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A moon landing in 2024? NASA says it'll happen

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Re: A moon landing in 2024? NASA says it'll happen

#41

Post by desc »

This could be done, if everyone involved were willing to accept massive risk to the lives of the astronauts (including the astronauts, obviously).

By which I mean, after hurriedly building rockets and testing them, finally going ahead with a backup rocket and crew to meet the deadline if the first one blows up on the pad.

With the risk of the backup doing the same...

If they're simply gambling on technology and engineering these days 'being faster', they're doomed to failure and I hope the individuals involved don't wind up killing anyone.

Re: A moon landing in 2024? NASA says it'll happen

#42

Post by Someone »

sandworm101 wrote: post #35

No chance. This isn't the 1950s. We don't just throw people atop rockets anymore. These are vehicles, aircraft. There is absolutely no way any of the current crop of space vehicles could be made ready for a trip to the moon anytime before 2024. Going beyond low orbit, away from the sub-45min return time, is something we haven't done in generations. The craft need to be tested, repeatedly. Each test flight then has to…

Also, combine ”NASA says contracts to build a lunar lander could be awarded in late February or March.” with https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apollo_Lunar_Module#History.

For the LM, the contract was awarded in September 1962, and first flight (unmanned) was in January, 1968.

So, even Apollo’s aggressive schedule needed more time to first flight than what NASA would have now between awarding the contract and landing humans on the moon.

Re: A moon landing in 2024? NASA says it'll happen

#44

Post by mindcrime »

Taniwha wrote: post #11

uh-oh, time to take the secret sound stage in Arizona out of mothballs ....

Okay, boss, this LTX-71 concealable mike is part of the same system that NASA used when they faked the Apollo Moon landings. They had the astronauts broadcast around the world from a sound stage at Norton Air Force Base in San Bernadino, California. So it worked for them, shouldn't give us too many problems.

Re: A moon landing in 2024? NASA says it'll happen

#45

Post by carlosdp »

melling wrote: post #33
njarboe wrote: post #7

'"I am more interested in maximizing the odds of success for this bold undertaking and making it as safe as any human journey into the deep space can be, than I am in having NASA meet arbitrary deadlines," Rep. Eddie Bernice Johnson — a Democrat from Texas and the chairwoman of the House Committee on Science, Space, and Technology — said at a recent hearing.' Waiting to make a journey until it is "as safe as can be"…

Here we go again... Why I remember almost 6 years ago, after the Virgin Galactic crash, when we debated the merits of humans in space. https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=8540279 Anyway, I think I lost and people were confident that Virgin Galactic would soon be back. I’ll just repost one of my summary thoughts. The entire thread is worth reading. It’ll probably be repeated in some form today. “ Someone dying is dev…

I mean, we have already been exploring the solar system with machines, for a good while. Humans are much more capable today (and for the foreseeable future) at conducting a wide range of tasks in space than the machines we can currently send up.

It could be argued it would be faster to send humans up to build the infrastructure for more humans now (in the near future) than it would be to wait for robotics to get advanced enough to build that infrastructure for us in space environments.

Re: A moon landing in 2024? NASA says it'll happen

#47

Post by Mountain_Skies »

mindcrime wrote: post #44
Taniwha wrote: post #11

uh-oh, time to take the secret sound stage in Arizona out of mothballs ....

Okay, boss, this LTX-71 concealable mike is part of the same system that NASA used when they faked the Apollo Moon landings. They had the astronauts broadcast around the world from a sound stage at Norton Air Force Base in San Bernadino, California. So it worked for them, shouldn't give us too many problems.

I'm never sure when watching that movie if Dan Aykroyd is acting or just being himself.

Re: A moon landing in 2024? NASA says it'll happen

#48

Post by melling »

carlosdp wrote: post #45
melling wrote: post #33

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Here we go again... Why I remember almost 6 years ago, after the Virgin Galactic crash, when we debated the merits of humans in space. https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=8540279 Anyway, I think I lost and people were confident that Virgin Galactic would soon be back. I’ll just repost one of my summary thoughts. The entire thread is worth reading. It’ll probably be repeated in some form today. “ Someone dying is dev…

I mean, we have already been exploring the solar system with machines, for a good while. Humans are much more capable today (and for the foreseeable future) at conducting a wide range of tasks in space than the machines we can currently send up. It could be argued it would be faster to send humans up to build the infrastructure for more humans now (in the near future) than it would be to wait for robotics to get adva…

We accelerate the development of our machines and iterate faster with the extra money saved by not sending humans.

At some point in the future, our machines will do most of what we can. The advanced robotics, etc will pay an extra dividend on earth too.

Re: A moon landing in 2024? NASA says it'll happen

#49

Post by njarboe »

melling wrote: post #33
njarboe wrote: post #7

'"I am more interested in maximizing the odds of success for this bold undertaking and making it as safe as any human journey into the deep space can be, than I am in having NASA meet arbitrary deadlines," Rep. Eddie Bernice Johnson — a Democrat from Texas and the chairwoman of the House Committee on Science, Space, and Technology — said at a recent hearing.' Waiting to make a journey until it is "as safe as can be"…

Here we go again... Why I remember almost 6 years ago, after the Virgin Galactic crash, when we debated the merits of humans in space. https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=8540279 Anyway, I think I lost and people were confident that Virgin Galactic would soon be back. I’ll just repost one of my summary thoughts. The entire thread is worth reading. It’ll probably be repeated in some form today. “ Someone dying is dev…

Someone dying is devastating if you have a connection to that person. People die every second and if everyone was devastated by every death then the world would grind to a halt. The first people going into deep space dying would be devastating to billions because billions of people will feel a personal connection to the person dying. This is a grave thing causing so much pain, but hopefully space travel can become a boring activity like landing a rocket has after 80 successful ones.

If people aren't going to space it not being conquered. Explored, but not lived in. About 270 men left on the Magellan expedition and 18 returned. Some people are willing to take that kind of risk for the right kind of project/adventure. I give my best wishes to those who wish to try.

Re: A moon landing in 2024? NASA says it'll happen

#50

Post by njarboe »

johnchristopher wrote: post #36
mattigames wrote: post #30

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"Safe as can be" is completely subjective, maybe in 1000 years it will be 100% safe due new technological advances and improvements in simulations, so "as safe as can be" is likely to be way after we are no longer alive.

"Safe as can be" is objective, it means that considering what we know, our tech and what may go wrong we can say "we are not going to be able to make it safer before a long time, we have eliminated random threats we can foresee but we can't prevent what we don't know that could happen from ever happening". That's what `as safe as can be` mean. `As safe as can be` doesn't mean 100% safe. You are conflating the unknown…

Spacecraft are on the edge of known technology. New components, materials, designs, computer simulations, etc., are being created all the time. What we know is constantly changing so "safer before a long time" does not really apply.
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