Return to the Moon

[chris_gerrib]

Via Tobias Buckell, here's an interesting thought about our non-return to the Moon:

In 1956, a US Navy expedition led by Admiral George J. Dufek flew to and landed on the South Pole. They were the first group to stand on the Pole since Robert Falcon Scott's party in 1912. That's a gap of 44 years. (Admiral Dufek's group was also only the second to survive the trip, yet how many of you know who he is?)

We haven't returned to the Moon in 37 years and counting, and for similar reasons. Going to the Moon now is at least as hard as getting to the South Pole was then, and in both places there's no immediate reason to go back. Once the "proof of concept" that we could get there was done, further exploration awaits better technology.

Comments

[baron-waste.livejournal.com]

Well put. On the other hand, if NASA had known in 1965 about the lunar ice deposits at the poles, I wonder how that would have affected things?

[chris-gerrib.livejournal.com]

Probably not at all. Apollo couldn't get to the South Pole, and colonization was not the goal of the mission.

[baron-waste.livejournal.com]

Now, I don't know about that. They could have done a ball-of-yarn orbit just as easily as any other. And colonization was the goal, or at least in view; that's why Apollo 12 aimed to land not just anywhere, but at a specific destination, that Surveyor probe. [My brother has seen the camera arm Bean detached and brought back, displayed in its airtight case; he says it's still dusty. Moon dust, that is - right before his eyes. He dug that incidental detail big time.]

You're generally right, of course - Apollo Applications (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apollo_Applications_Program#Origins) was just gas, an “Okay, now what” contractor jobs program.

But if we'd found something interesting up there (http://baron-waste.livejournal.com/412459.html), by golly then you'd a' seen some applications, yee haw.

[jordan179.livejournal.com]

At least two of the companies currently engaging in commercial space flight, Virgin Galactic and SpaceX, are explicitly interested in Lunar operations by the 2020's. And, of course, the Chinese have made building a Moonbase one of their program goals. So I think the return to the Moon won't be put off much longer.