Martin: It can’t have escaped anyone’s attention that this week sees the 40th anniversary of the moon landings. I can’t help but feel that whilst the ISS and Space Shuttle were brilliant technical accomplishments, there is no exploration in space anymore, we took a small step backwards. In the last few years, the Russians, Chinese and the Americans have been looking at sending people back there with a view to further exploration towards Mars or even building a permanent Moon base.
At the moment though most of this is just talk. Space travel is expensive and governments have to be able to justify what they are spending money on. President Obama must see the moon as a tricky thing to justify right now. I think the more interesting area of space travel is the private sector. They tend to do things on a smaller scale, with cheaper budgets and more competition. The Google Lunar X – Prize is a great example of this. Others such as Bob Cringely, a man with no limit to his ambitions, want to do it their own way. At least he’ll get a few good columns and a documentary out of it (I really want him to succeed but lets be realistic).
The chances of these teams succeeding are fairly slim, but one of them might do it. I applaud each and every one of them because regardless of success they are pushing the boundaries. Perhaps it is time that NASA worked on supporting private space exploration ahead of its own work. They are doing this to some extent with Space X already. Because these private companies are doing this for the love of it they aren’t subject to political whimsy and national pride. They have so much more freedom to chase their ambitions.
Do you think that man will walk on the moon again soon? What flag will he carry? Or will he be a privateer?
Thomas: I think the problem is that we’ve just gone soft! Whenever I read a Slashdot article about further space exploration I see posts claiming that we shouldn’t be launching people into space until we know they’re going to come back 100% alive and well. Space exploration, by its very nature, just isn’t like that. Human sacrifice has always been an essential part of any exploration, if people hadn’t taken risks in the past I wouldn’t know of Mythbusters or Neighbours. All in all, I think the dangers of space travel are talked up way to often.
I’m not even convinced that getting back to the moon would even be that difficult. Assuming NASA didn’t lose the blueprints for Apollo hardware, what’s to say we could knock another one together in short order? The issue is that we have no urgent need to go back, so the time frame slips from ‘life or death’ to ‘leisurely cruise’. If we suddenly discovered that all the Earths land would soon be swallowed up by the sea I reckon we could knock something together in short order! As it is the development will spend years getting passed around between Government subcontractors and no real progress will be made.
At this point it probably is better to open things up to commercial efforts. I’m really looking forward to seeing some of the Lunar X-Prize entrants. I think Team Cringley has come to the valid conclusion that the moon isn’t that far away in the grand scheme of things, and it’s not like they need to put a human with life support on it. They have the benefit of NASA’s previous work to build on, I don’t really see what it stopping them!
Having said all that, I doubt the next man on the moon will be an American, and I think it’s going to happen sooner than 2020. If I was a betting man I wold put my money on China winning round two of the space race. Also, I can’t wait for the day when space travel is open to the common man. I’ve watched the videos of the Apollo astronauts on the moon, and was struck by how fragile they all looked, being kept alive only by the airtight seals of the space suits. I reckon when it is my go on the moon I’ll be wearing jeans and a t-shirt, under the protection of a giant glass dome, just like in all those sci-fi books!
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