The Bluebird Project

Professor Heinz Wolff has passed ...

Space buffs will know him for his association with the Juno project to select and fly the first British astronaut - Helen Sharman - and conduct a meaningful on-orbit science programme.

Millions more - self included - will remember him as the quintessential all-round 'boffin', in the finest meaning of the word, who inspired in youngsters a passion for science and engineering.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-42378765


Nigel

Hi All,
USA to return to the moon? Well Pres. Trump, he say's YES!

I'll try again!.

Trump tells NASA to send Americans to Moon - YouTube
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mHOUJ0qvJE0

11/12/2017 · US President Donald Trump signs a new directive, telling NASA to send Americans to the Moon for the first time in decades, a move he says will help prepare ...

Presidential proclamations of intent to stage missions to the Moon - and Mars, for that matter - are best taken with a pinch of salt, as they have a tendency to be purely for short-term political advantage. Several presidents past have made such announcements, but there's still no firm plan to go to either destination.

That said, it would good to see a manned lunar mission again. It's about time.

Nigel

quicksilver-wsr wrote: ↑Sun Dec 17, 2017 3:35 pm Presidential proclamations of intent to stage missions to the Moon - and Mars, for that matter - are best taken with a pinch of salt,

True dat. Especially as preparations take several presidential terms of office to make - especially with modern levels of acceptance of risk.

quicksilver-wsr wrote: ↑Sun Dec 17, 2017 3:35 pm Several presidents past have made such announcements, but there's still no firm plan to go to either destination.

On the other hand Bush and Obama (or rather, Bush, Obama and Congress) authorised the development of the launcher (Ares / SLS) and Capsule (Orion) and have kept up the funding. There have been, and willcontinue to be, bumps on the road but NASA is still moving down the road.

The key thing is that this isn't a 'Trump does a Kennedy' moment (and Kennedy knew Apollo was possible due to work already done or in hand), this is a 'Trump redirects things his predecessors did a bit' moment.

Then there is the whole issue of 'what is the mission and is it worth doing'? A 'Flags and Footprints' mission to the Moon is a very expensive way of gaining propaganda. There are arguments that there are missions with better outcomes in both science and Mars Precursor 'bang per buck' terms, at least in the short term. There are also arguments that certain types of Moon Landing missions would have very good Mars Precursor and science missions.

Finally there is the whole 'How to maintain public interest (and therefore approval for funding) in Manned Spaceflight'. the ISS is amazing and has taught us loads but most of the public, especially the public that counts (US Taxpayers) hardly know its happening and, if they do, find it boring.

I've never got this whole, let's go to the moon or Mars thing. Just why? there's nothing there unless you like dust and rocks. It's like planning a tech diving exped' to an empty piece of seabed. There's precisely bugger-all on the moon - it was all done already a couple of years after I was born too and that's ages ago - and we've had all sorts of vehicles and instruments on Mars for years so we know there's nowt there either. Finding MH370 would be way more challenging and infinitely more useful and interesting but the search has been more or less abandoned while the modern world would rather watch a moron chase a ball than explore the depths in pursuit of a real goal and the solution to a mystery.
Caught the last minutes of that sports personality thing on telly this evening only to see Mo Farah win the top prize. He eats Quorn and runs in circles - really?
Good luck getting to Mars anytime soon...

I'm with Bill on this one. I can't see this as serving anything other than one man's vanity.
Unless, of course, Trump's purpose is to find alien life forms out there so he can impose a ban on them travelling to the USA...

Well said Bill!!!

I grew up with the Space programme and stayed up all night watching Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin touch down on the Moon. It was and remains an outstanding achievement, but even at the time I questioned what we were trying to achieve by leaving this planet to explore moons or other planets.
If the aim is to discover and recover valuable or rare resources, I struggle with the logistics and economics of getting them back to Earth.
If the aim is to discover another habitable planet before we destroy Earth, I have questions about how we would use such a planet. Clearly, we could not simply transport every remaining person on Earth to the new planet - so presumably we would send selected settlers there to ensure the continuity of the human race. But what would be the criteria for selection - and who would do the selection? Donald Trump maybe

so presumably we would send selected settlers there to ensure the continuity of the human race. But what would be the criteria for selection - and who would do the selection? Donald Trump maybe

I destest the arrogance of mankind in imagining that Earth is somehow 'our' planet to save or destroy. Excuse me! I wonder if the dinosaurs thought likewise. Mother Nature is the ultimate arbiter of our fate and if the planet decides we've got out of hand we'll be wiped out and something new will come up to dig our sorry remains out of the rocks a billion years from now.
Amongst all the wibble about the environment I did spare a thought for an entire Internet-immersed generation yesterday as I dispatched the Christmas turkey to put food on the table. Modern humankind is so far out of touch with Mother Earth it's a terrifying prospect.