REM@MC.LCS.MIT.EDU (Robert Elton Maas) (02/24/86)
D> Date: Fri, 21 Feb 86 12:20:30 PST D> From: ihnp4!ihuxl!dcn@ucbvax.berkeley.edu D> Instead of spending millions to make the system fully automated for D> all those little problems that can occurr, why not include some D> people to help out? I think you misunderstood my proposal (or my proposal got refined during 2-3 week delay from submitting it to receiving your reply?). I meant (or now mean) that 99% of the work would be done via remote control, excluding any permanent manned lunar presence for the time being but not to exclude manned setup/repair visits if technology permits and the automated can't be coerced by radio command to do what needs doing. But actually perhaps if something needs repair and the appropriate tool isn't there, we should think first of sending another remote-controlled tool instead of sending and retrieving a human team. Only if the task is really beyond the capability of any any state-of-art teleoperators, and there is no backup equipment for the item needing repair, should we send humans. (Alternately, only when sending humans is the cheapest way to get the task done should we send humans.) D> A small team could help set up the equipment in a couple of days and D> return to the space station to monitor it. That assumes we have a manned space station and heavy-load orbital transfer vehicle and heavy-load lunar lander&unlander. At present we don't (although the Russians/Soviets have launched a space station for a permanent manned presence in space and should have it manned within a few months), and my proposal was to get moving on lunar mining already, without waiting another 5-10 years for our space station to be ready before we start installing teleoperated equipment on the Moon. D> Then when something breaks, they can go fix it. It should be D> relatively cheap to make a few updated lunar modules for temporary D> visits to the Moon. All you need is a lunar ferry (you'll need that D> anyway to return the titanium). Until we have a space station, we either hire Russians to make the repair trip from their space station, or we send a shuttle crew up from Earth. With only 3 orbiters, the latter would cut into other projects too much, and the former would be politically difficult. For lunar ferry, you need a lunar ferry capable of transfering heavy loads quickly (before the consumable supplies run out), whereas for titanium you can do with lots of tiny loads that take weeks to get over the ridge between the Earth and Moon potential wells.
henry@utzoo.UUCP (Henry Spencer) (02/27/86)
> Only if the task is really beyond the capability of any any > state-of-art teleoperators, and there is no backup equipment for the > item needing repair, should we send humans. This will happen a lot, since the current state of teleoperator technology is really pretty pitiful. Since you don't want to wait for the space station, I assume you don't want to wait for better teleoperator technology (which is probably farther away, since no new technology is needed to build a space station) (if you can assume efficiently-run teleoperator systems, I can assume an efficiently-built space station, with none of the silly money-wasting high-tech frills NASA is touting). > (Alternately, only when > sending humans is the cheapest way to get the task done should we send > humans.) Same comment: sending a small number of humans to keep the machinery running is the cheapest way to work things. Note that the costs of keeping humans on site drop A LOT if the humans are permanently-resident colonists rather than maintenance workers flown in on demand. -- Henry Spencer @ U of Toronto Zoology {allegra,ihnp4,linus,decvax}!utzoo!henry