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.
BlogSpot: http://
WordPress: http://lrkellogg.
Newsletter: https://mailman1.
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WHAT THE MIND CAN CONCEIVE, AND BELIEVE, IT WILL ACHIEVE - LRK -
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Web Site: http://lkellogg.vttoth.
BlogSpot: http://
WordPress: http://lrkellogg.
Newsletter: https://mailman1.
=========================================
WHAT THE MIND CAN CONCEIVE, AND BELIEVE, IT WILL ACHIEVE - LRK -
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