Google Lunar X Prize |
Google Lunar X Prize |
Mar 28 2008, 08:53 PM
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Solar System Cartographer Group: Members Posts: 10226 Joined: 5-April 05 From: Canada Member No.: 227 |
Am I completely out of it, or is there no GLXP thread on here? I couldn't find one. Anyway, things are moving on it, so I thought we ought to have one.
For the record, I just turned down my second invitation to join a team. I'm staying as an interested observer on this - for now, anyway. There is a forum at the GLXP site as well as team info. There are a lot of people with half-baked ideas of how to go about it. The real professionals are not doing much on the forum, just working behind the scenes. At LPSC two weeks ago, Bob Richards of Odyssey Moon invited people to propose instruments to carry on their rover - targeted to a pyroclastic deposit, probably Rima Bode or Sulpicius Gallus. And I see they have now signed an agreement to carry Celestis's lunar burials to the Moon. Richards will be here next week, and I'll be spending some time with him. This whole thing is going to be interesting. Phil -------------------- ... because the Solar System ain't gonna map itself.
Also to be found posting similar content on https://mastodon.social/@PhilStooke Maps for download (free PDF: https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/comm...Cartography.pdf NOTE: everything created by me which I post on UMSF is considered to be in the public domain (NOT CC, public domain) |
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May 6 2008, 01:49 PM
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The Poet Dude Group: Moderator Posts: 5551 Joined: 15-March 04 From: Kendal, Cumbria, UK Member No.: 60 |
Sadly, I'm 100000% certain that you're right, and that one day some entrepeneur or "adventurer" will go to Tranquility Base and plunder it for financial gain. And I don't think there'll be anything anyone can do to stop it because it'll be done on the quiet, or in total secrecy, and the damage will be done by the time the pieces of foil, or scraps of flag material, are unveiled to the world's media in a flashbulb-lit pre bidding war frenzy...
But this is a high profile, public competition, and with no hardware flown yet, no landings attempted yet, and blueprints, timelines and mission plans still stretched out on desks and tables in universities, workshops and labs around the world, there's still, I feel, a chance for people, and public opinion, to influence the Teams and the competition organisers and ensure that at least on this occasion the Right Thing is done. We have to at least try. Don't we? From historian D.C. Watt: “To destroy the relics of the past is, even in small things, a kind of amputation, a self-mutilation not so much of limbs as of the memory and imagination.” -------------------- |
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May 10 2008, 09:21 PM
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Member Group: Members Posts: 194 Joined: 8-February 04 Member No.: 10 |
“To destroy the relics of the past is, even in small things, a kind of amputation, a self-mutilation not so much of limbs as of the memory and imagination.”
The Apollo artifacts on the Moon will last far longer than anything in museums on Earth. Being put in a museum is the last stage in the existance of valued artifacts, as they tend to be in 'prestige' cities which are eventually destroyed. I would prefer the objects in New York and Washington D.C. be dispersed into smaller places away from 'target locations'. The Kansas 'Cosmosphere' could well become the largest collection of space flight artifacts within the lifetimes of some group members. Apollo 11 may be sacred, but to me not all landing sites are created equal. If I had to pick an Apollo site worth revisiting, it would be Apollo 14. The Lunar surface television from that mission was the poorest of the colour cameras used, due to a defect causing 'spreading' of bright parts of the image. It would be interesting to see if there was anything left of the nylon flags. If they are intact there might be a trace of blue pigment left, but the red would be bleached out of all sun exposed surfaces. Examination of the LM descent stage for micrometeorite pits, etc. after a long exposure to Lunar conditions would be useful in planning for hoped for Lunar bases. It would be nice to finally see the interior of 'Cone Crater' before pushing on to parts unknown. Apollo 15 would be a close second, because the Hadley Rille scenery is worth revisiting. Otherwise I would put a rover down at 'Ina', the glassy looking formation once called the 'D' Cauldera'. The source pit of the Io like volcanic 'ring' sprayed across southwestern mare Orientale would be interesting to examine close up. So would be the youngest lava flow on the Moon, wherever that is determined to be. Don |
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