[extropy-chat] Fly Me 'Round the Moon

[Mike Lorrey]

--- Russell Wallace <russell.wallace at gmail.com> wrote:

> On 8/11/05, Mike Lorrey <mlorrey at yahoo.com> wrote:

> > I had seen the specs on this a few weeks ago. Personally, I'd say
> dump
> > the upper stage booster. Refit the Soyuz with larger solar panels
> (as
> > well as the logistics module) and a number of plasma thrusters.
> Instead
> > of the upper stage, send up a refitted Russian lunar lander (the
> one
> > sitting in the museum would be fine), and make it a real lunar
> mission
> > for one.
> 
> That last bit is a contradiction, I'm afraid. A flyby shot where
> you're just obeying Newton's laws might work solo, but if you're
> going
> to do something more complicated like landing, you'll have to have a
> professional pilot at the controls; there are too many things that
> can go wrong otherwise.

eh, there's plenty of rich pilots out there, many who are either vets
or who have gone to one of those rich boys dogfighter or test pilot
schools. Hell, I've played lunar lander tons of times, starting when I
was ten years old. Besides, most all spaceflight these days is done by
the computers. A human having to DIY means something has gotten
seriously fubared. The one guy should be along for the ride and let the
computer calculate everything, with a 'bitching betty' voice module to
instruct the passenger: "now, put your space suit on", "now, transfer
to the lunar lander", etc etc.

We needed pilots in the apollo program cause our surface topo
resolution sucked and the computers per pipsqueaks. A lunar tourist
trip today could easily land right next to any of the Apollo landers,
since we already know the terrain, etc.

If you are going to have two people on board, the only way it could be
fun is if it were a pair of newleyweds on their honeymoon.... hey,
thats a great idea for a reality show!!!! :)

Mike Lorrey
Vice-Chair, 2nd District, Libertarian Party of NH
Founder, Constitution Park Foundation:
http://constitutionpark.blogspot.com
Personal/political blog: http://intlib.blogspot.com

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