I can't see how any Administrator could execute the language of section 135, assuming that it reads as you have posted it here, any more than he could create a perpetual motion machine.
Let's see. A vacuum, fine dust everywhere, and radiation.
For Apollo, they had to extremely modify the real equipment so that something even remotely similar could be used for pre-flight training on Earth.
Obviously, the Senators had some location already in mind, as they mentioned hydrothermal power, which neither the Moon nor Mars has. As I'm not telepathic, I can't figure out exactly where they want the facility placed.
I'm pretty sure that the Apollo team came up with a list of sites for training purposes, and probably the best course would be to revisit that list, and send copies of it back to the subcommittee for their consideration. Or as an alternative perhaps a large domed vacuum chamber could be built in some state for both test and training purposes.
Most likely, the senators meant to write Mars rather than the Moon, but the same things hold true for Mars, except it looks right now that you have to add in trace amounts of brine or sulfuric acid, along with the possible hazard of extremely hardy pathogenic organisms, to the mix of near vacuum, fine dust, and radiation. Most likely, the Senators wanted to work with the Mars Society, but they didn't pass into law "Mars", they wrote "lunar".
PS - There are no polar bears on Mars.
Space/Science » in reply to re: Senate 1281 section 135 GROUND-BASED ANALOG CAPABILITIES.
As no place on Earth is like the surface of the Moon
