The SLS was running late and over budget. Congress had put its thumb on the scale; a program this large can benefit every state and district in the country, so politicians can’t resist pork barreling it — even to the point of failure.
Lest we forget, the Space Shuttle was billed as inexpensive, safe, and reliable. It was many things, but it was none of those things. SLS seems to be making those same mistakes.
SpaceX also wants Starship to take humans to the Moon on its own. If that’s successful, then it’s possible NASA might consider replacing SLS with Starship.
Water had been found in the form of ice buried in deep craters at the Moon’s south pole, and further research showed there could be billions of tons of it. Humans have this inconvenient need to drink and breathe. Water can satiate the former, and breaking water into its atomic components can provide oxygen for the latter. As a bonus, the hydrogen in water molecules can fuel rockets. It is not hyperbole to say this discovery is one of the most important findings of our age. Science and engineering efforts to investigate growing plants on the Moon, piping oxygen from the south polar mines to bases where humans will live, using the regolith — the pulverized lunar rock covering the Moon’s surface — as a building material for habitats, and more.
Guy_PCS OP t1_je5owcu wrote
Reply to We Need to Get Back to the Moon by Guy_PCS
Article excerpts;
The SLS was running late and over budget. Congress had put its thumb on the scale; a program this large can benefit every state and district in the country, so politicians can’t resist pork barreling it — even to the point of failure.
Lest we forget, the Space Shuttle was billed as inexpensive, safe, and reliable. It was many things, but it was none of those things. SLS seems to be making those same mistakes.
SpaceX also wants Starship to take humans to the Moon on its own. If that’s successful, then it’s possible NASA might consider replacing SLS with Starship.
Water had been found in the form of ice buried in deep craters at the Moon’s south pole, and further research showed there could be billions of tons of it. Humans have this inconvenient need to drink and breathe. Water can satiate the former, and breaking water into its atomic components can provide oxygen for the latter. As a bonus, the hydrogen in water molecules can fuel rockets. It is not hyperbole to say this discovery is one of the most important findings of our age. Science and engineering efforts to investigate growing plants on the Moon, piping oxygen from the south polar mines to bases where humans will live, using the regolith — the pulverized lunar rock covering the Moon’s surface — as a building material for habitats, and more.