/sci/ - Science & Math

>>9754061
one word: volatiles. Of course the Moon might have volatile deposits too which we could mine and could vastly accelerate our expansion into the solar if we could. However, the new administrator of NASA canceled the only mission to investigate them. This was done so the same instruments could be ripped off a rover being built and placed on to private landers incapable of doing the same mission, just so the private sector could have something to do.

BRING BACK THE LUNAR RESOURCE PROSPECTOR MISSION!

>The space agency has reportedly canceled its Resource Prospector — a small rover that was designed to excavate materials such as hydrogen, oxygen, and water from the lunar poles.
>The main goal of Resource Prospector was to help NASA better understand what kind of materials are lurking at the Moon’s poles.
>That vital information could drastically change how we plan future lunar missions. Scientists have proposed the idea of mining the water ice at the poles, to turn it into drinking water or rocket fuel.

Who needs to know about polar water when you can spend a lot of money on boeing paper rockets? Public companies ain't gonna support themselves and we've got grants to chase too.
Oh and lets drop that talk about the larger upper stage on the SLS lets keep it real making the small one is hard enough and its all we need for science anyway... Also forget about Mars at least until the 2060's we've got no money for that.

What do you think about the pork program, /sci/?