There is a problem with ventures that run in the millions and billions of dollars. That would be the source of the financing. They want to see a return on their investment. It is not unusual for industries to take years and sink seemingly unlimited amounts of money to achieve a return. Sometimes they fail. The cost of failed attempts mount up and eventually if there is no pay off it all gets scrapped or sold to the next investor hoping to learn from past efforts.
Traveling into space has been a for profit deal when satellites are placed into orbit. Everything else is exploration and experimentation. So far any talk of further trips to the moon or to Mars are as scientific ventures. To make that happen the financial incentive and reward need to be there. The Northrop Grumman Lunar Lander Challenge represents one effort to inspire competition to develop a system to deliver a vehicle for further lunar exploration.
Traveling into space is much like the expeditions that go up Mount Everest. The trip is long and faces extreme conditions. It requires a lot of equipment and support. Some of the people do not make it back. Also consider the few moon landings that have been made. Everest is littered with cast offs that the expeditions choose not to pack out. Things like oxygen tanks, camping equipment, bodies of fallen party members. On the moon are the bottom stages of the landing crafts, a lunar rover and other items.
http://spacegrant.nmsu.edu/lunarlegacies/artifactlist.html has a list of Apollo 11’s contributions to the lunar landfill. When all is said and done the efforts of high achievement will invariably leave its mark. Unfortunately we may find Mars suffering the same fate as Mount Everest, and the moon. It’s always cheaper and more feasible to leave the spent material behind. The Martians might want to consider going into the scrap business. With the Mars Lander they already have a start.
Space Exploration in the 60’s, 70’s and the 80’s was more of a novel idea. It let us see things that human beings had not seen before. We were more like tourists in those days. Now we are of the attitude of “been there, done that, bought the T-shirt”. These days Americans want a bigger payback for their investment. Over the early years there were great achievements in supporting the Space Race. Tang and many other inventions were discovered to make it possible for Astronauts to make their trips to space.
ReplyDeleteI think we have quite a ways to go before we begin to complain about littering in space. It will probably be a long time before we have as much "litter" on Mars as what we have around us now. I would thing that anything salvageable would be put to good use by just about anyone that happens to walk by it. Maybe “Martians” are a little like a hermit crab and will use a bottom stage of a Lunar Lander as a home.
I think exploring space is a waste of money. It is not like Star Wars where we can fly to other planets in seconds or hours. It takes years and years to send a satellite or drone that might not even work if it gets there. With all the money that they spend on the space program they should give it back to the people or use it towards something that will help us out. I think NASA spends too much time watching space movies.
ReplyDeleteThree D's comment points out the apathetic attention that the space program gets. People need bigger and bigger accomplishments or it is passed off as "they already did that". I agree with it being a "long time before litter is a problem on mars", but the question is when do you start? Tribal people are known for camping at one location until the trash becomes a nuisance, then moves on. We as a people across the board are the same way.
ReplyDeleteSnowslayer would likely be happy with a personal space runabout that could hit warp one or two. Otherwise why bother. Space exploration has spun off a lot of useful inventions, Tang being the least of them. Most of the space travel that's going on is launching satellites into orbit. So Star Wars, Star Trek, and Galaxy Quest will remain science fiction dreams until the technology appears.
NASA invented tefflon. Case closed. Keep funding the research. Now I can make perfect eggs,over-easy. Thanks NASA.
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