NASA Eyes Plan for Deep-Space Outpost Near the Moon

NASA is pressing forward on assessing the value of a "human-tended waypoint" near the far side of the moon — one that would embrace international partnerships as well as commercial and academic participation, SPACE.com has learned.

According to a Feb. 3 memo from William Gerstenmaier, NASA's associate administrator for human exploration and operations, a team is being formed to develop a cohesive plan for exploring a spot in space known as the Earth-moon libration point 2 (EML-2).

Libration points, also known as Lagrangian points, are places in space where the combined gravitational pull of two large masses roughly balance each other out, allowing spacecraft to essentially "park" there.

A pre-memo NASA appraisal of EML-2, which is near the lunar far side, has spotlighted this destination as the "leading option" for a near-term exploration capability. [Gallery: Visions of Deep-Space Station Missions]

EML-2 could serve as a gateway for capability-driven exploration of multiple destinations, such as near-lunar space, asteroids, the moon, the moons of Mars and, ultimately, Mars itself, according to NASA officials.

While I find this story interesting,
Why is it that they at least appear to continue to stay away from doing anything on the moon itself??

If NASA succeeds in establishing an astronaut-tended EML-2 waypoint, it would represent the farthest humans have traveled from Earth to date, the memo points out.

LINK

It will be really interesting to see if an International arrangement can be achieved.Stop killing each other long enough to actually move forward...

Gerstenmaier noted that moving forward on international, commercial and academic partnerships will "require significant detailed development and integration."

reply to post by wutz4tom


Talking about some lunar surface activity at the end...

Among a number of research jobs, the LUNAR team has been investigating how modest equipment could be used to fuse lunar regolith into a concrete-like material, which could then be used for construction of large structures, without the expense of having to carry most of the material to the lunar surface.
The ability to fabricate hardened structures from lunar regolith could also foster on-the-spot creation of solar arrays, habitats, and radiation shielding and maybe, even roadways on the surface of the moon.

Probably no budget for this near future.

How about they figure out a replacement for the space shuttle first, and *then* start making plans for some lunar base with moon buggies and a space bar ?

How about something with gravity-propulsion systems for a change ?

reply to post by kawika


Unfortunately, you are probably correct.
Its at least nice to see some talk space activity in the news.
Thnx

is there not a lot of radiation the farther you get from earth? how would they man the station for prolonged periods

reply to post by H1ght3chHippie


I'm really having a hard time believing our space plans have died with the shuttles end...
I would not be one bit surprised if we have something far superior to the shuttle...
problem is technology runs so far ahead of whats released to the public... we are basically clueless.
Thnx

reply to post by wlord


Van Allen radiation belt

link

reply to post by wutz4tom


What is space radiation?

The word 'radiation' has to do with energy or matter moving through space. There are many forms of radiation that astronomers and physicists know about. Sunlight is a form of electromagnetic radiation produced by the sun, but so is ultraviolet radiation, infrared radiation and gamma radiation. Any heated body produces electromagnetic radiation.

We also use the term 'radiation' to describe fast-moving particles of matter. One form of these found in space is cosmic radiation or more commonly 'cosmic rays'. They are not made of light energy, but are actually the nuclei of atoms such as hydrogen, helium, iron and others, which travel through space at hundreds of thousands of kilometers per second. Some electrons in the cosmic rays travel at nearly the speed of light.

An even more exotic form of radiation that is not made of light or matter, is neutrino radiation. Neutrinos are particles that travel at the speed of light just like electromagnetic radiation, but they are not made of matter and are also not produced by electric or magnetic fields. Any body that is hot enough to fuse hydrogen into helium such as the center of our Sun, is also producing neutrino particles too. These particles slip right past ordinary matter and can escape from the core of the sun in only a few seconds. Billions of these neutrino particles are flowing through your body every second! Like other forms of radiation, they carry energy away from the place where they were created. When they are absorbed, they deliver this energy to the body that absorbs them.

link

reply to post by wutz4tom


Intentions may be good ,but, this is very costly and unlikely to happen.
Will be placed very far down on the priority list.

The L-2 point is located on the far side of the Moon. It would constantly be out of radio communication with Earth, unless there were dedicated lunar satellites to "bounce" the signal. This would render the far side of the Moon useless as a platform for radio-astronomy, its chief attraction. The Manned Spaceflight Division apparently has nothing better to do at the moment but daydream.

Originally posted by wutz4tom

NASA is pressing forward on assessing the value of a "human-tended waypoint" near the far side of the moon — one that would embrace international partnerships as well as commercial and academic participation, SPACE.com has learned.

According to a Feb. 3 memo from William Gerstenmaier, NASA's associate administrator for human exploration and operations, a team is being formed to develop a cohesive plan for exploring a spot in space known as the Earth-moon libration point 2 (EML-2).

Libration points, also known as Lagrangian points, are places in space where the combined gravitational pull of two large masses roughly balance each other out, allowing spacecraft to essentially "park" there.

A pre-memo NASA appraisal of EML-2, which is near the lunar far side, has spotlighted this destination as the "leading option" for a near-term exploration capability. [Gallery: Visions of Deep-Space Station Missions]

EML-2 could serve as a gateway for capability-driven exploration of multiple destinations, such as near-lunar space, asteroids, the moon, the moons of Mars and, ultimately, Mars itself, according to NASA officials.

While I find this story interesting,
Why is it that they at least appear to continue to stay away from doing anything on the moon itself??

If NASA succeeds in establishing an astronaut-tended EML-2 waypoint, it would represent the farthest humans have traveled from Earth to date, the memo points out.

LINK

It will be really interesting to see if an International arrangement can be achieved.Stop killing each other long enough to actually move forward...

Gerstenmaier noted that moving forward on international, commercial and academic partnerships will "require significant detailed development and integration."

edit on 12-2-2012 by wutz4tom because: (no reason given)

edit on 12-2-2012 by wutz4tom because: (no reason given)

edit on 12-2-2012 by wutz4tom because: (no reason given)

This type of news really makes me LOL as they are probably's there already
as I type this.

NASA is saying that?

That is the military talking through their cod piece NASA.
That has been in the military's plan all along. Actually, probably the triangles already have made it so....

I have this great bit of BS book entitled: Military Space Forces: The Next 50 Years. It was commissioned by the US Congress to educate those ignorant in that bunch and to draw a civilian cover over what our military intended to do. The book was published through the Air Force in 1989. Interesting enough, they chose a man, John M. Collins to write the book but who admits in the forward that he knew nothing about that area. He was well schooled in Cold War studies of the Soviets, however.

The book, coming supposedly at the end of the Strategic Space Initiative program (Star Wars to us), exactly details what our priorities and plans are for the militarization of space. The book offers a timetable of how the Air Force will lead with the Navy and the Army moving into the hierarchy later. The Moon and the LaGrange points L4 and L5 are prominent in those plans.

A condensed concept of those plans are paraphrased with the use of Halford J. Mackinder's Heartland Theory applied to space.

"Who rules circumterrestrial space commands Planet Earth;
Who rules the Moon commands circumterrestrial space;
Who rules L4 and L5 commands the Earth-Moon System."


This was not some dream book, a wish for the future by the Air Force. It was a carefully structured plan of advancing to that state of being. At that time the triangles had been operational for several years and the fleet was undoubtedly growing in numbers and in areas of exploration. We need not doubt that the main mission has failed somewhere along the way.

Forget all of this talk about not going back to the Moon via rockets (or even on to Mars via rockets) there are no serious rockets and auxiliary equipment for such missions. The triangles make all of that complicated mess obsolute, they can come and go virtually quietly and invisibly from football fields if necessary.

Originally posted by Aliensun
NASA is saying that?

Forget all of this talk about not going back to the Moon via rockets (or even on to Mars via rockets) there are no serious rockets and auxiliary equipment for such missions. The triangles make all of that complicated mess obsolute, they can come and go virtually quietly and invisibly from football fields if necessary.

edit on 12-2-2012 by Aliensun because: (no reason given)

By this point in time im hoping a majority of the people are aware of this also, but who knows..

It would be awesome if the government/NASA gave us just a small peek at our military-space force.
Just a small glimpse into what they've kept hidden from us.

reply to post by Cosmic911


how is it they don't slip up?...if they did it would be so muddled with disinformation we may miss it
thnx