NASAW

Despite having to cancel the launch of the Discovery, this has been a big week for NASA. They found possible evidence of life on Mars and have big plans for building a space station on the moon. Which of these two things scares you more? I really intended to devote an equal amount of time to both of these topics, but the more I read about the Moon space station the more I thought “this is gonna be goodâ€?. Apparently NASA has plans to build a permanently occupied lunar base, that of course won't happen any time soon (we're looking at the year 2020).

The plan is to send robots to the moon to determine where the best landing sites are and what natural resources would be available. Then NASA would start sending four-person crews with lunar exploration vehicles and stuff to build living quarters and power units. They also plan on building a solar-powered base on one of the moon’s poles to use as a launching base for missions to Mars.

So, is all this one big publicity stunt? Most definitely. But NASA is developing a new space capsule called the Orion and new rocket engines (the Ares). If going back to the moon is what it takes to get NASA to build a better boat so be it. I’m just wondering what’s going to happen when the robots attack the astronauts sent to the base for missions.