Spaceflight With No Space Shuttle
1981 began the year of the Space Shuttle. Now the retirement of rather dropping of the Space Shuttle will leave NASA in a precarious position. They will not be allowed to have human spaceflight’s until the period is over in which their next plan can be started. This leaves a minimum of 5 years in which NASA get rid of the Space Shuttle and start and finish the new replacement.
Barack Obama has committed to authoritative investments that will abate this 5 year gap, and to minimise assurance on adopted amplitude capabilities. He additionally promises to assignment with the US amplitude industry to absorb its workforce and abstruse capabilities during the alteration from the shuttle to its new program.
Obama additionally affairs to advance through development of the Shuttle’s almsman systems in the face of difficulties brought about by the Bush administration’s credible beneath allotment of NASA.
Stimulating efforts aural the (US) clandestine area to advance and authenticate spaceflight capabilities is additionally on Obama’s hitlist. NASA’s Commercial Orbital Transportation Services which bankrupt the NASA attitude by agreeable entrepreneurs from SpaceX and Rocketplane-Kistler in 2006, is a captivated up as a archetypal of this affectionate of accessible - clandestine collaboration.
NASA Reveals Lunar Base Plans And Requests Ideas From The Industry
Starting with 2024, NASA will send 4 of its astronauts on the moon for a period of 1 to 4 weeks. That’s why, back in Washington, they’ve made a request for new ideas about this, ideas that will be included in the lunar outpost.
According to NASA’s declarations, the moon base will use pressurized rovers to transport people for hundreds of miles. Once they get there, the crew will gather strong scientific evidences and bring them back to Earth.
Chris Culbert is the manager of Lunar Surface Systems project and he thinks that this is probably the best way to collect great ideas. For him and his team this is not the first trip to the moon. They’ve been there several times but they didn’t stay for long because there were only 2 astronauts. Now everything is different.
At the industry meeting in Washington, NASA made public their entire request about the lunar base. In time, this base can be expanded in order to be able to host more people. For now, the lunar base will need to be entirely self-sufficient, for long periods of up to half a year.
According to Larry Toups, the manager of habitation systems for the lunar outpost, the interconnected “modules” will provide the astronauts with everything they need: air, food, water and equipment. Also, the modules will include all the necessary systems to manage waste, humidity, heat, pressure and to keep them safe from moon dust and radiation. All this was especially designed so that they can live safely for 28 days.
Each of these modules weighting 7.7 tons and measuring 8.5 meters (27 feet) will leave Earth attached to an Aries V rocket. In its walls, the module will store pressurized spacesuits for the astronauts to wear if they want to get in and out in only 15 minutes.
The module will be powered by solar panels that will provide 35 kilowatts of electricity. Normally this capacity could handle perfectly around 25 American houses. Another viable option, according to Culbert, is considered to be the nuclear power.
Once they get there, the astronauts will exit their base, explore the landscape and gather important scientific data. To do that, they will need great mobility and that involves distances between hundreds and thousands kilometres.
Yoder declared that they will start exploring from the first day, and to support that he presented a sketch of a rover with six legs that can easily climb walls and step over boulders. This device will also integrate the technical capacity that will allow it to dig up and move the regolith (moon soil).
In time, NASA is planning on creating streets on the moon for these vehicles and that’s not everything. They’ll also construct launching pads and level landing. If the moon surface will turn into a city street, the rovers will work easily and will complete their job faster.
Because of the vibrations caused by the rocket launch, the astronauts will need a novel packaging system to protect their equipment and for this they’re considering using an edible foam material.
Stay tuned for a full step by step explanation on NASA’s plan of putting a lunar base on the moon, coming tomorrow.
Sources: mcclatchydc.com, Nasa.gov
Image source: Nasa.gov
Virgin Galactic’s Spaceport In Europe Will Be In Kiruna, Sweden
With only 18,000 inhabitants, the city of Kiruna, located in Sweden, is set to become the first spaceport in Europe owned by Virgin Galactic. Kiruna spaceport should begin operations in 2010 or 2011.
One of the things that set Kiruna apart is the stunning view of the Aurora Borealis that they have. This way, the Virgin flights passengers will have the chance to see this phenomenon from up close and probably also enjoy the experience of a theme park.
There are 250 people from all over the world right now, waiting to go into space with Virgin Galactic. Out of these, 80 are already undergoing training, and 85,000 have expressed interest so far. It will set you back $20,000 to reserve a trip, and the price is $200,000.
Will be interesting to see this price go down in the future, as space tourism becomes mainstream and the costs take a dive.
Want to book a trip in space with Virgin Galactic and you got the money? Click here to do it.
Do Aliens Exist? - Part 1
A question that has baffled many for years and years, do aliens exist? In this post I will be leaving some basic notes to hopefully persuade you into thinking aliens do exist. We will go through galaxy, study behavior and point out things that may stick out in our journey to reveal whether aliens exist or not. Follow the post along and leave your output below in the comment box if you wish too; I am happy to here replies.
So Many Stars - There Must Be Life?
Ever looked up at the night sky? Checked just how many starts there are in our galaxy? I am pretty sure you lost count; reason being is there are literally billions of stars up there. Although no scientist have yet to make any vivid proof of life beyond Earth; you think to yourself, with all those stars there must be something up there? Now 50% of stars are attached to a planet; with 1 trillion planets it would be pretty extraordinary if we were the only living creatures. There must be more, surely out of all those planets one has evolved into something similar to Earth? It would truly be amazing if Earth was the only planet after so many years the we can live on.
Water Isn’t A Problem
Heard on TV or the radio about neighboring planets in out solar system that have water? Well water is a key ingredient to live, without water there is of course no life. Evidence has emerged that Mars has water flowing under it’s surface. One of Jupiter’s moons Europa has been noted to have an ocean in it’s mists. Other moons such as Callisto, Ganymede, Titan and Enceladus also appear to have water in them or surrounding. Even Venus, an extremely hot planet has been said to contain at least a little water. So there you have it, that is 7 different places that have water amongst them; there might just be life, don’t you think? 
Life On Earth Evolved Fast
Scientists have said the Earth is over 4.5 billion years old. Yet the only sign of earth was at the 3.4 billion year old mark. Bacteria mats began to grow in Australia; now anyone that has studied science will know that it is a very complex thing. This leaves scientists with a conclusion that there must have been life before it had begun to grow. Something had to cause it to grow, it didn’t just start out of nowhere - thus there must have been something living on Earth beforehand that caused it.