Comments on: UPDATED: China’s Latest Lunar Mission

By: billgamesh

billgamesh — Sun, 09 Nov 2014 02:13:33 +0000

When the time comes that Mars is mentioned as infrequently as the Moon has been I will know we are back on the right path. I don’t quite understand why it is not the Moon that these “visionaries” want to retire on but I am positive Mars is the mistake that keeps on screwing up everything having to do with space exploration.

Mars, (like LEO) is a dead end. Not enough solar energy, too much gravity to make landing easy and not enough to stay healthy. There is no real justification for trying to colonize; just emoting sci-fi fans dreaming of……what? What do they think it will be like? There will not be much hiking around the surface with the cosmic radiation and no atmosphere to speak of.

The Moon is actually a far superior site. Not enough gravity means not enough and the lower lunar gravity will actually make it easier to engineer a solution to that problem. O’Neill was right.

By: Marcel Williams

Marcel Williams — Sat, 08 Nov 2014 17:24:06 +0000

The new Congress needs to nix the wasteful meteoroid retrieval mission and refocus its efforts on the Moon by deploying a lunar habitat and a lunar water extraction and propellant production facility as a bridge to Mars.

Marcel

By: Joe

Joe — Sat, 08 Nov 2014 00:40:20 +0000

“The fact that China is adding the step of rendezvous and docking in lunar orbit is significant, as this step is a critical milestone for the certification of an architecture for human missions to the Moon. China’s choice of this mission profile for Chang’E 5 is a clear indication that they are planning such missions.”

Good catch. That is a very significant point.

By: billgamesh

billgamesh — Fri, 07 Nov 2014 18:53:26 +0000

All of the propulsion technologies required for Moon missions are in production or late stage development in China. Hypergolic, LOX/kerosene, and LOX/hydrogen are now all flying or testing, along with the prerequisite solid fuel escape tower system.

They have demonstrated all the capabilities needed while we……..continue to wait for “entrepreneurs” with hobby rockets to provide travel to LEO. The world is laughing at the superpower that once had no equal and is now third-rate.

But next month Orion goes up…..that could be the turning point.

By: dphuntsman

dphuntsman — Fri, 07 Nov 2014 16:36:48 +0000

A straightforward yet not hysterical assessment.

Dave Huntsman

By: Mike Mastin

Mike Mastin — Fri, 07 Nov 2014 07:31:42 +0000

Thanks Paul!