Posted on 10/18/2010 1:17:41 PM PDT by kronos77
Russia is planning to study the moon intensively with the assistance of unmanned missions after a break of more than 30 years. It will launch the first missions out of four of the “Lunar-Resource” and the “Lunar-Sphere” missions by the end of 2012 and early 2013. They will carry out preparations for the creation of a permanent fully-robotic base on the moon. Such a base will be an essential element for the future manned missions to the moon. Here are more details from Boris Pavlishev.
Japan, NASA, the European Space Agency, India and China have launched probes to moon since the 90s to draw precise maps and carry out radar sounding. However, no country has landed automatic stations on the moon since the Soviet “Lunakhod” unmanned rovers in the 70s. This means that the Russian automatic stations will be the first to land on the moon in the 21st century. “Lunar-Sphere” is a Russia project that includes a landing vehicle and a lunar satellite, while the second, “Luna-Resource” is a joint project with India. It consists of the same landing vehicle, but an Indian rocket will take it to the moon with a small Indian moon rover.
At present, scientists have gathered much more information about the moon than that they knew when the Soviet “Lunakhods” and American “Apollos” flew there. They are inclined to believe that moon was formed as a result of a giant impact when earth collided with a small dead planet Theia. Consequently, its composition is close to that of our planet. At present scientists do not consider the moon as a dry and uninteresting desert as before.
Perhaps, there are organic materials on the poles of the moon brought by comets. The most interesting thing is that the scientists have discovered signatures of the presence of water in various forms on the moon. The key task of the missions will be the search for water. The probes will be landed on the North and the South poles. There could be water near the poles, especially in the regolith and also as ice between its particles like in Siberia’s permafrost. The presence of water on the moon is extremely interesting for scientists, says the head of a laboratory of the Space Research Institute, Igor Mitrofanov.
“Scientists are unaware of how water came to the moon. Perhaps, comets that fell on it brought it. In the future, water will be the most important resource for the exploration of moon because it gives oxygen for breathing and hydrogen fuel for rockets,” Igor Mitrofanov said.
bump
Screw the Russians. That is, the KGB Putin dictatorship.
Our space administration is going to teach muzzies how to like themselves.
Is it really a good idea for cosmonauts to press their behinds against the capsule port hole?
Isn’t that what NASA was made for?
lol
Meanwhile, America turns itself into a flophouse for illegal aliens with 3rd grade educations and American hating foreigners, thanks to destructive, country killing chain immigration policies.
Everyone is going except US.
Obama doesn’t care about space, how will it benefit his brothers and sisters?
About the only way to have space exploration in the future is to start with a Lunar base. And from a purely engineering point of view, such a base needs to be mostly underground, getting it out of the hard vacuum, cosmic and enhanced radiation, extremes of heat and cold, and the incredibly abrasive Lunar dust.
The way you get an underground base is to use a nuclear powered tunneling robot. It doesn’t have to be fast, just methodical. Its Lunar lander would set down next to a cliff face inside a crater.
Typically, such machines have a large wheel in front, its large, flat surface covered with chipping teeth. In this case it would have a rubble catch at its base, that would convey the rubble out of the tunnel it had cut.
Every few feet it would drill holes in the ceiling, and insert reinforcing rod against ceiling collapse. After it had created a substantial length of tunnel, while backing out it would spray the tunnel with sealant against micro-fissures. Finally its last act would be to take a pressure door from its lander and put it in as the front door of the tunnel. It would be designed to expand to fit the opening. Then the tunnel would be pressurized to test it for leaks.
When humans arrived to occupy the tunnel, the robot nuclear power source would provide electricity and heat for the tunnel and the equipment brought by the astronauts. This means they could bring far more rations and equipment for an extended stay, as well as process water ice for oxygen and hydrogen.
Now the Russians, Chinese and Indians are a different story... no envio would ever protest their use of nuclear devices on the moon as they are all good guys, contrasting to the money-grubbing, capitalist pig, US government and it's toadying big corporations - pure evil.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.