Human mission to Mars by 2024... ?

[Swank]

The Chinese are working on an interesting way of getting to the Moon. Instead of putting everything into one super ship and going to the Moon from Earth and then back to Earth they plan on using their space station as a staging location for their lunar mission. A couple of trips up to the station to get everything organized. Then a trip to the Moon, then back to the station again. It sounds practical.

Could call it Current Space Travel Rumors

Not really different from using several ships simultaneously. Maybe slightly more fuel needed this way.

 

[paranoid marvin]

I think it's a step in the right direction though. Constructing platforms in space from which to launch missions sounds like the way forward.

 

[Swank]

I think it's a step in the right direction though. Constructing platforms in space from which to launch missions sounds like the way forward.

It is if you get something useful from an extra level of infrastructure

 

[Robert Zwilling]

2025 is looking like it might be a big year for unmanned space exploration.

Two private company missions to the Moon were started Tues, Jan 15th and were launched by a third private company, SpaceX. Firefly, the US based company is getting information that will be needed for the next manned landing on the Moon. There are 10 experiments it will be performing as well as taking pictures of the sun set. The Japanese company is also collecting information for making lunar expeditions possible. Both companies have had spectacular failures in their efforts to reach the Moon.

"Following payload operations, Blue Ghost will capture imagery of the lunar sunset and provide critical data on how lunar regolith reacts to solar influences during lunar dusk conditions," representatives of Texas-based Firefly wrote in a description of the mission, which it calls Ghost Riders in the Sky. "The lander will then operate for several hours into the lunar night."

1) Lunar Instrumentation for Subsurface Thermal Exploration with Rapidity (LISTER)
Honeybee Robotics (Blue Origin company). Drills 2 to 3 meters into the lunar surface. Another thrilling drilling experiment, this one uses a pneumatic drilling method and has a temperature probe at the end of the drill.
2) Lunar PlanetVac (LPV), Honeybee Robotics (Blue Origin company). Testing a new method of collecting samples, no more bulky arms, it blows dustup off the surface to see what it looks like.
3) Next Generation Lunar Retroreflector (NGLR), University of Maryland. It's a reflector for lasers to measure the Earth - Moon distance. The reflectors currently being used were set up by the Apollo missions 50 years ago.
4) Next Generation Lunar Retroreflector (NGLR), University of Maryland. This will test how lunar dust sticks to solar cells, optical systems, coatings, and sensors. It will also test various schemes to repel or shed the lunar test. This information is needed to build better spacecraft, spacesuits, and habitats that will be exposed to lunar dust.
5) Radiation Tolerant Computer (RadPC), Montana State University. This is a good one. HAL can you understand what I'm saying? It is a self monitoring computer set up to demonstrate the computer’s ability to withstand space radiation.
6) Electrodynamic Dust Shield (EDS), NASA Kennedy Space Center. This is another lunar dust experiment for removing dust and also how to transport lunar dust from one place to another using apparatus that has no moving parts.
7) Lunar Environment heliospheric X-ray Imager (LEXI), Boston University; NASA Goddard Space Flight Center; Johns Hopkins University. This will photograph the Earth's aura for critical insights into how space weather and other cosmic forces surrounding our planet impact Earth.
8) Lunar Magnetotelluric Sounder (LMS), Southwest Research Institute. This will measure the Moon's electrical and magnetic fields to get an idea of how the temperature structure and thermal evolution of the Moon has cooled and chemically differentiated since it formed.
9) Lunar GNSS Receiver Experiment (LuGRE), Italian Space Agency (ASI); NASA Goddard Space Flight Center. This will demonstrate how to use GPS to navigate and locate locations on the Moon. No more blind landings.
10) Stereo CAmera for Lunar Plume-Surface Studies (SCALPSS), NASA Langley Research Center. This setup is to examine the dust cloud kicked up by the landing rockets. This can provide information about the dust itself and when areas become popular landing sites, how the kicked up dust will affect nearby structures.


The other company is a Japanese company, ispace, which got a lander to the Moon, the 2,200-pound Hakuto-R lander on April 2023. That attempt failed when the lander crash landed. This new attempt will feature a mini rover built by a European space company in Luxembourg. It will also have a small red “Moonhouse” built by Swedish artist Mikael Genberg, to hang out with. The building's purpose is just to be there, the first permanent extraterrestrial building. It is 4.72 inches (12 cm) wide, 3.15 inches (8 cm) deep, and 3.93 inches (10 cm) high. A lego house probably would have worked.

The mini rover, named Tenacious, looks like a western stagecoach with paddle wheels instead of rimmed wheels and no horses in front of it. It is just 10.24 inches (26 centimeters) tall, 12.4 inches (31.5 cm) wide and 21.26 inches (54 cm) long, and has a mass of about 11 pounds (5 kilograms). It will also carry a high-definition camera near the front, to take images of moon dirt as it scoops samples.

Experiments
Water Electrolyzer Experiment: demonstrate the feasibility of producing oxygen and hydrogen from lunar water resources. I don't think it will use lunar ice, only run a test on water it brought with it.
Algae-based food production module: to test the cultivation of algae as a potential off planet food source
Deep Space Radiation Probe: Collected data will provide insights for the safety of future human missions.
Commemorative metal plate: "Charter of the Universal Century," a fictional document from the popular Japanese science fiction franchise Gundam.

Bezos Blue Origin' big rocket was successfully launched into space Jan 16. This marked a major milestone in the company's 20 years of existence in which it fell far behind SpaceX. It's possible that Bezos will take personal control of Blue Origin and leave Amazon to others to run. He expects Blue Origin to make more money than Amazon in the long run.

With all the samples being collected, NASA is currently looking for new ways to get lunar specimens (and from Mars) back to Earth faster and cheaper. One idea is to have private companies do the work of returning samples. It's also been suggested that instead of using solar power, the lunar specimen recovery operations could be powered by thermal powered batteries that generate electricity from heat created by decaying radioactive material.

 

[Judderman]

Interesting stuff there Robert. Lots of tests related to structures and vehicles eventually being on the moon for a long time. A different environment to Mars but surely important steps.

 

[Robert Zwilling]

Some clarification on the StarShip. Lots of changes but lots of the changes were not able to be tested after it blew up after slightly more than 2 minutes into the launch. There were changes made to the heat shield including metallic tiles. The debris came down over Florida after being launched from Texas. Commercial airline flights had to be rerouted. To prove the engines are reusable, one of the raptor engines was a used engine. The base rocket was recovered by the chopstick method without incident. The contract says the StarShip can't have people going to the Moon in it until it has flown one uncrewed flight to the Moon. Not the best odds. The Starship apparently suffered a fuel leak and was not equipped to put out the fire. More fire fighting equipment will be added plus the ability to rapidly vent fuel leaks in the future. It is suspected the leak built up pressure before exploding. If they want to stay on schedule another test flight would be needed sooner rather than later.

 

[paranoid marvin]

There's going to be a lot of big business in relation to space travel, and that will start with the Moon. Countries that can will go to the Moon, stick their flag in and claim their piece of real estate. Those who arrive late to the party will find that all the 'best bits' have gone.

Those companies in at the ground level will be the ones who make the most cash. Space exploration will be a 'forevrr' project, and those that get their patents and trademarks in at the beginning will be those set for life. Of course, as with the train, car and othrr formative businesses, some will fall by the wayside, but those that win will win BIG.

With commrrcialised space flight will come exponential growth, and as the first structure is placed on the Moon, it won't be long before it is festooned with them. Then will come commercial space flight, affordable to the many. It happened with ships, with cars, with trains andcwith aeroplanes. And it will happen with spaceflight.

 

[Robert Zwilling]

First structures will probably be sheds for the rovers to stay in, eventually capable of repairs. Japan is hoping to plant the First Moon House.

 

[Swank]

There's going to be a lot of big business in relation to space travel, and that will start with the Moon. Countries that can will go to the Moon, stick their flag in and claim their piece of real estate. Those who arrive late to the party will find that all the 'best bits' have gone.

Those companies in at the ground level will be the ones who make the most cash. Space exploration will be a 'forevrr' project, and those that get their patents and trademarks in at the beginning will be those set for life. Of course, as with the train, car and othrr formative businesses, some will fall by the wayside, but those that win will win BIG.

With commrrcialised space flight will come exponential growth, and as the first structure is placed on the Moon, it won't be long before it is festooned with them. Then will come commercial space flight, affordable to the many. It happened with ships, with cars, with trains andcwith aeroplanes. And it will happen with spaceflight.

You're assuming a moon based business is subject to earth laws and the production restrictions of money.

 

[Vertigo]

Countries that can will go to the Moon, stick their flag in and claim their piece of real estate.

Well it's not quite that simple; the Outer Space Treaty of 1967 (before the Americans landed there) does cover this pretty well despite Dennis Hope's claim to have found a loophole.

 

[paranoid marvin]

Whoever puts a structure down first will claim it as theirs. Not much you can do about it afterwards.

 

[Christine Wheelwright]

Unless a miracle happens in the next four days, either we should close this thread...

...or rename it "Human Mission to the Moon by 2027 ?" as that's the date Wikipedia has for Artemis III.

Honestly, that feels a tad optimistic given all that's happening right now.

Human Mission to the Moon by 2027...2031...2035....2039...2043...2047...