2006.12.09

Moonward Bound

It turns out there quite a few good reasons to go back to the Moon.

The steadiest supporters are those who want to discover if Mars ever supported life (see story) or whether it could become a life raft for humans if Earth becomes uninhabitable (either by asteroid, global warming, nuclear war, or other such cataclysm).

A moon base, besides being a training pad for Mars landings, would also provide a Hubble-like, atmosphereless eye on the stars and more details on the origins of the solar system. For the less curious, the mining of rare minerals, such as helium-3, would create a commercial, K-Street-like space constituency.

For patriots, the project would help regain US competitiveness in technology and revive its dominance in science and engineering education. A US-led presence on the moon might keep it safe for all humanity to use, as Antarctica is now.

For the globally minded, NASA’s offer to let other nations participate in the project would build in US obligations to keep funding it, as the International Space Station has done.

For those not familar, just the mining of helium-3 could potentially pay for the entire endeavour. From Space.com we learn, “The equivalent of a single space shuttle load or roughly 25 tonscould supply the entire United States’ energy needs for a year, accordingto Apollo17 astronaut and FTI researcher Harrison Schmitt.” With a couple round trips the energy needs of America could be met, with for some time to come. Not bad considering we consume about 26% of the world’s energy alone (I like this picture).

1 Comment Categorized: science  technology

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One Response to “Moonward Bound”

  1. Zapski says  (December 29th, 2006 at 05:55:36 )

    Heh, the life raft thing is funny to me. I had this image of Bush and friends fleeing to Moon Base Haliburton to escape the rising tides of poor people. Kinda sad really, since the moon program is the only thing Bush has done that I agree with.