Google Lunar X Prize Options

[Phil Stooke]

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

[Betelgeuze]

Also the moon is so big, why land on a place weve already seen while there are so many exciting things we haven't seen yet?!

[Stu]

Also the moon is so big, why land on a place weve already seen while there are so many exciting things we haven't seen yet?!

Because somewhere in our DNA there's an urge to see places, people and things that we have heard about, been affected by, and attribute significance to. That's why we have museums like the Smithsonian and Natural History Museum; that's why we have "Pioneer Cabins" to look around; that's why we will drive hundreds or thousands of miles to see sections of Hadrian's Wall, the Oregon Trail tracks, or abandoned launch sites at KSC; that's why we go to art galleries to see famous paintings in person instead of just looking at them on t'internet. Looking at - better still, touching - something "famous" we've heard about makes it more real to us somehow, connects us to it and our own past, too.

I think this was beautifully shown in the Star Trek film FIRST CONTACT, when Picard and Data find the very first warp drive starship, the Phoenix, in Zeffram Cochrane's missile silo. To Data, lacking emotion, lacking a sense of history or occasion, it's just a spacecraft from his databanks... but to Picard, it's THE PHOENIX, the FIRST STARSHIP, the one that opened up the Galaxy to mankind and altered the course of history.

[Picard puts his hand on the Phoenix]

Captain Jean-Luc Picard: It's a boyhood fantasy... I must have seen this ship hundreds of times in the Smithsonian but I was
never able to touch it.

Lieutenant Commander Data: Sir, does tactile contact alter your perception of the Phoenix?

Captain Jean-Luc Picard: Oh, yes! For humans, touch can connect you to an object in a very personal way, make it seem more real.

I know that's just a movie, and it's a fantasy story, but it rings so true, doesn't it? Well, maybe not for everyone here, but for most, I'm sure. I'm certain many people here have visited the Smithsonian or other museums to see hardware from past space missions, because they want to see those pieces of history with their own eyes, and not just on pictures. I'm also sure many people here have waited (im)patiently in their gardens or on their doorsteps to watch the ISS going over on a clear night. Why bother, when the net is full of hi-res pics taken during shuttle missions? Because you can't beat seeing something with your own eyes and establishing a connection with it.

Which is why people want to see images of Apollo hardware now, and will go there to see it in person one day in the future, from a distance, under diamond sheeting, or whatever. Not just to wreck once and for all the arguments of the Moon Conspiracy nutters, but because that will link us to it personally. Right now, Apollo is almost considered "ancient history" by many people, especially kids who - rightly, I think, given the current state of manned space exploration - have a hard time believing we actually went to the Moon in those days of black and white television and funny haircuts. Check out the "Space Exploration" section on Amazon and you'll see one Apollo book after another, page after page of them. It's history, right there with the Victorian Era, Egyptians and Knights and Castles.

So, yes, you're right, there's a lot more of the Moon to see than the Apollo landing sites. I can imagine standing in the shadow of the Straight Wall and watching blazing sunlight slide down it as dawn breaks, or gazing across Copernicus crater from its rim, marvelling at the mountains looming up from its centre... but the Apollo 11 landing site is unique in the history of mankind as being the place where human beings first set foot on another world. In the future there'll be similar "First Landing" sites on Mars, Europa, Proxima Centauri B1 or whatever, and a thousand other worlds, but there'll only ever be one "Tranquility Base". Who wouldn't want to see the footprints of the first human being in history to walk on another planet?

[nprev]

In the future there'll be similar "First Landing" sites on Mars, Europa, Proxima Centauri B1 or whatever, and a thousand other worlds, but there'll only ever be one "Tranquility Base". Who wouldn't want to see the footprints of the first human being in history to walk on another planet?

Terrific, very moving post, Stu!

Yeah, I'm more than convinced that nothing & nobody should go near at least the Apollo 11 site--and maybe all the landing sites--except historians and preservationists to set up a proper viewing environment as EGD proposed. These places have the same significance as the unknown locales where our distant ancestors first set foot on the other continents of Earth beyond Africa.

Actually, even more: Neil Armstrong's first step is at the same level as the first step (or drag, or hop, or whatever) of the first ocean creature to venture onto land. It's damn hard to overstate the importance of preserving it.

[imipak]

Neil Armstrong's first step is at the same level as the first step (or drag, or hop, or whatever) of the first ocean creature to venture onto land.

I humbly submit that ~500m years gives us a lot of perspective about the significance of animal life leaving the oceans - a lot more than 35 or 40 years gives us on Apollo. In another half a billion years posterity, if there is one, will doubtless thank us for leaving the landing sites as they were when the ascent modules lifted off.

Referring back to Doug's earlier comment about the funds needed for a successful mission being more than the prize money: what options are there for raising additional commercial funding for a GLXP project?

- Planetary Society-style "fly your name to the moon"
- Kaguya-style sponsorship, funded by subscription access to video eye-candy
- straightforward "picture of your corporate logo on the lunar surface" sponsorship

Anyone know any other possibilities? These don't look like they could raise 7 or 8 figure sums