Ms. Sanchez, now that you and your girlfriends are astronauts, how do you think we should locate and quantify sources of water on the moon?
Oh that’s simple. First you need to have enough fuel to get there. We didn’t have enough on the NS-31 so we’d need more. Then you just fly low enough to see the blue color of the water, which is easy since the Moon is so much smaller than the Earth. Then as soon as you spot it you radio back to Earth so they know when you’re directly over it and they can mark it on their maps.
Wouldn’t you need enough fuel to return to Earth too?
Well yes I suppose, but bringing along some fishing line and hooks and bait would probably be better since they wouldn’t weigh as much, which would make flying close to the ground easier. We’d have plenty to eat and we could just wait until we were picked up!
We’d need a camping stove and tartar sauce too of course.
What if the water was on the far side?
[laughing] That’s funny! How about: “The cows can’t fish because they don’t have opposable thumbs.”
Artemis III can’t go until the SpaceX HLS Starship is ready. Assuring its readiness will involve at least one unmanned test landing prior to Artemis III’s departure. The obvious way to regain lost ground – literally – in lunar “water” researches is to send VIPER as cargo on the HLS test mission along with one or more of the “Grace” hoppers, one of which was lost on the most recent Intuitive Machines mission. Also send along at least a pair of Optimus robots, dressed in the latest model of the SpaceX EVA suit, to put VIPER and the hoppers onto the surface.
One would, admittedly, be risking VIPER and the hoppers on the first landing of a previously untested lander, but that was always the plan for VIPER anyway. And the first hopper sent didn’t benefit from being on the second mission of its lander type. All one has to assume here is that SpaceX can match Firefly’s success, just at a much more massive scale.
Stopped reading when I hit Artemis. Doesn’t matter because Artemis will never launch, let alone land on the moon. The life of the program is now measured in days, if not hours.
I don’t think that Artemis is the correct match for water ice prospecting. The better match should be CLPS or Starships with numerous rovers driving 50 km in every direction. I once did a calculation of how many of the latter it would take to thoroughly product the south pole. IIRC, it was about eight such missions.
Hey, the more rovers the merrier say I. But the first Artemis landing is supposed to be near the lunar south pole and one presumes the preliminary landing test preceding that mission will also land there so as to make the test match the mission as closely as possible. That being the case, the test landing is a perfect opportunity for a “two-fer” as there are permanently shadowed craters near every potential Artemis III landing site.
That’s going to depend upon which Congressional rocket boys you have in mind. The Alabama and Louisiana delegations are not going to be happy if SLS is canceled – especially if MSFC is marked for closure as well. But the Trump administration wants to move the Space Command HQ to Huntsville so that may serve to mollify at least the AL delegation.
The Texans are worried about Johnson Space Center. If one or more replacements for SLS-Orion are swapped into the Artemis architecture for post-Artemis III missions, the Moon can be visited much more frequently, cheaply and at much greater scale than would be the case were SLS-Orion to continue. That gives JSC a lot more missions to supervise and a lot more astronauts to train and would also prevent anyone asking exactly what JSC’s staff would be doing during the two-year intervals between Artemis missions flown on SLS-Orion.
The Louisiana delegation can be tossed contracts to build out, maintain and operate sea-based launch & landing platforms for Starship. This would be a far better deal than SLS core booster stages.
I like it. Since fracking ashore killed oil and gas exploration in the Gulf, the Gulf coast has been in an extended funk. Some new business would be just the ticket to perk things up.
The US could partner with China to put the first Dollar General Store on the Moon!
Well, I was assuming one was interested in bottled water on the moon…
How about selling bottled lunar water as a boutique item someday?
Naah! They can do tap water. Bottled for mixed drinks at high-end cocktail parties.
Ms. Sanchez, now that you and your girlfriends are astronauts, how do you think we should locate and quantify sources of water on the moon?
Oh that’s simple. First you need to have enough fuel to get there. We didn’t have enough on the NS-31 so we’d need more. Then you just fly low enough to see the blue color of the water, which is easy since the Moon is so much smaller than the Earth. Then as soon as you spot it you radio back to Earth so they know when you’re directly over it and they can mark it on their maps.
Wouldn’t you need enough fuel to return to Earth too?
Well yes I suppose, but bringing along some fishing line and hooks and bait would probably be better since they wouldn’t weigh as much, which would make flying close to the ground easier. We’d have plenty to eat and we could just wait until we were picked up!
We’d need a camping stove and tartar sauce too of course.
What if the water was on the far side?
[laughing] That’s funny! How about: “The cows can’t fish because they don’t have opposable thumbs.”
Artemis III can’t go until the SpaceX HLS Starship is ready. Assuring its readiness will involve at least one unmanned test landing prior to Artemis III’s departure. The obvious way to regain lost ground – literally – in lunar “water” researches is to send VIPER as cargo on the HLS test mission along with one or more of the “Grace” hoppers, one of which was lost on the most recent Intuitive Machines mission. Also send along at least a pair of Optimus robots, dressed in the latest model of the SpaceX EVA suit, to put VIPER and the hoppers onto the surface.
One would, admittedly, be risking VIPER and the hoppers on the first landing of a previously untested lander, but that was always the plan for VIPER anyway. And the first hopper sent didn’t benefit from being on the second mission of its lander type. All one has to assume here is that SpaceX can match Firefly’s success, just at a much more massive scale.
great comment
Stopped reading when I hit Artemis. Doesn’t matter because Artemis will never launch, let alone land on the moon. The life of the program is now measured in days, if not hours.
What do you know that the rest of us don’t?
He thinks Artemis = SLS.
It does not.
No, it definitely does not – in spite of much rhetorical effort from certain quarters to sell that idea.
I don’t think that Artemis is the correct match for water ice prospecting. The better match should be CLPS or Starships with numerous rovers driving 50 km in every direction. I once did a calculation of how many of the latter it would take to thoroughly product the south pole. IIRC, it was about eight such missions.
Hey, the more rovers the merrier say I. But the first Artemis landing is supposed to be near the lunar south pole and one presumes the preliminary landing test preceding that mission will also land there so as to make the test match the mission as closely as possible. That being the case, the test landing is a perfect opportunity for a “two-fer” as there are permanently shadowed craters near every potential Artemis III landing site.
The crossroads. The congressional rocket boys must be thrown their bones. Suggestions?
That’s going to depend upon which Congressional rocket boys you have in mind. The Alabama and Louisiana delegations are not going to be happy if SLS is canceled – especially if MSFC is marked for closure as well. But the Trump administration wants to move the Space Command HQ to Huntsville so that may serve to mollify at least the AL delegation.
The Texans are worried about Johnson Space Center. If one or more replacements for SLS-Orion are swapped into the Artemis architecture for post-Artemis III missions, the Moon can be visited much more frequently, cheaply and at much greater scale than would be the case were SLS-Orion to continue. That gives JSC a lot more missions to supervise and a lot more astronauts to train and would also prevent anyone asking exactly what JSC’s staff would be doing during the two-year intervals between Artemis missions flown on SLS-Orion.
The Louisiana delegation can be tossed contracts to build out, maintain and operate sea-based launch & landing platforms for Starship. This would be a far better deal than SLS core booster stages.
I like it. Since fracking ashore killed oil and gas exploration in the Gulf, the Gulf coast has been in an extended funk. Some new business would be just the ticket to perk things up.
ship it back to earth and start selling:
Miracle Lunar Water!
Or is that Mirical™ Lunar Water you’re selling there…
😉