Will NASA Send Robots to the Moon with "Project M?

www.universetoday.com...

Quote from source:This video surfaced today on NASA Watch, but there's not a lot of details about Project M. According to the America Space website, Project M is a program being developed out of the Johnson Space Center Engineering Directorate to put a lander on the moon with a robot. Supposedly, the mission could be done within a 1,000 days once the project got the go-ahead.

It would be different than other NASA projects in that there would be no prime contractors, but just using "the best engineers in the world to get the job done on time," said America Space.
Cryptically, the website also says the project has been “go” since Monday, November 9th, 2009.

I personally think this is a good idea rather than sending humans. It would be a step in the right direction.

Any thoughts?

Pred...

Originally posted by predator0187
www.universetoday.com...

Quote from source:This video surfaced today on NASA Watch, but there's not a lot of details about Project M. According to the America Space website, Project M is a program being developed out of the Johnson Space Center Engineering Directorate to put a lander on the moon with a robot. Supposedly, the mission could be done within a 1,000 days once the project got the go-ahead.

It would be different than other NASA projects in that there would be no prime contractors, but just using "the best engineers in the world to get the job done on time," said America Space.
Cryptically, the website also says the project has been “go” since Monday, November 9th, 2009.

I personally think this is a good idea rather than sending humans. It would be a step in the right direction.

Any thoughts?

Pred...

The problem is that they have had this ability for decades, hell Russia had I think 3 "tanks" on the moon being controlled by remote control from earth. It would be easy to put up a large rover/robotic individual to actually map, dig and travel that whole planet in detail to get a better idea of what it can and cannot support in resources. They get essentiallyl real time control of a device on another planet (moon) and can have it do experiments also. I'm surprised other countries haven't put stuff on the moon moving or not to expand their knowledge base on space and the ability to live on that particular rock. I think that something was found and/or seen on the surface and as others have said we where warned off that moon or as I think we where scared off the moon seeing things that we shouldn't be seeing.

reply to post by hoghead cheese


That is a possibility that maybe we saw things that we could not explain, but if that was the case they would have had more instruments up there to discover what it was. I can see it though.

I don't really know the case about thew moon and why we stopped going there, I know funding issues and everything but the government has more money than we could imagine. They could have sent space crafts up there and not even let the public know.

I think the possibility of something up there warning us not to come back is a little weird because the government listens to no one and has the biggest case of little big man syndrome out there. If we were told not to come back we would not have went back so many times and we would have done it out of spite.

Pred...

I had a great conversation today with one of the engineers working on this project. Yes folks, they are going to send C3PO to the moon!!!! Well sort of. . . They are working on a bipedal robot which will conduct experiments on the moon. It is real, it will happen and it is a quick turnaround project given that they have only 1000 days to do it in.

But just because it is quick, it doesn't mean that it is crappy. They have chosen a different type of path for the project. Instead of choosing one typical contractor, they have decided to simply go for the best of the best where ever they find them. Engineers who have worked for years on similar projects around the nation are now focused on giving their best, because they all want a big win on this one.

Men and women who grew up fascinated with the Apollo program are at this very minute designing the payload capsule and writing computer code to make sure that this will go off without a hitch. It will use a smaller rocket as robots do not require an extensive life support system.

I will have a more in depth meeting with the engineer later on, and will come back with more details, but make no mistake, this mission will capture the imagination of minds the world over. Imagine, a humanoid robot, walking across the moon, remotely directed, and perhaps even preparing the way for Mankind's return.

Besides doing real time science experiments, such robots could build habitats for future astronauts. They could mine water and minerals, and extract oxygen from the soil to supply a base before we even arrive. They could even repair each other. C3PO is real and will soon be our eyes and hands on the Moon.
Stay tuned . . .

reply to post by Terapin


I think this is great and exactly what we should be doing.

Awesome to see that you have spoke to one of the engineers of this project and it would be neat to find out all of the information on this.

That is all I thought when I was reading this is that they will be able to set a base up there for human astronauts. They could literally have everything done up there for us to come and just visit. IT would be amazing a a bigger leap for mankind than when we landed on the moon.

Thanks for stopping by and I am looking forward to your future posts on this subject!

Pred...

Wow this is cool. I was just lamenting our lack of rovers on the moon. We don't we hav a few up there taking samples, readings, photos and videos? It's almost criminal that all we have is footage from the 70's of the moon.