Gerstenmaier noted that moving forward on international, commercial and academic partnerships will "require significant detailed development and integration."

Among a number of research jobs, the LUNAR team has been investigating how modest equipment could be used to fuse lunar regolith into a concrete-like material, which could then be used for construction of large structures, without the expense of having to carry most of the material to the lunar surface.
The ability to fabricate hardened structures from lunar regolith could also foster on-the-spot creation of solar arrays, habitats, and radiation shielding and maybe, even roadways on the surface of the moon.

The word 'radiation' has to do with energy or matter moving through space. There are many forms of radiation that astronomers and physicists know about. Sunlight is a form of electromagnetic radiation produced by the sun, but so is ultraviolet radiation, infrared radiation and gamma radiation. Any heated body produces electromagnetic radiation.

We also use the term 'radiation' to describe fast-moving particles of matter. One form of these found in space is cosmic radiation or more commonly 'cosmic rays'. They are not made of light energy, but are actually the nuclei of atoms such as hydrogen, helium, iron and others, which travel through space at hundreds of thousands of kilometers per second. Some electrons in the cosmic rays travel at nearly the speed of light.

An even more exotic form of radiation that is not made of light or matter, is neutrino radiation. Neutrinos are particles that travel at the speed of light just like electromagnetic radiation, but they are not made of matter and are also not produced by electric or magnetic fields. Any body that is hot enough to fuse hydrogen into helium such as the center of our Sun, is also producing neutrino particles too. These particles slip right past ordinary matter and can escape from the core of the sun in only a few seconds. Billions of these neutrino particles are flowing through your body every second! Like other forms of radiation, they carry energy away from the place where they were created. When they are absorbed, they deliver this energy to the body that absorbs them.

Originally posted by wutz4tom

NASA is pressing forward on assessing the value of a "human-tended waypoint" near the far side of the moon — one that would embrace international partnerships as well as commercial and academic participation, SPACE.com has learned.

According to a Feb. 3 memo from William Gerstenmaier, NASA's associate administrator for human exploration and operations, a team is being formed to develop a cohesive plan for exploring a spot in space known as the Earth-moon libration point 2 (EML-2).

Libration points, also known as Lagrangian points, are places in space where the combined gravitational pull of two large masses roughly balance each other out, allowing spacecraft to essentially "park" there.

A pre-memo NASA appraisal of EML-2, which is near the lunar far side, has spotlighted this destination as the "leading option" for a near-term exploration capability. [Gallery: Visions of Deep-Space Station Missions]

EML-2 could serve as a gateway for capability-driven exploration of multiple destinations, such as near-lunar space, asteroids, the moon, the moons of Mars and, ultimately, Mars itself, according to NASA officials.

While I find this story interesting,
Why is it that they at least appear to continue to stay away from doing anything on the moon itself??

If NASA succeeds in establishing an astronaut-tended EML-2 waypoint, it would represent the farthest humans have traveled from Earth to date, the memo points out.

LINK

It will be really interesting to see if an International arrangement can be achieved.Stop killing each other long enough to actually move forward...

Gerstenmaier noted that moving forward on international, commercial and academic partnerships will "require significant detailed development and integration."

edit on 12-2-2012 by wutz4tom because: (no reason given)

edit on 12-2-2012 by wutz4tom because: (no reason given)

edit on 12-2-2012 by wutz4tom because: (no reason given)