Perhaps the BEST B1G Forum anywhere, here at College Football Fan Site, CFB51!!!

Space x has been pushing nasa and their political leaders to think bigger. Right now nasa is thinking flags and footprints again. Namely to reassert our dominance in space, re-beat the communists ( China) and mix in a little science. 

Space X is telling them that they have an almost unlimited volume compared to the Apollo style landers for a fraction of the price. There is a large amount of confirmed ice at the moon, near the South Pole in areas that are permanently shaded from the sun. This water could be used to make rocket fuel in what’s known as in situ resource utilization. ISRU. 

Space and the moon are boring because the govt and nasa has made them that way. Missions are few and far between, expensive, and for most people out of reach. Space X already has paying customers to take them around the moon.  Look up “ Blue Moon”. It will only be a matter of time before someone pays to land on the moon. And it will cost hundreds of millions to do it, not billions. 

Can't spell geek without EE.

Utee, I'm sure your friend at NASA believes in what they are doing but at this point NASA is just another bloated bureaucracy that is stuck in the past with way too many employees and way too much money.  The joke is, what do you get when you give a team of engineers an unlimited budget and no deadline?  Answer:  Nothing.  Which has been mostly true.  

Space X will have SS operational before Artemis III, and maybe even before Artemis II is ready.  What's to stop them from making a landing attempt, even if unmanned, on the moon?  Why would NASA pay billions to launch SLS+Orion only to be unable to land on the moon without SS, when SS doesn't need SLS or Orion?  SS can 100% do the job without SLS, but SLS cannot do anything outside of orbit the moon.  

Elon has stated several times that the only reasons Space X exists is to make humans multiplanetary.  SS is designed to go to Mars from the get-go.  Yes, there are technology hurdles that will have to be conquered before humans can land on Mars with SS, but we are getting there quickly.  

Earth to Mars has a transit window every two years.  I believe that this year was the last window, the next won't be until 2024.  A lot of people believe that Elon will at the very least have SS operational enough to fly one to Mars unmanned, loaded with supplies.  Which leaves 2026 as the earliest a SS can make the trip to Mars manned.  It may not happen until 2028, or possibly even 2030.  

Either way it's a lot of excitement and will be a good thing for the US of A.  



It's weird to me that a lot of thing have been happening with regards to space, but very few people realize it.  Most don't even know that that US added another branch to the military (Trump did something right) called the USSF, or United States Space Force.  

I really don’t keep up with the iss comings and going’s. Are they planning on adding new modules?  Because I thought it was mostly complete and now just maintaining what they’ve got. Some of which are 20 plus years old. 

There is a lot of chatter about Russia breaking out and the US needing to replace some of the functionality of the Russian modules such as the ability to reboost. 

The ISS is not long for this world, metaphorically speaking.

Long ago, there was a proposal to build an electric launch system in the Andes that would propel something to about 3,000 mph up to 17,000 feet, then rockets would boost the rest of the way.