Google Lunar X Prize |
Google Lunar X Prize |
Mar 28 2008, 08:53 PM
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Solar System Cartographer Group: Members Posts: 10229 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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Jul 9 2008, 09:01 AM
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Member Group: Members Posts: 593 Joined: 20-April 05 Member No.: 279 |
Good stuff, Phil. However, I have an issue with the preservation of tracks and footprints.
In the UK we have organisations such as English Heritage and Historic Scotland to protect historical sites from the blatant effects of vandalism and trophy-hunting, and to (gently) control access by members of the public in order to preserve the sites as much as possible for posterity. Preservation for posterity naturally implies "future visitors"...yet a trip to Stonehenge or Skara Brae is many magnitudes easier for anyone on the planet than a trip to the lunar surface, and it's likely to stay that way for generations: possibly to a time when footprints and tracks are considerably degraded. I'm all for the preservation of the material artifacts - they're in an environment which should allow them considerably more longevity than most Earth-based equivalents - but I'd personally draw the line at staying clear of tracks. We know, for example, that there's no "first footprint" we can gaze at in awe in some future decade: it was trampled by Aldrin just a few minutes later, and all subsequent prints near the LM presumably (largely) blasted away during lift-off. Why not treat these sites just like normal, historical, "built sites" on Earth: take care of the artifacts, look but don't touch, only take photos, only leave (new) footprints..? Andy |
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