NASA delays unmanned trip to the Moon, Moon delays unmanned trip to Earth

NASA has delayed plans to send an unmanned robotic spacecraft to the Moon -- and the pause in action will cost $7 million a month, say reports. According to various news outlets, the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter was set to blast off for the Big Cheese this December, but officials have decided a February 27th launch will provide the team with more wiggle room. The $491 million device is being sent skyward to circle the Moon's poles and map a safe touchdown spot for actual humans, set to journey up onto the Lunar surface sometime in 2020. In addition to the Orbiter, the space agency plans to launch an impactor probe into one of the Moon's poles in search of water ice. It should be a blast.

[(01) @ Aug 15th 2008 10:07PM]

Let them use all the money they need. I am in full support of NASA programs, and it's not like the countries not wasting money hand over fist anyway...

[who? @ Aug 15th 2008 10:18PM]

Dude, if the U.S. wasn't having that sorry excuse for a war, we could all be LIVING in space.

[(01) @ Aug 15th 2008 10:20PM]

(laughs) kind of where I was going with that :-)

[Josh @ Aug 15th 2008 10:56PM]

I completely agree with you on that - and i feel that we may be of the minority in believing that money spent on space exploration is well spent - a thought that is unfortunate.

I would much rather get some prime real estate on the moon than in iraq...

[GatgetMan @ Aug 15th 2008 11:30PM]

But then we would soon just be at war IN space... (Or as Bush though at war WITH space)

[Ignatius @ Aug 15th 2008 11:35PM]

THAR BE DRAGONS.

[epsilon343 @ Aug 15th 2008 11:49PM]

Agreed, I cringe every time I hear people say that they want to cut spending for NASA when some of things they did back in the 60s is in our every day life now. These guys need our full support.

[loosely_coupled @ Aug 16th 2008 3:29AM]

Agreed! It primarily comes down to ignorance of the contributions that the aerospace industry have made to science and technology. Not to mention a pathological deficiency of basic human wonder and awe at the universe and desire to explore it...

[Mustaine @ Aug 16th 2008 8:04AM]

It's been war that has created technological jumps, not that I support it. Man just needs a better motivation.
I'm all for space exploration, but still using rockets? Put research into Electrogravitics instead of wasting time and money sending rockets to study rocks on Mars. And I hate to say it, but it's pointless traveling anywhere because no matter where you go..there you are. And what we seem to excel in is destroying each other and our environment. Not only other countries, but our own. The generation to inherit the planet is kept drugged and ignorant. I hope it doesn't fall like every other civilization to date.

[Mike10010100 @ Aug 16th 2008 10:24AM]

I agree. NASA needs to use a little more common sense. We went to the moon before with nothing more than a pocket calculator to calculate trajectory. If we landed on the moon with 70's tech, than we damn sure should be able to do it now. In fact, I'm surprised we don't have some sort of permanent settlement. If anything, the moon should be our testing place for robotic platforms used in the Mars missions. Give me one reason why we can't go there? This should be easy for us! In fact, go ahead, strap another command module onto a Saturn V and let's light this candle! To power the computers? A Palm TX, which is 10x more powerful than anything they had back then. This frustrates the hell out of me.

Another problem with NASA (besides all the monetary and managing problems) is the fact that they have to use 3 year old technology in every space flight. I'll bet that right now the space station is being powered by a bunch of low power pentium 4's. They could save so much battery, money, and get so much more out of a couple of low voltage Core 2 Duos, but they haven't been approved for space flight. These people have become wusses! I'm not saying that rockets exploding is good, and i'm not being irreverent, but i'm sure that the brave astronauts who died on the Apollo 1 would not have wanted us to set ourselves back 38 years (which is what we're doing by not going back to the moon). Did we just go to the moon to beat the Russians? If so, I have a great shame in NASA.

This is why i'm so glad that FINALLY private companies are starting to get into the game. NASA works like a bureaucracy. Private companies are much more efficient; if they waste their profit, they go out of business. New Mexico is a great start. NASA is selling one of their launch pads, so we here in Florida will be the next private space port. If anything, the space program needs a little capitalist influence.

2¢

[ED @ Aug 17th 2008 6:54PM]

Oh, we will all be living in space, just as soon as they figure out where Saddam hid the Stargate... :P

[Bryant @ Aug 15th 2008 10:07PM]

oh god, the puns!

[ethana2 @ Aug 15th 2008 10:49PM]

...barbarians the lot of them!

[d @ Aug 15th 2008 10:19PM]

didn't know the moon was planning a trip to earth

[ethana2 @ Aug 15th 2008 10:46PM]

When the Martians want you to know, they'll issue their ultimatum.

[Izzy @ Aug 15th 2008 11:00PM]

The martians or Tom Cruise?

[paul34 @ Aug 15th 2008 10:19PM]

One thing I don't understand... Japan launched an orbital lunar probe many, many years ago. At the time, it was when FOX kept airing that Moon landing conspiracy program, and we all said that pictures from the Japanese probe of the leftovers of the Apollo mission would give credence that it wasn't staged.

And yet, we haven't heard a SINGLE thing since then. I can't even find anything online. I hate how the news reports on something, then conveniently just drops coverage completely. So much for follow up.

WHERE IS THE JAPANESE LUNAR THING!?

[(01) @ Aug 15th 2008 10:21PM]

1st probe - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hiten
2nd probe - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SELENE

[youngcalihottie @ Aug 16th 2008 5:57AM]

thanks for the wiki links but they dont have anything to do with follow up information paul34 was talking about. where r the pictures proving the apollo mission?

[F @ Aug 16th 2008 8:26AM]

Oh, come on!

The news media drop coverage of stories all the time. You should be used to it by now. For example, after the plane crash of John F. Kennedy, Jr., the story was very quickly dropped. There was little or no coverage concerning the cause of the accident. (Drugs, pilot error, alcohol, etc.) It was reported that the bodies were cremated, and that was just about it.

[ClydeSeal @ Aug 17th 2008 2:26PM]

we shot it down with that cool missel that rammed into our satellite when was broken and leaking something.

[John H. @ Aug 15th 2008 10:19PM]

I'm sorry, but the title of this article is slightly fail.

[AJ @ Aug 15th 2008 10:31PM]

Lolz, love the title.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

"To See is not To Know, To Hear is not To Experience, To Do is no To Learn... To have a Will is to do all three at once." - Legend of Nub a.k.a LegendaryPro24

"Reality only exists because we pervieve it to be so" - Legend of Nub a.k.a LegendaryPro24

[Brandon @ Aug 16th 2008 11:15AM]

Your sig blows.

[CubeGuy @ Aug 16th 2008 12:01PM]

A signature? Really?

At least make it shorter than your actual post.

[HunterXI @ Aug 15th 2008 10:44PM]

That fucking unappreciative Moon... doesn't it realize the kinds of sacrifice we've made for it? We stiff one little mission and the bitch gets cold feet.

[ethana2 @ Aug 15th 2008 10:47PM]

Cold feet are the least of your problems when you have no atmosphere..

[Jack @ Aug 15th 2008 10:52PM]

FIRST!!! :-P

[PuBeLeSs @ Aug 15th 2008 10:57PM]

man, i really thought you had it too.

[Bleck @ Aug 15th 2008 10:57PM]

Shouldn't we.. you know, discover all of the secrets of Earth before we start venturing off into space? As much as I love NASA and the work they have done. They are basically burning money on these trips to planets. Sure, lets study Mars... then what? Its not like we would ever be able to realistically live there anytime this century.

I say lets do more trips to the Bermuda Triangle. :P

[Mustaine @ Aug 16th 2008 8:11AM]

Love it when people down-rank others without a rebuttal. +1 to you sir.

[MARSHAK @ Aug 16th 2008 1:55PM]

This is a bit of a stretch but think of it as colonizing north america. Why would we want to do that in 1500's? Theres nothing there, no roads, no buildings, no farms. We should stay here in the old world.

Its kinda like that. Can we live on mars anytime soon? no, not realistically _but_ that doesnt mean its impossible. Essentially we're starting small and working our way up.

The only slight disagreement I have on this subject is that all the countries in the world interested in space exploration should pool their knowledge and efforts, not have a space race.

[ClydeSeal @ Aug 17th 2008 2:24PM]

Agreed the space program is great _but_ we know a heck of a lot more about space then we know about our _own_ ocean. If put in half the money we put into the space program we could build an under water station and maybe even a city (prrobably not a city but its nice to dream [if we can put a city on mars we can do one in the ocean too]). Each time we take one of those submarines down to the bottom of the ocean we find atleast 10 new animal species (tell me now how many species have we found in the like 50 years we have studied space? NONE!)

So I think we should start a National Ocean Exploration Assosiation NOEA before we destroy our oceans with pollution.

(sorry about that last part destroying our ocean. thats my Ocean Conservency side coming out)

[Seanross @ Aug 15th 2008 10:57PM]

I'm not comprehending why it will cost $7 Mil. Per each month delayed

[foebea @ Aug 15th 2008 11:17PM]

If you leave a pickup truck in the backyard and abandon it completely, it will be rusty and the engine will be messed up and the battery dead.

To keep things in perfect condition (and the better the condition of the shuttle, the better) it costs money. Imagine hiring some mechanics to come perform upkeeps on your pickup truck every week for a decade while you are off on your world tour so that when you get back it will be in perfect condition. Friggin expensive.

[Mustaine @ Aug 16th 2008 8:15AM]

I'm sure he appreciates depreciation... (C wut I did thar?) but why does it cost more each time we do it? It's not inflation and it's not the equipment..we can bring moon rocks back and study them here...lord knows why though.

[Mustaine @ Aug 16th 2008 8:18AM]

I'm sure he appreciates depreciation... (C wut I did thar?) but why does it cost more each time we do it? It's not inflation and it's not the equipment..we can bring moon rocks back and study them here...lord knows why though.

[Seanross @ Aug 16th 2008 3:13PM]

o i get what your sayin, the notion just didnt pop up in my head...

[Sean @ Aug 15th 2008 11:13PM]

For crying out loud.
I no longer want to win powerball for my own greediness... per se.

I now want to win powerball so I can sponsor my own damn X-Prize. $150million to whoever can make NASA look like kids with bottle rockets.

[Ignatius @ Aug 15th 2008 11:36PM]

I don't think $150 million will do it... try $150 BILLION...

[Christian @ Aug 15th 2008 11:34PM]

Nice use of the Smashing Pumpkins 'Tonight, Tonight' video grab, Joshua. That's a great song and a great video.

[Nick @ Aug 16th 2008 3:52AM]

Wow, so you haven't heard of the 1902 film, A Trip to the Moon by Méliès, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_Trip_to_the_Moon

Yeah, that's right. 1902. Not the Smashing Pumpkins.

[Dan @ Aug 16th 2008 7:03AM]

To be fair the video is based on the film but afaik the screencap above doesn't appear in the pumpkin's (admitedly excellent) video

[Minilap @ Aug 15th 2008 11:55PM]

$491 milion for a probe? With that kind of money the Chinese could have a manned mission to the moon if they had NASA resources.

[npChaos @ Aug 16th 2008 5:50PM]

But then, a month later when the Chinese moon base is built, NASA will find that the walls are painted with lead-based and will deem it unsuitable for US habitation.

[z0phi3l @ Aug 16th 2008 12:17AM]

The problem why people want money cut from NASA is because of crap like this, they delay a launch wasting money, if they streamlined operations and cut a lot of waste, you know stop acting like a Government agency and more like a business, then people wouldn't mind the money spent

[captain underpants and the bringdown gang @ Aug 16th 2008 12:32AM]

Wait... we "landed" on the moon back in the 60s.... why can we only do it again Eigthy years after we first landed

[RC @ Aug 16th 2008 1:23AM]

I went to Canada once back in the mid 80's and haven't been back since. I'm pretty sure I could go whenever I really felt like it and devoted time and resources to it, but I've been doing other things.

So...what's your point again?

[npChaos @ Aug 16th 2008 5:57PM]

Last time I went to Canada, I found the whole place to be a bit smug, with funds depleting quickly, the only hope was to slingshot around Niagara in order to get home.

[Danny @ Aug 16th 2008 12:44AM]

It's so refreshing to see nearly unanimous support for space exploration here. Dr. Sagan would be proud.

(Pale Blue Dot and Cosmos should be mandatory reading before graduation of high school, sez I.)

- D.