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[khaosworks]

NASA Weighs U.S. Strategy for Moon Exploration
By Leonard David
Senior Space Writer
posted: 15 November 2006
6:15 a.m. ET

GOLDEN, Colorado – NASA is set to roll out next month a U.S. national strategy for lunar exploration, one that outlines both robotic exploration needs and the rationale for sending humans back to the Moon.

The space agency plan is a key component in the response to U.S. President George W. Bush's Vision for Space Exploration – a call to action that he sketched out in early 2004.

That far-reaching, big picture White House agenda included as a goal the return of humans to the Moon's surface by 2020 - as the launching point for missions beyond. Also, starting no later than 2008, a series of robotic missions would be dispatched to the lunar surface to research and prepare for future human exploration.

With the Moon viewed as home for abundant resources, President Bush also explained that lunar soil contains raw materials that might be harvested and processed into rocket fuel or breathable air.

"We can use our time on the Moon to develop and test new approaches and technologies and systems that will allow us to function in other, more challenging environments. The Moon is a logical step toward further progress and achievement," Bush stated nearly three years ago during a speech at NASA Headquarters in Washington, D.C.

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Comments

[cfred.livejournal.com]

With the Moon viewed as home for abundant resources, President Bush also explained that lunar soil contains raw materials that might be harvested and processed into rocket fuel....

Oh, great. He thinks the moon contains oil. Obviously we'll be invading. :)

[madfilkentist]

Please reread that quote. He didn't say "oil," he said "raw materials that might be harvested and processed into rocket fuel or breathable air." My best guess is that this refers to extracting oxygen from lunar ice.

[dan-ad-nauseam.livejournal.com]

Space, the final frontier. These are the voyages of the skullship W-prise.