BACK TO THE MOON: A Real Back To The Future Expedition

Right now, as I look out my window, the full Moon is radiant. It casts a soothing light over the nearby river and shore. At the same time I cannot help but hear a long series of sighs and sobs as the Moon contemplates its place in future space exploration programs. With the cancellation of NASA's Constellation Program, the Moon was stuffed into the forgotten projects closet. Well, fortunately science and the persistence of NASA has not let the study and eventual long-term exploration of the Moon become forgotten. The motivating force behind this is WATER!


With NASA's successful launching of its LRO and LCROSS Moon exploratory spacecraft, interest in the Moon as an important first step into deep space was sustained. As we know these efforts were successful and water was detected on the Southern polar regions of the Moon. Not So claimed geo-scientists who insisted that the assessment of Moon rocks brought back by the Apollo astronauts indicated that water just could not exist on the Moon. WHAM, the closet door was slammed, but not locked. Just this week (the week of October 17, 2010) NASA scientists refuted those "no water" findings by providing clear evidence from the LCROSS impact analysis that water does exist in the polar regions of the Moon.

We Shall Return!

Inspired by these improved analyses and other research results NASA's Lunar and Planetary Institute has contracted with a commercial vendor to develop and deploy a robotic system to visit the Moon and further analyze both polar regions for water and methane. One of the key objectives is to fully certify that the discovered water can be processed to support both the astronauts and operations of an extended lunar expedition. The next step into deep space may now be back into play. To understand why a return to the Moon is such a vital step, we suggest you review an earlier blog article that addresses some of these important issues. You may click here to review that article.


Yes, I am repeating arguments that have already been expressed by many. Regardless, these are valid arguments and demand serious consideration by our scientific and political leaders. There is NO argument that the exploration of Mars is important, but to make that effort the most successful and scientifically fulfilling we must first return to our Moon to learn all that it awaits to teach us.It is a virtual history book of the evolution of our solar system and especially of our planet Earth. Additionally, it holds many vital secrets that will help us to fully understand what happened on Mars that erased what may have been an evolving life. Lets not allow impatience and overeagerness to blind us to critical details that will expand our understanding of solar systems in general and specifically how we got here within this galaxy and within this universe. So, lets literally "go back to the future" by launching a full, long-term exploration of our Moon.




CREDITS:
Sad Moon Cartoon by natalja1 from Science Blogs > http://bit.ly/bx5YhG
Actual photo: Apollo 11 Lunar Lander with Astronaut. Courtesy of NASA and Apollo Project.

NOW GET THIS STRAIGHT, MOON! This Is NOT Goodbye!

Yes, we know we had beautiful plans to return and stay and learn from you. The plans were ample, but the funds were anemic! So now we are being forced to skitter around a bunch of asteroids when we could be gaining valuable lessons by being with you. Yes, we are discouraged but not defeated. There is so much you have to offer, and there is so much we need to learn from you before we dash off to Mars. In fact, the last thing we need to do is dash anywhere. Dashing usually leads to big pratfalls where nobody laughs. We don't need that.

Right now, one of our most valuable assets; our engineering skills and innovation, are being more misdirected than directed. We are flexible and can easily take all the good stuff we have already developed in our Moon program and mix it up, and come out with a realistic solution that will save money and make exploration progress. To get to this we need to have scientists and engineers deciding our program, not politicians and the appointees who listen with their wallets instead of their brains and hearts.To get started we need to speak out now in these few remaining days. We must do this before we elect more wallet-eared politicians who have little or no vision. Vision is all that can carry us forward and bring us back to greater economic and social strength. We must NOT take NO for an answer.

Yep, this is a political commentary and the spirits of every explorer throughout history who has had to reckon with the same stammering politics that never serve anyone but the politicians are at our side. Our goals are to serve all of us, and we cannot do that unless we first graduate from your school. Some see this as a delay, we see it as the NEXT STEP FORWARD. It is a vital step and to ignore it or try to move around it can set us back not ahead.

We are like energy, locked in useless vibrations, that is really going nowhere. To break free, we must come together with a strong loyalty to space exploration and our Moon program as the next best move forward. With the advances in propulsion systems chafing at the bit, we need to extend their development so that our travels from LEO to you are only an hour or two away.  This proximity insures that the exchange of data, researchers and new development between the Moon and Earth is realistic and timely. All of this sharpens our readiness for our visits to more distant planetary bodies; including Mars.  It also means that our commercial space friends have a solid set of goals to achieve and sustain that will more quickly enable all of our current space exploration goals and begin the building of a new space economy.

So Moon, we have not forgotten you. WE WILL BE BACK! The harder we work at making this happen the sooner it will happen. Meanwhile, be courteous to your Chinese, Indian, and Russian visitors as they too see your great value to all our space futures.

CREDIT:
Moon close up image taken from total astrophotograph by Waddell Robey (c) Waddell Robey and Slooh,com