FAA Advisory Group Endorses “Moon Village” Concept

WASHINGTON — A Federal Aviation Administration advisory committee has recommended that the FAA start discussions with the European Space Agency about commercial participation in an international lunar base concept promoted by the agency’s leader.
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And which of the images from these 2 pages will most likely be what the villagers will see?

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a reply to: GaryN

Let's hope they get this thing going for real.

a reply to: GaryN

Pretty Cool. I wonder why they want to go to the far side? It would seem better protected to be on the moon surface facing Earth to avoid meteorites (still called that on the moon vs earth of meteors), and meteoroids, etc. And if there is some kind of base on the other side that isn't of human origin, things could get real interesting real quick. I think people would like the view better also of Earth. Maybe they don't want us to be able to see the base through telescopes and what they may be up to or catch some alien ship checking out the base, or destroying it if they truly don't want us on the moon.

It will be cool to see, but I think we have more pressing issues right here on Earth.

originally posted by: GaryN
And which of the images from these 2 pages will most likely be what the villagers will see?

spacenews.com...

spacenews.com...

Neither. With sunlit objects in their field of view, they won't see stars like that.

originally posted by: Saint Exupery

originally posted by: GaryN
And which of the images from these 2 pages will most likely be what the villagers will see?

spacenews.com...

spacenews.com...

Neither. With sunlit objects in their field of view, they won't see stars like that.

But (given that the village will be on the far side) when the night falls, they will see a jaw-dropping multitude of stars, like the Apollo astronauts did.

Anders said they were in darkness as they were, "just starting to go around, behind the moon, still in contact with the Earth, but in the shadow of not only the sun but also Earth shine, Earth shine being six times brighter than moon shine."

It was at that time Anders looked out of his window and, "saw all these stars, more stars than you could pick out constellations from

www.nasa.gov...

We should have lunar bace down by now setting our sites at mars. Humanity is slow to rise

a reply to: spirit_horse

I wonder why they want to go to the far side?

The Moon's bulk would shield radio-telescopes from Earth-based interference.

originally posted by: Folaquaponics
We should have lunar bace down by now setting our sites at mars. Humanity is slow to rise

There has been no economic justification to build lunar bases yet. (Jack Schmitt got upset when I pointed out that there has been no progress in Helium 3 research in nearly 10 years.) Building a scientific station remains the only reason to go. In addition to astronomy, it could perform a number of biological and materials science experiments crucial to long term space exploration. As the lunar transportation system improves, tourism will follow.

If you research 'big projects' you'll find:

$8B - US - Human Genome Project
$2B - US - Superconducting Supercollider - incomplete, dumped in the early 90s by congress (porkbarrel politics?)
$xB - CERN
$30B(?) - FermiLab/LHC
$xB(?) - US - Tevatron
$25B - Space Station (ISS) hard to calculate, benefits were niche mostly
$x B - ILC - collider

It's clear that big projects which get international cooperation are the best survivors. If we can get most of the nations of the world to get on board with a Lunar Village it has larger unintended effects than simply He3.

originally posted by: DJW001
a reply to: spirit_horse

I wonder why they want to go to the far side?

The Moon's bulk would shield radio-telescopes from Earth-based interference.

Thanks! That makes complete scientific sense. I didn't even think about that fact.

i seem to see some variation of this idea pop up every couple of years or so.. hopefully this time it really takes off

although perhaps not in this manner...