First Mission to mine the asteroids

By the Japanese JAXA

http://aolsvc.news.aol.com/news/article.adp?id=20051126051609990009&ncid=NWS00010000000001

They've run into a few problems but at least they stepped up to the plate.

Houston, we have a problem, Youre a bunch of beauracratic LOSERS at NASA

 

Well what would you do if Godzilla was always attacking your hood ?

 

NASA has nothing to do w the Chinese space program. The Chinese will be eating NASA's lunch soon

 

Yes it would be great if they could all co operate , The ISS was good as far as co-operation unforetunately it turned into a giant stupid pointless pork barrel

Alan Shepard's Mars Cycler spacecraft would definately be something worthy of International co-operation

 

Probably

 

I think the new NASA guy has a good idea, a Moon base makes a lot more sense than the shuttle & the retarded ISS.

The original space station plan called for a dry dock so large manned spacecraft could be assembled & fueled there on their way to Mars or wherever. Congress killed that in all their lack of wisdom

a Moon base could be largely built from lunar resources and wouldnt be too different from a base on Antarctica once they got a hydroponics lab up for food, water & oxygen + a few more basics of course.

Large spacecraft can also be built on the Moon which is probably a lot easier than building them at a space station to begin with. Ideally these spacecraft will someday be built w 100% lunar resources to cut the high cost of importing material from Earth to the Moon

 

The fundamental difference between the ISS & the Moon base is that the ISS turned into a political pork barrel & is unsustainable. DC has all but abandoned it which is wise since the ISS became a mere expense & not an investment in the future

A Moon base on the other hand is an investment in the future, not an expense.
There is strong evidence that there is water ice on & deep in the Moon. If this is true then we can make air & water & rocket fuel on the Moon. Also the lunar regolith makes an excellent concrete & a natural barrier against radiation
as for energy the Moon has abundant solar energy plus much greater quantities of H3 than the Earth, this can be used for nuclear fusion once that technology becomes viable
The Moon is also rich in a variety of minerals that can be used in future lunar factories

A Moon base after all is nothing more than the seed from which a lunar city will 1 day grow

The ISS obviously has nothing similair to the resources the Moon has

 

Heres what a few minutes research on Google turned up about establishing a Moon base & mining the Moon for resources such as water, Helium 3, precious stones, titanium, aluminum etc

The easiest way to power the base of course would be to just send up a Nuke reactor, no worries about where to store spent fuel rods on the Moon

http://www.permanent.com/l-mining.htm

http://www.freeluna.com/homemoon.htm

http://members.nova.org/~sol/station/moonmine.htm

http://www.asi.org/adb/02/02/

http://www.kent.ac.uk/physical-sciences/RePh/Lunar%20Colony_website/

 

The JAXA mission has been the 2nd asteroid mission that Ive heard of

The 1st was by JPL and they landed a spacecraft on an asteroid.

JAXA's Hayabusa is a sample/return mission w a tiny sample

Next mission should be to bring back a larger sample

Eventually we'll see missions w multiple robotic ships scanning the asteroids for water, gold, platinum, prescious stones, and other valuable resources

Then we'll see limited mining which will eventually reshape the entire human economy

Good Stuff

 

True, yet that didnt stop the Roman or British Empires from creating and eventually losing colonies

NASA is losing its grip as many privateers are joining the Astronaut ranks like Rutan, Branson, SPace Dev, Space X etc

and dont forget the Chinese, if the US doesnt start a Moon colony the Chinese WILL

Fact is we need new places for resources. With the US & China & Europe all consumin without end we need new sources of water, aluminum, titanium, energy, gold etc and the Earth isnt making any new resources while we are certainly making new baby consumers every day

Sheeple, ugh, this is why the govt dumbs down our education system so they can control the dim witted masses

 

NASA stinks, I'm buying the Starship Enterprise

 

Could be I write to magazines often when they annoy me Ive had a few letters published in TIME, R&T, Automobile, & WORTH that I recall