[MLUG - DISCUSSION] [POLITICS](and SCIENCE) NASA Plans Lunar Outpost

[Mike Miller <EMAIL:PROTECTED>]

I'm surprised that they can mine hydrogen and oxygen from the lunar 
surface.  I hadn't heard that before.  Some of you will remember that Carl 
Sagan was an advocate for manned missions to Mars.  He was also an 
opponent of continued nuclear weapons proliferation.  He knew that you 
could only stop making more unneeded nuclear weapons if you had a way to 
intervene in the military-industrial-congressional complex.  The way to do 
that was to provide the industrial-congressional part of that complex with 
another way to move tax dollars into industry (and campaign coffers). 
The Mars mission fit the bill -- it would keep the money flowing where it 
needed to flow, but it would produce something of scientific value and 
interest instead of yet more bombs that we would never use.  Oh, and that 
was during the Reagan era.  Gosh it's hard to remember how great Reagan 
was after all these years.  I guess he did manage to double the national 
debt and that must have been good for someone!  --Mike

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NASA Plans Lunar Outpost

from the Washington Post (Registration Required)

NASA unveiled plans yesterday to set up a small and ultimately self- 
sustaining settlement of astronauts at the south pole of the moon sometime 
around 2020 -- the first step in an ambitious plan to resume manned 
exploration of the solar system.

The long-awaited proposal envisions initial stays of a week by four-person 
crews, followed by gradually longer visits until power and other supplies 
are in place to make a permanent presence possible by 2024.

The effort was presented as an unprecedented mission to learn about the 
moon and places beyond, as well as an integral part of a long-range plan 
to send astronauts to Mars. The moon settlement would ultimately be a way 
station for space travelers headed onward, and would provide not only a 
haven but also hydrogen and oxygen mined from the lunar surface to make 
water and rocket fuel.

To read more: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/12/04/AR2006120400837.html

Or: http://tinyurl.com/yy38ay

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