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September 20, 2005

A return to the moon, then on to Mars.

On monday, NASA unveiled plans for a return to the moon and a manned mission to Mars. Today, space.com carries a story today about the plans (New Agenda or Apollo Retread?).

Aspects are somewhat vintage Apollo in approach

Well, of course. They were good ideas then and they're good ideas now. Things like the crew module on top of the rocket (easy to jetison in an emergency and away from any debris).

Of course, there are some new twists. The earth-to-moon stage would be pre-launched, and the astronauts would rendezvous with that stage in earth orbit before continuing on. Then they will leave the exploration vehicle in autopilot while all four continue on to the lunar surface.

Return to Earth would be in a similar fashion to the Apollo missions, however a splashdown is now considered a contingency, they're aiming to bump down in the mid-west somewhere.

Where do I sign up?

Scrawled illegibly by Meathe at September 20, 2005 10:54 AM

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