Space/Science — HabitableZone

Space/Science » in reply to CAPS

re: Craps...snake eyes!
Chris Vancil — (archived)

Folks imagine you are currently on the Moon look down at your feet and slowly rotate your head till you have a clear unobstructed view of the sky all that plus the other 360 degrees blocked by the surface are unused by whatever system you plan to detect NEOs and Comets by.

Now imagine you're floating 200,000 miles above Earth near the Moon. A few degrees are temporarily block by the Moon and maybe a little by the now small blue dot of the Earth, but that is all.

Nothing Ed says removes this primary disadvantage of Moon based observation. And as I said when they first looked at Moon is was desirable because of the stable platform it provided. You have seen the Hubble images which are clear, sharp and focused. There is no problem in doing it all in space without the cost of landing people and equipment on the Moon and repairing systems covered in moon dust.

Sure space based systems have problems, the gyros fail, the heat can ruin things and batteries fail. But it is many time cheaper and easier to rendezvous with another spacecraft and repair in orbit than it is to land on the surface of the Moon and do the same. You will need less infrastructure.

As to why Mazanek wants to promote a nonsensical idea...maybe it because he also would like to see a return to the Moon and is trying to justify it just as Ed is. As to the report being "rigorous work by a team of some of the best engineers in the country" I doubt the resources you are suggesting were brought to bear on this problem were in fact. The report was done by a few NASA contractors. Give us a link to the report so we can view it, Ed.

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