Re: SCI:TECH:RFC: wooing Mona

Dan Clemmensen (Dan@Clemmensen.ShireNet.com)
Sun, 15 Mar 1998 13:06:19 -0500


Eugene Leitl wrote:

> I think you all are aware of recent hints towards potentially minable
> polar water resources on the Moon. I'd like to discuss with you a couple
> of the more speculative development scenarios.
>

[SNIP of a bunch of really good technical ideas by 'gene]

This looks very promising. It appears to me that we need to examine
the bootstrap first. Will this be a NASA/acedemic effort, a private
effort, of some combo?

I'm not sure we need "monkeys in spacesuits" to capture the
public imagination, even assuming we need to . The public
was very enthusiastic about Sojurner. Given that, what would
minimal first step be? One possibility would be a Sojurner-type
mission to a polar crator. Obviously the details are massively
differernt, especially power and landing. The same smaler-faster-cheaper
technology that lands a probe in two or three years could land a
more versitile robot three years later.