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Decade in Review: The '00s in Moon Colonization December 31, 2009

Posted by Nick Azer in : American History, Base Race, Frontiers , add a comment

With a blue moon marking the end of the ’00s and the beginning of the lunar-revolutionary ’10s, it’s time to take a quick look at some of the major events this past decade that took space in new directions, and how moon colonization went from still being a science fiction dream to being as real as the railroad revolution:

While this is just the tip of the iceberg as far as the details, these are the lynchpin events that have propelled the nature of the base race and ‘NewSpace’ movements. With the Google Lunar X PRIZE set to be won by 2012, and numerous companies and international efforts on the cusp of truly integrating the Moon into our daily socio-economic sphere here on Earth, the 00′s will be remembered as the decade that ramped up to what will be one of the most historic decades in mankind’s history: the 2010s.

Check back in a few days, as I look forward to the dramatic changes to space that could be happening in the next 10 years :)

Orbiting Atlas #3: Tycho December 29, 2009

Posted by Nick Azer in : Orbiting Atlas , 1 comment so far

Orbiting Atlas is a weekly series here  at Luna C/I looking at notable points in selenography—the geography of the Moon. Come by every Monday for an exploration of a different locale, and its potential regional signifigance :)

This week, it’s the hard-to-miss crater…

Tycho

Perhaps the most conspicuous crater on the Moon, Tycho (named after Danish astronomer Tycho Brahe) sticks out like a sore thumb with its distinctive ray system. The rays are formed by ejecta from the original impact, and in fact, many of the surrounding craters themselves were created by wayward chunks of ejecta.

Apollo 17 took samples from one of the rays—more than 1,200 miles away! Surveyor 7 landed on the crater’s rim itself earlier, in 1967, recording a ton of mosiac imagery. The Apollo results confirmed that the crater is one of the moon’s youngest, at ~100 million years old.

I’m curious as to whether these rays may prove to have an interesting mix of resources—while the most valuable lunar resources (helium-3, water) collect on the surface from the outside, having such a spread of fairly young ejecta material could potentially make the Tycho region a popular mining spot.

My initial searches brought up more studies, though, in what makes the crater and its rays so shiny versus its potential mining value (mankind loves shiny objects? :) ). So this remains an open question, though geologist-astronaut Jack Schmitt from Apollo 17 is still around to ask :)

Speaking of interesting/shiny objects, Tycho was featured in 2001: A Space Odyssey as the location of the ominous buried monolith.

Tycho was also a location actually filmed, in spectacular  HD, by Japan’s Kaguya orbiter. Check out the flyby below:

And, stay tuned as more and more private companies shoot for the moon to see if one decides to check out Tycho’s rays for itself…

Google Lunar X PRIZE Roundup #5 December 27, 2009

Posted by Nick Azer in : Google Lunar X Prize, Google Lunar X Prize Roundup , add a comment

Hope you all had a merry GLXP-mas—it’s time for some extra presents as we get caught up on a surprisingly active week around the Google Lunar X PRIZE :)

Phew—busy week for the holidays! Shows just how much the Lunar X PRIZE is ramping up—and it’s just getting started :) Check back next week for the first Roundup of the private space decade…

Orbiting Atlas #2: Cabeus December 21, 2009

Posted by Nick Azer in : Cabeus, LCROSS, NASA, Orbiting Atlas , add a comment

For our second exploration of notable locations on the Moon, we look at the site of NASA’s famous “Moon Bombing” with its LCROSS craft…

Cabeus

A crater enveloped in deep shadow, about 80 miles north of Shackleton and the lunar South Pole (and ~1,000 miles south of the nearest Mare), Cabeus  had drawn a lot of attention because that permanent shadow meant a possibility of valuable water ice.

In October 2009, NASA proceeded to explore the possibility by crashing an LCROSS payload and its spent Centaur rocket into the darkness of Cabeus to try and stir up some of that ice. Turns out that “moon bombing” was successful—water was found in impressive quantities.

This makes the lunar south pole, already a prime target for colonial efforts, even more valuable a location. With only that short 80 miles seperating the solar-rich Shackleton rim and Cabeus’ water holdings, this region could rapidly become one of the most well-developed areas of the colonial Moon—the next New England? :)

Here’s a video of the moon bombing (embedded below), enhanced by Zebonka on Youtube to show the impact flash; and also, check out this brief video that gives a great feel of the location of Cabeus!

Report: Obama Decides on $1 Billion NASA Budget Boost and New Heavy-Lift Launcher? December 20, 2009

Posted by Nick Azer in : Ares I, Augustine Panel, Base Race, Constellation, NASA, Norm Augustine, Obama, U.S. Human Space Flight Plans Committee , add a comment

A report by the blog ScienceInsider quotes sources as saying that Obama last week decided, in a meeting with NASA Administrator Charles Bolden, on his immediate direction for NASA: an additional $1 Billion in budget, a new heavy lift launcher to replace the Ares 1, and potentially a shift in mission destinations away from the Moon (!).

The Augustine Report (PDF) recommended as an option a manned flight to an asteroid instead of the Moon—as soon as the early 2020s–an option that, according to this new ScienceInsider report, has the White House “more intrigued” than a return to the Moon (which, with a scrapping of the Ares 1 rocket, would be delayed until at least the mid 2020s…much later than the potential manned asteroid landing, or even a landing on a moon of Mars).

With the Moon well within the sights of private space and numerous other nations, it would be perhaps redundant for NASA to have it’s own full-fledged lunar program. NASA skipping the moon, then, is not a death knell to moon colonization, and could be a shrewd choice with many major private space firms (SpaceX, Orbital Sciences, etc.) being American anyways.

Check out the ScienceInsider blog’s report for the full details. An announcement reportedly could come as soon as this week and as late as February, so stay tuned…

Google Lunar X PRIZE Roundup #4 December 18, 2009

Posted by Nick Azer in : Google Lunar X Prize, Google Lunar X Prize Roundup , add a comment

It’s that Google Lunar X PRIZE-mas time again, and here’s your early stocking-atuffers: the latest from across the GLXP spectrum )

Swing by next week for more, as this decade rolls to a close and the decade of space commercialization begins…

Orbiting Atlas #1!: Sinus Iridum (The Bay of Rainbows) December 15, 2009

Posted by Nick Azer in : Chang'e, China, Google Moon, Orbiting Atlas, selenography , 2comments

Welcome to my brand new weekly feature—Orbiting Atlas! Each Monday, I’ll break out my lunar globe and trek to a different selenographic point of interest, giving you a tour of each location’s features, history, and potential :)

The first entry gets the honor for being in the news recently…so without further ado:

Sinus Iridum—The Bay of Rainbows

China announced a few weeks ago that the destination for it’s first lunar rover (and mission of any kind on the surface), Chang’e-3, will be Sinus Iridum. NASA and private enterprise have focused more on the solar-soaked South Pole and helium-3-happy Mare Tranquillitatis, so Sinus Iridum is an interesting choice, and something of a departure.

What about it may have caught China’s eye? Let’s look at the details…

The circular “Bay”—given its name by Italian astronomer Giovanni Riccioli–is ringed by the Montes Jura, with the cape-like Promontorium Laplace jutting out along the northeast. The Bay has a diameter of ~149 miles, and lays at the northwest corner of the large, western plain Mare Imbrium, about 1,225 miles northwest of the Apollo 11 landing site and 620 miles northwest of the Apollo 15 site.

Mare Imbrium’s lava plains are nearly flat, extending into Sinus Iridum (once a crater, with the southeast wall having been eliminated in an Imbrium event). These plains are prime territory for helium-3, and that stretch where there was once the southeastern wall may make for a revealing geological study.

It’s figured there’s a large amount of helium-3 on the Moon, but the distribution is unknown—so by scouting out a different mare, China could dig up valuable information on a region not already targeted for ‘gold rush’. Perhaps we’ll see a private company follow the Chinese lead, and scope it out for themselves…

Sinus Imbrium was a location filmed in 2007 by Japan’s orbiter, Kaguya, and it’s HDTV camera. Check out the amazing video below (and also be sure to explore the Bay in Google Earth 5.0′s spiffy Moon view!):

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Check back next week, and every monday, for more selenographic exploration :)

Google Lunar X PRIZE Roundup #3 December 11, 2009

Posted by Nick Azer in : Google Lunar X Prize, Google Lunar X Prize Roundup , add a comment

With the roundups scooting over to every Friday now, it’s time for another dip into all the latest Google Lunar X PRIZE goodness!:

Check back next Friday (and every Friday) for all the latest tidbits from across the GLXP field :)

Virgin Galactic Unveils SpaceShipTwo! December 7, 2009

Posted by Nick Azer in : space tourism, spaceplane, Virgin Galactic , add a comment

Today, Virgin Galactic and unveiled the craft that will be carrying hundreds of its customers to space over the next few years—the SpaceShipTwo:

The successor to the Ansari X PRIZE-winning SpaceShipOne (which helped usher in this new era of space tourism and private space efforts), the Scaled Composites-developed SpaceShipTwo rocketplane is expected to begin daily flights by 2011-2012 from Spaceport America in New Mexico.

With space tourism hitting the mainstream, more and more companies and spaceports will form—many with their eyes eventually turning to the Moon, and helping to spur infrastucture and private space’s role in general :)