Man on the Moon, the Future and the Past

[Ian]

http://www.boston.com/bigpicture/2008/07/man_on_the_moon_future_and_pas.html

[Carole]

Fantastic pictures, not seen most of these before.

Carole

[Ian]

no, me neither. Quite surprising really given the topic...

[Rick]

China is capable of sending a manned mission to the Moon within the next decade, if it so wishes, Nasa administrator Michael Griffin has said.

The US space agency plans to return people to the lunar surface by 2020 using its new Orion spacecraft.

But it is just possible the first people on the Moon since the Apollo 17 mission in 1972 could be planting a flag with five stars, not 50.

More: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/7506715.stm

[mickw]

Must admit, I would love to see this.

Being a sadistic bugger, I would also like to see the Chinese gather up all the US flags and return them 

[Ian]

Being a sadistic bugger, I would also like to see the Chinese gather up all the US flags and return them 

What, from the film lot in Arizona?

[mickw]

What, from the film lot in Arizona?

You mean the Americans didn't really go to the moon ?
I'm gonna have to change my bedroom wallpaper 

What about Santa 

[Mike]

By day, the engineers work on NASA's new Ares moon rockets. By night, some go undercover to work on a competing design. These dissenting scientists and their backers insist they have created an alternative rocket that would be safer, cheaper and easier to build than the two Ares spacecraft that will replace the space shuttle.

More: http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080714/ap_on_sc/sci_alternative_moon_rocket

[Rick]

The agency's publicly-announced deadline to conduct a first test launch of a manned Orion capsule is 2015, although internally it hoped to fast-track this to 2013. However, the leaked report published yesterday by NASA Watch highlights some major obstacles. These include "an $80m cost overrun this year for just one motor and a dozen different technical problems that the space agency put in the top risk zone, meaning the problems are considered severe"

More: http://www.theregister.co.uk/2008/07/17/nasa_moon_report/

[Rick]

clever fellow once observed that the Moon is a harsh mistress. Humanity's subsequent jaunts up to the place indicated it was a pretty solid hypothesis. The Ritz-Carlton it is not.

More: http://www.theregister.co.uk/2008/07/21/lunar_science_conference_08/

[Rick]

NASA and its international aeronautical cohorts have some serious explaining to do before they start rocketing folks to the Moon again.

They better convince the public why it's so important for our species to invest hand-over-fist just to root around some boring gray orbital dust ball - a dust ball we already stuck a flag in a full score and 19 years ago.

More: http://www.theregister.co.uk/2008/07/22/lunar_science_conference_08_part_2/