The orian is the new vehicle for the Moon luner trip And to travel to the space station.thats circling the earth???.is it replacing the space shuttle???.thats kind of dumb isnt it?.going from a powered vehicle to a bumper car nonpowered.is that some more of the monkey shines of the late fiftys,early sixtys.you know the right stuff.or is it fly by remote control from here on earth. boy remind me not to get on another goverment aircraft thats flown by remote control. I my self want a human being in the cockpit!!!.

If you ask me the whole space program has been pretty lame for the past 35 years.
back in the early 70s when we still had the capability to land on the moon it would have not been much of a step to have launched a series of Sat5s (Unmanned) with the maximum amount of cargo payload to send to the moon these cargos could have been filled with life sustaining materials the containers themselves would have become habitats. Then after the flying brick of a shuttle came along it could have been equipped with enough power to make the boost to a lunar orbit then deploy the landing craft with 4 of the crew and return to Earth to bring up a second crew. On the second mission it would have remained in orbit for several weeks if need be before returning. The 8 persons who would then be living on the moon would have the task to create a habitat. Sub terrain and to help provide shielding from radiation.

Instead what we got was a Flying brick that cannot reach the moon and we have the so called ISS that is nothing more than an elaborate Skylab or Meir. I have to ask are there any substantial manufacturing facilities for producing the special medicines they promised it would be used for NO. Does it have the capability collecting space born particles to be processed into fuels? NO. ARE there even plans in the mill to use it as a training platform for long term space exposure Again it doesn't have the proper facilities to do so. Are the possible plans to relocate the ISS nearer to the asteroid belt to be used as a mining station & processing plant still in the works? NO.
And by its very structure it is not even capable of being set to a spin to create artificial gravity.
After the cold war ended instead of destroying the 1000s of long range rockets and war heard those could have been reconfigured to launch into space and then landed on the moon the warheads could have become a source or energy to be used in power plants.
OK so I don't live in the same world as most folks do I have never believed that you need to try to do something 10 times before you learn how to do it then stop doing it for 30 years only to have to learn all over again.
So now you see them reverting to a proposed craft that largely resembles Apollo what’s up with this?

I wonder why we are practicing exploring the surface of the moon before we tackle the real problem of moon exploration and space exploration in general... RADIATION!

I thought the moon was uninhabitable, why are we waisting time and money going there if no one's ever going to be able to live there? Shouln't we be spending that time and money on finding a planet our great grandchildren will be able to move to when this one has gotten to hot to support life anymore? Or do the powers that be think that is looking to far ahead? like Obama thinks it's to soon to be drilling for oil because we won't need it for another 10 years.

In general I would say that designing the equipment to build sustainable infrastructure is more preferable to just designing a shield.

I would speculate that they are working on the problem of the shielding on all the other discussion boards, such as at space.com's.

If we want something that will work at a reasonable and sustainable price. The thing is to transition this to civilian ecconomy infrstructure so that the items bought and used are off the shelf technology that will evolve with time. This build our earthside ecconomy along with the space based infrastructure.

What we need in infrastructure that sll who com later can tie into and use either for free or a price.

Still like The Wild West of the United State we need structure and support. The West was won not by guns and horses but by roads, trains, and communicatinos. We need to bring in roads, transportaitn, navigation markers, and communicatins. Poeple will follow if the infrastructure is there.

What we need to be looking at is setting up a sustainable mainufacturing ecconomy that is not based on one use, and throwaway devices.

The testing shows a number of ways that things can be done. Each year new and better ways will come about.

As the; Grandson of a Grapes of Wrath Okie heavy equipment operator, Son of a ironworker who built his own natural gas conversion for internal combustion engines, and watched it run, I can say that the spirit of innovation is what is needed.

The Pogostick that is being developed is a Earth to LEO device costing hundreds of millions and only supports a few industries.

I am not a Bush fan, but he did do something even if it was for short term political gain. By calling for a return to the Moon and Mars as well as calling for a forum to let all the people give and input to how it is done ihas been a great amplifier for innovation. It gave an opening for the hidden hopes, desires, and speculations of how it can be done. Many minds maybe not to educated the with invative ides to taclle seaming insurmoundable problems.

What did the children of this nation have to look forward too in the late seventies after the apollo programs was grounded? We are a race of explorers. Surrounded by settled lands in the past. There were distant places to travel to and too, search the unknown. Now all is accessable via the internet. We may have the oceans that have not been well travelled but we didn't have the ability to go there either except by the news paper, television, or computer.

We see the items that are shown in ththis report; Earth moving equipment, Cranes, transport devices, and protective suits.

What I didn't see was how to power them. So I'll put in some of my favorite ideas to spread around.

Since we are intially restricted by what we take there. All will have to be run by fuel cells, or solar arrays. This means we are restricted to what we bring and want we can refine there.

What I see as a way around the short term is to make all the equipment run on electricity. I know obvious:-)

The first thing we drop is a rover that can carry and destribute what i call a power pad. A Battery or Capacitve power system that allows connection to it via plug, radio transmitt, or when setting on top of it inductely. Connection power sources will be difficult in the 1/6 G of the moon. It should be as easy as possible for moveable devices to be recaharged or powered. We can inductively transfer power, or have direct contact.

The device is a octagon in shape. On four sides are cylinder containers for long flexible sheets of solar arrays the are pulled out that lay on the ground. No wind they willnot blow away. The other fous sides allow vehicles to drive on or attach to other pads to increase capacity. Depening on location and need they would charge the power pad and or feed directly during Sunlit hours to the pad source and so to the load.

A vehicle could drive on it and recharge. A living cubicle, be it a hut on wheels, fixed, or even one of Bigalows inflatable cylinders could draw directly form it. Batteries or capacite storage units for various tools are meraly set upon it to recharge for later use.

When expanding range, or power needs more of device: are placed at predetermined distances. The rover then has the ability to expand it range even during nighttime.

The amount of solar arrays a vehicle can hold while moving is limited.

As a colony type setup, or autonomous robotic missions will be expanded, each will need its cache of power charge storage units.

Addisionaly each pad can act as a refeence point to navigations. Whether it is a surface stand alone unit or using a limted number of GPS orbiting satellites, they and the satellite give that much more accurracy for navigaton.

Any two on the ground will give you a triangulation the satellite seeing them will have multipe points and reference to continously recalibrate its location and update the ground recievers references.

Since the Moon has no atmospheric obstructions It can also act as a ground based bent pipe RF relay for emergency, and day to day voice and data relay. Essentually a lunar internet.

Sorry if I bored you, but I thought I would put out some things I would like to see done.

Greying Wolf
The Skywatcher



A

that surface shown in the pics sure looks the same as what was shown on tv in the lunar landings..makes one wonder if we really went to the moon at all.

The infrastructure as stated is one of the major hurdles that the Government will never be able to provide. And the reason is bureaucratic side stepping coupled whit their inability to intelligently form a decision without the need to appoint a 10,000 person feasibility study that winds up costing 24.5 billion dollars a year for ever, while accomplishing absolutely nothing. Except lining the pockets of the Politian’s who created the department.
As long as the un-exploration of space is controlled by any Government the so called aero- space research and manufacturing conglomerates don’t have to bow to competition, consequently they are not truly interested in trying to invent new technologies.
While it is true that many of the items we use on a daily basis are the direct result of the space industry. We only enjoy 1/100th of what could have been available in my view.
For anyone to say that spending money on space technologies is a waste and that that money would be better spent housing or feeding the poor. To that I say NUTS.
Countless Trillions of dollars have been spent around the world by a lot more benevolent countries than the US will ever be on impoverished illiterate uneducated people. Sorry but I have news for you they are like ticks in the ears of animals the more you feed them the more they breed.
This planet is not a very large rock in the universe or even in the galaxy and unless steps are taken to control the population on it then only one thing is left on the table as an option within the next 40 to 50 years a suitable alternative to live then the human kind on this rock are doomed to live a bad movie.
Some folks look at MR Branson and MR Burt Rutan as nothing more than glory hounds out to make a buck. But in their endeavors to achieve the first (non Government) funded space flight will ultimately do more for the possibilities of true space travel within my grand-children’s life time than has been done by NASA and all of the other aero-space industries in the last 25 years.
Just my opinions.

Those are some really nice pictures! I've always wanted to be an astronaut, and a navy sailor! Hopefully someday I can be both of those things as my career! Go NASA!