Herr Doktor Strangemember

If it's ok to bee stupid, what about excited? Regards.

That would be my more famous 2nd cousin twice removed by my 4th wife's second half brother son's wife. Also since what pulled me back into KSP was Nyrath's Orion mod it was a match made in the heavens. Have to keep the family business going... :-) (So have to get Peter Sellers as Dr. Strangelove as a Kerbal for avatar now. :-) ) Seriously thanks for the welcome. Regards.

Greetings to all. Long time lurker first time joiner. Well were to start... In the beginning roughly 13.82 billion years ago there...hmm? To far back you say, alrightly then, let us fast forward... 3...2...1...BOOM!!!! Hmm back to the drawing board... Seriously I started KSP with free demo (.18?) and was hooked, but didn't have time to indulge my love of making really cool stuff that just might make orbit, so I stopped. But I saw KSP on sale at Steam, read a bit about it, saw the improvements that had been made and went for it. 782 hours of my life later and I'm still here, several thousand tons of rockets and spaceplanes are not however, but some day, somehow I'll make Jeb panic...BWAH-HA-HA-HA. Ahem excuse me. I hear the siren song of the VAB calling me. Regards.

It's me I'm back again. I'd wish to avoid that route again, having an international base sounds nice and all but it would be a compromise affair, not a good idea in the long run. Having to make each part/module universal is just asking for trouble from a logistical point of view to say nothing of planning. Just trying make the plumbing and electrical connections universal between 10 nations makes my mind gibber. Having all the original bases near each other so that help is not far away makes sense, as a nation gets better/experience at making it work up there then they can move out. This would also make it better for all involved to have a permanent manufacturing center on the Moon. That way it harder to walk away if the winds of politics blow ill. I have a layman's knowledge of 3d manufacturing but how hard is it with 3d printers (high end professional/industrial) to make a half-von Neuman machine? Have a manufacturing hub with a SLS printer that can make it own parts and others have it make more parts to build a new SLS printer a few times then turn the production over to making simple robots to tunnel to expand the base(s)? IF you add industrial robots like the Foxconn FoxBot then you can have 24/7 manufacturing on the Moon. Thoughts? Is better build here and ship, ship there and build? Which would be better for the base and the mission? Regards.

Kiwi I wasn't saying China can't do it, build a Moon base, sorry if you misunderstood or anyone else. I was pointing out that NASA is blocked from to doing ANYTHING with China. Now could China force the US Government to change it laws, unlikely with the current makeup in the Congress, witness the debt ceiling crisis and government shutdown, and the Tea Party obstruction. On a more related point because of the US government stance China's space agency has instead turned to Russia and Europe for aid in it's space program, and those ties I think trump NASA. NASA I think peaked for now, what with constant 'tweaking' of it's programs, budget, and goals by the government. What NASA needs is another Kennedy 'we are going to the Moon' speech, and the political will to carry out such plan in timeframe longer than an election cycle. Politics is the lead weight to NASA's dream for the rest of us. China does have the will, if the guys at top say do it, they do. Sure it might not have all the bells and whistles but it will get done. It might not be cutting/bleeding edge but it will be done. On a somewhat more on topic point why do most Moon bases seem to be surface bases? Has anyone looked into using existing lava tubes as a place to build, would save on the cost needed for shielding and serve as insulation against temperature extremes. Regards.

Hello all first post and all that I had planned a more 'normal' into but pulled into the discussion. NASA is forbidden from working with China by act of Congress, as of April 2011 they cannot aid, or plan ANY operation with China. Here is the exact wording. Regards.