as a shield against radiation from the universe, so that we can simulate the atmosphere environment and establish a life maintenance system inside,” Ouyang Ziyuan, chief scientist of China’s Moon Exploration Project, said at a news conference Tuesday.

According to Ouyang, China has finished mapping the moon with data obtained by the Chang’e-1 satellite.

“Now the task is to combine the data with images taken by high-resolution cameras, so as to create a more accurate 3D map of the moon,” he said.

Posted by: Soderman/NLSI Staff
Source: Deng Jingyin; http://www.globaltimes.cn/www/english/sci-edu/china/2010-06/538080.html (broken link) 
So from the Wayback Machine -
and then not. ???

395_0
Thumbnail image: Artist rendering of a lunar base. Credit: Richard Kurbis

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So even though we are not going back to the Moon with humans, well it seems there are those that feel differently.
- LRK -

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It’s time to return to the moon, former NASA division chief says

Special Series: Return to the moon

It would be truly amazing, and a huge milestone in human history.
Why shouldn’t the U.S. continue to lead in space exploration?
What if I told you there was an easy way to get Americans back on the moon?
China can choose either to compete or join us.
The U.S. must lead the world in allowing humans to break the bonds that hold us to our Earth.
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Up, up and away, soon I hope.  Getting too old for this.
 
Thanks for looking up with me.
- LRK -
Russia could build manned lunar base - academician 16:18 October 4, 2013 Interfax

The federal space agency Roscosmos has launched a feasibility study of a project to build a manned base on the Moon, Academician Lev Zelyony, director of the Russian Academy of Sciences' Space Research Institute, said on Friday. "Our nearest task within the limits of the planning horizon is the construction of a piloted outpost on the Moon. A working group was recently set up at the order of Roscosmos's head Vladimir Popovkin," Zelyony said at Space Science Day events at the Space Research Institute. The working group will integrate proposals made by the leading space firms and institutes specializing in the exploration of the Moon, he said. New space race to build manned lunar bases Recent studies by Russian and American scientists have shown that manned stations could be established on the moon, thus making lunar exploration the priority in the current space race. Read more>>>
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Russia postpones automatic lunar exploration program until 2018

Non-political
 October 03, 18:46 UTC+4
Russian scientists will focus on Moon and Mars exploration and repeat the Phobos-Grunt mission in the next decade

MOSCOW, October 3. /TASS/. Russia has postponed the start of its automatic lunar exploration program from 2016 until 2018, Space Research Institute Director Lev Zelyony said on Friday.

“They [the timelines] have been changed from 2016 to 2018. These are Luna Globe and orbiting Luna [program],” he said, adding that there should be no further delays.

“We want to implement three lunar projects this decade: Luna-25, Luna-26 and Luna-27,” he said.

Zelyony said these timelines have been set in the Federal Space Program proposed by the Federal Space Agency (Roscosmos).

Russian scientists will focus on Moon and Mars exploration and repeat the Phobos-Grunt mission in the next decade, Zelyony said earlier.

“The Moon and Mars are our priority for 2016-2025,” he said
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WHAT THE MIND CAN CONCEIVE, AND BELIEVE, IT WILL ACHIEVE - LRK -

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