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    • CommentAuthorkuffodog
    • CommentTimeAug 31st 2007
     
    News article on Yahoo.com from AFP, stated today that Russians plan to build and man a space station on the moon.
    They plan to do so within 20 years - with a manned space flight to the Moon estimated for 2025.
    There is talk of modernizing spacecraft, fitting it for the long journey and a multi year plan of building and maintaining
    the space station. The main point of all this is that they are planning to do all this on a budget that is 1/10 that of NASA.
    They've quite successfully utilized a tourist scheme where they get millions in revenue from billionaire space tourists.
    How about commercializing the whole space industry? I think earthlings will shortly become a truly space faring species.
    This however will not be due to any effort by under funded space agencies or commercial entrepreneurs. This will be
    a result of physics research and completely revolutionary methods of propulsion. In other words a year from now
    when CERN will start using its new toy Large Hadron Collider, we will be on the verge of profound new discoveries in
    elementary particle physics. I dare to dream that this will result in complete understanding and harnessing of the most
    commonly know and least understood force: GRAVITY.
    • CommentAuthorDFresh
    • CommentTimeSep 3rd 2007
     
    Wasn't the US moon-landing a hoax?
    • CommentAuthorkuffodog
    • CommentTimeSep 14th 2007
     
    No it wasn't. As a matter of fact, I reviewed the archives of the NASA website on the Apollo missions. Cool stuff.
    • CommentAuthorDFresh
    • CommentTimeOct 14th 2007
     
    What about that belt of radiation some scientists say humans could not survive flying through? http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Van_Allen_radiation_belts
    • CommentAuthorkuffodog
    • CommentTimeMar 15th 2008 edited
     
    This is what the very article you quoted says about the effect of radiation on the Apollo missions:

    Impact on space travel

    Solar cells, integrated circuits, and sensors can be damaged by radiation. In 1962, the Van Allen belts were temporarily amplified by a high-altitude nuclear explosion (the Starfish Prime test) and several satellites ceased operation. Geomagnetic storms occasionally damage electronic components on spacecraft. Miniaturization and digitization of electronics and logic circuits have made satellites more vulnerable to radiation, as incoming ions may be as large as the circuit's charge. Electronics on satellites must be hardened against radiation to operate reliably. The Hubble Space Telescope, among other satellites, often has its sensors turned off when passing through regions of intense radiation.

    During Project Apollo, astronauts traveled through the Van Allen belts on both the outbound and return trips to the moon. The crews spent only limited time in transit in the region, and consequently the radiation exposure was limited. The Apollo 14 crew recorded the highest Van Allen belt exposures during their February 1971 mission, but the crew's short-term exposure was still within acceptable levels. Future manned missions beyond earth orbit must also transit the Van Allen belts, but these missions will be shielded and hardened for much longer-duration exposure to cosmic rays and solar wind.

    An object satellite shielded by 3 mm of aluminum will receive about 2,500 rem (25 Sv) per year.[5]