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This book describes the future of the Artemis Lunar Program from
the years 2017 to about 2030. Despite the uncertainty of the times
and the present state of space exploration, it is likely that what
is presented in this book will actually happen, to one degree or
another. As history has taught us, predictions are often difficult,
but one can see enough into the future to be somewhat accurate. As
the Bible says, "Wesee thru the glass, but darkly." All of the
elements of the proposed program are described from several
perspectives: NASA's, the commercial space industry and our
International partners. Also included are descriptions of the many
vehicles, habitats, landers, payloads and experiments. The book
tells the story of the buildup of a very small space station in a
strange new lunar orbit and the descent of payloads and humans,
including the first women and next man, to the lunar surface with
the intent to evolve a sustained presence over time.
This book describes the history of this now iconic room which
represents America's space program during the Gemini, Apollo,
Skylab, Apollo-Soyuz and early Space Shuttle eras. It is now a
National Historic Landmark and is being restored to a level which
represents the day the flight control teams walked out after the
last lunar landing missions. The book is dedicated to the estimated
3,000 men and women who supported the flights and tells the story
from their perspective. It describes the rooms of people supporting
this control center; those rooms of engineers, analysts and
scientists most people never knew about. Some called it a "shrine"
and some called it a "cathedral." Now it will be restored to its
former glory and soon thousands will be able to view the place
where America flew to the moon.
This book explores the practicality of using the existing
subsurface geology on the Moon and Mars for protection against
radiation, thermal extremes, micrometeorites and dust storms rather
than building surface habitats at great expense at least for those
first few missions. It encourages NASA to plan a precursor mission
using this concept and employ a "Short Stay" Opposition Class
mission to Mars as the first mission rather than the "Long Stay"
concept requiring a mission that is too long, too dangerous and too
costly for man's first missions to Mars. Included in these pages is
a short history on the uses of caves by early humans over great
periods of time. It then describes the ongoing efforts to research
caves, pits, tunnels, lava tubes, skylights and the associated
technologies that pertain to potential lunar and Mars exploration
and habitation. It describes evidence for existing caves and lava
tubes on both the Moon and Mars. The work of noted scientists,
technologists and roboticists are referenced and described. This
ongoing work is moreextensive than one would think and is directly
applicable to longer term habitation and exploration of the Moon
and Mars. Emphasis is also given to the operational aspects of
working and living in lunar and Martian caves and lava tubes.
This book explores the once popular idea of 'Flexible Path' in
terms of Mars, a strategy that would focus on a manned orbital
mission to Mars's moons rather than the more risky, expensive and
time-consuming trip to land humans on the Martian surface. While
currently still not the most popular idea, this mission would take
advantage of the operational, scientific and engineering lessons to
be learned from going to Mars's moons first. Unlike a trip to the
planet's surface, an orbital mission avoids the dangers of the deep
gravity well of Mars and a very long stay on the surface. This is
analogous to Apollo 8 and 10, which preceded the landing on the
Moon of Apollo 11. Furthermore, a Mars orbital mission could be
achieved at least five years, possibly 10 before a landing mission.
Nor would an orbital mission require all of the extra vehicles,
equipment and supplies needed for a landing and a stay on the
planet for over a year. The cost difference between the two types
of missions is in the order of tens of billions of dollars. An
orbital mission to Deimos and Phobos would provide an early
opportunity to acquire scientific knowledge of the moons and Mars
as well, since some of the regolith is presumed to be soil ejected
from Mars. It may also offer the opportunity to deploy scientific
instruments on the moons which would aid subsequent missions. It
would provide early operational experience in the Mars environment
without the risk of a landing. The author convincingly argues this
experience would enhance the probability of a safe and successful
Mars landing by NASA at a later date, and lays out the best way to
approach an orbital mission in great detail. Combining
path-breaking science with achievable goals on a fast timetable,
this approach is the best of both worlds--and our best path to
reaching Mars safely in the future.
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