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| Science & Technology |
| Star Wars redux as US tries to 'Engineer a Race Where There's None' |
| 2019-04-18 |
| [SpaceDaily] NASA's Moon-landing plans, as they were depicted by the agency, consist in developing a blueprint on how to get astronauts to the lunar surface in the next five years, but the announcement has caused a stir worldwide, given Trump's prior directive to build up a special Space Force within the Department of the Air Force. In an interview after a speech he delivered at a workshop on potential astrophysics missions on 1 April, NASA Administrator Jim Bridenstine made an eye-popping announcement that he hopes to develop an initial plan within the next couple of weeks for sending a manned vehicle to the surface of the Moon by 2024, four years ahead of schedule. The announcement came on the heels of Vice President Mike Pence announcing the new goal of landing humans at the south pole of the moon by 2024 in his 26 March speech in Huntsville, noting that NASA already had such a plan. Bridenstine said that the initiative Pence mentioned referred to the earlier goal of humans on the moon by 2028, however, now they are working quickly to push it forward. |
| Posted by:746 |
| #12 Agree but in the meantime nuke engines are completely the way to go. |
| Posted by: Woodrow 2019-04-18 21:04 |
| #11 Reaction model propulsion is primitive. Let NASA and other 3rd world entities push that envelop. I want private sectors working on impulse and warp drives. Consider Lorentz Field Propulsion on a Gravity Lens scale. |
| Posted by: Skidmark 2019-04-18 20:46 |
| #10 Shorter Herb: Why are we assaulting the skies (never mind others are pushing forward)? We should be safe if we stay within our non-sovereign borders |
| Posted by: Frank G 2019-04-18 19:38 |
| #9 Space is the ultimate high ground. That's why governments are so twitchy about it. |
| Posted by: SteveS 2019-04-18 16:19 |
| #8 And if any of the nation governments get feeling muscular, if they wait too long these guys will basically have the high orbitals. What's the government's plan if they decide to start dropping rocks down the gravity well? |
| Posted by: Silentbrick 2019-04-18 16:15 |
| #7 Work under, work over, work around? |
| Posted by: trailing wife 2019-04-18 14:52 |
| #6 3dc, I agree completely. Musk and Bezos are going to be in charge in space, not NASA or any government. The companies that settle space and the governors and colonists they place so far from the reach of the rest of humanity will not obey random and stupid bureaucratic demands any more than American settlers did in the 17th and 18th centuries. Perhaps far less even. This is a major turning point in human history, one that will destroy, at long last, the delusions of grandeur that the international community and the global idle class has accumulated over the past century. |
| Posted by: Vernal Hatrack2366 2019-04-18 13:16 |
| #5 Some of these academic assholes would criticize Trump if he carpet bombed Somalia with $100 dollar bills. They'd say it was at the least littering and worst an environmental disaster. Given how the Russians and Chinese are so aggressive in their plans for the Moon and beyond. (Kinda hard to watch your six in a 360 non-gravitational combat environment) I'd say we need to saddle our ponies and fucking do something. I think NASA qualifies as an organization that has outlived its usefulness. I don't think most NASA program managers can spell "schedule" much less assemble one and execute it... |
| Posted by: Sock Puppet of Doom 2019-04-18 12:59 |
| #4 Dr Gbenga Oduntan, an associate professor is showing his associate status and looking at it from the wrong point of view. It's like this idiot. Governments, the US and others, are scared shit-less of losing control of space to totally private companies and individuals so the US government is attempting to beat them back to the Moon and Mars. Not beat China or losers like the EU or Africa or something. Musk is going to test his Starship manned to the moon on his own penny or if somebody pays him their penny. Likely Blue Origin and others have similar plans. Musk's landing date for the moon (Manned and unmanned) is definitely in the 2023 maximum drop dead time frame. Why? Well his manned mission to Mars leave in 2024 (unmanned 2022) and the DearMoon mission he's sold to the Japanese billionaire is 2023 and he really needs test missions before paying ones to tourists. You and Putin's propagandists obviously don't have the the brain power to see this change happening with governments trailing not leading. Note Pence's date of a 2024 return to the Moon by NASA. Compare that to Musk's dates. NASA hasn't met any damn delivery dates lately. Musk has been slower than he wants but tends to make dates within a year or so. Musk's Mars dates are determined by alignment of planets so they are drop dead dates he PLANS ON MAKING. See that starship being tested and built and tested and refined in the Rio Grande delta? Musk is going! He doesn't give a flying F... about any politician's or nation's timelines! He has his. He has Tesla for space capable land transport. He has Tesla for Space, Moon and Mars solar power. He has his tunneling company to tunnel the Moon and Mars for habitats protected from radiation. He has mining plans starting with the first missions. He is starting to put up a massive space based communication system that will also be deployed around the Moon, Mars, then the Solar System. He and others like him are grabbing space. Nations are not. |
| Posted by: 3dc 2019-04-18 09:40 |
| #3 All your titanium belong to us! |
| Posted by: DarthVader 2019-04-18 09:05 |
| #2 "The decision closely followed a report by the Pentagon's intelligence arm warning of the increasing "weaponisation of space" by China and Russia, which appears to have been taken as a pretext for the build-up of the Space Command." "pretext", or rationale? |
| Posted by: Chereting Pelosi1889 2019-04-18 09:04 |
| #1 by Staff Writers Washington DC (Sputnik) Nice to know SpaceDaily gets their source material straight from Putin's tap. |
| Posted by: Nero Uninemp6884 2019-04-18 02:27 |