A why to get a mobile camera to the moon.

originally posted by: glend
Google X prize is offering 30 million so there's a bit of extra incentive for you. Many martian rocks have reached earth from asteroid impacts on mars so you really don't need a rocket to send matter into space, a large enough cannon will do it (aka Jules Verne in one of his novels wrote about sending men to moon by using a cannon etc.).

Uhm.....no. On the "large enough cannon" part.

Mars rocks end up on Earth, not because they were shot from a cannon, but due to a large meteor impact.....which is a LOT stronger than any cannon.

More like nuclear explosion force.

a reply to: eriktheawful

Thats an idea, why muck around, nuke it up there. Project HARP in 60's used a 100 caliber gun to fire a 400 lb slug up 110 miles but didn't reach orbital speed.

a reply to: glend

There was a plan at one time:

Project Orion

a reply to: eriktheawful Yes heard of Project Orion. The idea of using nuclear propulsion for interstellar travel is interesting. Accelerating at 1G takes something like 2 years to reach close to the speed of light so its not out of the realms of possibility. Not holding my breath, taking forever to send people to mars.

originally posted by: lord sword

My idea is get a solar powered remote control vehicle.

Your idea is only "in principle" working, but it's the details where the problems are.

You cannot just get some "consumer electronics" like a RC vehicle and a camera, get it to the moon and then expect it to work.

There is a vacuum. There are extreme temperatures. There is extreme radiation.

Let's just pick ONE, the temps:

"During the day the temperature on the Moon can reach 253 Fahrenheit (123 Celsius), while at night it can drop to -387 Fahrenheit (-233 Celsius)."

No... go ahead and put a car or any "consumer grade" vehicle or electronics up there, and see how they will operate at fricking -387 F or +253 F for that matter.

And of course, the problem of HOW to get it to the moon (and have the equipment also survive the travel) not even looked at.

Look, there is a reason why we spent billions (and DO spend billions) on getting man, and probes to the Moon or the Mars. If it were so simple as your post implies, we wouldn't have thousands of people/scientists involved...and billions spent. It's not something simple a handful of "enthusiasts" can get done, spending "a little money" ("little" as in a few millions)..then get to work in a shack and then expect successfully to put a probe up on the Moon.

originally posted by: NoRulesAllowed
..."During the day the temperature on the Moon can reach 253 Fahrenheit (123 Celsius), while at night it can drop to -387 Fahrenheit (-233 Celsius)."...

And as I said in an earlier post, the nights on the Moon last for about two weeks (after about 2 weeks of daylight).

So even if you could use the solar cells to charge a battery to power heaters that could get through the darkness for a short time, I really doubt you could cheaply provide a system that could power heaters for a long two-week lunar night.