So Bush wants to go back to the moon. Interesting. (Although I’m not sure it’ll have the nation-uniting-in-common-purpose effect he expects — I think you’ve got to go to Mars to get that sort of reaction.)
Here’s what I don’t get: “Sources tell CNN the target for returning to the moon is about 15 years from now.” 15 years?! Honestly, why couldn’t we be back there in 12 months if we wanted to? Are you telling me it’ll take 15 years just to bring space technology back to the point it was at in 1969? I mean, have you ever seen these Apollo vehicles? They’re glorified tin cans, run by computers less powerful than a modern electric toothbrush. Have we forgotten how jet propulsion works? Did we misplace all our lunar maps and have to start over from scratch? I don’t get it — it just doesn’t seem like it’d be that hard any more.
And I’m feeling better, thanks.
4 thoughts on “back to the moon”
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I really couldn’t agree more.
Man, by that time we’ll prolly just scrap the whole idea and just beam ourselves up.
#1 – We don’t have any of the Apollo mission rockets in stock is what I have heard. (If I am wrong i’d be interested in finding out) Besides they are 30 years old, would you want to ride on that?
#2 – The space program has not advanced and much of it has been shelved. From what I have heard the average ‘expert’ thinks it would take at least ten years to get to the moon with current budget cycles, buy/build the right equipment, safety testing, etc. You could do it quicker but at a safety margin so thin it that would make the shuttle look like a commuter plane.
#3 – I also heard in theory the shuttle could make it to the moon but a hellova lot of modifications and it would likely not be able to reenter the atmosphere afterwards.
The bottom line is all the equipment is out of date and aged needing to be replaced. Computers are only a portion of the package. The Space Industry hasn’t been geared to making new vehicles for manned missions.
I like the idea as well, but don’t think that time line is unrealistic based on current budget requirments etc…
But honestly, would it take 15 years to build some new rockets? We went from basically scratch to the moon in less than 10 years last time — now, with decades of space experience and a handful of moon landings to learn from, it’s going to take longer just to do the same thing again?
Hell, I don’t know what I’m talking about here. But it’s always seems to me that launches and landings are the tough part — we seem to be pretty good at the floating-around-space thing and the navigating-around thing. All we’re talking about is landing on the moon and taking off again! We’ve done it before with slide rules, and I can’t see why it’d take until 2018 to do it with modern technology.