NASA identifies landing sites for America's return trip to the Moon

The next US astronauts to set foot on the Moon will find themselves on the summit of a mountain range or the ridge of a crater near the lunar south pole. NASA has narrowed down the potential landing site to 13 possible regions, all within six degrees of latitude of the south pole. Sunlight fails to reach most of these areas, …

[Anonymous Coward]

Amongst all the depressing news this week in ElReg's RSS feed, It's nice to have an inspirational story.

I'm hopeful Artemis can one day put astronauts on the moon to continue the work of the last Apollo mission - the only one that carried a scientist, Harrison Schmitt, who had a doctorate in geology.

Bon voyage.

[Lordrobot]

Selling the Sizzle before the Fizzle

Such wonderful landing options... Like choosing a rental at Brighton. The only thing missing in all the euphoria was a launch date. Will it be before or after Chuck Schumer's 30 FAB plants are built and in 1nm production with OHIO becoming the centre of the Semiconductor Universe or longer out... say 50 years or so? I hope NASA can upgrade the VHS studio with some better green screens than the last time.

Will they be taking Golf Clubs with Trump stickers on them or will they see if a DJI drone can launch itself into orbit? Has the Non-binary diversity crew been selected? After all, this is not your daddy's Oldsmobile Moon.

[jmch]

Re: Selling the Sizzle before the Fizzle

Wow, Chuck Schumer really pissed on your chips!!

[Lordrobot]

Re: Selling the Sizzle before the Fizzle

CHUCK ZOOMER's Crystal Ball....

Sen. Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.) declared in November 2008: “A business model based on gas — a gas-guzzling past — is unacceptable. We need a business model based on cars of the future, and we already know what that future is: the plug-in hybrid electric car.”

The future is the Plug-in Hybrid Electric Car.... Wait, this is the future...

Following that Grand Prognostication... Zoomer is going to convert the USA to the FAB capital of the WORLD... in the future that is...

Call me dubious... excuse me while I go check on my Plug-in hybrid Electric in the Garage...

[Pascal Monett]

Who is Chuck Schumer ?

And since when are fab plants being built in Ohio ?

Last I read, they're mostly being built in Texas, which is absolutely stupid, but hey, I'm stocking up on popcorn as we speak.

[DS999]

Re: Who is Chuck Schumer ?

Intel announced plans to build a bunch of them in Ohio, so there aren't really any now but there will be by the end of the decade.

[ChrisC]

Re: Selling the Sizzle before the Fizzle

NURSE! More dried frog pills required for bed 3...

[DubyaG]

Re: Selling the Sizzle before the Fizzle

No dried frog pills required if it's a Medbed.

[Anonymous Coward]

Return to the Moon?

Return to the Moon you say? LOL ... how funny!! You have to have gone there before in order to "return" there.

[Zebo-the-Fat]

Re: Return to the Moon?

We did in 1969, the landings were in the middle of the cold war, you can be sure the Russians tracked the Apollo capsule every inch of the way, any fakery would have been headline news in Pravda.

Someone put the laser retroreflectors on the surface (they can still be used today)

[Pascal Monett]

Leave the stupid alone. You can't educate them.

[Zebo-the-Fat]

Wilfull ignorance?

[Headley_Grange]

Re: Return to the Moon?

@Zebo: "Someone put the laser retroreflectors on the surface (they can still be used today)"

I suspect the OP AC wears their own reflector made of tin foil.

[anthonyhegedus]

luggage problems?

They really ought to plan it well - send a robot mission in advance to build a luggage carousel. Then make sure the baggage handlers on Earth sort out their bags properly. Imagine if their luggage ended up on Phobos or something by accident: "Well it said 'Moon' - you didn't specify which one!".

[Pete 2]

Re: luggage problems?

> Well it said 'Moon'

So would than be Moon in: ,

Kentucky

Mississippi

Oklahoma

Pennsylvania

South Dakota

Virginia

Wisconsin

or Moon, France.

And which one is Artemis most likely to land on?

However, there is one big step that the project seems to have missed. Nobody has registered the .moon TLD. How can they send a mission without selfies?

[John Brown (no body)]

a pentagon-shaped crater

<Twilight Zone theme tune>