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| Monday / 22 May 2006 | ||
Mexican Space
Agency to Develop Mex-LunarHab.
Jesus Raygoza, founder of the Mexican
Space Society and Mex-LunarHab (MLH)
proponent, reports that his country's Congress has approved the
creation of a space agency. The Mexican Space Agency (AEXA) is to
be initially capitalized with $2M, which has not yet been
specified denominationally. Also, AEXA will begin developing the
MLH simulator that would provide a Moon analog for
scientists and the public. Eventually a real MLH would go to the
Moon. Three members of the MLH team are involved in the development
of AEXA: Patricio Gonzalez-Quintanilla, Brenda Pulido G., and Jesus
Raygoza. MLH will be a spherical-shaped module incorporating activity
zoning and optimization of spaces in each compartment, size reduction,
astronaut safety, and risk reduction protocols. It will be a vertical
cylindrical-shaped spacecraft-habitat consisting of three levels.
At the top will be a conical structure with four seats (pilot, co-pilot,
and crew). Powered by a set of engines, MLH is envisioned to land
on the Moon by itself. It will be placed on flat land that will permit
it to make all kinds of tests with rovers or human expeditions. The
intended site is somewhere
around Malapert Mountain, probably at Newton Base, which has over
340 days of sunlight. But before MLH reaches the Moon, a simulator
will be installed on the Cerro del Pajarito (Little
Bird’s Mountain) near Ciudad Juarez, in the State of Chihuahua.
The site has the geographical position and geological conditions
to be a good lunar analog.
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