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Robert Walker

Well it probably will happen in the near future. Perhaps as soon as the 2020s. Amongst the differences in future planned missions.

  • Many more robotic missions first. The Apollo spacecraft would have landed on a site already scouted out robotically. They’d land to a beacon, would have images of the surface already, would probably even have a landing pad and a habitat to go to, already “turn key” just go in and it is ready to live in.
  • Robotic construction also. the robots would have applied regolith shielding too. You’d be safe from solar storms inside the habitat
  • HD colour streaming video to Earth of course
  • They would probably land at the lunar poles, alternatively close to a lunar cave
  • Measures to keep the dust out of the spacecraft. Probably use the Suitport, crawl into the spacesuit from the back
  • Probably they would do a lot of the study of the surface via telepresnce, scouting with robots
  • They would be more careful about falling over in their spacesuits. I think the Apollo astronauts didn’t realize how vulnerable their spacesuits could be and they could easily have killed themselves just by falling over and damaging some vulnerable component.
  • Pressurized enclosed rover also for safety and more convenient, travel further
  • Would stay there for at least a lunar day, so 14 Earth days - it’s a long way to go just for 1 - 3 days. Part of the reason the Apollo missions were so short is because the lunar EVA is amongst the most dangerous phase of the journey, so they minimized it as much as they could compatible with doing a decent amount of exploring. With safer ways of exploring the Moon they could be there for weeks, even for months if equipped to deal with the lunar night or if they stayed at the poles.

For more on this see my

Case For Moon First (free online copy)

also available on Kindle as Case For Moon First: Gateway to Entire Solar System - Open Ended Exploration, Planetary Protection at its Heart

About the Author

Robert Walker

Robert Walker

Writer of articles on Mars and Space issues - Software Developer of Tune Smithy, Bounce Metronome etc.
Studied at Wolfson College, Oxford
Lives in Isle of Mull
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