Quote:
Originally Posted by CaptainCrunch
I like the idea of a lunar gateway. I don't know what the point is on going to the moon unless we're setting up infrastructure to go further. Or looking at something more then just some people to land and walk around.
I think that the space program really needs to go beyond orbital space stations or returning to the moon or firing probes out. One of the big things about the space race was it inspired people and for a brief period expanded man's horizons. Its really time to do it again.
"We choose to go to the Moon in this decade and do the other things, not because they are easy, but because they are hard"
We should be building that laser focus to go beyond the moon.
Its time.
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One of the steps that any space-faring civilization will need to go through is figuring out how to extract and work with materials in low gravity, low atmosphere conditions. To me, this should be one practical focus of going to the moon. Even if the primary element we're able to mine there is iron, we could someday bring up a small amount of carbon from earth to make steel. If we could become skilled in processing and working with steel in low gravity, zero atmosphere conditions, that would be a game-changer for us. The cost of orbit-to-orbit spacecraft would greatly decrease, and we could approach the solar radiation problem with massively thick hulls. Actually achieving that is a long way off, but I think that's where a lot of the science needs to be focused right now.