Project M

[ExplorerAtHeart]

Project By JPL as a short term substitute to human exploration of the moon.



*Fixed It.

 

[SagansHeroes]

It sucks that Constellation got cut, the start-up for a renewable moonbase would have been an exciting time in man's progress, they were behind schedule and over budget and the global financial crisis didn't help at all. But they know now that it is possible to set up a renewable base largely using the minerals there, it's only lacking nitrogen and of course the initial buildings and seeds for plant life.

Is this project M that thing that the Japanese government was talking about not long ago? Something to do with sending a bi-pedal astro-robot to explore the moon?

 

[Homunclus]

Something to do with sending a bi-pedal astro-robot to explore the moon?

Apparently...

http://www.nasawatch.com/archives/2010/02/video-jscs-proj.html

Though you would think, that if you are going to build a exploration robot, there would be more efficient designs than bipedal locomotion, which is pretty unstable.

Come to think of it, weren't they developing some robots similar to spiders to explore mars?

 

[ExplorerAtHeart]

Its NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in partnership with General Motors.

 

[Doc.]

so what exactly will that robot do there, dig the rocks out? and why make it human-shaped...

anyway there is a nice documentary by national geographic, called "living on the moon", it talks about 20-year plan by end of which there will be stable, self-sustaining base on the moon, check it out.

 

[Gloryless]

Not that I know much about NASA plans, but is there any evidence a high school kid didn't make this in his bedroom and post it on youtube? That whole video was painful... If NASA was going to release any kind of video, I think they would take more care than to have that C-3PO / Master Chief flexing it's stupid hands and swinging a hammer.

NASA could easily attract a skilled animator without paying a penny. Even one animation student could pull something off with a higher production quality than this. Maybe some NASA Engineer spent his lunch breaks in MAYA.... I dunno.

 

[nasher168]

so what exactly will that robot do there, dig the rocks out? and why make it human-shaped...

anyway there is a nice documentary by national geographic, called "living on the moon", it talks about 20-year plan by end of which there will be stable, self-sustaining base on the moon, check it out.

 

[SagansHeroes]

The resources are there on the moon to make a self sustaining base. The main obstacles (not including money and getting there) are lack of nitrogen, and protection from both radiation from the sun, and the fine dust that is more like smoke, that blows around and gets in EVERYTHING, thanks to the lack of gravity/atmosphere... There are plenty of the base resources, including water. It would really just take money, throw a few extra billion at it and you could start setting it up pretty soon.... Fucking bankers bringing on the economic crises.
Extreme radiation can be forecast much like weather forecasting (coronal mass ejections) and they can build most of the structures slightly underground (covered by moon dirt) and with lead lined structures I guess. The dust issue can be sort of solved by adding water to the ground to make roads for vehicles and landing area's for spacecraft so every time you drive/land/take off you aren't kicking smokey dust in every direction.