A Lunar Road Trip

8 Responses to A Lunar Road Trip

1. Joe says:

   October 2, 2014 at 2:47 pm

   Good article.

   Let us all hope such vacations become a reality.
2. Michael Wright says:

   October 2, 2014 at 3:57 pm

   I read someplace about Buzz Aldrin said on lunar ascent he saw from corner of his eye the flag topple. I couldn’t be sure if that article was correct but I see you saw the toppled flag. Hey, don’t they have a visitor center where you can pose to a life-size standup of Buzz’ famous “man on the moon” pose?

   I read they still debate where the water comes from.

   Thanks for writing such an imaginary article but based on a place that actually exists.
3. DougSpace says:

   October 2, 2014 at 6:04 pm

   That was a fun read.

   Well prior to such vacations I could imagine lunar sampling missions to die for. Imagine if ice was being harvested at the lunar poles and being processed to fuel a reusable cryogenic lander. It could leave the pole in a suborbital hop directly to geologically interesting locations selected by a certain lunar scientist. Upon landing, a small telerobot could be discharged from the lander, drive a bit and then take some samples and bring them back and then be hoisted back into the lander.

   By my calculations, one could do about six of these hops (if going about 10 degrees distance) and then return to the pole for refilling. If there were no crashes then a single lander could sample the best spots across an entire hemisphere.
4. Glenn W. Smith says:

   October 2, 2014 at 11:31 pm

   Thank you, Dr. Spudis, for beginning your tour at the Independence, Missouri of space exploration!

   And what a reminder you have given us of the cosmic awe in which we were gripped at the time — that Armstrong and Aldrin traveled barely outside the limits of a baseball diamond! I happened to be in Houston itself on that day, and well do I remember the hired radio “expert” who predicted that the combination of low lunar gravity, quicksand-like lunar soil, and intense solar radiation would completely disorient the astronauts. In respect to the “talking heads”, I guess some things never change!

   But what of Armstrong’s two pronouncements? In the final record, will not his history-shifting declaration as mission commander — “Tranquility base here. The Eagle has landed.” — ultimately prevail?
5. Paul Spudis says:

   October 3, 2014 at 1:50 am

   Thanks to all for your comments. This was not our first excursion into the realms of lunar fiction. For more in this vein, take a look at our science-fiction novel for young adults, Moonwake. It’s available for free download on my main web site.
   • Joe says:

     October 3, 2014 at 1:15 pm

     The young adult’s story is a great idea. I also noticed mention by JohnG below of a “space western”. There was at least one of those (made in 1969 called Moon Zero 2). It even had a “tour of the moon” of sorts.

     Not recommending it for its technical accuracy or as adult entertainment, but I did love it when I saw it as a kid.

     http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hM1lsDhSjD8

     Shame nobody in the entertainment industry can be made interested in doing that type of movie with better technical advisors, writers and state of the art special effects.
6. JohnG says:

   October 3, 2014 at 9:25 am

   A fun tale. I was hoping to hear about the B&B in the Tranquillitatis lava tube system, along with the rowdy saloon that the He3 mining-robot mechanics frequent. And the brothel, of course. Shades of the early days in the ‘Old West’. The short-lived TV show Firefly and the movie Outland come to mind.
7. Glenn W. Smith says:

   October 3, 2014 at 10:22 pm

   Reading the first few chapters of Moonwake and explaining the whole thing to my lovely Dianna — why am I choking up?!?

   (Not that anything could top Chris Hadfield’s acoustic guitar spinning weightless through the ISS . . . )

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