January 10, 2004

Easterbrook On Why Bush's Space Plan Easterbrook takes a beating by left wing bloggers. Too bad none of them will give him credit when he's right. Easterbrook points out that the Bush administration have no idea about science and that the cost will drive the country in debt.

This sums it up perfectly. In the days to come, any administration official who says that a Moon base could support a Mars mission is revealing himself or herself to be a total science illiterate. When you hear, "A Moon base could support a Mars mission," substitute the words, "I have absolutely no idea what I am talking about." Hint to reporters: If any administration official says "a Moon base could support a Mars mission," quickly ask, "What was the fuel fraction of the Lunar Excursion Module?" The answer is two-thirds. The LEM was what landed on the Moon during Apollo, and rocket propulsion has not changed much since, meaning that any future Mars spacecraft that stops at the Moon will expend two-thirds of its weight merely to land there and take off again. This renders the idea of stopping at the Moon on the way to Mars patent drivel. (Actually only about 15 percent of the descent weight of the LEM returned to lunar orbit, so the fuel-fraction calculation for a Moon stopover is even worse.)

posted by Sullivan 20 years ago
  • But, if there's large quantities of water on the moon (which at the moment looks unlikely), you'd basically have a big resevoir of rocket fuel on the moon. Which, if we were launching the mars mission from the moon, and not Earth, would be a considerable bonus. (And now I'll read the article, which I really should do before posting, anyway)
  • Hey, he says, almost word for word what I said yesterday. I didn't copy him, either
  • You must be a man one day ahead of his time, dng.
  • And five days behind my deadline. Damn internet.
  • As much as I would like to see humanity reach Mars I must agree with Easterbrook. There's still to much to do regarding space travel before planning a concrete mission to mars. Still, creating a moon base will eventually be necessary for two reasons. First, it will be much less costly to build interplanetary ships with mineral resources from the moon. Second, the moon is the perfect place to install a magnetic launch pad which will dramatically reduce ships fuel comsumption during launch. Although definetively we are a long way from building a moon base like that.
  • I agree with Zemat - a self sustaining moon base, a moon economy, and moon manufactoring is what we need before we can go to Mars. The important fact here is 'self sustaining'. If people can grow their own food, construct new buildings on the moon, then we will have a new society which will give purpose to travel between the moon and earth. Maybe there will be a 100 year time period where there is not much movement, but if a new civilization can be established, it will bring humanity away from our dangerous one planet setup. Of course the above could probably be achieved in a Mars context, although the scale for evacuation becomes impossibly large. It would be better to perfect technology on the moon and then apply it to Mars. I am very much in support of any space expansion/exploration, however I feel George Bush's 'win and forget' plan may cause more long term problems than it solves. In my opinion, at the moment we need: - A low failure rate Mars probe design. - A Mars probe that can return ground samples to Earth. - A replacement for the shuttle. - Research into sustainable living with limited resources.
  • I need a space suit for my pony. Any suggestions?
  • Wolof: Tyler's got you covered. [Scroll to the bottom] All hail Tyler!
  • Dr. Zira must surely win the bonus prize for finding that.
  • Brilliant, Dr Z!
  • Ahhhhhh Google. Is there anything you can't do?
  • Remember Tyler's face. He will be the first man to set foot on Mars. Along his pony. Dr Zira, I'm curious, how do you did that search?
  • Google image search for "horse in space".
  • I'm going to make a TV program called Horse in Space. Bascially, it's going to involve a horse. In space. And the theme tune's gonna go "HOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOORSE... IN... SPAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAACE!" as the horse flies past in slow motion.
  • Horse in Space, eh? Well, it better be better than Space Tree, which I really want to like, but has the dramatic momentum of, well, a tree.