To your knowledge, are there any efforts in this regard, [snip]
First, the only vehicle even remotely capable of returning it to Earth (intact anyway) would be Starship. Secondly, all objects launched into space remain the property of those who launched them, per the Outer Space Treaty. Therefore, LM-4 is the property of NASA and nobody could decide to just grab it on their own. They would need the full permission and cooperation of NASA, both to go to it and to get the specs of the LM, sufficient to design hardware to capture and secure it for the return to Earth. This would all be very specialized, one-off hardware with no other use. Finally, we don't know its current condition. If it is tumbling, it will be very difficult or perhaps impossible to capture. If it is damaged, it may not be structurally sound enough to secure. If it still contains fuel or oxidizer, it would be very hazardous to handle. The mission would be high risk with a significant possibility of failure.
The mission would be high risk with a significant possibility of failure.
Nov. 28, 2022) On flight day 13, Orion reached its maximum distance from Earth during the Artemis I mission when it was 268,563 miles away from our home planet. Orion has now traveled farther than any other spacecraft built for humans
If 2018 AV2 does indeed turn out to be LM-4, then the recent well-distributed Orion photo with the caption:QuoteNov. 28, 2022) On flight day 13, Orion reached its maximum distance from Earth during the Artemis I mission when it was 268,563 miles away from our home planet. Orion has now traveled farther than any other spacecraft built for humans may need to be revised.
Quote from: whitelancer64 on 11/28/2022 02:53 pmThe mission would be high risk with a significant possibility of failure.Perfect. The ideal goal for a Netflix documentary and a 1-percenter who wants to rehabilitate his image with the world. Plus it would be another high-profile mission for Starship.
Quote from: whitelancer64 on 11/28/2022 02:53 pmThe mission would be high risk with a significant possibility of failure.Perfect. The ideal goal for a Netflix documentary and a 1-percenter who wants to rehabilitate his image with the world. Plus it would be another high-profile mission for Starship.As far as the practicalities:Funding - one of the crowd-source funding sites for at least the preliminaries like orbit determination, initial reconnaissance, legal fees, etc.*snip*
Quote from: laszlo on 11/29/2022 12:02 pmQuote from: whitelancer64 on 11/28/2022 02:53 pmThe mission would be high risk with a significant possibility of failure.Perfect. The ideal goal for a Netflix documentary and a 1-percenter who wants to rehabilitate his image with the world. Plus it would be another high-profile mission for Starship.I hope I haven't misinterpreted but I see the classic approach to declare that:1) it is impossible2) it's a waste of time3) they have already thought about it....then, the day someone does it:4) already thought of it!I personally believe that this is rather a fundamental piece of recent human history that should be saved for posterity. I understand this is not the common feeling and so I withdraw in an orderly fashion
The Apollo docking system on Apollo-10 was pyrotechnically jettisoned as a test objective while docked to LM-4 so note that you will not be docking with the ascent module.
Quote from: laszlo on 11/29/2022 12:02 pmQuote from: whitelancer64 on 11/28/2022 02:53 pmThe mission would be high risk with a significant possibility of failure.Perfect. The ideal goal for a Netflix documentary and a 1-percenter who wants to rehabilitate his image with the world. Plus it would be another high-profile mission for Starship.As far as the practicalities:Funding - one of the crowd-source funding sites for at least the preliminaries like orbit determination, initial reconnaissance, legal fees, etc.*snip*I'm not aware of ANY successfully crowd-funded major space mission. All of the high profile ones have failed, and failed badly, like Mars One and the B612 Foundation's Sentinel Space Telescope. I am aware of dozens of other smaller, yet still failed efforts. This concept fails at first look on this point alone.
Quote from: whitelancer64 on 12/01/2022 04:25 pmQuote from: laszlo on 11/29/2022 12:02 pmQuote from: whitelancer64 on 11/28/2022 02:53 pmThe mission would be high risk with a significant possibility of failure.Perfect. The ideal goal for a Netflix documentary and a 1-percenter who wants to rehabilitate his image with the world. Plus it would be another high-profile mission for Starship.As far as the practicalities:Funding - one of the crowd-source funding sites for at least the preliminaries like orbit determination, initial reconnaissance, legal fees, etc.*snip*I'm not aware of ANY successfully crowd-funded major space mission. All of the high profile ones have failed, and failed badly, like Mars One and the B612 Foundation's Sentinel Space Telescope. I am aware of dozens of other smaller, yet still failed efforts. This concept fails at first look on this point alone. There was the ISEE-3 project which succeeded in reactivating the spacecraft checking out the dormant instruments, pressurising the propulsion system only not to have the main engine fire due to onboard valve failure preventing ignition whereas the rest of the propulsion system functioned normally during spacecraft spin up for the burn and for attitude control. The spacecraft was placed in safe mode and a few years a follow on project started talks with Maxar and others about developing a spacecraft to capture and berth to replace the current and future non working parts of the propulsion system ahead of its next favourable Earth Moon encounter. The alternative was to try to turn on ISEE-1 and/or 2 however the Arecibo Observatory was the projects sole ground station for reactivation attempts. Normal operations after activation would use DSN or other deep space capable networks.
Quote from: russianhalo117 on 12/01/2022 09:31 pmQuote from: whitelancer64 on 12/01/2022 04:25 pmQuote from: laszlo on 11/29/2022 12:02 pmQuote from: whitelancer64 on 11/28/2022 02:53 pmThe mission would be high risk with a significant possibility of failure.Perfect. The ideal goal for a Netflix documentary and a 1-percenter who wants to rehabilitate his image with the world. Plus it would be another high-profile mission for Starship.As far as the practicalities:Funding - one of the crowd-source funding sites for at least the preliminaries like orbit determination, initial reconnaissance, legal fees, etc.*snip*I'm not aware of ANY successfully crowd-funded major space mission. All of the high profile ones have failed, and failed badly, like Mars One and the B612 Foundation's Sentinel Space Telescope. I am aware of dozens of other smaller, yet still failed efforts. This concept fails at first look on this point alone. There was the ISEE-3 project which succeeded in reactivating the spacecraft checking out the dormant instruments, pressurising the propulsion system only not to have the main engine fire due to onboard valve failure preventing ignition whereas the rest of the propulsion system functioned normally during spacecraft spin up for the burn and for attitude control. The spacecraft was placed in safe mode and a few years a follow on project started talks with Maxar and others about developing a spacecraft to capture and berth to replace the current and future non working parts of the propulsion system ahead of its next favourable Earth Moon encounter. The alternative was to try to turn on ISEE-1 and/or 2 however the Arecibo Observatory was the projects sole ground station for reactivation attempts. Normal operations after activation would use DSN or other deep space capable networks.That didn't involve launching anything into space, which is a huge difference. The attempt to recover ISEE-3 raised about $160,000 which is a VERY far cry from the tens of millions that would need to be raised to pull off the recovery of LM-4.
Quote from: russianhalo117The Apollo docking system on Apollo-10 was pyrotechnically jettisoned as a test objective while docked to LM-4 so note that you will not be docking with the ascent module. Lack of a docking mechanism has not stopped anyone from docking with another spacecraft before: