NASA Has Plans for 2nd Space Station at L1

Keith Gabryelski writes "New Scientist has an article on NASA's unveiling of a "blueprint for the future" of space exploration. It entails a Space Station 5/6ths of the way to the moon. In other news, radiation sheilding on the space station isn't so good."

summmer home

[dkarney]

I've been looking for a summer home

yeah but...

[Anonymous Coward]

radiation sheilding on the space station isn't so good.

but my tan is great!

Space tourims

[IdleTime]

How much for a trip to this baby?

And where can I pre-order a ticket?

Plan ahead.

[Anonymous Coward]

"If you sent two people to Mars, one of them would die," says Marco Durante of the Federico II University in Naples

I think the key to preventing this is to pack enough food that the astronauts are not forced to resort to cannabalism.

Radiation is a solved problem

[drhairston]

I don't understand why NASA does not employ lead shielding [thomasregister.com] to protect its astronauts. This time-tested solution is proven and effective.

Quick!

[NASAKnight]

Someone file a patent on flying to the moon! I can see NASA paying some major royalties.

Re:Radiation is a solved problem

[npietraniec]

Lead is really heavy... Maybe? Do you know how many N*Sync members you could get in space instead of a couple of sheets of lead?

Re:cant even afford current station

[shut_up_man]

I agree about the Imax movie, it's excellent. Even Tom Cruise's hugely overdone voiceover doesn't ruin it: "And the VIEW HERE is... AWESOME. Just... AWESOME. No really, it's TOTALLY... AWESOME." Kinda like a cross between Keanu Reeves and William Shatner, with liberal snorts of cocaine.

Home on Lagrange

[whovian]

To the tune of "Home on the Range"

Home on Lagrange

Oh, give me a locus
Where the gravitons focus
Where the three-body problem is solved
Where the microwaves play
Down at 3 degrees K
And the cold virus never evolved.

Re:Radiation is a solved problem

[Waffle Iron]

The cost to orbit would be really high.

But NASA would have finally achieved the alchemists' dream of converting lead to gold. (Or at least making it many times more expensive than gold.)

Re:Plan ahead.

[muertos]

Or send somebody else instead of the guy who'll die.

Why get upset?

[g4dget]

The New Scientist is to Nature what the National Enquirer is to the New York Times. But, hey, lots of people read the National Enquirer for fun as well. Only that when people start taking it seriously that people get hurt.

Re:Plan ahead.

[Spunk]

No no, not cannabalism [sic], but half-lives. We know that the half-life of an astronaut is equal to the round trip of a mars expedition. It's something that NASA has been hiding for years, also known as the Terrible [somethingawful.com] Secret [mp3s.com] of Space [jonathonrobinson.com].

Re:Radiation is a solved problem

[visgoth]

Then why not work on reducing the cost of putting stuff like lead into space? A big railgun could launch raw materials into orbit, where processing plants could actually build the heavy parts of a space station / vessel. The initial cost of a railgun would be more than a single rocket, but it would rapidly pay itself off in savings. Also, you could send stuff up in worse weather than needed for shuttle launches. A shuttle of some sort would still be needed to transport squishy / breakable things like humans and electronics.

Re:Space tourims

[Anonymous Coward]

Sorry, only Boy Bands and aging millionaires can get tickets to this destination.

Great ... spill the beans ...

[dustpuppy]

now that you have publicised the radiation risk, there is no way that Nsync singer will go into space ... and there dies our last chance of getting him sterilised and stopping him from having offspring ...

Re:Plan ahead.

[Nordberg]

Solution: Only send one guy.

Madhouse: Satirized for your protection. [insaneabode.com]

Good.

[Griim]

It's good to see the L1 (and L2!) buttons getting more use.

Now if they could also implement R1 and R2.

Re:Acceptable risk?

[Tablizer]

Is the IIS over-engineered in favour of preventing un unfortunate death?...."Acceptable risk" is a term that has been lost from the West's vocabulary and it is time to bring it back.

Perhaps merge NASA and the Darwin Awards.

Re:I thought an L space colony would look like..

[Tablizer]

Ice is a fairly good radiation shield [for window use]. There's ice on the moon. Problem solved.

Or just keep pissing on a "starter layer" while working up there from the inside :-)

A glass layer between the outer window and the environment rooms could perhaps keep the outer layer of water or piss cold enough to stay frozen.

I saw a documentary on WWII guns the other day. If your gun jammed in the cold weather, then pissing on it was a common trick to get it working again.

Piss can be a useful tool if resources are thin.

The "Moon": A Ridiculous Liberal Myth

[Drunken Coward]

It amazes me that so many allegedly "educated" people have fallen so quickly and so hard for a fraudulent fabrication of such laughable proportions. The very idea that a gigantic ball of rock happens to orbit our planet, showing itself in neat, four-week cycles -- with the same side facing us all the time -- is ludicrous. Furthermore, it is an insult to common sense and a damnable affront to intellectual honesty and integrity. That people actually believe it is evidence that the liberals have wrested the last vestiges of control of our public school system from decent, God-fearing Americans (as if any further evidence was needed! Daddy's Roommate? God Almighty!)

Documentaries such as Enemy of the State have accurately portrayed the elaborate, byzantine network of surveillance satellites that the liberals have sent into space to spy on law-abiding Americans. Equipped with technology developed by Handgun Control, Inc., these satellites have the ability to detect firearms from hundreds of kilometers up. That's right, neighbors .. the next time you're out in the backyard exercising your Second Amendment rights, the liberals will see it! These satellites are sensitive enough to tell the difference between a Colt .45 and a .38 Special! And when they detect you with a firearm, their computers cross-reference the address to figure out your name, and then an enormous database housed at Berkeley is updated with information about you.

Of course, this all works fine during the day, but what about at night? Even the liberals can't control the rotation of the Earth to prevent nightfall from setting in (only Joshua was able to ask for that particular favor!) That's where the "moon" comes in. Powered by nuclear reactors, the "moon" is nothing more than an enormous balloon, emitting trillions of candlepower of gun-revealing light. Piloted by key members of the liberal community, the "moon" is strategically moved across the country, pointing out those who dare to make use of their God-given rights at night!

Yes, I know this probably sounds paranoid and preposterous, but consider this. Despite what the revisionist historians tell you, there is no mention of the "moon" anywhere in literature or historical documents -- anywhere -- before 1950. That is when it was initially launched. When President Josef Kennedy, at the State of the Union address, proclaimed "We choose to go to the moon", he may as well have said "We choose to go to the weather balloon." The subsequent faking of a "moon" landing on national TV was the first step in a long history of the erosion of our constitutional rights by leftists in this country. No longer can we hide from our government when the sun goes down.

Build an annular habitation module!!!!!

[anonymous cupboard]

If the habitation module was built in annular form, it would be possible to have on the outermost layers offices for administration (they get the windows) and keep the scientists/engineers in the middle. Thay way administration gets to absorb the radiation first (a nice radiation burn will add to their tan).

Re:Radiation is a solved problem

[hplasm]

If lead is too heavy, AND you can use heavy water for shielding, THEN.....

usel Light Lead!! (TM). Problem solved.

Now where's that patent form...?