Roscosmos and NASA to build Luna Base together

[Cold]

Looks like science can cooperate even if the politics don't always align. The main works are scheduled to begin in under ten years.

Link to Grauniad

[Simpo Two]

I'll believe it when I see it.

At least it makes a change from their usual 24/7/365 EU propaganda.

[Eric Mc]

They work together on the ISS quite effectively.

[SystemParanoia]

I don't care who builds it...


Just build it!

[RobDickinson]

Useless.

More expensive and harder to get to than ISS but no more actual use.

'Something' to be a staging platform for 'something' else.

Just like the ISS was meant to be.

This sums it all up..

"Former ISS Commander Terry Virts argues NASA does not need another space station."

https://arstechnica.com/science/2017/09/op-ed-the-...

[Eric Mc]

I'm not convinced of it's usefulness either - but I'd still like to see it.

[Eric Mc]

ash73 said:

Disagree, the ISS is in low orbit shielded by the Earth's magnetic field, if we're going to Mars we need to test radiation shielding techniques and other aspects of living in deep space.

Good point. Cislunar space is "proper" space, as opposed to Low Earth Orbit.

[Dr Jekyll]

I suspect building a lunar base is relatively straight forward, it's getting it to the moon that's the tricky bit.

[Sylvaforever]

Same old legacy mindset.

[Eric Mc]

Some people are just moaners by nature. I support it all - whatever gets done.

[turbomoped]

Realistic objective's at last.
Lets see if anyone can live on the moon before we fire them off to mars and certain doom.

[Einion Yrth]

Dr Jekyll said:

I suspect building a lunar base is relatively straight forward, it's getting it to the moon that's the tricky bit.

You just need a big fking rocket.

[SystemParanoia]

Einion Yrth said:

Dr Jekyll said:

I suspect building a lunar base is relatively straight forward, it's getting it to the moon that's the tricky bit.

You just need a big fking rocket.

[Beati Dogu]

I've often thought the moon is there to provide us with a stepping stone. Seems a bit daft not to use it.

Edited by Beati Dogu on Friday 29th September 21:19

[Simpo Two]

turbomoped said:

...before we fire them off to mars and certain doom.

turbomoped's ancestors said:

...before we sail them off the edge of the world and certain doom.

If the objective is Mars, work out what steps are necessary to do this and then achieve them - just like we got the moon in the 1960s. If a base on the moon is required, either for technical tests or as a staging point, then build it. If it isn't, save the money for something that is.

[Einion Yrth]

Simpo Two said:

turbomoped said:

...before we fire them off to mars and certain doom.

turbomoped's ancestors said:

...before we sail them off the edge of the world and certain doom.

If the objective is Mars, work out what steps are necessary to do this and then achieve them - just like we got the moon in the 1960s. If a base on the moon is required, either for technical tests or as a staging point, then build it. If it isn't, save the money for something that is.

He's sort of not entirely wrong though; we know that microgravity is seriously bad news healthwise, what we don't know is how much gravity is enough to mitigate against the deleterious effects. We need a moonbase, and/or spun tether orbital stations to try and find out.
Not much point in going to mars if we can't adapt to 0,3g without falling apart.

[Cold]

I was watching one of those BBC4 late night sciencey-docu things the other night and the medical issues around weightlessness and the human body was one of the topics. Research is being done on the subject and one idea is to utilise centrifugal force to generate a type of synthetic gravity while on board a long range vessel.

[SystemParanoia]

Cold said:

I was watching one of those BBC4 late night sciencey-docu things the other night and the medical issues around weightlessness and the human body was one of the topics. Research is being done on the subject and one idea is to utilise centrifugal force to generate a type of synthetic gravity while on board a long range vessel.

Centripetal

[CrutyRammers]

Time for this, probably