NASA eyes waypoint near moon, Orbital Drop Shock Troopers not in plans ... yet

Not content with its Foursquare badge from the International Space Station, NASA is now setting its sights closer to the moon, with plans for a deep space outpost near our celestial neighbor. NASA is looking at setting up an outpost near the recently filmed far side of the moon that could serve as a jumping point to other more exotic destinations like lunar space, asteroids and Mars. The waypoint could even serve as a place for assembling and servicing satellites and large telescopes, as well as robotics research on crashed Transformers. The leading location so far is “Earth-moon libration point 2,” a more gravitationally stable area in space that serves as an ideal parking spot for space craft. Echoing recent talk by Russians about a joint moon base, NASA also hopes to get by with a little help from its friends — well, actually a lot of help from the international community — by using the partnerships it has formed through the International Space Station.

NASA eyes waypoint near moon, Orbital Drop Shock Troopers not in plans … yet originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 14 Feb 2012 08:37:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink   |  sourceSPACE.com  | Email this | Comments

Tags: , , , , ,