To the Moon: A Crazy Idea

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When I heard that the shuttle Endeavor took off a few days ago, they told that it was the 40th anniversary of Apollo 11 lifting off for the moon.  I immediately thought of Walter Cronkite.  I was only 8 years old when Apollo 11 took off, but I remember watching the TV when they showed that first step on the moon.  Normally I didn’t like watching the news back then, but I was glued.  From that day on, I always thought that Walter Cronkite was the coolest newscaster ever.  I still think that.

That was the summer we moved from Texas to Arkansas and soon after the move my parents sent off for a model of the Lunar Lander.  I was terrible at following the directions at putting it together and refused any help given.  Once it was done, it did not sit exactly right, but I was proud of it.  I wish I still had that model. 

No one has been back to the moon since 1972.  That is a long time.  Makes you wonder what NASA is doing with all that money.  I’ve checked the NASA website and did not find the moon listed on any future missions.  I want us to go back to the moon.

I have a crazy idea.  It may get shot down if the techs at NASA heard this, but still it could make for the background of a good story.  I have heard that they are now looking into plans for the next generations of space travel.  The current shuttle fleet is about 20 years old.  Time for something new.  I wonder what they will do with the shuttle fleet once they begin building the next fleet.

Here is my crazy idea.  Take one of the current shuttles and refit it for a flight to the moon.  Fix it with all sorts of stuff that NASA would need to have on the moon to help with communications and stargazing.  Things that could help with missions that may even go past the moon.  This shuttle could also be the beginning of a Moon Base. 

Send it up with a crew and have something like the Lunar lander in the cargo hold.  Once they have this shuttle on the moon, they can all leave in the lander or maybe some will stay on the moon.  The lander would leave the moon and meet the next shuttle.  Supplies, fuel and people could be exchanged.  This lander could be used to go back to the moon where they could continue to build on to the landed Shuttle Moon Base.

Maybe I will get lucky and someone at NASA will read this and sit down with a tech and see if this is possible.  I would love to hear if it is or not, or if even part of my idea is possible.  What do you think?  Do you have any ideas?

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