Lunar Spacecraft
Lunar landers and rovers
The Latest Destination for Human Spaceflight
Humans to Venus? The latest proposed destination for human space missions illustrates the essential hollowness of the current direction of our civil space program.
December 01, 2011 |
By Paul D. Spudis
Slopes, Streaks and Flows
Dark streaks occur on slopes on both the Moon and Mars, although interpretations about their origins may differ. The Moon offers us some insight into how these features can form on all of the terrestrial planets.
November 17, 2011 |
By Paul D. Spudis
Ronald Greeley: A Gentleman and a Scholar
Some scientists are both great researchers and fine human beings. Ron Greeley was one of them.
October 29, 2011 |
By Paul D. Spudis
Replicators Have Arrived
Three-dimensional printing technology can be used in conjunction with the material and energy resources of the Moon to build new space faring capabilities.
October 24, 2011 |
By Paul D. Spudis
It’s a gas, man!
Newly recognized "hollows" on the planet Mercury help to inform us about the origin, history and processes associated with some unusual landforms on the Moon.
October 08, 2011 |
By Paul D. Spudis
Brave Archivist Rifles Through Clinton’s Stuff, Rewarded
Among the list of things one expects to find while sifting through former President Bill Clinton's stuff, a lost moon rock might be low on the list.
September 23, 2011 |
By Heather Goss
Destination: Moon or Asteroid? Part III: Resource Utilization Considerations
Part III: Resource Utilization Considerations In Part I and Part II of this series, I examined some of the operational and scientific issues associated with a human mission to a near Earth asteroid (NEO) and contrasted them with the simpler operations and greater scientific return of a mission to the Moon. To continue the discussion [...]
September 02, 2011 |
By Paul D. Spudis
Destination: Moon or Asteroid? Part II: Scientific Considerations
Part II: Scientific Considerations In my last post, I examined some of the operational considerations associated with a human mission to a near Earth asteroid and how it contrasted with the simpler, easier operations of lunar return. Here, I want to consider what we might do at this destination by focusing on the scientific activities [...]
September 01, 2011 |
By Paul D. Spudis
Leaping Lunar Landers!
Can a spacecraft hop its way to winning the Google Lunar X prize?
September 2011 |
By Michael Belfiore
Destination: Moon or Asteroid? Part I: Operational Considerations
Part I: Operational Considerations The current controversy over the direction of our national space program has many dimensions but most of the discourse has focused on the means (government vs. commercial launch vehicles) not the ends (destinations and activities). Near-Earth objects (NEO, i.e., asteroids) became the next destination for human exploration as an alternative to [...]
August 31, 2011 |
By Paul D. Spudis
Exotic volcanoes on the Moon
The flood of new data from the Moon continues to enlighten and puzzle lunar scientists. Members of the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter Camera team have noticed an unusual landform on the far side of the Moon that was as unexpected as it might be significant. We’ve known for many years that early in its history, the [...]
August 03, 2011 |
By Paul D. Spudis
Visions Don’t Pass Away – A Tribute to John Marburger
Recently deceased John H. Marburger, former Science Advisor to President George W. Bush and Director of the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy, had a long and distinguished career as a scientist, an administrator and public servant. I knew him through his advocacy and involvement in the development of the Vision for Space [...]
July 30, 2011 |
By Paul D. Spudis
Faded Flags on the Moon
Today is the 42nd anniversary of man’s landing on the Moon. The first step on the Moon – the step that “divided history” to use the words of the time – and the planting of the American flag there seems like a lifetime ago. As a matter of fact, it was. Tomorrow, the Space Shuttle [...]
July 19, 2011 |
By Paul D. Spudis
Midwinter
“Now is the winter of our discontent” – Richard III, Act 1, scene 1 There is a good piece in today’s Telegraph UK by David Robson of a fateful one-hundredth anniversary – the Midwinter Dinner — June 22, 1911 held in Robert Falcon Scott’s Ross Island hut. A year earlier, Scott and the crew of [...]
June 21, 2011 |
By Paul D. Spudis
Presidential Pronouncements on Space: Some 50th Anniversary Thoughts
Tomorrow is the 50th anniversary of President John F. Kennedy’s special address to Congress – a request for supplemental appropriation for a variety of projects but most famously remembered for the announcement of his Man-Moon-Decade goal of Project Apollo. That event, cited by space advocates and excerpted in space and history documentaries, is remembered as [...]
May 24, 2011 |
By Paul D. Spudis
Young Visitors Inspire Old Scientist
A perennial hand-wringing topic among policy geeks is America’s decline in math and science proficiency. This sentiment has been expressed the entire 30 years I’ve worked on space science and exploration – new generations don’t care about space, can’t do math and science, can’t think properly and ...
May 14, 2011 |
By Paul D. Spudis
What Apollo 15 Got Right
A post-splashdown scandal did not undermine the mission’s scientific achievements.
May 13, 2011 |
By Diane Tedeschi
Who's short-sighted?
Apollo 17 Commander Eugene Cernan recently voiced his doubts and concerns over the future of the human spaceflight program, while former Lockheed-Martin CEO Norman Augustine reflected on the current state of our space “vision” and/or the possible lack thereof. I found these perspectives by two gia...
May 04, 2011 |
By Paul D. Spudis
A&S Interview: George Mueller
One of the guiding geniuses behind the Apollo program is the winner of this year's National Air and Space Museum Trophy for lifetime achievement.
May 2011 |
By Michael Klesius
“Embrace the end of human spaceflight!”
"let us sit upon the ground. And tell sad stories of the death of kings” – Richard II, Act III, Scene 2 The nearly simultaneous 50th anniversary of the beginning of human spaceflight and the forthcoming end of the Space Shuttle program has philosophical members of the chattering classes making the...
April 19, 2011 |
By Paul D. Spudis
