DBWI: Should we still be going to the Moon?

[Luath]

Hello all, so this is a debate that circles the Space Buff community periodically, and with the recent success of SpaceX's crew Starship to the IMB (International Moon Base) its come up again. Are we spending too much time on the moon? Sure the moonbase is nice and all, permanently manned since 1993 by joint US-Soviet-EASTO*-JAXA and CNSA crews and now up to 13 crew, 20 with Starship. But shouldn't we be doing more? Surely we've learned enough at this point for us to have already been establishing colonies (yes SpaceX fans I know thats whats Starships for). Plus why haven't we gotten to Mars yet? I mean okay there was MarsOrbit, but surely we should be doing more than a quick slingshot and back home again. In short, where is my damn Marsbase?!

On the other hand building the moonbase has taken a while, and it is a careful balancing act between the various partners, and it cannot be understated how much the IMB has contributed to our knowledge of how to live and operate on other planetary bodies. Plus its still a base of scientific research, fuel production and commercial operations. But again couldn't we be doing more?

What do you think?

Luath.

*European Air and Space Treaty organistion, ESA with budgetary commitments.

 

[Ato]

I'm much in agreement with the head of Roscosmos that manned Mars missions a little more than publicity stunts. As much as the loyal Muskites love to rave about the possibilities of 'colonizing our second world' Mars has very little to offer us that the current robot exploration program can't provide. It's a dead and cold dustball and will remain so for a long time.
Even Marsorbit was only really greenlit to test the systems being developed for long range spaceflight into the asteroid belt and outer solar system.

Meanwhile the work being done at the moonbase and on the various cis-lunar infrastructure projects is laying the real ground work for future progress. The Grissom and Gagarin orbital tugs have already revolutionised the satellite launch and maintenance industry, and the Lunar Polar observatory has provided us with some of the best pictures of nearby stellar phenomenon yet.
When the automated quarry in the Sea of Tranquility goes operational we will have an almost inexhaustible supply of cheap building material in orbit, and if the test boreholes last year are anything to go by, hydrogen rocket fuel too.
Then we can start to do the really interesting projects like expanding the L1 station with an in orbit construction berth, building a space based solar power network, and even constructing large rotational space habitats where hundreds, not just a dozen or so, people can live.

 

[Luath]

I'm much in agreement with the head of Roscosmos that manned Mars missions a little more than publicity stunts. As much as the loyal Muskites love to rave about the possibilities of 'colonizing our second world' Mars has very little to offer us that the current robot exploration program can't provide. It's a dead and cold dustball and will remain so for a long time.
Even Marsorbit was only really greenlit to test the systems being developed for long range spaceflight into the asteroid belt and outer solar system.

Meanwhile the work being done at the moonbase and on the various cis-lunar infrastructure projects is laying the real ground work for future progress. The Grissom and Gagarin orbital tugs have already revolutionised the satellite launch and maintenance industry, and the Lunar Polar observatory has provided us with some of the best pictures of nearby stellar phenomenon yet.
When the automated quarry in the Sea of Tranquility goes operational we will have an almost inexhaustible supply of cheap building material in orbit, and if the test boreholes last year are anything to go by, hydrogen rocket fuel too.
Then we can start to do the really interesting projects like expanding the L1 station with an in orbit construction berth, building a space based solar power network, and even constructing large rotational space habitats where hundreds, not just a dozen or so, people can live.

Oh yes! I'd completely forgotten about L1, Moonlab to the enthusiasts. I'm still not entirely comfortable with the mine at Tranquility, yes they've taken great pains to site it as far from the Eagle landing stage as possible, but as an Apollo enthusiast its holy ground. Plus when I'm taking the grandkids out from Shackleton City (it was that or call it 'Moony McMoonface') I want to be able to show them where it all started, without a bloody big mine in the face.

 

[Whiteshore]

We should go to Mars and expand our prescence in Antarctica with the Antarctic settlements the US, the USSR, Britain, Norway, and China (OOC: See Argentina's Esperanza Base or Chile's Villa las Estrellas for good OTL analogies) have set up being expanded.

 

[Ato]

Oh yes! I'd completely forgotten about L1, Moonlab to the enthusiasts. I'm still not entirely comfortable with the mine at Tranquility, yes they've taken great pains to site it as far from the Eagle landing stage as possible, but as an Apollo enthusiast its holy ground. Plus when I'm taking the grandkids out from Shackleton City (it was that or call it 'Moony McMoonface') I want to be able to show them where it all started, without a bloody big mine in the face.

With only a handful of people on the moon and limited ability to move long distances they had to put the mine nearby to the moon base for ease of maintenance and construction. And in any case it;s not like you can actually see it from the Eagle landing site. That and the close proximity means that expanding the moon base with mooncrete structures will be relatively easy. Using precious fuel and the Lunar Hopper to move construction material about is not really the best use of resources.

 

[Luath]

With only a handful of people on the moon and limited ability to move long distances they had to put the mine nearby to the moon base for ease of maintenance and construction. And in any case it;s not like you can actually see it from the Eagle landing site. That and the close proximity means that expanding the moon base with mooncrete structures will be relatively easy. Using precious fuel and the Lunar Hopper to move construction material about is not really the best use of resources.

Fair enough, I'm probably underestimating the size of Tranquality, as good as the Hopper is, I do feel a lot more comfortable with the light railway going in. Better to put the material on a track and roll it to where its need, than risk it smashing into the surface, or worse one of the modules.

 

[Tales Weaver]

We should go to Mars and expand our prescence in Antarctica with the Antarctic settlements the US, the USSR, Britain, Norway, and China (OOC: See Argentina's Esperanza Base or Chile's Villa las Estrellas for good OTL analogies) have set up being expanded.

Well.. We are sending drones to Mars anyways..

 

[bunhead]

I think nowadays we forget how much time, money, and energy goes into space travel. It's way more normal than it was even like 20 years ago. The orbital tugs have put us way ahead, and even though the Mars missions were mostly just inspiration porn, they also had legit use as surveying missions. We'll get humans on Mars, I think it'll just take a while. Mining on the moon can be a little stop-and-go, I think the main problem they're dealing with (at least, what the Engineers I know have been complaining about) is getting mining to actually function in a low-grav environment without killing anybody. I think if we rush, we'll have another Challenger 8 on our hands and it'll accomplish nothing but death and bad PR. That's not to say that Mars is out of reach, it's just that it'll be a lot safer if we take our time. As for the Moon, it's getting a lot more livable. We'll probably have kids born there in another 15 years.

 

[Riain]

I thought the moon was to be used as an aid to human physiology when people start doing the long hauls out to Mars and back. A bit of time on the 1/6 Moon gravity after a year in space will help prime the pump for the physical recovery to return to Earth, lifting weights on the moon is better than what can be done in micro gravity in space. We can't really ditch it until we build artifical gravity spacecraft.

 

[thekingsguard]

We should absolutely keep at it on the moon... the tech pioneered by the lunar programs alone has made any investment get returned one hundred fold.

I want to get to Mars eventually too, but every extra step we learn about colonizing the moon means we don't need to do it on Mars.

 

[VGRG]

Hm... does anyone know, if the rumors about the restart of Project Horizon are true or not? I mean, I'm welcome to more Moon exploration, but military outpost there....