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A recent conference in Hawaii called for a permanent lunar base within the decade!
The full text:
The International Lunar Conference 2003 was held on Hawaii, USA, in November. Over 130 participants of the ILC, and the earlier ILEWG 5 meeting, spent many long hours and 4 major discussion sessions to complete the "Hawaii Moon Declaration".
The Conference was a notable success, pointing to human lunar presence within the decade, and thankfully, will be succeeded by ILEWG 6 in India 22-26 November 2004, by ILEWG 7 in China or Europe in 2005.
Finally, we especially extend thanks and mahalos to all the participants involved in ILC2003 / ILEWG 5,
The Organizers, ILC2003 / ILEWG 5 Hawaii,
THE HAWAII MOON DECLARATION
The Moon is currently the focus of an international program of scientific investigation. Current missions underway or planned will lead to the future use of the Moon for science and commercial development, thereby multiplying opportunities for humanity in space and on Earth. We need the Moon for many reasons: to use its resources of materials and energy to provide for our future needs in space and on Earth, to establish a second reservoir of human culture in the event of a terrestrial catastrophe, and to study and understand the universe. The next step in human exploration beyond low Earth orbit logically is to the Moon, our closest celestial neighbor in the Solar System.Declaring this, we note large gaps in our understanding and knowledge must be addressed before the Moon can fully serve the noble purposes we identify. Many nations are conducting or planning lunar missions (ESA ? SMART 1; Japan ? Lunar A, SELENE; China - Chang?e; and India ? Chandrayaan 1) that offer an opportunity for international cooperation fundamental for long-term public and private development and science. We strongly support the continued development of these missions. However, more knowledge is needed, requiring more complex capabilities than are now planned, including the first landings of spacecraft on the Moon since the Luna and Apollo programs of the 1960s and 1970s.
During the International Lunar Conference 2003, we identified a number of main thrusts for an expanded lunar program: assessment and use of potential ice / water resources at the lunar poles for human use; development of energy resources for both Moon and Earth and establishment of lunar astrophysical observatories. We have concluded that, for the future development of the Moon, the deposits of hydrogen indicated by the USA Clementine and Lunar Prospector missions must be fully understood to confirm their nature and importance for future planetary exploration, development and human settlement.
We recommend a sequence of technology, exploration and commercial missions on the road to this human Moon presence. We support the goals of a comprehensive series of missions including polar orbiters and landers, South Pole-Aitken Sample Return, Selene-B, Lunar Globe and Aurora lunar demonstrator. We advocate robotic engineering precursors for in-situ resource utilization and deployment of infrastructures preparing for human-tended operations.
To encourage and stimulate the peaceful and progressive development of the Moon, we recommend that the international community of national space agencies, companies and individuals operate and maintain an exploratory mission at a pole of the Moon to serve as a catalyst for future human missions within a decade.
Our vision is one of expanding humanity into space on an endless journey. We believe a human return to the Moon is the next step into the Solar System and the future of the human race. Aloha.
I rather liked this bit:
"Our vision is one of expanding humanity into space on an endless journey. We believe a human return to the Moon is the next step into the Solar System and the future of the human race. Aloha."
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Mele Kalikimaka!
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I hope most folk understand that if the ESA builds a moonbase within the decade (flying Russian rockets from Kouru) and with Chinese and Indian money helping pay the bills, NASA will have been beaten by the French!
Oh la la!
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That's right Bill, goad us...
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That's right Bill, goad us...
Hey look - one of the first thoughts that popped into my mind after reading that article was an image of Jacques Chirac going on television about a month after President Bush announces his big idea for a return to the moon in the late teens (2015 - 2020) and making an announcement that. . .
The ESA was going to build a lunar science base within ten years (with Russian & Chinese & Indian & Japanese technology and/or financial contributions) and that only Kyoto signatories were invited to participate.
If President Bush went to Baghdad because Hillary Clinton went to Afghanistan. . .
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Hahaha, Bill.
Some useful links while MER are active. [url=http://marsrovers.jpl.nasa.gov/home/index.html]Offical site[/url] [url=http://www.nasa.gov/multimedia/nasatv/MM_NTV_Web.html]NASA TV[/url] [url=http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/mer2004/]JPL MER2004[/url] [url=http://www.spaceflightnow.com/mars/mera/statustextonly.html]Text feed[/url]
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The amount of solar radiation reaching the surface of the earth totals some 3.9 million exajoules a year.
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If the French build it, it just makes it that much easier to invade!
Come on, who can pass it up?
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If the French build it, it just makes it that much easier to invade!
Come on, who can pass it up?
*Laughs outloud!* Certainly not the English or Germans!
Actually, I think it's fine that Europe gets the Moon; the place absolutely sucks. It sure looks pretty from Earth, but boy is it a crappy place to do anything. Let them keep it; let America pioneer Mars. I don't mind letting the rest of the world nibble futilely on the lunar leftovers thirty years after we've been done with them.
Ad Marte!
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...let America pioneer Mars.
And why do you believe that the rest of the world would stand idly by and simply "let" the US do that? ???
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That's right Bill, goad us...
Maybe I am not the only person interested in goading the current US Administration.
MSNBC is quite mainstream even if it is a re-print from Space.com.
SpaceRef also says this.
Space Policy Effort for NASA's Future Focusing in on Final Decision By the President
Keith Cowing, NASA Watch
Wednesday, December 10, 2003Progress on developing America's new space policy continues - and is moving quickly towards final review and a decision by the President.
Given the proximity to the Kitty Hawk anniversary, it is now unlikely that it will be announced - at least in any detailed way - at this particular venue.
It is now more likely that it will be rolled out early next year - perhaps (but not by definition) near or coincident with the State of the Union.
Two things are certain: First, the Bush Administration will announce this new space policy at a time and place of its choosing without responding to pressure from external forces with preferences for one venue or another.
Second, this new space policy is substantive and worth the wait - and the White House is determined to announce it in a manner befitting its importance.
Interesting. .
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That's slightly reassuring thought equally disappointing.
Some useful links while MER are active. [url=http://marsrovers.jpl.nasa.gov/home/index.html]Offical site[/url] [url=http://www.nasa.gov/multimedia/nasatv/MM_NTV_Web.html]NASA TV[/url] [url=http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/mer2004/]JPL MER2004[/url] [url=http://www.spaceflightnow.com/mars/mera/statustextonly.html]Text feed[/url]
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The amount of solar radiation reaching the surface of the earth totals some 3.9 million exajoules a year.
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How to top a recent media coup? ???
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I think that we are ignoring a common "fact" that the majority of the astronauts/cosmonauts consider each others brothers of space and not people from this or that nation.
The MiniTruth passed its first act #001, comname: PATRIOT ACT on October 26, 2001.
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Okay Eternal, how does this 'fact' have any relevance?
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an old topic
expecting the French to build a Moonbase or Marsbase before the USA, NASA or US Private Sector might have been wrong
There is a long list of Global / Western sanctions on Russia for the war in Ukraine
also not one but two decades have passed since this Moonbase Declaration
today
NASA is looking for people to test out its Mars simulator for a year
https://www.hawaiipublicradio.org/npr-n … for-a-year
Hawaii Wildfire Recovery Cost Estimates Still Unknown
https://www.govtech.com/em/disaster/haw … ll-unknown
There was set to be a lack of water pressure, burning power lines fallen, proliferation of the wildfires was attributed to dry, gusty conditions created by a strong high-pressure area north of Hawaii and Hurricane Dora to the south, damage caused by the fire has been estimated at nearly $6 billion, there were also a series of 2023 Canadian wildfires and 2023 Greece wildfires.
in other political news, maybe how religion clouds judgements, politics and mood for science can change
A volcano on Hawaii’s Big Island is sacred to spiritual practitioners and treasured by astronomers
https://apnews.com/article/hawaii-mauna … 9a77220dfe
LPSC 2024
https://www.hou.usra.edu/meetings/lpsc2024/
The Woodlands, TX/Virtual
Last edited by Mars_B4_Moon (2024-03-05 11:26:57)
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