The HabForum

I asked this question before and now i think its been reinforced. Has space camp jumped the gun on setting up for lunar missions when the Obama administration has thrown the ebtire lunar program into question? If you read this article and the other thread in the Von Brauns World section of the forum i;d say yes they did. http://www.space.com/news/obama-nasa-bu ... 00128.html

To me deciding to dismantle so much of their ISS mockup and from the oictures i;ve seen it is quite a bit of it including their 3 oldest modules that date back to the 80's in atleast once case and 90sand atleast early 90s in the others. Looking at this article it looks like lunar missions are likely out the door and the ISS life will be extended using Soyuz and later comercial vehicles to service it. The new plan to be announched officially monday looks to develop new technology to exlore beyond low earth orbit in the future but with no set dates or official goals at this time. So now i'm just wondering what other people think about space camp''s renovation with this new plan? I was skeptical about the reports of the changes when they first started appearing preferring to wait and see but now more and more insiders are coming out with this information and it seems pretty certain.

So Constellation is going to get canned in favor of random commercial space ventures?

Does this mean crafts like SpaceShipOne will replace the Shuttle sims at Space Camp, with missions designed by Sir Richard Branson (Virgin Galactic)?!?!

If this is happening, and Space Camp is already moving forward with lunar mission plans, I say recreate the Apollo hardware for lunar missions and let the kids train Von Braun style. There could even be Mercury and Gemini "training" missions in the curriculum leading up to the big Apollo lunar mission at the end of the week!

I remember plans back in the early 2000s that had a moonscape for camp programs. So I think that Camp has been planning for quite some time to have moon missions.

I remember those plans as well but on a much smaller scale than what us going now. To me scrapping so much of their ISS which from what i've seen is a huge chunk of it including 2 of its biggets modules Liberty and Freedom is way premature since it looks like the ISS is NASA's forseeable future for the next decade or more. Now i have seen some more optimistic people say that it is still premature till the busget is officialy released monday and the moon program may not be cut all together just sent in a new direction with vehicles other than Ares for a more robust system but who knows. To me the ISS missions could have been expanded use discovery and endeavour as soyuz capsules for example and continue ISS operations at camp with the large setup and expand them to include more EVA;s etc would have been smarter till plans are more final.

I've seen what they have planned and once complete it should be great. Remember, the camp is mostly aimed at kids and within the next few years most kids won't remember the space shuttle. The direction camp is going is a welcome change. It may inspire a new generation of kids to want to go forward to the moon. We will eventually go back and when we do it is going to be those that are kids now that do it. I look forward to seeing the completed renovations.

I have to agree with Laura...

I think in a round about way with the inevitable retirement of the shuttle program, focusing on "the next step" even if the termination of Constellation's budget passes congress, I think it helps get us back one day back to manned space flight because Sprocket will continue to inspire the next generation.

I think the mention of the "ole school" programs is a noble idea. I'd love to go to Alumni Academy next year and work on Apollo type missions. Hell they could even wheel the Apollo Skylab out of storage and put it into service on the training floor! Well that may just be a dream, but the idea is really interesting if you consider the die hard's that keep coming back to they USSRC as adults. And also consider the adults have money.