My local talk host wants to know why its going to take 5 yrs to go to moon

Cannikin

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Mon Jan-19-04 10:09 AM
Original message

My local talk host wants to know why its going to take 5 yrs to go to moon

since we've been there already...

Anyone have any sources?

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hatrack

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Mon Jan-19-04 10:17 AM
Response to Original message

1. We have no rocket capable of getting a manned flight there

We haven't had one since Apollo ended in 1972. The space shuttle can barely reach low Earth orbit, let alone head to the Moon or elsewhere.

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wuushew

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Mon Jan-19-04 04:07 PM
Response to Reply #1

13. Not true, "we" don't have a booster but the Russians do

Unfortuantely working with the Russians on a peaceful space mission would not advance American jingoism or help support shrub's campaign contributors.

Over 110 m high and 10 m in diameter, with a total mass of 3,038,500 kg and a payload capacity of 118,000 kg to LEO, the Saturn V is the biggest and most powerful rocket ever built, although the Soviet Energiya heavy-lift booster was designed to orbit 120-150 tons, but was never flown at this capacity.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saturn_V

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HereSince1628

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Mon Jan-19-04 10:18 AM
Response to Original message

2. The current booster system isn't suitable to lift the space laser

Edited on Mon Jan-19-04 10:25 AM by HereSince1628

or other weapons like guided re-entry warheads. So we need to build a new heavy lift rocket.

Throwing men at the moon is a cover story.

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Capt_Nemo

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Mon Jan-19-04 03:40 PM
Response to Reply #2

11. Bingo! you're right, HereSince1628

this is about developing a heavy lift expendable booster for the USAF
and nothing else. When this is achieved the Moon/Mars missions will
be terminated.

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Bill McBlueState

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Mon Jan-19-04 10:19 AM
Response to Original message

3. the short answer

Having been there already means we know *how* to do it, but that doesn't mean we're ready for it in every other sense.

Some of the things that probably need to happen are

-train astronauts for it -- going to the Moon is different from low-Earth orbit
-and the big thing is the technology to get there. All the previous Moon missions were pre-Shuttle, and that pre-Shuttle technology no longer exists. So current technology has to be adapted to the specific needs of a Moon mission.

I think that's the reason.

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vpigrad

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Mon Jan-19-04 10:31 AM
Response to Original message

4. It's because of greedy contractors

NASA destroyed all of the Saturn V rockets and plans so they can't use what they had or build more. NASA basically has to start from scratch. Now, all of Bushy's friends will make millions and millions redesigning and rebuilding what they already had. After 30 years of progress in computers (especially CAD & CNC machines), the devices will be much cheaper to build so the profit margins will be huge.

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newyawker99

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Mon Jan-19-04 03:13 PM
Response to Reply #4

8. Hi vpigrad!!

Welcome to DU!! :toast:

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lovedems

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Mon Jan-19-04 10:35 AM
Response to Original message

5. How about this, if he get reselected, he can spend the next 4 years

paying lip service and under funding the program. It is what he does to everything else. The only area he doesn't pay lip service is to his corporate buddies. He delivers for them.

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TrogL

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Mon Jan-19-04 10:44 AM
Response to Original message

6. Because that's how long they figure it will take to bankrupt congress

so they can't fund any social programs such as Medicare, Social Security, Veterans stuff...

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rman

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Mon Jan-19-04 11:33 AM
Response to Original message

7. NASA subcontractors will have to re-invent the wheel

which NASA trew out when they (NASA upper- middle- and lower management) fired the engineers.
some 40 years of accumulated rocket science down the drain.

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Capt_Nemo

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Mon Jan-19-04 03:36 PM
Response to Original message

9. First of all it is 12 years for the vehicles to be readied

(if we take this Moon/Mars garbage at face value) and no more than 16 to
be back on the Moon.

And the reason is... the vehicles' designs do not exist yet.
NASA will have to start from scratch.

Right now Russia and China have capsules that could be modified
for use in a Moon mission, an item where the US is behind them...
... Hell, they have the capability to put humans in low earth orbit
with reasonable safety, which the US currently DOES NOT posess!

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Terwilliger

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Mon Jan-19-04 03:39 PM
Response to Original message

10. tell him to do it

see if he can get it done in a shorter time...tell him this is not Star Trek, or even Space: 1999

Also tell him that if he supported Democrats, we could get back to the moon AND take care of social ills, as opposed to the Republicans.

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ramapo

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Mon Jan-19-04 03:44 PM
Response to Original message

12. Because the "plan" is a joke

My understanding is that the plan stated 2015 for the moon landing.

I guess the reason it's going to take 11 years is because there's no money to pay for the program.

Sure the program has to be developed. But we made it to the moon in less than a decade starting from absolute nothing.

I don't take the plan seriously. We could and I believe should return to the moon within six years. Take a little away from the Pentagon and give it to NASA. Give the scientists something productive to do.

Oh yes. Commit the US to peaceful use of space. LOL

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