im a college student at the LDS Business College in Utah, and im doing a report on the why's of building a base station on the moon, and if it's really worth the money. My teacher wants me to have an interview with someone who has some credentials in astronomy (or related subjects) simply to answer a few questions about it. Anyone can reply to these questions, but if there is someone on this board that has gone to school for some kind of space study or related fields that could answer them that's exactly what I need.

1) What are the current controversies surrounding building a base station on the moon? I know of one, and thats the cost for building it.

2) What should the public know about such an issue? Anything that the news doesnt talk about?

3) What are some good places that I can learn more about the proposal to build a space station?

4) Should we or should we not build a space station on the moon, and why?

Again, I could find my own answers to these questions on the internet more or less, but the point of the interview is to gain information from someone informed on the topic and to get their opinion. It's part of an argument paper that I am writing and the "interview" is mandatory for it. Thanks for any and all help you can give.

__________________
Alan

"...Anyone can reply to these questions, but if there is someone on this board that has gone to school for some kind of space study or related fields that could answer them that's exactly what I need."

I haven't gone to a space study school, but I know something about this area.

"1) What are the current controversies surrounding building a base station on the moon? I know of one, and thats the cost for building it. "

Cost is always an issue, whether you building a bridge or any engineering project. You have, how you build it, where, when, and who pays for it. And of course, why are you going to build anything on the Moon. The controversies are many, probably the most well known controversy could be framed as when to do anything in space. Do it Now or do it Later. Example, a Moon base might be a nice idea, but why can't we do that at some distant date- why not decades or centuries from now? We have more pressing needs like feeding the world or "fill in the blank".
And related to this common "debate" is the robot vs Man debate. It's really the same debate which is slightly more sophisticated- sending robots is seen as cheaper and less dangerous, so why not do this first, then perhaps in some far distant future, perhaps people can go. A less common public controversy is the Moon vs Mars debate. Since the days of Apollo, NASA has wanted to send crew to Mars- and if you get down to the brass tacks, the reason why we have ISS is that it's seen as a step towards doing a Manned Mars. One aspect of the Moon vs Mars, is Dr Zubrin's idea of doing what he calls Mars Direct. Said briefly, Zubrin is aganist the idea of a Lunar base, his argument is that Mars is the real prize, and that any effort at making a lunar base would thwart what he [and many in NASA] believe is the goal- sending crew to Mars. After President Bush's annoucement of first returning to the Moon (a Major NASA policy shift) Zubrin [and Mars Society] has decided that it's better to incorporate the President's idea rather fight against it [a wise choice].

"2) What should the public know about such an issue? Anything that the news doesnt talk about? "

Yes, there is a ton of stuff which isn't in the normal news. One common public misconception is the Space = NASA. The best place to get any news about Space is by reading news which focuses on this topic:
http://www.nasawatch.com/
http://www.spacedaily.com/
http://www.space.com/
Advocacy groups:
http://www.space-frontier.org/
http://www.marssociety.org/
A list of NASA missions:
http://spacescience.nasa.gov/missions/


"3) What are some good places that I can learn more about the proposal to build a space station?"
Hmm, I think you might mean NExT
Googled it:
http://www.transhumanism.org/piperma...er/002731.html
http://www.edwardwillett.com/Columns/spacenext.htm
http://pr.caltech.edu/periodicals/Ea...LXV4/exit.html
http://www.space.com/news/beyond_iss_020926-1.html

4) Should we or should we not build a space station on the moon, and why?

NASA should not focus on building a Lunar base. NASA should explore the Lunar poles to determine if there is minable water. It might be reasonable to think about building a space station at Earth/Moon L-points, in order to use as staging area for Manned Mars.
Why? Because NASA's job is exploration of Space. NASA's job is not building and operating space stations [ISS] or launch vehicles [Shuttles]. The private sector should build and operate launch vehicles, stations, and do any mining in space. NASA's job *is* to help the development of new airplane technology, rocket ships, space stations, and/or space mining technology.

"Again, I could find my own answers to these questions on the internet more or less, but the point of the interview is to gain information from someone informed on the topic and to get their opinion. It's part of an argument paper that I am writing and the "interview" is mandatory for it. Thanks for any and all help you can give."

Hmm, Paul Spudis might give you some kind of interview- he is currently a member of the President's commission [it doesn't get much better than that]. He sometimes posts over at Return to The Moon Board:
http://www.space-frontier.org/Boards/MoonBase/

Thanks for all the information, I will try posting the same thing on The return to the Moon forum. I hope paul will reply

__________________
Alan