American fail to block Euro attempt to confiscate Moon!

[Gawdzilla Sama]

Sorry, I was channeling Sandy there for a second.

Euro mission to tap Moon’s water

It has been nearly forty years since mankind last set foot on the Moon, and with the recent cancellation of NASA’s Constellation program it looks like it will still be quite some time before we see another manned lunar mission.
ESA's proposed Lunar Lander at the South Pole of the Moon. Image credit: ESA

ESA's proposed Lunar Lander at the South Pole of the Moon. (ESA).

However, the European Space Agency have proposed a Lunar Lander mission, which will be an important stepping stone for a European lunar expedition by astronauts.

The Lunar Lander, which will hopefully launch in 2018, will bypass the Apollo landing sites at the equator and head for the South Pole. The exciting results from NASA’s LCROSS mission in 2009 showed the existence of water and other volatile material in a plume of gas ejected from an impact at the South Pole. (Volatile elements are those which vaporise under relatively low temperatures, such as water, nitrogen and sulphur.)

Thus volatile material can be obtained by heating the lunar soil, known as regolith. Extracting these useful materials from the lunar surface would be vital if a human base were ever to be built in the future. This is because launching heavy craft from Earth is expensive, so having some much needed materials waiting for us on the Moon would be a big bonus. The South Pole is also a good target for new experiments as the high amount of sunlight in this area will allow the Lander to mainly rely on solar power.

Professor Colin Pillinger of the Open University, who has experience in analysing Apollo lunar samples, heads a team that will design the Lunar Volatiles Resource Analysis Package (L-VRAP). The L-VRAP will help to determine just how much water there is on the Moon by on-site analysis. Aside from the obvious advantages of having water on location for a potential human base, the components of water (hydrogen and oxygen) could be separated via electrolysis and used to make rocket fuel.

Analysing the water content and other volatile materials are not the only objectives of the proposed Lunar Lander. The Lander must first safely and precisely touch down on terrain that is strewn with mountains and deep craters. It will then begin to monitor the surrounding area and determine just how significant the potential health risks are to future human explorers.

The Lander will examine the properties of the lunar dust, which is toxic and can cause respiratory problems. It will also monitor radiation levels on the Moon. Without the protective magnetic field of the Earth, radiation can become a serious problem for astronauts. For example, the high energy particles that are emitted during times of high solar activity could be a health risk.

Europe’s Lunar Lander will therefore be a vital and valuable step in preparing for humans to return to live and work on the Moon.

[kiki5711]

[Atheist-Lite]

[mistermack]

Useable quantities of water on the moon would change EVERYTHING.
It would mean that electricity could be generated in vast quantities, virtually for nothing. And rocket fuel would be cheap and abundant up there.

You need a vast amount of energy to take off from the Earth, or Mars. So they are both pretty much useless as a source of raw materials in space.
But taking off from the moon is dead easy. As is carrying moon material into space.

I still see the future of man in space to be gigantic space stations, rather than moon stations. But moon materials will be used to make them.
Why not moon stations?
Humans need 1 g of gravity to stay healthy. A space station can spin, and provide 1g of artificial gravity. A moon station cannot.
So I say forget Mars, go for Moon mining, and bigger and better space stations.
.

[devogue]

tl;dr

[MrJonno]

Human beings arent going very far into space while using chemical rockets full stop. Until someone comes up with a practical way of sending someone into space that doesnt involve a semi-controlled explosion that kills its crew 1 flight in 100 there isnt going to be anything other than very slow progress

[mistermack]

Human beings arent going very far into space while using chemical rockets full stop. Until someone comes up with a practical way of sending someone into space that doesnt involve a semi-controlled explosion that kills its crew 1 flight in 100 there isnt going to be anything other than very slow progress

That's true. But that problem is made much worse by the fact that people can't stay long in space.

One way of even-ing up the equation is for people to be able to make a lot more use of each launch. That means enabling people to live and work up there for long periods, without health issues. And that means having a spinning space station that provides artificial gravity.

If each person stays twice as long, that's as good as doubling the number of launches.

If people have 1 g of gravity, and the shielding of radiation is good, they could stay in space for years, not days.


If

[Orwellian]

Good thing the Obama Administration recognized the uselessness of returning to the Moon and set itself on the more reasonable goal of sending astronauts to an asteroid.

[Gawdzilla Sama]

About me: I am an intellectual, a member of the Outer Party, and I live in the ruins of London. I grew up in the post-Second World War UK, during the revolution and the civil war after which the Party assumed power. During the civil war, Ingsoc placed me in an orphanage for training and subsequent employment as a civil servant. I maintain a squalid existence, living in a one-room apartment, eating a subsistence diet of black bread and synthetic meals washed down with Victory-brand gin. I keep a journal of negative thoughts and opinions about the Party and Big Brother, which, if discovered by the Thought Police, will warrant death, so don't tell on me. I am fortunate, because the apartment I live in has an alcove, beside the telescreen, where it cannot see me, and so my thoughts remain private.

Yeah, yeah, yeah, that's what everybody says.

[Orwellian]

About me: I am an intellectual, a member of the Outer Party, and I live in the ruins of London. I grew up in the post-Second World War UK, during the revolution and the civil war after which the Party assumed power. During the civil war, Ingsoc placed me in an orphanage for training and subsequent employment as a civil servant. I maintain a squalid existence, living in a one-room apartment, eating a subsistence diet of black bread and synthetic meals washed down with Victory-brand gin. I keep a journal of negative thoughts and opinions about the Party and Big Brother, which, if discovered by the Thought Police, will warrant death, so don't tell on me. I am fortunate, because the apartment I live in has an alcove, beside the telescreen, where it cannot see me, and so my thoughts remain private.

Yeah, yeah, yeah, that's what everybody says.

Shhh....Big Brother is watching you.

[Gawdzilla Sama]

About me: I am an intellectual, a member of the Outer Party, and I live in the ruins of London. I grew up in the post-Second World War UK, during the revolution and the civil war after which the Party assumed power. During the civil war, Ingsoc placed me in an orphanage for training and subsequent employment as a civil servant. I maintain a squalid existence, living in a one-room apartment, eating a subsistence diet of black bread and synthetic meals washed down with Victory-brand gin. I keep a journal of negative thoughts and opinions about the Party and Big Brother, which, if discovered by the Thought Police, will warrant death, so don't tell on me. I am fortunate, because the apartment I live in has an alcove, beside the telescreen, where it cannot see me, and so my thoughts remain private.

Yeah, yeah, yeah, that's what everybody says.

Shhh....Big Brother is watching you.

No way, I have a large mirror in front of the pick-up. So we now know who watches the watchers.

[Orwellian]

Who controls the past controls the future: who controls the present controls the past.

[Gawdzilla Sama]

Who controls the past controls the future: who controls the present controls the past.

Who controls the post controls the forum; who control the forum I have no clue.

[Orwellian]

Doubleplusungood.

[Seth]

About me: I am an intellectual, a member of the Outer Party, and I live in the ruins of London. I grew up in the post-Second World War UK, during the revolution and the civil war after which the Party assumed power. During the civil war, Ingsoc placed me in an orphanage for training and subsequent employment as a civil servant. I maintain a squalid existence, living in a one-room apartment, eating a subsistence diet of black bread and synthetic meals washed down with Victory-brand gin. I keep a journal of negative thoughts and opinions about the Party and Big Brother, which, if discovered by the Thought Police, will warrant death, so don't tell on me. I am fortunate, because the apartment I live in has an alcove, beside the telescreen, where it cannot see me, and so my thoughts remain private.

Yeah, yeah, yeah, that's what everybody says.

Shhh....Big Brother is watching you.

No, I'm not...at least not right now, I'm wanking.