cross-posted from: https://sh.itjust.works/post/10372465
Destin Sandlin of Smarter Every Day recently gave a talk at the American Astronautical Society about the Artemis program and communication:
I Was SCARED To Say This To NASA… (But I said it anyway) - Smarter Every Day 293
In his talk, he points out some of the legitimate shortcomings in the Artemis architecture, but I’m not sure if the parallels he draws to the Apollo program necessarily hold up, given the vastly different political impetus for the two programs. I think his main points regarding the importance of voicing negative feedback are valid, though.
What are people’s thoughts?
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It’s almost a miracle that Artemis still exists given the different administrations that started its different parts.
My only explanation on why it hasn’t been cancelled yet would be that China is well on their way to the moon too. And this time it isn’t about national prestige, or science, it’s about establishing a foothold on the nearest source of untapped resources.
Routine visits to and from the moon aren’t too far off and getting resources from the moon to the earth might even be easier than mining the ocean floor, because that’s arguably a more hostile and less forgiving environment than space itself.Once the infrastructure is there (quite difficult, obviously) it’s theoretically pretty easy to transport stuff back to Earth from the moon. You could even shoot packages back using a railgun if you want to, if I recall correctly.