Teleoperated Equipment, Robots, & Robonauts will Open the Moon

In his blog post "Can We Afford to Return to the Moon?," Dr. Paul Spudis makes the case for the need to "design an architecture that accomplishes the mission in small, incremental and cumulative steps."

"The key to making all this work," Spudis says, "is the use of teleoperated robotic machines.  We go to the Moon robotically first and later with people. These robots are controlled by people on the Earth.  They prospect for resources, test techniques, evaluate product yields, set up processing plants, and begin harvesting lunar resources almost immediately.  The extracted products are cached on the surface for future use.  The entire lunar outpost is set-up and made operational by these robotic machines."

Why Robots and Robonauts first? Read the full article in Moon Miners' Manifesto -India Quarterly #9 pages 19-23 http://www.moonsociety.org/india/mmm-india/m3india9_JanMar2011.pdf

If that does not work, try

http://www.moonsociety.org/india/mmm-india/

and scroll down the page and click on the cover image for #9

Also check out the following article, pa

ges 23-24 in the same issue of MMM-India Quarterly #9: 

Role of Robonauts & Robots on the Moon once Humans have settled in to stay.

And by all means do watch this video,  

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kFPNcWN7QnM

it is awesome and encouraging

The Google Lunar X-Prize: Morphing Competitions into Markets

By David A. Dunlop, Moon Society Director of Project Development

"The Google Lunar X-Prize bills itself as "Moon 2.0" with a faith in the ability of competition, and human ingenuity, and non-governmental organizations to reach the lunar surface, move a short distance and transmit data including pictures back to Earth for the ridiculously small amount of a $20M first prize and a second prize of $5M. I use the adjective ridiculous for the amount of prize money not because I (and most ordinary people around the world) would not consider this amount a sizable personal fortune, but because by the standards of prior lunar missions and even other planned lunar missions by space faring powers the prize is only a small fraction of the realistic cost of developing the mission."

In this article, pp 14-19 of MMM-India Quarterly #9 , Dunlop suggests how teams that do not win the first or second prize can still make significant contributions. NASA has now entered the arena, adding to the list of incentives specific awards for needed data and for desired technology demonstrations. In this way, the results of the Google Lunar X-Prize competition can be multiplied, and lower the cost of future lunar lander missions, with the result being more exploration and knowledge for the investment

The ultimate goal is to bring closer the day when space agencies and commercial consortia can begin tapping lunar resources for the benefit of all mankind. 

pp. 14-19  http://www.moonsociety.org/india/mmm-india/m3india9_JanMar2011.pdf

If that does not work, try http://www.moonsociety.org/india/mmm-india/and scroll down the page and click on the cover image for #9.

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