NASA Invents Time Machine!

Yep, NASA are going back 36 years! :dry:


http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/4261522.stm

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Nasa plans return to Moon by 2020

The US space agency Nasa has announced plans to return to the Moon by 2020.

Nasa administrator Dr Michael Griffin said four astronauts would be sent in a new space vehicle, in a project that would cost $104bn (£58bn).

"We will return to the Moon no later than 2020 and extend human presence across the Solar System and beyond," Dr Griffin said on Monday.

Nasa sent nine manned missions to the Moon between 1968 and 1972. A total of 12 men walked on the lunar surface.

The new missions would use rocket technology already employed on the space shuttle to cut the costs of development.

'Apollo on steroids'

Dr Griffin said the new rockets would be "very Apollo-like, with updated technology. Think of it as Apollo on steroids."

The agency chief was keen to head off criticism that the proposals amounted to a re-tread of those missions: "Much of it looks the same, but that's because the physics of atmospheric entry haven't changed recently," he said.

"We really proved once again how much of it all the Apollo guys got right."

Nasa is charged with implementing the vision for space exploration, laid out in January 2004 by President George W Bush.

This vision aims to return humans to the Moon, and then to use it as a staging point for a manned mission to Mars.

"We believe this architecture... achieves those goals in the most cost-effective, efficient manner that we could do it," said Dr Griffin in a news briefing at Nasa headquarters in Washington DC.

The space shuttle is to be retired by 2010 in order to pay for its replacement, the Crew Exploration Vehicle (CEV) - to be ready by 2012. This vehicle would be shaped like the Apollo command and service modules, but three times larger, and able to take four astronauts to the Moon at a time.

Fly me to the Moon

Nasa would begin the first lunar expedition by launching a lunar landing capsule and a propulsion stage atop a new heavy-lift rocket.

This will consist of a lengthened shuttle external tank and a pair of solid rocket boosters capable of putting up to 125 metric tonnes in orbit - about one and a half times the weight of a shuttle orbiter.

The cargo it carries could wait for up to 30 days in orbit for the astronauts to launch aboard their CEV.

Carrying a crew of four, the CEV would blast off atop a single solid-rocket booster consisting of four segments - exactly like those flown with the shuttle.

Once in orbit, the manned orbiter would dock with the lunar lander and the propulsion stage and begin the journey to the Moon.

After a three-day journey, the four astronauts would climb into the lander craft, leaving the CEV to wait for them in lunar orbit.

After landing and exploring the surface for seven days, the crew would then blast off in a portion of the lander, dock with the capsule and return to Earth, parachuting through the atmosphere to dry land.

Nasa says it will be able to recover the entry capsule, replace the heat shield and re-launch the craft up to 10 times.

Reconstruction costs

Dr Griffin dismissed suggestions that reconstruction of the Gulf Coast in the wake of Hurricane Katrina could derail the programme.

"We must deal with our short-term problems while not sacrificing our long-term investments in our future," the Nasa chief said.

"When we have a hurricane, we don't cancel the Air Force. We don't cancel the Navy. And we're not going to cancel Nasa."

But Representative Bart Gordon, a Tennessee Democrat on the US House Science Committee, said in a statement: "This plan is coming out at a time when the nation is facing significant budgetary challenges.

"Getting agreement to move forward on it is going to be heavy lifting in the current environment, and it's clear that strong presidential leadership will be needed."

Nasa also envisions the possibility of building a semi-permanent lunar base, where astronauts would make use of the Moon's natural resources for water and fuel.

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I wonder how much of this is politically motivated, since China has already announced that it plans to send men to the moon.

It's a shame that it seems that NASA are content to re-use old ideas and methods, without even attempting to design a fully-resuable spacecraft for the venture.

Unless they become fully committed in establishing a semi-permanent moonbase, I don't see that there are going to be enough technological or scientific benefits to justify the costs of this. It's just another flag-planting exercise. :huh:

they need to do it before the chinese discover there's no flag though :shifty:

The flag would be gone anyway.Mostlikely all you would see is a rod.And Barbarossa,you are just being a hater.

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Originally Posted by Robs

The flag would be gone anyway.Mostlikely all you would see is a rod.

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The moon landing was one big rod :dry:


Btw, why don't you think the flag would still be there.

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Originally Posted by Robs

The flag would be gone anyway.Mostlikely all you would see is a rod.And Barbarossa,you are just being a hater.

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The flag will still be there (if it was there in the first place :P ).

Why would it have gone? Space-moths?

EVERYTHING should still be there, flag, foot-prints, tyre-tracks, golf-balls, etc.


I'm not being a hater, I just think they are being a bit short-sighted. The money could be better spent on robotic space research...

Humans are so flimsy, and so unsuited to space travel. Robots do it better! :01:

I now you want to see a link but i dont have it. ;)
I seen it on "Top 10 Reasons We Did Go To The Moon" Website :)

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Originally Posted by Barbarossa

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Originally Posted by Robs

The flag would be gone anyway.Mostlikely all you would see is a rod.And Barbarossa,you are just being a hater.

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The flag will still be there (if it was there in the first place :P ).

Why would it have gone? Space-moths?

EVERYTHING should still be there, flag, foot-prints, tyre-tracks, golf-balls, etc.


I'm not being a hater, I just think they are being a bit short-sighted. The money could be better spent on robotic space research...

Humans are so flimsy, and so unsuited to space travel. Robots do it better! :01:

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sending robert to space would be cool :happy:

they should build like a Watchtower on the Moon, with a teleporter, and super friends can hang out up there, like

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Originally Posted by DarthInsinuate

they should build like a Watchtower on the Moon, with a teleporter, and super friends can hang out up there, like

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For mandatory subscription to by astronauts - lest they're not allowed into space?

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Originally Posted by manker

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Originally Posted by DarthInsinuate

they should build like a Watchtower on the Moon, with a teleporter, and super friends can hang out up there, like

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For mandatory subscription to by astronauts - lest they're not allowed into space?

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Look manker...I know you were up all night stressing that the board was down, and so you are not quite on full par today, but please try and make sense. That last comment was just not up to your usual grammatically correct and coherence levels.

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Originally Posted by Barbarossa

It's a shame that it seems that NASA are content to re-use old ideas and methods, without even attempting to design a fully-resuable spacecraft for the venture.

Unless they become fully committed in establishing a semi-permanent moonbase, I don't see that there are going to be enough technological or scientific benefits to justify the costs of this. It's just another flag-planting exercise. :huh:

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Pretty much, yes.
It's also a way for NASA to justify it's existence.
Poor NASA is caught between the proverbial "Moon and New York City"...severe budget cuts have hamstrung R&D,the two shuttle disasters and the resulting outcry over safety issues and general public apathy have all combined to force them into a defensive, quick-fix mentality.

The technology they will employ (even if boosted with steroids) will only scale up to a Mars project...Man won't go any further than Mars strapped on top of a roman candle.
Any pretense of extraSolar exploration will have to include technologies way different than those currently proposed.

I think it's clear we have the brains, just not the will, to make real progress in space.
After all, we went from barely functional military rockets to the Moon in under a decade. Since then....nada, really.

Maybe NASA could convince evangelical Christians that they could build a stairway to Heaven (the boys of SouthPark could...).
That would certainly provide a much needed influx of fervor and cash into a program in dire need of both.

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Originally Posted by Sara

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Originally Posted by manker

For mandatory subscription to by astronauts - lest they're not allowed into space?

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Look manker...I know you were up all night stressing that the board was down, and so you are not quite on full par today, but please try and make sense. That last comment was just not up to your usual grammatically correct and coherence levels.

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Reads alrite to me.

http://img309.imageshack.us/img309/816/dabs5sy.gif

"One small step for a man, one giant backward step for mankind..." :dry:

Be cool if they set up a moonbase and the power supply blows up and sends the base hurtling into space,where they meet loads of cool aliens.
The flag won't be there cos the martians nicked it,space gypsies don't ya know.

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Originally Posted by gripper103.2

Be cool if they set up a moonbase and the power supply blows up and sends the base hurtling into space,where they meet loads of cool aliens.
The flag won't be there cos the martians nicked it,space gypsies don't ya know.

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The flag won't be there because it will have blown away in the wind. :unsure:

The "planting" of the US flag on the moon was for photographics purposes only. It's not like we planted a flag and proclaimed it US property.

A little known fact: Because there was no good ground in which to stake the flag, the boosters that lifted the lunar module off the moon blew the flag over on liftoff. :frusty:

I still remember watching it on TV it was the most exciting thing I'd ever seen,if I'd been first on the moon I'd have written Gripper woz here in the dust,it was an achievment so why not stick up a flag.

This sux...

If they ever got around to building a real bloody space station it could be used for so much... not Just a stepping stone to elswhere.

IF they build a real station on the moon though, it will be worth it. Just visiting it means shit, its a waste of money. Staying there, that should be the target here.

haha wtf

And here goes 2020 but they are still not there.. except the flag.

I may receive flak for this, but 100 billion + USD in a time like this seems cosmetic at best. Don't we need to address the fact that public healthcare spending needs to be improved, that more and more people are filing unemployment. At worst, this is a criminal allocation of funds.

Here's something to chew on:

Approximately 180K deaths being attributed - rightly or wrongly - to covid 19, at a low-end approximate of $33K per death to the hospital/institution hosting the deceased, equals 5.9 TRILLION DOLLARS.

Rethink/reassess, people.