Lunar Development

Outer Space Treaty Stopped Space Development?

Allan Wasser in an essay in Space Review says that Johnson proposed the Outer Space Treaty to slow down the Space Race and save money and blames it for stopping lunar development. I have no argument that the Outer Space Treaty took away incentive for the space race and for government competition on the Moon. I don't blame it for lack of commercial development.

If the Russians still wanted to race after the Moon Landing, it probably would have meant a race to Mars, which was beyond everyones budget and technology, and still is. So offering a graceful truce  was probably in everyone's interests. Unfortunately when NASA traded in the Saturn 5 for the Space Shuttle there was no longer a way to get to the Moon so all lunar activity stopped.

The Outer Space Treaty is not really an obstacle for commercial development. No one has sovereignty over the electromagnetic spectrum but the airways have been developed and are a multibillion sector of the economy. The key is the International Telecommunications Union. If we use it as a model for granting right of use to lunar territory, then the Outer Space Treaty will no be an obstacle to lunar development.

No business really cares if they actually own the land, as long as no one else bothers them on it. The beauty of the ITU model is we only need to negotiate right of use with those nations that can actually get to the Moon. Which means instead of dealing with over a hundred nations, we only need to negotiate with a few.

Lunar Info on the Web

The Lunar Science and Lunar Settlement panels from the ISDC are on the Web.

Magnificent Desoloation, an IMAX movie about the Moon is coming out this Fall.

The Library of Congress, Creating French Culture  site has pictures of   Selenographia by the famous Polish astronomer Johannes Hevelius is the first lunar atlas.

The Moon Base, A Challange For Humanity Workshop held in Venice has posted its Proceedings.

Peter Kohk Question's Idea of Polar Lunar Base

Kohk states the two main reasons for locating a base at either the North or the South Pole of the Moon is not the Water ice or the Astronomy but the constant sunlight for power and the temperature stability.  He states that these are not good reasons to be at the pole. First a base will need some other back up form of power besides solar so relying solely on solar will not be an option no matter where the base is. I would add that relying solely on solar is suicidal as a landing on bare regolith will sand blast everything for 2 Km so an emergency landing near the solar arrays would kill everyone on the base if that was the sole power source.

Second ,covering the base with regolith will protect the base from temperature swing and the base will need to be covered to protect it from radiation anyway. Even better would be to put the base in an intact lava tube.

He does not mention the orbital dynamics issues or the lighting issues. The lighting issues I think are the biggest problem. First the light is coming in parallel to the surface so that it will be hard to tell depth of any depressions.and shadows will be very long.. Second, because of the dust problem landings will need to occur away from points of eternal light which will make landings difficult if not impossible due to darkness and sun angle.

Cool Stuff

There is a lot of cool stuff I found recently to share.

Buzz Aldrin has a new children's Book called Reaching for the Moon

Lunar Planetary Institute Map Catalog.

The Lunar Picture of the Day or also here.

The Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter Page.

Peter Grego's Lunar Observers Page.

Gene Cernan Recieved the first Ambassator of Exploration Award. The Award is made out of moon rock and  will be kept at the National Musuem of Naval Aviation.

New ideas on the Maria and the history of the Solar System.

And a Moon Rover Race Class Project.

Money for Lunar Oxygen

NASA is finally putting money into an important lunar enabling technology. Funding

ILMENOX for 1.8 milliion with British Titianium serving as prime contractor and Florida Tech getting $430,000 for the lunar oxygen project..

Centenial Challanges offering $250,000 for the first team to pull breathable oxygen from lunar Simulant in its MoonROx challange. Great idea Brant!

Space Suits

Three interesting links about space suits.

Collect Space has an article about air force Manned Orbiting Labratory (MOL) space suits found at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in a store room.

You can own a  replica space suit.

NASA is looking for a new space suit provider.

Apollo History

Here are two interesting articles about the history of the Apollo Program.

Enchanted Rendezvous about the Lunar -orbit Redezvous concept by James R. Hansen.

Apollo: what didn’t get built by Taylor Dinerman about the Cargo version of the lunar lander.