Space exploration of the Moon: current status and prospects (review)

2013 ◽  
Vol 19 (3(82)) ◽  
pp. 5-20 ◽  
Author(s):  
V.S. Kislyuk ◽  
Author(s):  
David Miguel Molina ◽  
P. J. Blount

In chapter 3, Molina and Blount offer a contextualization of NASA’s interlocutory role throughout the long civil rights movement by mobilizing these three themes to analyze a series of archival and cultural artifacts. The authors first analyze the rhetoric deployed by the Poor People Campaign’s various mobilizations to show that the American space program was viewed with deep skepticism by the African American community and particularly within the context of ongoing struggles for black freedom. Second, they discuss the “distance” between the tropes of spatial disenfranchisement represented in the civil rights movement and the Moon missions to show how space exploration was portrayed as an acceleration of the marginalization of black spaces.


Human space exploration has historically provided a great many people with a positive vision of the future. At this time, society faces many 21st century problems (global warming, sea level rise, etc.) and could use some of that vision. The economic state of the nations that historically paid for this exploration does not currently allow for a large and expensive new space initiative, like Apollo to the Moon or a trip to Mars. Nevertheless, there have been great strides in computing and resulting social media. Could a very large number of dedicated people self-organize into a grassroots human space program? This story envisions such a movement and the lessons today's students could learn from the attempt.


Author(s):  
Norma B. Crosby

It has been more than half a century since humans first ventured into space. While competing in being the first to land on the Moon, they learned to utilize space for human needs on Earth (e.g., telecommunications, navigation systems). Many space technologies were later applied to basic needs on Earth. Space research and development led to the “transfer of technology” in non-space sectors and became better known as “spin-offs.” They have improved global modern life in many ways. This paper discusses the cost-benefit of space technology spin-offs, as well as the relationships between various space agencies, spin-offs, and commercial enterprises. Other benefits that have come out of space exploration such as psychological, political and environmental effects are also reviewed, as well as the potential future benefits of going to space. Technologies developed for harsh environments on Earth and for those in space benefit all and collaborating both ways is the future.


2012 ◽  
Vol 74 (1) ◽  
pp. 111-120 ◽  
Author(s):  
Nandu Goswami ◽  
Peter G. Roma ◽  
Patrick De Boever ◽  
Gilles Clément ◽  
Alan R. Hargens ◽  
...  

2019 ◽  
Vol 19 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Mitchell Powell

Space exploration is about to undergo a monumental change and the global legal and regulatory infrastructure is massively unprepared. When the bulk of international space law was written, the Cold War was raging, and man had not even landed on the Moon yet. Now, thanks to advances in technology, a seismic shift has occurred which will see private industry leading the future of space exploration with national space agencies as partners, rather than the other way around as has been the status quo for decades. One of the most lucrative possibilities luring private firms to space is the opportunity to extract resources from a celestial body such as an asteroid, another planet, or the Moon. It is estimated that trillions of dollars’ worth of precious metals, liquids, and gasses exist on these bodies. A galactic resource race will soon be underway, and space-faring nations must take the lead to ensure that legal, economic, and environmental issues posed by such space exploration is hammered out before it is too late. I assert that if left to their own devices, firms will fail to follow the same standard of their fore-father government space agencies. As a result, we need an international agreement or body for the twenty-first century to govern and regulate the extraction of resources from outer space led by the great space hegemons.


Author(s):  
I. V. Narskiy ◽  
◽  

In 1961, Tatiana Ustinova, the choreographer of the famous Pyatnitsky Choir, choreographed “To the Stars”, the first dance on the theme of space exploration in the Soviet repertoire. The suite, in the Russian pseudo-popular style, told of the Russian cosmonaut's encounter with the moon and stars. However, this work remained in the repertoire of the famous chorus for a relatively short time. How to assess the emergence and disappearance of this dance from the point of view of a historian? To answer this question, the choreographic event is placed within the Soviet historical context of the Thaw and the dance-artistic context of 1930s – 1960s. The paper shows that a combination of circumstances outside and within Soviet choreography was not favourable for the conjuncture of space dance in the USSR. The pathos of a break-through into the future expired soon after Khrushchev resigned, the boundless pride for the unparalleled leap forward was superseded by the bitterness of the untimely loss of the first man in space and the success of the American space programme, and the language of Soviet choreography was hopelessly anachronistic for description of a new reality. But the very attempts to portray space on the dance stage are evidence of the incredible popularity and ubiquity of the theme of space in the USSR in the early 1960s.


Leonardo ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 54 (1) ◽  
pp. 149-156
Author(s):  
Linda T. Elkins-Tanton

Starting in 2006, the author joined and then led field expeditions to central Siberia in search of answers to the greatest murder mystery in the history of Earth: the end-Permian extinction. The rocks that yielded answers were the same kinds of volcanic lavas that can be seen at night on the Moon, or in photos of Mars or Venus. The unyielding Russian engineering that owns the longevity record on the surface of Venus is now used to launch cosmonauts and astronauts from the other end of those same Siberian steppes. Not the data—not the years nor the numbers nor the temperature—but art, as Solzhenitsyn explained, is the only way to reach the heart and soften our pace as we move into another age of space exploration, this time as humans, the author hopes, and not as nations.


2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
guo linli ◽  
blanc michel ◽  
huang tieqiu ◽  
huang jiangze ◽  
yuan jianping ◽  
...  

<p>    The Moon is sometimes also called the "eighth continent" of the Earth. Determining how to utilize cis-lunar orbital infrastructures and lunar resources to carry out new economic activities extended to the space of the Earth-Moon system is one of the long-term goals of lunar exploration activities around the world. Future long-term human deep-space exploration missions to the Moon, on the Moon surface or using the Moon to serve farther destinations will require the utilization of lunar surface or asteroid resources to produce water, oxygen and other consumables needed to maintain human survival and to produce liquid propellant for the supply of spacecraft on the lunar surface. In complement to exploration activities, Moon tourism in cis-lunar orbit and on the lunar surface will become more and more attractive with the increase of  human spaceflight capacity and the development of commercial space activities. However, the development of a sustainable Earth-Moon ecosystem requires that we solve the following five problems:</p><p>(1)How to design alow-cost cis-lunar space transportation capacity? To find an optimal solution, one must compare direct Earth-Moon flight modes with flights based on the utilization of space stations, and identify the most economical spacecraft architectures.</p><p>(2)How to design an efficient set ofcis-lunar orbital infrastructures combining LEO space stations, Earth-Moon L1/L2 point space stations and Moon bases for commercial tourism, taking into account key issues such as energy, communications and others?</p><p>(3)Significant amounts ofliquid oxygen, water, liquid propellant and structural material will be needed for human bases, crew environmental control and life support systems, spacecraft propulsion systems, Moon surface storage and transportation systems. How to  design in-situ resources utilization (ISRU) of the Moon, including its soil, rocks and polar water ice reservoirs, to produce the needed amounts?</p><p>(4) How to simulate on the Earth surface the different components and key technologies that will enable a future long-term human residence on the Moon surface?</p><p>(5). How to accommodate the co-development of public and commercial space and foster international cooperation? How can space policies and international space law help this co-development?</p><p>    China has made rapid progress in robotic lunar exploration activities in the last 20 years, as illustrated by the recent discoveries provided by the Chang'e-4 lander on the far side of the Moon. By 2061, China will have gone into manned lunar exploration and built Moon bases. In preparation for this new phase of its contribution to space exploration, lunar surface simulation instruments have been built in Beijing, Shenzhen and other places in China. A series of achievements have been made in the field of space life sciences . An ambitious project to establish a large Moon base simulation test field, the Lunar Base Yulin (LBY) project, currently in its design phase in Yulin, Shaanxi Province in China, will allow the verification of key relevant technologies.</p><p>    By the 2061 Horizon, we believe that international cooperation and public-private partnership will be key elements to enable this vision of a new, sustainable cis-lunar space economy.</p>


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