NASA invites you to travel to the Moon
Well, your name at least
NASA is inviting citizens of Earth to add their name to an electronic roll-call destined to travel to the Moon aboard the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO) later this year.
All you have to do is enter your details here, and they'll be put into a database for later storage on a chip aboard the LRO.
Cathy Peddie, deputy project manager for LRO at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center, enthused: "Everyone who sends their name to the moon, like I'm doing, becomes part of the next wave of lunar explorers. The LRO mission is the first step in NASA's plans to return humans to the moon by 2020, and your name can reach there first. How cool is that?"
Once you've submitted your name, you get a printable certificate of participation - a nice touch for kids. The deadline for lunar explorers is 27 June.
The LRO is part of NASA's planned return to the Moon, and its objectives are "finding safe landing sites, locate potential resources, characterize the radiation environment, and demonstrate new technology".
The spacecraft will pack an array of instruments, including LEND (to "provide measurements, create maps, detecting possible near-surface water ice deposits"), LROC (to "address the measurement requirements of landing site certification and polar illumination") and LOLA, which will "provide a precise global lunar topographic model and geodetic grid". NASA has more tech details here. ®
COMMENTS
@It'sa Mea... Mario
>"..and successfully return, then how come - dispite massive advances in computer tech, at least some advancement in space shuttle tech and nearly forty extra years worth of studing the moon - it is still gonna take another 12 years to plan the next trip?????"
Um, because that's how long it takes. All the Saturn Vs are used, scrapped, or retired, we don't have any serviceable Apollo modules left, so what do you want? A whole lot of stuff has to be built from scratch, that means meetings, reports, committees, designing, planning, building prototypes, testing, debugging, building more prototypes, testing, debugging them, building the actual kit, testing it, assembling it, giving it a final once over and only then finally launching it.
Come on then, you're clearly claiming that it's some kind of conspiracy, so you ought to know: how long /should/ it take? And why? Let's see *your* detailed project plan. Because if you can't show that it can be done much faster, bang goes even your slightest hint of circumstantial evidence for the suggestion that you were too cowardly to come right out with (because even you know it's stupid and you don't want to look stupid): you're saying the original moon landings must have been a hoax or we would be able to do it quicker than twelve years. That might seem obvious to you, but the rest of us would like to know how you think you can say that - why not thirteen years, or eleven years?
Oh, and what you mentioned about the shuttle? That's irrelevant rubbish. The shuttle's a low-earth orbiter, it's got bugger-all use in a moon-flight capacity, so why even bring it up except to distract from the emptiness of your argument? Nothing we've learned from building shuttles would get us to the moon any faster.
Oh, and what you mentioned about forty years more studying the moon? That's irrelevant rubbish too. How the hell can you claim that looking at it through telescopes should teach us how to build rockets and organise large-scale human manpower projects any better? That's ridiculous!
Agreed - what scam?
I can't see what the big deal is with everybody.
You put in a name, not an email address, bank details or anything else... and if you have a common name, the problem appears to be the futility of it rather than any security risk.
@Ambi Valent
1) What scam? You enter a name, you get a printable certificate, er, that's it. (Possibly said name even goes to the moon as described - does it matter? Who's going to check and how?).
2) M$ don't do freebies, only loss-leaders.
Feel free to diss M$. Just try to make the effort to find a valid reason first, it's not like there aren't a few out there fer chrissake!
(Jobs with horns to even the balance and 'cos he's equally as irrelevant in context.)
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