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A Vision for the Near Future Page 2 Our APOLLO space program showed we could safely mate components in Earth orbit before pressing onto the Moon. We can still do this but there will be a time that the orbital junkyard becomes a real threat to anything below and passing through it. Cleaning up this junkyard is going to take time and it's going to take new technology. What is your vision of mankind in space of the future? Is it a mega-corporation undertaking where the corporation can demand any price for any service and any material brought back? Is it a unified effort spanning countries making it a global effort where these services and material can be realistically valued? The International Space Station (ISS) was originally meant to be Space Station Freedom - a sole U.S. undertaking. When the expense was realized it became a near-global undertaking with China being the only major entity not to be involved. I like what the corporate sector has accomplished and where it's going. I certainly feel they should be paid realistically to perform the services that were intended - in part launching national astronauts. Fossil fuel and nuclear reactors energy have an impact on the environment - nuclear has hazards with radiation. Imagine an energy source that can replace them both with much less impact and servicing a lot more people with fewer maintenance issues. Initial studies and research into Helium-3 shows great potential. Unfortunately there simply isn't enough Helium-3 on Earth to power a prototype plant - but it exists on the Moon and it should exist on the asteroids. I do not feel solar energy is a good prospect yet simply because I have looked into the cost of a full solar home and the savings over time is unrealistic. Solar energy and wind are good at reducing a homes energy costs but currently the cost is prohibitive in totally getting off a grid - of course this does depend on the size of your home. Get a copy of Harrison H. Schmitt's book Return to the Moon - he has laid the ground work out for us. Of course changes and pricings will take place as knowledge gained and hardware developed. If a corporation sees the benefit of returning to the Moon just for exploratory mining of Helium-3 I am all for it - providing there is a realistic price tag when Helium-3 can be made ready for research and application. The science of getting into Low Earth Orbit (LEO) and man living in space is history. We are still learning from both leading to improved systems. We will learn what it takes to get past the hurdles of radiation, regolith "dust", electrostatic charging and more. We should be able to explore some mining and extracting as we do. We will make new discoveries...we will have more accidents...but we will learn more in the process. We will discover what it takes to ensure mans survival long term in the space environment without being dependent on resources launched from Earth. We need to return to the Moon to accomplish these things. It is becoming increasingly financially unrealistic for an individual nation (or corporation) to do this - so why not a partnership between nations such as the one that created the ISS? |