Word: mooning
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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Three-quarters of a billion people peered at the murky images on their television screens on July 20, 1969, as Neil Armstrong became the first human to stand on another world. To Americans, the spirit-lifting achievement was well worth the cost and effort. The quest to reach the moon had revitalized U.S. science and technology and yielded countless benefits to industry and the military. Most amazing of all, the Eagle landed only eight years after John F. Kennedy proclaimed the moonshot a national priority...
...soon end, though. As early as this week, President George Bush is expected to announce his vision for the U.S. space program. No one knows what Bush will say, but some members of his National Space Council, chaired by Vice President Dan Quayle, reportedly favor a return to the moon, followed by a manned trip to Mars...
Moreover, points out Eugene Cernan, who walked on the moon in 1972, with such a long-range goal "we can then work backward and take the steps to get us there." That would eliminate the let's-build-it-and-see-what-it's-good-for approach. Far from withering, other space initiatives would be lifted by the rising tide of national interest and funding. Unmanned probes to the planets would continue, and NASA would still be able to launch the Mission to Planet Earth, a series of satellites designed to study the planet's environment and give scientists...
...lunar base, which could be built by 2000, as a testing ground for technologies necessary for a Martian sojourn. In particular, astronauts would experiment with living quarters in which air and water are recycled. Inhabitants of a lunar base would also begin learning how to mine the moon for raw materials, including trapped gases and minerals, that would permit the base to become almost entirely self-sufficient and thus permanent...
Before such a moon base can be built, NASA will have to get some kind of space station: the massive components needed for a lunar habitat are too heavy to lift from earth and will have to be assembled in space. The station will also be needed for assembling a bulky Mars vehicle and studying the effects of long-term space flight. But a single station may not be the best option. Several experts have suggested breaking it down into smaller units. One such station, the Industrial Space Facility, has already been designed by a Houston firm, Space Industries...