The Moon is Lonely Too

Early last month President Obama called for NASA to cancel manned missions to the moon.  Originally, I was a bit surprised by this action, but have since changed my mind.  The change however still surprises me especially with recent discoveries.

The recent discoveries I am talking about are the ones dealing with water.  The moon for many years has been assumed to be barren and dry.  However in the last two years we have discovered trace amounts of water molecules in the soil and at least 600 million tons of frozen water in the deep craters of the Moon’s North pole.  Most scientist believe that water is essential to terrestrial life, so I question why we wouldn’t pursue this.

The good news that comes out of the cancellation is the opportunity of improved space travel.  President Obama is not trying to cut NASA out of the budget he is simply calling for a change in goals.  The goals he has setup are ones to improve shuttles.  The main reason this is a concern is because we have been using the same shuttles since the 50′s and 60′s.  Realistically, shuttle improvement should have been on par with the rest of NASA’s improvements but has instead simply relied on the old technology.  The other aim of these new goals is cultivation robotics.  These robots would allow us to begin utilize minerals and resources from the Moon and Mars. (There maybe some ecological irony behind this, but not the point.)

Overall the decision is a little sad since it makes it a lot less likely I will have a trip to the Moon.  However this will hopefully improve our understanding of the universe and alleviate some concerns of nonrenewable resources.