Posted on 08/23/2018 6:01:26 PM PDT by BenLurkin
Bridenstine thinks NASA should have taken an opportunity to pursue the moon almost a decade ago.
"If you go back to 2009, the United States, through NASA, made a critical discovery, which is the moon has hundreds of billions of tons of water ice. To me, that should have changed our direction immediately," he said. "From 1969, when we first landed on the moon, up until 2009, a lot of people believed that the moon was bone-dry. In 2008, the Indians did an experiment and they realized there was water ice on the moon and then we did an experiment and realized how much water ice could potentially be on the moon at the poles.
"So the question is during those 40 years, we missed that. What else have we missed?"
Now, as NASA administrator, Bridenstine is carrying out President Donald Trump's direction of returning astronauts to the moon.
"We need to get to more parts of the moon than we have ever gotten to ever before," he said. "When you look at the Apollo program, we had six landings, all in the equatorial regions of the moon, and we didn't get the full perspective, the full understanding, the science and the knowledge."
Bridenstine also said he sees the moon as a way forward to points farther out in the solar system.
"I think a lot of people miss the fact that the moon represents an amazing proving ground for all of the technologies and the human-performance capabilities that are necessary to survive on another planet and the ability to develop in-situ utilization abilities," Bridenstine said. "The moon represents the capabilities to do that activity for the first time, rather than doing it on Mars for the first time, where you can't come home for another two years."
(Excerpt) Read more at space.com ...
Love that cartoon every time I see it, thanks!
Came here for that cartoon.
I nominate Jane Fonda.
The minerals on the surface can be made into rocket fuel. It would be a great fuel depot on the way to the stars. Toss in water and you can sustain life, grow stuff, and cut down on the expense.
Too close. Those traitorous hellspawn need to be sent out of the Milky Way galaxy. Even the gigantic black hole at the center of the galaxy would reject them.
Please, God, please, can I draw up the passenger list?
What is escape velocity from the Milky Way?
Just think of the size of the GO FUND ME site if we could send hilary, maxine, obozo and a few others.
Mining the moon is not so farfetched. There are 37 million square kilometers of unexplored surface area up there which is about a quarter of the earth’s land surface area. It has the same composition so all the minerals and precious things we have been mining on earth are waiting undisturbed. And they weigh less too. There is also a potential energy source in the abundance of helium 3 which can be made to support a fusion reaction without radiation, And the moon is reachable. If there is water ice, it can support long term habitation too. It would be less of a problem compared to weightless apace exploration, too live for extended periods there. And think of the weight loss spas.
What a joke. You know what is on the moon? Nothing. Just a bunch of nothing. Suppot life ?? Are you awake? There is no water on the moon!! Zero. If you want water, drive down to the beach. No sir. This is make work for geeks. Not on my dime!! We are broke and you cannot deny that.
There is a problem with the kind of food you might take to the moon. https://youtu.be/q0Cjo1MWGZg
I've got a little list!
How big is that in American? Sorry, I don't speak European.
*ping*
Let's set up a poll, choose who we want to send to the Moon to stay!
And they weigh less too.
But the mass is the same.
L
You get more bang for the buck by sending spacecraft to planets and for deep space exploration. Nasa doesn't have worry about loss of life either.
I hope so. My list is ready...
Why? The only reason to have a permanent moon base is for military reasons - oh and to throw more money down the NASA rat hole.
Our solar system is located in the inner rim of a spiral called Orion's Arm, about 25,000 light-years from the center of our Milky Way galaxy. The galactic escape velocity in our region is about 540 km/s (1.2 million mph). But our solar system is orbiting the center of the Milky Way at a velocity of around 220 km/s (500,000 mph).
Thus, if Hillary and Barry are launched in the direction of that velocity vector, we would only need to add an additional 320 km/s (720,000 mph) so that the Milky Galaxy could eventually be rid of them.
In comparison, the Voyager 1 spacecraft is traveling at only 39,000 mph; Voyager 2 is moving away from the sun at 35,000 mph. This exceeds the solar escape velocity, but not the galactic escape velocity.
The galactic escape velocity might be achieved using a slingshot maneuver used with other spacecraft. But such slingshot maneuvers would probably have to be around the sun and some other stars, or possibly a neutron star, or even a black hole (but not too close).
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