Post by Roderick on Oct 23, 2009 14:41:32 GMT 12
NASA hopes to visit the moons of Mars
Page 1 of 2 View as a single page 11:01AM Friday Oct 23, 2009
By Seth Borenstein
Mars has two moons, Deimos and Phobos (pictured). Photo / Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter/NASA
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NASA: Review of US Human Space Flight Plans Committee
WASHINGTON — NASA needs to make a major detour on its grand plans to return astronauts to the moon, a special independent panel has told the White House.
Under current plans, NASA has picked the wrong destination with the wrong rocket, the panel's chairman said.
A test-flight version of the rocket, the new 'Ares I', is on a launch pad at Cape Canaveral, awaiting liftoff later this month for its first experimental flight.
Instead, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration should be concentrating on bigger rockets and new places to explore, the panel members said, as they issued their final 155-page report.
The committee, created by the White House in May to look at NASA's troubled exploration, shuttle and space station programmes, issued a summary of their findings last month, mostly urging more spending on space.
On Thursday in a news conference, panel Chairman Norman Augustine focused on fresh destinations for NASA, saying that it makes more sense to put astronauts on a nearby asteroid or one of the moons of Mars.
He said that could be done sooner than returning to the moon in 15 years as NASA has outlined.
The exploration plans now under fire were pushed by then-President George W. Bush after the 2003 Columbia space shuttle disaster.
The moon-Mars plan lacks enough money, thanks to budget diversions, the panel said in a 155-page report.
Starting in 2014, NASA needs an extra $3 billion (NZ$3.9bn)a year if astronauts are going to travel beyond Earth's orbit, the panel said.
The Augustine commission wants NASA to extend the life of the space shuttle programme and the International Space Station.
Space shuttles are due to retire 1 October 2010 but should keep flying until sometime in 2011 because they won't get all their flights to the space station done by that date.
And the space station itself, only now nearing completion, should operate until at least 2020, allowing for more scientific experiments, part of its reason for existence.
NASA's timetable calls for plunging it into the ocean in 2015.
However, the overall focus of the panel's report is on where US space exploration should be headed.
The White House will review the panel's analysis "and then ultimately the president will be making the final decision," White House spokesman Nick Shapiro said.
The committee outlines eight options.
Three of those involve a "flexible path" to explore someplace other than the moon, eventually heading to a Mars landing far in the future.
The flexible path suggests no-landing flights around the moon and Mars.
Landing on the moon and then launching back to Earth would require a lot of fuel because of the moon's gravity. Hauling fuel from Earth to the moon and then back costs money.
Page 1 of 2 View as a single page 11:01AM Friday Oct 23, 2009
By Seth Borenstein
Mars has two moons, Deimos and Phobos (pictured). Photo / Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter/NASA
Related links:
NASA: Review of US Human Space Flight Plans Committee
WASHINGTON — NASA needs to make a major detour on its grand plans to return astronauts to the moon, a special independent panel has told the White House.
Under current plans, NASA has picked the wrong destination with the wrong rocket, the panel's chairman said.
A test-flight version of the rocket, the new 'Ares I', is on a launch pad at Cape Canaveral, awaiting liftoff later this month for its first experimental flight.
Instead, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration should be concentrating on bigger rockets and new places to explore, the panel members said, as they issued their final 155-page report.
The committee, created by the White House in May to look at NASA's troubled exploration, shuttle and space station programmes, issued a summary of their findings last month, mostly urging more spending on space.
On Thursday in a news conference, panel Chairman Norman Augustine focused on fresh destinations for NASA, saying that it makes more sense to put astronauts on a nearby asteroid or one of the moons of Mars.
He said that could be done sooner than returning to the moon in 15 years as NASA has outlined.
The exploration plans now under fire were pushed by then-President George W. Bush after the 2003 Columbia space shuttle disaster.
The moon-Mars plan lacks enough money, thanks to budget diversions, the panel said in a 155-page report.
Starting in 2014, NASA needs an extra $3 billion (NZ$3.9bn)a year if astronauts are going to travel beyond Earth's orbit, the panel said.
The Augustine commission wants NASA to extend the life of the space shuttle programme and the International Space Station.
Space shuttles are due to retire 1 October 2010 but should keep flying until sometime in 2011 because they won't get all their flights to the space station done by that date.
And the space station itself, only now nearing completion, should operate until at least 2020, allowing for more scientific experiments, part of its reason for existence.
NASA's timetable calls for plunging it into the ocean in 2015.
However, the overall focus of the panel's report is on where US space exploration should be headed.
The White House will review the panel's analysis "and then ultimately the president will be making the final decision," White House spokesman Nick Shapiro said.
The committee outlines eight options.
Three of those involve a "flexible path" to explore someplace other than the moon, eventually heading to a Mars landing far in the future.
The flexible path suggests no-landing flights around the moon and Mars.
Landing on the moon and then launching back to Earth would require a lot of fuel because of the moon's gravity. Hauling fuel from Earth to the moon and then back costs money.
