"Scratching for Water on the Moon"

[OnyxCougar]

From Yahoo
International Declaration Signed Advocating Return to the Moon
Fri Dec 5,12:01 PM ET

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By Leonard David
Senior Space Writer, SPACE.com





If speculation turns fact that President George Bush is supporting a NASA (news - web sites) return to the Moon, he is not alone in wanting to go the lunar distance. Numbers of nations -- China, India, Japan, among them -- are making plans to explore the Moon.

A worldwide gathering of lunar experts has called for a sequence of technological, exploratory and commercial missions culminating in the establishment a human presence on the Moon.

The declaration -- issued December 4 -- was hammered out following a major international meeting of scientists, engineers, and mission planners, held November 16-22 on Hawai`i Island, Hawaii.

The weeklong gathering brought together representatives from the major spacefaring nations under the banner of the International Lunar Exploration Working Group (ILEWG). This was the fifth gathering of nations that are actively pursuing exploration of the Moon, said Steve Durst, a key conference organizer and head of Space Age Publishing Company with offices in Hawaii.

Durst told SPACE.com that the meeting was goal oriented, rather than just academic, with the purpose of the conference to see people back on the Moon within the decade. The next ILEWG meeting is to be held next November in India, he said, with China or Europe to host the working group in 2005.

Compelling questions evolved from the conference, Dust said, such as:

* What national, international or commercial mission will be first to establish a toehold for Lunar Civilization?

* Where and what will that toehold be on the Moon: a power station, observatory, or perhaps a communications hub and resource processing plant complex at Malapert Mountain at the Moon's South Pole. Another site of major interest is Shackleton crater, perhaps the location of water ice, hidden from the Sun's warming rays.

Global Perspective

The document is labeled as "The Hawaii Moon Declaration" and provides a unique, global perspective regarding the importance of the Moon in the 21st century.

The declaration is produced here in its entirety, courtesy of Space Age Publishing Company:

"The Moon is currently the focus of an international program of scientific investigation. Current missions underway or planned will lead to the future use of the Moon for science and commercial development, thereby multiplying opportunities for humanity in space and on Earth. We need the Moon for many reasons: to use its resources of materials and energy to provide for our future needs in space and on Earth, to establish a second reservoir of human culture in the event of a terrestrial catastrophe, and to study and understand the universe. The next step in human exploration beyond low Earth orbit logically is to the Moon, our closest celestial neighbor in the Solar System."

"Declaring this, we note large gaps in our understanding and knowledge must be addressed before the Moon can fully serve the noble purposes we identify. Many nations are conducting or planning lunar missions (ESA - SMART 1; Japan - Lunar A, SELENE; China - Chang'e; and India - Chandrayaan 1) that offer an opportunity for international cooperation fundamental for long-term public and private development and science. We strongly support the continued development of these missions. However, more knowledge is needed, requiring more complex capabilities than are now planned, including the first landings of spacecraft on the Moon since the Luna and Apollo programs of the 1960s and 1970s."

Major thrusts

"During the International Lunar Conference 2003, we identified a number of main thrusts for an expanded lunar program: assessment and use of potential ice/water resources at the lunar poles for human use; development of energy resources for both Moon and Earth and establishment of lunar astrophysical observatories. We have concluded that, for the future development of the Moon, the deposits of hydrogen indicated by the USA Clementine and Lunar Prospector missions must be fully understood to confirm their nature and importance for future planetary exploration, development and human settlement."

"We recommend a sequence of technology, exploration and commercial missions on the road to this human Moon presence. We support the goals of a comprehensive series of missions including polar orbiters and landers, South Pole-Aitken Sample Return, Selene-B, Lunar Globe and [the European Space Agency's] Aurora lunar demonstrator. We advocate robotic engineering precursors for in-situ resource utilization and deployment of infrastructures preparing for human-tended operations."

"To encourage and stimulate the peaceful and progressive development of the Moon, we recommend that the international community of national space agencies, companies and individuals operate and maintain an exploratory mission at a pole of the Moon to serve as a catalyst for future human missions within a decade."

"Our vision is one of expanding humanity into space on an endless journey. We believe a human return to the Moon is the next step into the Solar System and the future of the human race," the declaration concludes.

It's about time we got up there and started polluting and raping the moon, damn it!.

[elSicomoro]

Well, we WERE the first country to put people there...it's practically ours anyway.

[Kitsune]

If speculation turns fact that President George Bush is supporting a NASA (news - web sites) return to the Moon, he is not alone in wanting to go the lunar distance.

Yeah, his daddy also said in a speech during his term that he supported us getting to Mars. Riiight.

[Elspode]

I think that everyone needs to read Heinlein's "The Moon is a Harsh Mistress" before being allowed to make any sort of policy on the future colonization and use of our satellite. Mellow people need to be the ones to go there, because they will command the ultimate high ground.

It would be so embarassing to lose a war where the enemy's only weapon was throwing rocks at us.

[quzah]

Originally posted by sycamore
Well, we WERE the first country to put people there...it's practically ours anyway.

That's the only thing we did first in space. The Russians beat us to everything else. We had to make some goal we could pull off first. I wish the Russians would have beaten us there too. Then perhaps we'd actually have put a person on Mars by now.

Quzah.

[insoluble]

I give it 5 years before the moon is covered with trash and trailer park-esque stations. I give it 15 years until the stations are flanked by McDonalds and Starbucks. Dumbass expansionist politicians!

[quzah]

Originally posted by insoluble
I give it 5 years before the moon is covered with trash and trailer park-esque stations. I give it 15 years until the stations are flanked by McDonalds and Starbucks. Dumbass expansionist politicians!

The only reason the US is interested in it is because China has stated that they're going to put up a moon base. Period.

Quzah.

[xoxoxoBruce]

Originally posted by quzah

That's the only thing we did first in space. The Russians beat us to everything else. We had to make some goal we could pull off first. I wish the Russians would have beaten us there too. Then perhaps we'd actually have put a person on Mars by now.

Quzah.

Why go to Mars? Or anywhere else for that matter.

[wolf]

Because it's cool?

[Kitsune]

Originally posted by xoxoxoBruce
Why go to Mars? Or anywhere else for that matter.

I have a really tough time describing why I think it is important for us to explore space, but at the risk of sounding like so many low budget sci-fi flicks on television: "It's what we do."

Its human nature to explore and find out what is out there. That, and at the rate we're trashing this place, we'll need to find some other place to live one day. Maybe.

I've heard a lot of people clamoring at their outrage over how much of their precious tax dollars are being pumped into NASA to launch aging vehicles into orbit only to not return a profit each year. Even more are asking if NASA should still exist and why we should even consider sending people into space, anymore. Maybe I'm lost in some foolish dreams or maybe I live too close to the cape (we see anything they send up, even from this side of the state), but I think the space program is still fairly important.

That and you can't ignore that those things are really pretty going up. After seeing the launch below from across the intercoastal (Columbia's second to last mission), I can't say that I've ever experienced anything so awe-inspiring.

[elSicomoro]

Originally posted by xoxoxoBruce
Why go to Mars? Or anywhere else for that matter.

Because we can. And b/c no one tells us that we can't do anything...this IS the United States after all.

[xoxoxoBruce]

I've been in favor of the space program up to this point and can't deny the tremendous strides in technology it's brought. But the benefit of going out further is questionable, especially on my nickel. The older I get, the less beneficial the tostesterone boosts from those launches gets.
The cost of going to Mars or beyond could fix up the Earth real pretty so we wouldn't have to move.

[insoluble]

Originally posted by xoxoxoBruce
I've been in favor of the space program up to this point and can't deny the tremendous strides in technology it's brought. But the benefit of going out further is questionable, especially on my nickel. The older I get, the less beneficial the tostesterone boosts from those launches gets.
The cost of going to Mars or beyond could fix up the Earth real pretty so we wouldn't have to move.

I agree that we don't really NEED to be going anywhere, but are you really saying that money could convince the world populace to stop shitting where they eat and preserve this magically "fixed up" new earth? I disagree.

[Kitsune]

Originally posted by insoluble

I agree that we don't really NEED to be going anywhere, but are you really saying that money could convince the world populace to stop shitting where they eat and preserve this magically "fixed up" new earth? I disagree.

I found it interesting that people's heads explode when they see the numbers in NASA's budget. That number, when compared to the rest of the US budget, is a drop a large pool. Hell, the money we spend on policing other countries is several magnitude greater and at least with space exploration we get more good out of it than another country hating us from screwing stuff up for them.

[Torrere]

Originally posted by insoluble


I agree that we don't really NEED to be going anywhere, but are you really saying that money could convince the world populace to stop shitting where they eat and preserve this magically "fixed up" new earth? I disagree.

Shit is very good fertilizer, and it often includes seeds of foods that we like to eat.