Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

NASA unveils new moon suit

forth.news

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

61–70 of 71 posts

Re: NASA unveils new moon suit

#61

Post by kevin_thibedeau »

chrisco255 wrote: post #28
gibolt wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Starship will be the rocket delivering them to the surface. It is likely to have a first orbital test within the next 3 months. That will be a major milestone, approaching the capability to once again land and return humans from the lunar surface.

What I don't understand is why is the SLS being used to transport the humans to lunar orbit but the Starship HLS is supposed to take them to the surface? Why not just ride the Starship the whole way?

The lander won't be a regular starship. It doesn't have a thermal protection system or the wings since they're just non-functional dead weight. They'll need another vehicle to get home.

Re: NASA unveils new moon suit

#62

Post by [deleted] »

jaredwiener wrote: post #59
pndy wrote: post #41

Earlier quoted context omitted.

https://news.ycombinator.com/from?site=forth.news - 6 links total, all uploaded by OPs account

OP here. Yes, this is my site -- though I am not the author. We are a news feed for news, trying to recreate the social media experience (brevity, following who you want, etc) with a feed populated exclusively by journalists. You can click on any author's name to see their bio, affiliations, and other threads.

[deleted]

Re: NASA unveils new moon suit

#63

Post by kevin_thibedeau »

908B64B197 wrote: post #31

Am-I the only one to be completely uninterested by Artemis? We're still using the same approach as in the 1960's. No reusable rocket, no in-situ resource utilization, no new breakthrough tech. What's the point of returning? To prove we haven't regressed since the 60's?

The gateway station will provide experience operating outside LEO. That's a valuable thing to pursue. Lunar operations give gateway something to do while advancing the tech stack.

Re: NASA unveils new moon suit

#64

Post by MisterTea »

jaredwiener wrote: post #59
pndy wrote: post #41

Earlier quoted context omitted.

https://news.ycombinator.com/from?site=forth.news - 6 links total, all uploaded by OPs account

OP here. Yes, this is my site -- though I am not the author. We are a news feed for news, trying to recreate the social media experience (brevity, following who you want, etc) with a feed populated exclusively by journalists. You can click on any author's name to see their bio, affiliations, and other threads.

> We are a news feed for news

With a name like forth.news I expected the programming language but instead I found a namespace collision.

Re: NASA unveils new moon suit

#65

Post by wernerb »

It stands out to me that it is not white but black with red accents. A pure white suit would surely be more visible right I'm guessing. If an accident occurs and you are lying half in the regolith with the red accents as the only visual guide, i can't help but think a white suit would be better.

Maybe a white suit gets dirty easily from the regolith anyway so they went with dark to start with ?

Re: NASA unveils new moon suit

#66

Post by grecy »

whatshisface wrote: post #44
grecy wrote: post #37

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Because then there would be no reason for SLS, and all the jobs it creates. At this point it's widely accepted the SLS design is already obsolete with no reuse, is wildly expensive, and is extremely delayed. But it creates a lot of jobs in areas where congressmen want to get reelected, so they keep it going. Sooner or later it will die and Starship will take over, but it's going milk many more billions before then.

SLS is not obsolete until Starship flies. That's probably coming soon, but it hasn't happened yet. If the delays hadn't happened it would have been around a few years before Starship and gotten some good use.

> If the delays hadn't happened it would have been around a few years before Starship and gotten some good use

It costs $2.2 BILLION per launch, and it only launches ~once per year.

That doesn't sound like "some good use" to me.

Re: NASA unveils new moon suit

#67

Post by chrisco255 »

kevin_thibedeau wrote: post #61
chrisco255 wrote: post #28

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What I don't understand is why is the SLS being used to transport the humans to lunar orbit but the Starship HLS is supposed to take them to the surface? Why not just ride the Starship the whole way?

The lander won't be a regular starship. It doesn't have a thermal protection system or the wings since they're just non-functional dead weight. They'll need another vehicle to get home.

Yeah I get that the lunar lander is a different thing, but presumably you could pack a return module into the Starship payload as well? Or dock with a Dragon in LEO?

Re: NASA unveils new moon suit

#68

Post by SV_BubbleTime »

yamtaddle wrote: post #58
SV_BubbleTime wrote: post #11

[flagged]

> It’s 55 years later, and Artemis 2 is just planned for next year to do a manned lunar orbit. And MAYBE a landing rig and walk for 2025. We’re using 2023 methods and engineering to develop suits that will work. We have vastly more computing and skills and materials. Our rockets are 50 years better. I'll be the first to talk shit about the SLS, but we've spent about 1/5 as much money so far, inflation-adjusted, and p…

> We're also way worse at building subway tunnels—slower and less efficient per dollar spent.

I think that’s a very good take.

Re: NASA unveils new moon suit

#69

Post by SV_BubbleTime »

taylodl wrote: post #35
rtkwe wrote: post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Reasons we never went back: 1) It was principally a national pride competition between the US and USSR so when the US succeeded there wasn't much of a reason to go there. We gathered loads of rocks for all the science we could want to do for a long time (they're still cracking open fresh samples to this day). 2) There's not that much economically or scientifically on the moon to really investigate that needs people t…

Now we're going back with a plan. Not just to win the space race, but to start laying the foundation for a permanent moon base that we can use as a way point for going to Mars. The financial woes of the 70's combined with the substantial cost overruns of the Shuttle Craft killed Congress' appetite for further investment. Modern technology has substantially lowered the costs so we've revived the idea.

As for a takeoff point to mars… we still need to get all the stuff to the moon, so what exactly is the point there? To refine on site?

Re: NASA unveils new moon suit

#70

Post by SV_BubbleTime »

macintux wrote: post #57
SV_BubbleTime wrote: post #11

[flagged]

> …even implied it? There were plenty of ways to ask “why haven’t we been back in 50 years” without dragging in conspiracies, or even “how do I refute the conspiracy theories” without saying “this one has a ton of logical sense backing it up”. It didn’t sound like a good faith question, and it’s an extraordinarily tired argument, so you got downvoted.

I apologize that you were triggered by words. None of it was bad faith.
Post reply on HN