Can't seem to find a way to post it as a pic. . .so file attached.
Is pretty cool!
Is pretty cool!
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Can't seem to find a way to post it as a pic. . .so file attached.
Is pretty cool!
Great question.Are these the plans to create a station taht would allow humans to land on the Moon more easily/whenever they want through the gate station?
Cos it looks like a looooot of work/money for something that we could do many many years ago with a single rocket....
Very interesting! I hope they do something with this soon, would love to live to see the day they put up a moonbase lolGreat question.
NASA has been an agency bereft of real leadership since Von Braun and Apollo. Agency heads are appointed by the President, and the plans at NASA change with each President, so it is hard to say how NASA can accomplish anything in human spaceflight, which typically takes longer than a President is in office.
NASA's goal for human spaceflight seems to be, try to do something, ANYTHING; and keep creating jobs. That's why we have the super-rocket SLS--it's all a jobs program.
The Gateway is intended to make trips to the lunar surface, to the Earth-Moon Lagrange L1 and L2 sites, and to Mars all cheaper. It remains to be seen if flying a gas depot will make anything cheaper, but certainly if NASA combines with ESA on a moonbase program, it will be greatly facilitiated by the Gateway. Flying a gas station around the Moon basically makes it cheaper to land lots of flights. It certainly would not pay just to repeat Apollo. So looks like a real base maybe. . .someday. . .?
And it will make sense to spark some innovation and investment this way. We need to get out of low Earth orbit. There's nothing there but communication satellite's, a few space stations, and a pile of junk. One small step at a time, but generally forward steps would be a welcome change.The Gateway is intended to make trips to the lunar surface, to the Earth-Moon Lagrange L1 and L2 sites, and to Mars all cheaper. It remains to be seen if flying a gas depot will make anything cheaper, but certainly if NASA combines with ESA on a moonbase program, it will be greatly facilitiated by the Gateway. Flying a gas station around the Moon basically makes it cheaper to land lots of flights. It certainly would not pay just to repeat Apollo. So looks like a real base maybe. . .someday. . .?
Technical challenges are definitely not in short supply at the present time, but that is mostly a problem of engineering. For a lunar colony, I don't think that is the only problem set to overcome - but one step at a time.The big trouble I see for greenhouse food production on the Mon is the 2 week long nights. You not only have to insulate, but you have to provide heat and light. If you can find a reversible chemical cycle to do that for you, would be HUGE.