DailyDirt: Manned Space Exploration Is Coming Back

from the urls-we-dig-up dept

Tue, Jul 21st 2015 5:00pm — Michael Ho

The Apollo 11 Moon landing was a pretty big deal in 1969 (and it still is). It's been just 46 years since a human being first set foot on the moon, and it's a bit disappointing that we haven't been back more recently. Fortunately, there are some folks still working on manned space exploration (phew, SpaceX..), so people won't be limited to just visiting the ISS or Tiangong 1. If you're a space enthusiast, check out a few of these links on manned spaceflight stuff.

Neil Armstrong's Apollo 11 spacesuit isn't on display for the public to gawk at (for its own protection), but a Kickstarter project is aiming to raise a cool half million bucks to digitize the suit and document it thoroughly so that it can be made more accessible to the public. Donations to this project will go to the Smithsonian Institution, and a portion of every donation may be tax deductible. Too bad none of the rewards include a 3D printable file of an entire suit.... [url]
China has a unique place in space faring history -- with its taikonauts gaining equal footing with US astronauts and Russian cosmonauts. The Chinese space program has been back to the moon with a lunar rover, and it plans to bring back moon rocks in a couple years. People may walk on the moon again in a few years, too, but they probably won't have NASA logos on their suits. [url]
Robert Behnken, Sunita Williams, Eric Boe, and Douglas Hurley will be the next US astronauts... to fly on private spaceships. The first test flights will begin as early as 2017 with SpaceX and Boeing taking astronauts to the International Space Station. Commercial tickets to get to the ISS will cost under $60 million (less than a Soyuz trip), but there's not that much room on the ISS for tourists. [url]

After you've finished checking out those links, take a look at our Daily Deals for cool gadgets and other awesome stuff.

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Filed Under: apollo, astronauts, cosmonauts, international space station, iss, lunar rover, manned missions, moon, moon landing, soyuz, space, space exploration, spacesuit, taikonauts
Companies: boeing, kickstarter, nasa, smithsonian institution, spacex

16 Comments

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Bergman (profile), 21 Jul 2015 @ 5:33pm

Federal Law versus Reality
There is a federal law here in the US that basically says that since it was a US government expedition that brought all existing moon rocks back, all the ones on Earth are owned by the US government.

If China brings back rocks and sends them on a museum tour around the world to showcase Chinese greatness, that federal law may cause the US government to seize Chinese rocks.

If the Chinese government sells any rocks, it may cause the US government to make felons of any US buyers.
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Roger Strong (profile), 21 Jul 2015 @ 6:47pm

Re: Federal Law versus Reality
Citation....?

The Soviets also brought back lunar soil via the unmanned Luna 20 (1974) and Luna 24 (1976) missions.

The US government could have no claim to any lunar soil brought back by Russians, Chinese or anyone else, even if sold to Americans. While they make some silly claims once in a while, I don't believe they've made this one.
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Roger Strong (profile), 21 Jul 2015 @ 7:11pm

Don't hold your breath for those Chinese or Russian moon walkers. Officials in both countries regularly announce exciting plans, but those aren't the same as *funded* plans.

The Chinese have been essentially repeating the American Gemini program milestones; long duration flight, space walks, rendezvous and docking. But with those flights and milestones have been coming years apart rather than months or weeks as with Gemini.

Count on more unmanned lunar missions, including sample return. And a couple more orbital test modules by the end of the decade before building a small space station in the 2020s. Building it and then running it will soak up all their funding though the 2020s.

The Russian manned program has been funded largely by selling seats on Soyuz to its ISS partners. They could toss a couple tourists in a Soyuz on a lunar free return trajectory, but they won't be landing people on the moon in the foreseeable future.

The closest thing to a space race right now is between an American government program and American private industry.
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Anonymous Coward, 21 Jul 2015 @ 7:45pm

I miss the old days
...when people looked up into the stars and imagined all the endless possibilities....instead of looking down into their IPads/IPhones and loss the ability to even imagine.
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Stephen, 21 Jul 2015 @ 7:53pm

Flying Bombs?
The first test flights will begin as early as 2017 with SpaceX and Boeing taking astronauts to the International Space Station.
You mean they will be conducting those "test flights" with live astronauts onboard?

Is that the same SpaceX whose (non-test-flight) rockets of an unmanned sort have lately had the unfortunate habit of going KA-BOOM shortly after leaving the launch pad?
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Anonymous Coward, 21 Jul 2015 @ 9:42pm

Re: I miss the old days
Yeah, those ipads and iphones they had in the 70's that made them stop dreaming, right? Dreck. Mostly people don't care, can't see the value in it. When Planetary Resources brings back a chunk of sky and become insanely rich on the spot, that's when you'll see people move.
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Bergman (profile), 21 Jul 2015 @ 10:31pm

Re: Re: Federal Law versus Reality
Ok, having dug into it a bit, it appears to have been an attempt at civil asset forfeiture on the grounds that the guy who had it couldn't possibly be the owner, therefore it was the proceeds of a crime.

The original federal government argument in court was that only the federal government could give away moon rocks, and they didn't give one to him, therefore it was not his.

Eventually it came to light that the rock in question had been stolen from the actual owner and passed through more than one set of hands before arriving in the possession of the guy who it was being forfeited from. But that discovery came later than the initial court filing.

So while there isn't in fact such a statute, the US government acts as if there were.
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Bergman (profile), 21 Jul 2015 @ 10:49pm

Re: I miss the old days
Yeah, they looked down into their news papers instead of dreaming back then. Nostalgia gives everything a golden glow that it just didn't have back when it was every day life.
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Anonymous Coward, 22 Jul 2015 @ 12:03am

Re: Re: I miss the old days
Yeah, I mean, its not like attitudes and cultures can ever change, everything is always the same...
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Roger Strong (profile), 22 Jul 2015 @ 1:05am

Re: Flying Bombs?
The Space Shuttle ALSO had the "unfortunate habit" of killing its entire crew once in a while.

Falcon 9's first 18 flights were successful. Saturn V, which took America to the moon, only launched 13 times. The first stage pogo oscillations on Apollo 6 would have killed the crew if it had one. It was in bad shape when it reached its (wrong) orbit. The Skylab launch also had problems on the way up, with not all the station reaching orbit.

Also the Falcon 9 failure was survivable. If the Dragon V1 capsule had the updated software intended for the manned Dragon V2, they could have deployed the chutes and saved the capsule. The next Dragon launch, also a version 1, will have the updated software.
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Roger Strong (profile), 22 Jul 2015 @ 1:29am

Re: Re: Re: Federal Law versus Reality
Fair enough. But again, that only covers moon rocks that the US brought back. (And not moon rocks gifted to other countries. But while many of those are missing, none appear to have been legally sold.)

Nothing stops American citizens from owning moon rocks brought back by Russia, China or anyone else.
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Anonymous Coward, 22 Jul 2015 @ 6:56am

Re: I miss the old days
Could it be that people's dreams were crushed under the constant barrage of crippling austerity, endless war and a staggering world economy?

Naaaaaah, that's not it - little people don't make decisions on that level.
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Roger Strong (profile), 22 Jul 2015 @ 7:32am

Re: Re: I miss the old days
Even at the best of times people don't want to pay for a space program. Sure, they *want* a space program, but they don't want to pay for it.

When Americans saw Sputnik flying over American soil - along with other Soviet firsts - first man in space, first spacewalk etc. - it was a Very Big Deal. They demanded that Something Be Done. And so NASA got a lot of funding.

Once the Gemini program got rolling and America was demonstrably ahead, that demand disappeared. NASA's budget was slashed and Saturn V production capped well before Apollo 11. Apollo coasted through the moon landings with what hardware was already in the pipeline.

But Apollo 13, just months later, didn't even get significant TV coverage until they had a life-threatening problem.

With no interest from the public, Congress only funded NASA on a life-support level. The Shuttle's primary mission was to keep the standing army of Apollo engineers, technicians and construction workers employed. Constellation repeated this. It's the ONLY mission for SLS. Budgets had to spread those jobs across many important Congressional districts to get support. And then they could attach budget amendments - pork - so that the Space Station budget funds everything from fisheries research centers to road building in Alaska.

Until Americans demand a lunar or Mars base, Congress won't fund one.
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Uriel-238 (profile), 22 Jul 2015 @ 9:19am

For its own protection.
I read this as ...Armstrong's spacesuit isn't on display for the public to gawk at (for [the public's] own protection

Because it came back wrong!

And I so I had to look up what moon radiation now emanates from Neil Armstrong's space suit.

Is this why we never returned to the moon?
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Uriel-238 (profile), 22 Jul 2015 @ 9:26am

Yes. There are manned test space flights.
Once we are confident of a module's structural integrity, and habitability during flight we'll send the module up with crew (and passengers!) in order to make sure all the amenities and and comforts operate properly.

When things go wrong at that phase, usually it's things like food being awkward to prepare, or bathrooms being difficult to use, or certain seats being uncomfortable during certain maneuvers.

And yes, like cars and airplanes, sometimes there's a failure within the structure or instrumentation that can turn the entire flight into a disaster. Space travel is not perfectly safe, but as safe as reasonably possible. The danger of spaceflight is less about system failures, and more about venturing into the unknown.
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Michael Ho (profile), 22 Jul 2015 @ 10:43am

Re: For its own protection.
heh. There were some concerns about bringing back toxic stuff from the moon, but I don't think moon dust is too bad for your short term health. (As long as no one is ingesting lots of moon dust...)
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