NASA Unveils Strategy for Return to the Moon

mknewman writes to tell us that NASA recently announced plans to build a permanent base on the moon by 2024. The (still tentative) plans call for building the base on one of the moon's poles, which constantly receive light from the sun and have less temperature fluctuation. This base will start small in 2020 and grow over time with the hopes of eventually supporting 180-day stays and providing a jumping-off point to Mars."

NASA needs mixed developments...

[__aaclcg7560]

NASA should follow the examples of many communities by resorting to mixed developments (i.e., stores on the bottom level and apartments on top) to sustain a viable community for the base. Real estate prices will obviously shoot to the moon but I'm sure that Donald Trump will go for a ride.

gromit?

[Anonymous Coward]

Gromit, that's it! Cheese! We'll go somewhere where there's cheese!

Re:...really?

[Anonymous Coward]

We landed on the moon more than once, stupid.

less energy to go direct?

[techmuse]

Wouldn't it take a LOT less energy and time to go directly to mars, rather than stopping off at the moon and having to escape the gravity well of *two* planetary bodies before going to Mars?

Besides, they'll probably only serve peanuts, they won't have any pillows, the in flight movie will be a bad movie that all the astronauts have already seen 3 times, they will spend most of their time waiting for other spacecraft to launch while they sit in a hot and stuffy capsule, and they will have to take their moon boots off as they pass through security. Not to mention delays due to meteor showers, turbulence in the solar wind, and aliens that pop out of crew members' stomachs. It's probably better to take the train at this rate, or maybe even drive.

on the moon's pole

[Anonymous Coward]

Is it safe to build a house on ONE POLE??

Keyword: unveils

[djupedal]

Pay attention now...this is really pretty simple, but we don't want any slip-ups!

• Book backlot at Universal Studios. Same one as last time, since some of the original moonscape props are still there - minimum, oh, say 90 days out to do it.
• Schedule several hundred yards of dry beach sand and 1/4" cobble for delivery weeks 1 thru 3.
• Inform all staff that primary shooting will be done after sundown.
• Find those guys that pulled this stunt off last time!

Everybody understand? Good, now go! It's Oscar time!!!

Re:Cost for supporting people is high.

[Wavicle]

They need to be so fast that going to and from Pluto should take no more than an hour.

186,282.397 miles per second. It's not just a good idea, it's the law!

So this new moonbase..?

[StoatBringer]

Will it have Blackjack, and hookers?

Re:Cost for supporting people is high.

[AGMW]

... and by using a crude robot ...

I, for one, welcome our new foul mouthed, swearing like a wounded pirate, robot overlords ... er ... or something?

Re:Such a shame Sergei Korolev died.

[WilliamSChips]

Yeah, it really sucked when the Ori blew up that ship.

Re:Nice... but...

[SamSim]

All we need is another space race and it'll be done inside a decade. Let's start fabricating evidence that the terrorists are planning their own moon base.

Here's the plan

[gelfling]

Outsource the project to India and China
Rebrand it
Declare success

Re:Nice... but...

[adamanthaea]

First step: Convince Bush that Moonraker was actually a documentary.

Re:Cost for supporting people is high.

[indifferent children]

To Pluto in an hour would take about 6 times the speed of light. Not likely to happen anytime soon.

That's good, because at 6 times the speed of light 'soon' would be 'recently', and your comment would be a dupe.

Re:Beancounters and budgets

[bhmit1]

[ Sorry for being completely off topic, but a few points seemed appropriate to be addressed ]

There are two things that will likely happen before the US goes completely bankrupt.

First, there will be some kind of massive plague or catastrophe to eliminate 10% or more of our population. There are simply too many people in the world causing problems with our food supply, environment, etc. Perhaps it will be a spin off of bird flu, but I suspect it will be something that no one ever considered. It's best if the impact hits the elderly hardest to reduce the strain on our medical and retirement systems.

Second, the US will crank up the printing presses. They are already considering what to do for blind people to be able to differentiate denominations, so printing a little extra will be no big deal. When push comes to shove, the choices are to raise taxes, cut spending, raise interest or other income generators, or print more money. Printing more money will have the smallest negative impact on the voters and will begin to turn around all the damage we have down with massive imports from China and other countries. If China refuses to increase the value of their currency, it's entirely possible we'll respond by devaluing ours to protect the US economy (negative side effects be damned).

But like I say, the second will have all kinds of negative side effects, which is why you will see even more of a run up in gold, real-estate, foreign investments, and other non-cash assets before the big day comes. As for the little guy, he will continue to be screwed. It's a side effect of the mega corporations that got rid of all the mom and pop shops. As they went away, so did the entrepreneurs, and as more people turned from being an employer to being an employee, income naturally redistributed. There's no easy fix for that, economies of scale won't unscale. The recovery from a bankrupt country isn't the masses getting their wealth back, it's foreign companies moving in to make a buck off of us, just look at what we do to most third world countries. But a good start would be to give our school kids a financial education instead of having them figure out how a credit card works from some guy on the sidewalk when they get to college.

Anyway, as an attempt to be on topic, I'd love to see a moon base. People need to stop thinking of their backyards and consider how we will exist when the planet tells us our time is up. The clock is ticking and it's definitely getting more angry at us these days.

Re:Earth to the Moon

[E++99]

That's just discrimination by skin color or personal background. Imagine the racism if you have humans who are born with an entirely different physiology than us. Never doubt the reaches of human racism.

Lousy moon people with their degenerated muscles! They come around here and take all our jobs and then say, "ooo, everything is SO HEAVY, help!" Friggin moon people. They're the scum of the er.. moon. (sorry, just practicing)

Re:Beancounters and budgets

[PermanentMarker]

Well ehm.. Looking at global impact of America on the world resources today. I could say that 10% of the people of the world. Equals about 1% of those high resource users today ..oops. Intrestingly read, as the money part is indeed intresting. The country with the biggest money problem is wel you know it ehm the same country Dont hope the trust in dollars might vaporize with such expensive ideas, it could mean a dollar collapse which would have a big impact on money markets (but will in the end balance). Think its no good to go to mars, another startrek film might cause the same global effects. Just pulpscience for the masses they dontneed to bycicle on red sand. And honestly who cares about life in the universe? I mean would it change the way you live? Would your alarmclock allow you more sleep because there is life out there? no nothing will change.

Re:Beancounters and budgets

[MBGMorden]

You must have been sniffing that permanent marker that inspired your username when you wrote this.