I don't know about the rest of you, but I'm a huge fan of the Space Program and NASA. I think that our best science work is being done in zero gravity, and the advances that NASA has helped facilitate are priceless. Were I President, I'd be funding them more than, well, pretty much anything else. This just tickled me to no end: NASA launches unmanned moon shot, first in decade - Los Angeles Times NASA launches unmanned moon shot, first in decade From the Associated Press \t\t\t\t 3:37 PM PDT, June 18, 2009 \t\t\t \t\t\t \t\t\t \t\t \t \t\t \t\t \t\t \t\t \t\t \t\t\t \t\t \t\t\t \t\tNASA launched its first moon shot in a decade Thursday, sending up a pair of unmanned science probes that will help determine where astronauts could land and set up camp in years to come. The liftoff occurred just one month and two days shy of the 40th anniversary of the first lunar footprints. The mission is a first step in NASA's effort to return humans to the moon by 2020. An Atlas V rocket carrying the two spacecraft blasted off in late afternoon, ducking through clouds and providing an exhilarating start to the $583 million mission. The two spacecraft should reach the moon in four to five days -- or by early next week. One will enter into an orbit around the moon for a mapping mission. The other will swing past the moon and go into an elongated orbit around Earth that will put it on course to crash into a crater at the moon's south pole in October. NASA expects the dramatic moon-impacting part of the mission to be "a smashing success." It's a quest to determine whether frozen water is buried in one of the permanently shadowed craters. Water would be a tremendous resource for pioneering astronauts. "We're going to be doing some lunar prospecting, if you will, excavation style," said project manager Dan Andrews. It's an unusual two-for-one moon shot. The Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter will provide a high-precision, three-dimensional map of the lunar surface. It will circle the lunar poles and, via its seven science instruments, provide a new atlas of the moon as well as a guidebook for future explorers. When it comes time to launch astronauts to the moon, NASA wants to avoid putting them down on an uneven surface, near boulders or in a crater. "The Apollo program accepted risk and was able to have safe landings," said Richard Vondrak, project scientist for the orbiter. "But we want to return to the moon, make repeated landings in some areas, and be able to go there with a higher degree of safety." The second probe, called the Lunar Crater Observation and Sensing Satellite, will be aiming for a spectacular smashup that should be visible from the United States. "How do you get something that's been in the dark for maybe a billion or 2 billion years out to study it?" said Anthony Colaprete, the principal investigator. Answer: Impact the bottom of the shadowed crater with the satellite's spent upper-stage Centaur rocket, more than 5,000 pounds of dead weight careening in at 5,600 mph. LCROSS, pronounced L-Cross, will drop the Centaur into the targeted crater. The impact will send a plume of ejected material up into the sunlight, vaporizing any ice and exposing any traces of water. Previous spacecraft have detected hydrogen in these craters, which could be evidence of frozen water. The plume of ejected material -- more than 350 tons of soil and rock -- should rise as high as six miles. The trailing LCROSS will fly through the plume, take measurements, send the data to Earth, then crash into the surface four minutes after the Centaur, creating a second plume of debris. The impacts and plumes should be visible to observers in the United States using 10- to 12-inch telescopes. The Hubble Space Telescope will monitor the event, as well as the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter, still circling the moon. In a novel touch, NASA has a song to go with the impact mission, "Water on the Moon," written and performed by deputy project manager John Marmie, a song-writing engineer who once considered a music career in Nashville, Tenn. The rock 'n' roll tune begins with a short countdown and the sound of a launching rocket. The moon shot -- NASA's first since the 1998 launch of Lunar Prospector -- should have gotten under way Wednesday. But the space agency wanted to give shuttle Endeavour one last crack at taking off on a space station mission; a recurring hydrogen gas leak halted the countdown.
With our current technology, it'd take 30+ years for us to send astronauts to mars. And we'd have to create a rocket that had artificial gravity because otherwise their muscles would atrophy in zero g. The guy who had the world record for longest time in space was this cosmonaut, when he came down he had to be put into an iron lung because he couldn't breathe in normal gravity. There was a joint US/Russia program that was going to work on a Mars mission back in the early 90s, but then Russia's space program went bankrupt and it got scrapped.
Baby steps - we need baby steps. Remember our most reliable spacecraft was designed in the SEVENTIES! Sad when you think that we sent a man to the Moon with the computing power of a pocket calculator. But just imagine what our current technologies can create? Amazing isn't it? One of the major reasons we haven't been able to go farther in space is that our bodies are incredibly fragile.
Seems very interesting. It'd be pretty badass if they did find water up there. Kind of gives me a whole new outlook on the moon.
Did you by chance read the article about the new bio-suit they were designing for space missions? I could try to find it if you like.
i'd think on a stoner forum there'd be more hippies saying shit like "it was all a conspiracy man" o well. this is cool though. i didn't know about this.
Thanks. Didn't mean to own you, though. It's a valid question. Another reason is that the Bush administration thought space exploration was a waste of time and slashed NASA's budget every chance they got, so we're lucky there even still IS a NASA at all. My sister is a reporter who works in the field. Used to work directly for NASA, but after the first round of cuts her project got killed and now she's like an independant contractor who works on science and space based stories. I'm actually rocking one of the NASA shirts she got for me.
Sure....I'd like to read that. So has anyone else been to the Air and Space Museum in Washington DC? I was there in 1988 and I'm itching to go back.
Extravehicular Activity Research at MIT Man Vehicle Laboratory - Bio-Suit There you go. It's not the same article I read, in TIME I believe, but it still covers the basics. And no, I haven't been. But I would like to see it.
I know, but come on, it can't be that hard. Like the guy above me said we did it 40 years ago with the computing power of a calculator.
My parents took me when I was like 10. It was so cool. When I was a kid I wanted to be an astronaut, so my parents always took me to stuff like that, and sent me to space camp.
It's rocket science. Of course it's hard. Forty years ago they were simply trying to get a man on the moon. Today there will be specifics to their mission, such as this one with the deal about the water. It just makes the most sense to send the unmanned crafts into orbit first. Safety first. And they're also going to try and establish consistent landing zones, update the maps, and provide overall better support for the astronauts. Just put yourself in their shoes... erm, boots.
I know what you're saying. I also know that we are more concerned with safety now, then we were back then. During the cold war we were like 'fuck it' as long as we beat the russians I guess you're right, I'm just impatient. We should have be doing this years ago. IMO we dropped the ball after we 'won' the 'space race'
We were very concerned with safety back then. If you remember, they launched several mammals into space other than man to see the effects on a living body. I think they also sent some corn and fruit flies into space, not sure how many of the launches actually went into 'space' outside of the atmosphere. A famous Russian example would be Laika the space dog. Laika the space dog was the first mammal launched into orbit. The States opted to use chimps and monkeys for their mammal space missions. As far as how interesting the moon is, it's very interesting. A good question would be, "Why haven't we occupied the moon in some form yet?" The dust on the moon is very abrasive and messy stuff. It sticks to everything, and would easily cause damage to electronics/buildings/rovers/spacesuits. There are a lot of obstacles to overcome in the exploration and colonization of space. I've also read that some modern scientists don't think mankind will ever have technology for deep space exploration. Hopefully they're proved wrong at some point in time. One thing is for sure, we can still harness the power of our solar system. I'm confident that I will see a manned space mission to Mars, if not the colonization and terroformation of Mars.