We in the USA had best watch the Mars Science Laboratory (CURIOSITY) carefully as we seem to be pulling out of further missions to Mars, unless you think we are going to send astronauts there without knowing how to survive the riggers of space.
- LRK -
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With all of the things that could have gone wrong, and have in the past, this mission is off to a great start.
- LRK -
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Historical Log
PROGRAM & MISSIONS
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Much to think about in this blog.
I second Alyssa's enthusiasm for Kim Stanley Robinson's Red Mars.
- LRK -
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Why Mars—and Curiosity Matter—Especially as NASA Faces Budget Cuts
By Alyssa Rosenberg on Aug 6, 2012 at 9:07 am
The amazing men and women of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration landed the Curiosity rover on Mars last night. But the piece of writing that perhaps best encapsulates the wild joy at the Jet Propulsion Lab, and the meaning of their accomplishment, was published almost 20 years before, on January 1, 1993. I hope everyone will forgive me quoting Kim Stanley Robinson’s introduction to Red Mars, the first of his masterful trilogy about the colonization of the Red Planet, at length here, because it’s the most powerful meditation on the meaning of Mars that I know, and it’s so strikingly applicable here (and make it worth it by going out andbuying the book if my repeated proselytization for it hasn’t convinced you already).
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In Robinson’s vision, we sent the first colonizing mission to Mars in 2026. President Obama’s FY 2013 budget proposes cutting NASA’s planetary science budget from $1.5 billion to $1.2 billionand ending the U.S. partnership with the E.U. to send probes to Mars on two planned missions in 2016 and 2018—this year, the Jet Propulsion Lab’s open house was marked by a bake sale to call attention to the proposed cuts. What the scientists at JPL did last night was a critical part of our future in space not simply because they did something extremely difficult that will advance our understanding of the planet that’s fascinated so many of us so deeply and for so long, but because they helped keep the dream alive at all, reminding of what it’s like to watch the future arrive, and how cheap it is to purchase in comparison to what we spend to maintain conflicts and policies that mire us in the past.
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Mixed opinions on where we go with missions to Mars.
- LRK -
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Should NASA Ditch Manned Missions To Mars?
NASA's overarching goal of sending astronauts to Mars may not be worth the time, money and trouble, a prominent researcher says.
NASA's human spaceflight efforts have long been geared toward eventually putting boots on the Red Planet. But the agency should think seriously about ditching this plan, for the benefits of a manned Mars mission may not justify its enormous costs, said space architect Brent Sherwood of NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif.
NASA's human spaceflight efforts have long been geared toward eventually putting boots on the Red Planet. But the agency should think seriously about ditching this plan, for the benefits of a manned Mars mission may not justify its enormous costs, said space architect Brent Sherwood of NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif.
"Our rationale for exploring Mars, I think, is perhaps fatally weak," Sherwood said during a presentation with NASA's Future In-Space Operations working group Wednesday (Aug. 1).
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If you live in the USA much at stake in where we go in the future.
Watch how much money is raised for adds to support the presidential elections. Wonder what I could do with some of those $$$?
For some more thoughts you might be interested in what our Apollo 17 Astronaut, Dr. Harrison H. Schmitt has to say.
- LRK -
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By Dr. Harrison H. Schmitt. Prologue: (“Is there a path forward for United States’ space policy? When a new President takes office in 2013, he or she should propose to Congress that we start space policy and its administration from scratch. A new agency, the National Space Exploration Administration (NSEA), should be charged with specifically enabling America’s and its partners’ exploration of deep space, inherently stimulating education, technology, and national focus. The existing component parts of NASA should be spread among other agencies with the only exception being activities related to U.S. obligations to its partners in the International Space Station (ISS).” — HHS). The Foreword was written by Michael D. Griffin, noted physicist, aerospace engineer and NASA Administrator (2005-2009): (“Jack makes the case for space as no one else can, and he shows how and why we are on the wrong path— leaving the rest of us with the question: what can we do to obtain the leadership we need instead of the leadership we have?”— MDG).
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Enough single finger typing. :-)
Thanks for looking up.
- LRK -
Web Site: http://lkellogg.vttoth.
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Web Site: http://lkellogg.vttoth.
BlogSpot: http://
WordPress: http://lrkellogg.
RSS link: http://
Newsletter: https://mailman1.
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Future Mars missions: Faster, better, cheaper?
- 02 August 2012
Curiosity will be NASA's last blockbuster Mars expedition for a while – marking a turning point in our relationship with the Red Planet
FUTURE historians of Mars might note 5 August 2012 as the moment when humanity's long relationship with the Red Planet entered a new era. If all goes well, that will be the date that the Mars Science Laboratory touches down, after an intricate descent which even NASA predicts will be "seven minutes of terror".
This huge rover, better known as Curiosity, is aimed at a 5-kilometre-high heap of sediment that should provide information about Mars's entire history - perhaps including traces of ancient or even current life.
So the stakes are high. But it's likely to be the last such flagship expedition we see for some time, as NASA's near-monopoly on Mars exploration gives way to a plethora of smaller, cheaper missions by other countries and, soon, private companies.
Fans of the US space agency and of blockbuster spacecraft may be disappointed, but planetary-science enthusiasts should be exhilarated. Now that NASA has done the groundwork, future missions need not be as lavish, but can be more numerous and highly targeted, deepening our knowledge of Mars (see "Curiosity rover is turning point for Mars exploration").
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Cut back on missions to Mars? No way, backers say
NASA reportedly will slash planetary science to make up for telescope cost overruns
msnbc.com staff and news service reports
updated 2/10/2012 12:14:33 AM ET
WASHINGTON — Scientists say NASA is about to propose major cuts in its exploration of other planets, especially Mars. But even before the cuts are unveiled, lawmakers are vowing to fight "tooth and nail" to preserve missions to the Red Planet.
With limited money for science and an over-budget new space telescope, the space agency essentially had to make a choice in where it wanted to explore: the neighboring planet or the far-off cosmos.
Based on the advance word about NASA's budget for the coming year, Mars lost out.
Two scientists who were briefed on the 2013 NASA budget, due to be released on Monday, said the space agency is eliminating two proposed joint missions with Europeans to explore Mars in 2016 and 2018. NASA had agreed to pay $1.4 billion for those missions. Some Mars missions will continue, but the fate of future flights is unclear, including a much-sought project to bring rocks from the Red Planet back to Earth.
PhotoBlog: Mars orbiter spies on probes of the past
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WHAT THE MIND CAN CONCEIVE, AND BELIEVE, IT WILL ACHIEVE - LRK -
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WHAT THE MIND CAN CONCEIVE, AND BELIEVE, IT WILL ACHIEVE - LRK -
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