Yeah baby!! We are going back to the moon!

[Drbio]

WASHINGTON (Reuters/CNN) -- NASA unveiled plans on Monday to return humans to the moon by 2018 at a cost of $104 billion.

NASA Administrator Michael Griffin showcased a mission to the moon in an Apollo-style capsule sitting atop rockets fashioned from shuttle components.

"The space program is a long-term investment in our future," Griffin said.

The new lunar program would begin in 2018 by landing four astronauts on the moon for a seven-day stay.

The last lunar landing was Apollo 17 in 1972.

The centerpiece of NASA's moonshot is the new spaceship known as the crew exploration vehicle, or CEV. It will be "designed to carry four astronauts to and from the moon, support up to six crew members on future missions to Mars, and deliver crew and supplies to the international space station," according to NASA's Web site.

The new crew vehicle and lander will be similar to those used during the Apollo missions, but three times larger.

Griffin said building a larger rocket system will allow for landing anywhere on the lunar surface. The Apollo missions only had enough fuel to land along the moon's equator.

NASA hopes to have the rocket system ferrying crew and supplies to the space station in five years, according to NASA's Web site.

The scenario was presented to White House officials last week before its formal unveiling to the public on Monday.

Even before the official announcement, there was criticism from Capitol Hill over the cost of the lunar program, given U.S. government commitments to the Iraq war and recovery from Hurricane Katrina.

"This plan is coming out at a time when the nation is facing significant budgetary challenges," Rep. Bart Gordon, a Tennessee Democrat on the House Science Committee, said in a statement. "Getting agreement to move forward on it is going to be heavy lifting in the current environment, and it's clear that strong presidential leadership will be needed."

Bush's vision for space
President Bush's plan to send Americans back to the moon by 2020 and eventually on to Mars has drawn skepticism since its unveiling in January 2004, less than a year after the February 1, 2003, shuttle Columbia disaster.

Bush's vision for space exploration called for the development of a system to replace the aging shuttles, a goal that appears even more important given problems with the shuttle fleet's return to flight.

The same problems with falling debris that doomed Columbia recurred in July with the launch of Discovery, prompting the grounding of the shuttle fleet even as Discovery continued to fly its mission. A September shuttle mission was delayed until November and then to March.

Some $1.1 billion damage by Hurricane Katrina to NASA facilities in Louisiana and Mississippi could push the launch date back further still.

Bush's plan also mandated the completion of the international space station, but without shuttles to do the heavy lifting, that process has been on hold. A pair of Russian vehicles -- the space taxi Soyuz and the space delivery van Progress -- have been ferrying people and material.

Since the fatal Columbia disaster, only two-person crews have stayed aboard the station, rather than the normal three-person crew.

With the shuttles slated for retirement in 2010, Griffin has estimated that the number of construction flights to the station could be pared from its earlier estimate of 28 to 15.

[dirt_dobber]

I love lofty goals!

seriously we as a nation benefitted greatly with the first lunar mission.

I have read it several times but there is a huge number of technologies that were developed
and perfected with that first effort.

.

[Drbio]

I just want there to be something like the United States Moon state or somesuch. [img]i/expressions/face-icon-small-happy.gif[/img]

You are correct though. Numerous inventions and perfections were derived from the first lunar mission. It was also a source of tremendous national pride. Sadly, I think we have passed the era where such accomp[ishments inspire the citizens, but it still jazzes me up to no end. [img]i/expressions/thumbsup.gif[/img]


Go USA and NASA!

[Ninkobei]

I can't see us visiting mars for a long time. 2 years to get there and probably longer to get back. You would have to take more than one person for sanity's sake. Not to mention the rocket fuel needed to get a lander off of mars. maybe if they had the astro-plane it would work..but still the supplies for a 4+ year journey, where would they put it??

[sike]

the moon is overrated.....





















































Uranus on the other hand.....

[chumdawg]

This is fantastic news. I watched "Apollo 13" again a few weeks back on the Discovery Channel, as well as the two-part documentary "Failure Is Not an Option" that followed it. I always thought it was a shame that we abandoned the moon when we did. If we're ever going to go further, we have to perfect our technique somewhere.

I'm also greatly inspired by the tremendous courage and dedication of astronauts--especially those in the early Apollo days. America needs more people with qualities like those.

[jacktruth]

I'm not sure how I feel about the space program anymore. Can anybody name the inventions that came from the first lunar landing?

$104 Million of tax dollars

If it is inventions that we seek, why aren't private companies funding it?

[dirt_dobber]

Inventions inspired by Apollo

http://www.exn.ca/apollo/science/products.cfm

The Saturn V rocket and the spacecraft that carried the first man to the Moon are obvious results, but some of the materials and technologies that were developed to take a three-man crew to an alien world have spun off into products we use here on Earth everyday. From polarized sunglasses to kidney dialysis machines to freeze-dried foods, space exploration has not only enriched our understanding of the world, but enhanced life in it. Here's a look at some of the inventions that the Apollo missions gave us.

(see the linked sight for a list of inevntions as a direct result)

.

[Drbio]

Some of the items....

CAT scans and MRI's
Cordless power tools
Moonsuit products for stadium roofs, etc
polarized sunglasses
"Jaws of Life"
kidney dialysis
Freeze dried foods
prosthetics
Hubble telescope
cancer therapies
scratch resistant surface treatments
heat shielding
thermal blankets
fire blanket technology
cosmetics
chemical advances in drug development
chemical advances in research
the inevitable plethora of scientific research data inherent in a project like this
USA -1 Russia- 0
plastics enhancements
composite materials advances
much more.....that's all I have off the top of my head.

[Ninkobei]

Originally posted by: jacktruth

$104 Million of tax dollars

oh man, a dr. evil moment...

not 104 million...104 Billion ;D

[jacktruth]

Originally posted by: Drbio
Some of the items....

CAT scans and MRI's
Cordless power tools
Moonsuit products for stadium roofs, etc
polarized sunglasses
"Jaws of Life"
kidney dialysis
Freeze dried foods
prosthetics
Hubble telescope
cancer therapies
scratch resistant surface treatments
heat shielding
thermal blankets
fire blanket technology
cosmetics
chemical advances in drug development
chemical advances in research
the inevitable plethora of scientific research data inherent in a project like this
USA -1 Russia- 0
plastics enhancements
composite materials advances
much more.....that's all I have off the top of my head.

So why not more private investment, them?

[Drbio]

Good question. You can certainly justify the cost (as crazy high as they are) for the reward. I think most companies realize that they will get to benefit from the research while Uncle Sam (you and I) foot the bill so there is little incentive to invest.

[dalmations202]

On another note, and I know it is not exactly Moon related, but it is space program related. Where would this country be without Water Displacement Formula try #40. It was developed in 1953 for the space industry to keep the hulls of space vehicles from oxidizing.

Today the world buys tons of it under the name of WD-40. I have no clue where industry would be today without it.

[jacktruth]

Originally posted by: dalmations202
On another note, and I know it is not exactly Moon related, but it is space program related. Where would this country be without Water Displacement Formula try #40. It was developed in 1953 for the space industry to keep the hulls of space vehicles from oxidizing.

Today the world buys tons of it under the name of WD-40. I have no clue where industry would be today without it.

Excellent example. How much money did the federal government profit from that technology? It's possible that they did, but that I didn't see it in my tax return.

[Five-ofan]

There are tons of things that came from the space program. An example of a simple thing is a ball point pen. Most of the more complicated things have already been mentioned but there are more.

[jacktruth]

Wow, ball point pens. How much did bic pay NASA for that!

[EricaLubarsky]

Ball point pens are amazing. MY grandfather was a pilot in and after WWII and you couldn't write worth a damn without one while you were up in the sky.

Invented in 1938 in Hungary by the way, so I'd check your sources on the NASA thing.

[sike]

Originally posted by: Ninkobei

oh man, a dr. evil moment...

not 104 million...104 Billion ;D

funny

[Five-ofan]

I remember reading that but after looking it up apparently they just perfected it. Sorry

[EricaLubarsky]

they did invent the super-cool ball point pen with the pressurized cartridge that will let you draw upside down and without gravity.