The road to Mars: NASA's next 30 years

_Tombstone_

What will NASA be up to by 2030? The space agency (and even President Barack Obama) hopes it will be close to launching a manned mission to the surface of Mars. But, before that's possible, there's a whole lot of puzzle pieces to fit together. In fact, some of those pieces haven't even been invented yet. But NASA is already laying the groundwork. Dig through the agency's roadmap (a dense collection of science-heavy documents) and you can put together an outline of where its research and technology are headed. And, of course, the hope is that any invention or technological evolution will also find applications at home on Earth. Still, the focus remains on getting us to the red planet. Mars is certainly far, but it's going to seem much closer in a decade or two.

http://www.engadget.com/2015/06/23/the-road-to-mars-nasas-next-30-years/

dbran

Total fantasy straight out of the world the sci fi channel.

The fact is that its going to be 2018 for a test unmanned mission for SLS before the first crewed SLS is slated for launch 2021. With that rate of launchs of one every three years. it is not likely that they will be anywhere near the level that they would need to be to go to Mars and return safely.

And that is provided the funding from congress is kept at this level which is by no means certain. They have not even committed to funding the lander, only the rocket. And as with the constellation program when Obama leaves office the next president could simply decide to scrap the whole thing and do something different.

And we still dont know if a human can survive the journey, the effects of solar and cosmic radiation on the human body for such a long duration. When the ISS is deorbited in 2024 the ability to do tests of this nature will no longer be available.

Press conferences and PR blurbs are easy and cheap. Going to Mars however going to take a huge amount of money and it is clear that it is money that they just want to spend on other things unfortunately.

dbran

nokia69

dbran wrote: »

Total fantasy straight out of the world the sci fi channel.

no its possible with todays technology

dbran wrote: »

The fact is that its going to be 2018 for a test unmanned mission for SLS before the first crewed SLS is slated for launch 2021. With that rate of launchs of one every three years. it is not likely that they will be anywhere near the level that they would need to be to go to Mars and return safely.

forget the SLS it will never make more than a few launches and will then get cancelled, which will be a good thing

dbran wrote: »

And that is provided the funding from congress is kept at this level which is by no means certain. They have not even committed to funding the lander, only the rocket. And as with the constellation program when Obama leaves office the next president could simply decide to scrap the whole thing and do something different.

true but not to worry other people are working on a lander

dbran wrote: »

And we still dont know if a human can survive the journey, the effects of solar and cosmic radiation on the human body for such a long duration. When the ISS is deorbited in 2024 the ability to do tests of this nature will no longer be available.

the problem of solar and cosmic radiation can be solved with, and I suspect the ISS will be replaced with another space station

dbran wrote: »

Press conferences and PR blurbs are easy and cheap. Going to Mars however going to take a huge amount of money and it is clear that it is money that they just want to spend on other things unfortunately.

dbran

I expect a mission to Mars before 2030, we are moving in the right direction

_Tombstone_

nokia69 wrote: »

the problem of solar and cosmic radiation can be solved with, and I suspect the ISS will be replaced with another space station

Chinas mir type equivalent will be ready by 2022 they say.

China Moving Forward with Big Space Station Plans
Chinese large modular space station
China Has Big Plans to Explore the Moon and Mars
China's space program is growing extremely fast

KingBrian2

Mars missions will have to be undertaken by private investors before the Major powers USA, France, Britain, China, Russia, Germany, India, Japan, Canada and the UN get involved.

_Tombstone_

nokia69 wrote: »

forget the SLS it will never make more than a few launches and will then get cancelled, which will be a good thing

Latest on the SLS, to not delay their timeline it looks like they might spend $150 million "human rating" an upper stage part of it that they then won't use as they'll then have the desired part built....all because of lack of funding. I think I read that right, jeez.

_Tombstone_

150 mil sounds alot till you see they've spent a trillion developing the POS new F-35.

A Trillion. Few lads got rich quick there.

dbran

_Tombstone_ wrote: »

Latest on the SLS, to not delay their timeline it looks like they might spend $150 million "human rating" an upper stage part of it that they then won't use as they'll then have the desired part built....all because of lack of funding. I think I read that right, jeez.

Jesus wept.... And this is the whole reason why NASA will not be going to MARS any time soon.

It has become a political football with all sorts or politics being played to get funding and jobs. Senators are more interested in making sure that their state is getting the contract to build the component and not whether the thing every gets built.

There are components and facilities for the old constellation program that Nasa still has to pay and keep operational even though they will never be used because the facilities were built by an act of the congress. So they cannot be shut down, only mothballed.

http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2014/jan/30/golden-hammer-350-million-nasa-project-to-be-compl/?page=all

You couldn't make this up!!! Even the Greeks would find this hilarious

dbran

dbran

_Tombstone_ wrote: »

150 mil sounds alot till you see they've spent a trillion developing the POS new F-35.

A Trillion. Few lads got rich quick there.

Is it though. Over a few years its nothing like what is required.

Nasa's budget as a percentage of GDP in 2014 was just 0.5%

In the heady days of the Apollo program NASA were spending 4.41% of GDP. That was in 1966 and it has been reducing steadily since. So they need to be spending 9-10 time the current budget to have even a ghost of a chance of getting anywhere. And that assumes that it is sustained over the next 10 years.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Budget_of_NASA

It will need another threat to national security to make the USA turn their mind to space travel in a meaningful way. An asteroid heading our way or Aliens landing on the Whitehouse lawn is the only thing that will do it.

Dbran

nokia69

dbran wrote: »

Is it though. Over a few years its nothing like what is required.

Nasa's budget as a percentage of GDP in 2014 was just 0.5%

In the heady days of the Apollo program NASA were spending 4.41% of GDP. That was in 1966 and it has been reducing steadily since. So they need to be spending 9-10 time the current budget to have even a ghost of a chance of getting anywhere. And that assumes that it is sustained over the next 10 years.

with better long term planning NASA could do amazing things without a budget increase

the shuttle program cost close to 200 billion, if that money was spent in a better way NASA could have got far better value, IMO they could have had a base on the Moon and sent people to Mars

by the time the SLS reaches the pad it will have cost more than 20 billion, and this is a launch system that uses engines and boosters left over from the shuttle

_Tombstone_

I see NASAs budget for 2016 got a little bump of $750million up to 19.3Billion.

NASA's FY 2016 Budget Proposal


And of course they snuck in the CISA Spy Bill at the same time.

_Tombstone_

NASA partners with Peru-based International Potato Center (CIP) to grow spuds on Mars.

http://www.zmescience.com/space/nasa-mars-potatoes-0434243/?utm_source=ZME+Science+Newsletter&utm_campaign=46a08289ea-ZME_Science_Daily3_6_2015&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_3b5aad2288-46a08289ea-237747225&ct=t(ZME_Science_Daily11_8_2014)

_Tombstone_

_Tombstone_ wrote: »

I see NASAs budget for 2016 got a little bump of $750million up to 19.3Billion.

NASA's FY 2016 Budget Proposal

NASA Uncertain How To Proceed In Developing Deep Space Module

One of the provisions of the new NASA spending bill, which provided a hefty $1.3 billion boost to the space agency's budget, is a mandate to build a prototype habitation module for deep space exploration by 2018. Space News suggested that NASA is uncertain how to proceed with this sudden largess. Quite some time has passed since the space agency has gotten more money than expected and been told to speed up the development of an item of hardware. Usually, the opposite happens, with accompanying delays and increases in overall costs.

Interesting comment then

IMHO, this is why the push for NASA to develop these techs. One of the SLS 's primary missions is their Near-Earth Asteroid Scout mission; the conspiracy theorist in me says that NASA is doing risk-mitigation just in case Apophis hits the keyhole in 2029.

Ya have to wonder alright.

_Tombstone_

How to build a house on Mars

The key material in a Martian construction boom will be sulphur, says the Northwestern team. The basic idea is to heat sulphur to about 240 °C so that it becomes liquid, mix it with Martian soil, which acts as an aggregate, and then let it cool. The sulphur solidifies, binding the aggregate and creating concrete. Voila—Martian concrete.

Nothing new here^^, we've been playing around with sulphur bricks for a century. What's new is they've found the right mix that'll be suitable on Mars.

It turns out that using an aggregate of smaller particles reduces the formation of voids, which significantly increases the strength of the material. “The best mix for producing Martian concrete is 50 percent sulphur and 50 percent Martian soil with maximum aggregate size of 1 mm,” they say.

And they are more than double the strength of the typical housing standard brick on earth and just have to be heated back up to be reused. Another problem sorted.

http://www.technologyreview.com/view/545216/materials-scientists-make-martian-concrete/

The first human missions to Mars are a good few years away yet. But it’s just possible that the first humans to live in these structures have already been born and are currently growing up in rather different buildings on Earth.

This could turn out to be the biggest problem of all, finding someone thats not badsh1t crazy to go up to live in something like prison conditions here....but worse.

nokia69

_Tombstone_ wrote: »

This could turn out to be the biggest problem of all, finding someone thats not badsh1t crazy to go up to live in something like prison conditions here....but worse.

There would be no problem finding people who want to go, and IMO conditions would be better than the ISS

The film the Martian gives a good enough guess at what a workable Mars mission would look like

Capt'n Midnight

_Tombstone_ wrote: »

Nothing new here^^, we've been playing around with sulphur bricks for a century. What's new is they've found the right mix that'll be suitable on Mars.

How much energy does it take to extract sulphur ? And oxides of sulphur are corrosive. And Hydrogen Sulphide is more toxic than Hydrogen Cyanide, but at least you can smell it.

This could turn out to be the biggest problem of all, finding someone thats not badsh1t crazy to go up to live in something like prison conditions here....but worse.

They had no problem getting people to be fighter pilots. Look at the film The Right Stuff.
The RAF was loosing hundreds of aircrew a year back in the 1950's.
Take a look at this http://www.pprune.org/archive/index.php/t-70987.html

The total RAF losses for 1952 were:

18 Ansons
1 Athena
22 Austers
1 Balliol
1 Beaufighter
9 Brigands
1 Buckmaster
9 Canberras
15 Chipmunks
1 Dakota
1 Dragonfly
1 Halifax
37 Harvards
3 Hastings
10 Hornets
6 Lancasters
6 Lincolns
1 Martinet
150 Meteors
32 Mosquitos
21 Oxfords
9 Prentices
5 Proctors
1 Sabre
2 Shackletons
7 Spitfires
1 Sunderland
1 Sycamore
5 Tempests
20 Tiger Moths
11 Valettas
82 Vampires
2 Varsities
1 Venom
1 Washington
15 Wellingtons

Total 505 aircraft.

Casualties were 315 killed plus 6 killed on the ground.

What I find astonishing is the sheer variety of aircraft that were operated in those days. And, of course, the figures don't include Army and Navy losses.

Also look back at the great voyages made during the age of discovery. Horrendous crew losses to scurvy. Magellan lost 80% of crew crossing the Pacific. People got scurvy during Scott's 1903 and 1911 expeditions.

And here's the thing a cure was known three and a half thousand years ago. https://dash.harvard.edu/bitstream/handle/1/8852139/Mayberry.html?sequence=2

The first written account of a disease likely to be scurvy comes from the Ebers papyrus which has been dated to 1500 BC Egypt.[118] The Ebers papyrus not only diagnosed scurvy, but prescribed that victims of scurvy be treated with onions, a common source of vitamin C.

Which segues into reminding readers that NASA has a lot to learn about surviving in space. And the simplest way is to learn what works for the Soviets / Russians rather than trying to reinvent the wheel. The most basic lesson is keep it simple. Don't shave off weight to the Nth degree by adding complexity. If weight is a problem remember that using more rocket fuel is cheaper than trying to design and flight test a lighter rocket.

I remain sceptical of NASA long duration spaceflights. For a start they still have a lot of development work on the launchers.

No they haven't lost the Saturn V plans. And yes we have stronger alloys and things like friction welding that make lighter joints. Electronics have gotten lighter. CNC and 3D printing means that most parts should be cheaper to make these days too. Rather than re-invent the wheel it might be worth working out the minimum cost of making a Saturn V these days using modern materials and methods. No fancy optimisations, yes do finite element analysis and CAD to look for low hanging fruit that can be implemented easily, but nothing that requires ridiculously expensive full scale testing.

/RANT

_Tombstone_

Capt'n Midnight wrote: »

How much energy does it take to extract sulphur ? And oxides of sulphur are corrosive. And Hydrogen Sulphide is more toxic than Hydrogen Cyanide, but at least you can smell it.

Paper goes in to lots of detail and not a complicated beast from skim I gave it, don't know if it covers how much energy to extract though - http://arxiv.org/pdf/1512.05461v2.pdf

[/QUOTE]

Capt'n Midnight

_Tombstone_ wrote: »

Paper goes in to lots of detail and not a complicated beast from skim I gave it, don't know if it covers how much energy to extract though - http://arxiv.org/pdf/1512.05461v2.pdf

no I didn't see how to get from Sulphates to Sulphur
Gibbs free energy of Suphur Dioxide is 3/4 that of Carbon Dioxide. "There's lots of CO2 on Venus so we can make houses out of graphite"

300KJ/mol is almost the same as heat of combustion of Hydrogen 286Kj/mol so VERY energy intensive. Solar cells on Mars might be 30% efficient because they'd use really efficient panels

Might be easier to just melt glass bricks out of silicon dioxide. If you use a lens then you get to use nearly 100% of the sunlight.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ptUj8JRAYu8

_Tombstone_

_Tombstone_ wrote: »

Latest on the SLS, to not delay their timeline it looks like they might spend $150 million "human rating" an upper stage part of it that they then won't use as they'll then have the desired part built....all because of lack of funding. I think I read that right, jeez.

More latest on the SLS, sweet jebus they reckon it could cost 700Million+ per launch for this thing, currently running at a Billion a year, 18 Billion sunk in it by years end and NASA have come out and said they don't know what to do with it.:eek:

http://www.popularmechanics.com/space/news/a18955/the-space-launch-system-is-a-big-rocket-with-nowhere-to-go/


May aswell bump this thread for the next decades or so with Mars stuff.

_Tombstone_

NASA safety panel finds concerns with the Journey to Mars

The panel found a number of areas of concerns surrounding the Journey to Mars program, virtually all of them stemming from inadequate funding. It suggested that NASA’s plan to launch the first crewed mission on the Orion, which would use the heavy lift Space Launch System to go around the moon, in 2021 was unrealistic given current, anticipated funding. The panel also suggested that lack of a clear plan for the Mars program is compromising its viability. It also suggested that the decision not to return to the moon should be revisited in view of the desire of international partners to do so and the need of low gravity surface experience in advance of going to Mars.

On the first crewed mission of the Orion, or Exploration Mission-2 (EM2) ASAP suggested that NASA is compromising safety to try to meet a 2021 deadline which, in any case, cannot be achieved given current anticipated funding.

Compromising safety....no surprises there.

Capt'n Midnight

_Tombstone_ wrote: »

More latest on the SLS, sweet jebus they reckon it could cost 700Million+ per launch for this thing, currently running at a Billion a year, 18 Billion sunk in it by years end and NASA have come out and said they don't know what to do with it.:eek

The worst part about that €18Bn is that it's based on flight proven hardware. They are literally reinventing the wheel.

Saturn V program cost about €60Bn in todays money. Which is about €5Bn per launch. Actually it's €4Bn because they build 15 of them including development costs.


All the patents have expired. New materials and methodologies mean if it was made today they could still use the original plans and make it cheaper and lighter.

Wibbs

Capt'n Midnight wrote: »

The worst part about that €18Bn is that it's based on flight proven hardware. They are literally reinventing the wheel.

Saturn V program cost about €60Bn in todays money. Which is about €5Bn per launch. Actually it's €4Bn because they build 15 of them including development costs.


All the patents have expired. New materials and methodologies mean if it was made today they could still use the original plans and make it cheaper and lighter.

This. SOOOO much this. And not just because I want to see a Sat V launch again*. It's by far the most sensible route. They've already built what they need and as you say with today's tech it would be cheaper and much lighter and more efficient(they might even be able to figure a way to recover the first stage to reuse it). The Saturn series were pretty modular and versatile too. You could fly different smaller versions(EG the Skylab/Apollo-Soyuz launches) or go full on crazy stuff. If you then added in Russian expertise as well as European etc you'd have one helluva launch platform.






*back in the early 80's on holliers in Florida I watched a Shuttle launch and man was it incredible, but an older gent who my dad got chatting with told me that while the shuttle was a very impressive launch, the Apollo heavy iron was end of the world scary time. Apparently you could feel it in your body from many miles away.

_Tombstone_

Seen a launch^^

I'm not 1 bit jealous....not a bit.....

_Tombstone_

The first flight of NASA's next big rocket will carry a lunar laser, an asteroid scout, and some yeast

SLS finally has a first mission date.

_Tombstone_

CONGRESSIONAL PANEL TOLD NASA HAS NO PLAN FOR THE JOURNEY TO MARS

Outside of SLS and Orion they they have no timeline or architecture. Don't know what to do about Radiation Exposure. House Science Committee’s Subcommittee (Whaaaaat, Committee subcommittee) tells them to go and plan getting to the Moon like the good people in Europe, Russia, China and India.


But they can't work with them (China at least) cuz US are paranoid warmongers and have actually a spending bill that expressly forbids working with them.

Skip on down just past the twitter pic ^^ if you haven't seen the Martian Movie yet^^

_Tombstone_

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0khBmyITJqo

shedweller

They dont know what to do about radiation exposure because MSL showed that you would experience a "significant lifetime dose" on the trip TO mars. Now, i for one would gladly accept that challenge, but they cant launch people even if they want to go.
Unless there's an actual cure for cancer lying in the wings.....
Boom! Population explosion!
Predicament much??

Capt'n Midnight

shedweller wrote: »

They dont know what to do about radiation exposure because MSL showed that you would experience a "significant lifetime dose" on the trip TO mars.

Coronal Mass Ejections were a risk on Apollo. Apollo 11 was under 200 hours all in.

http://science.nasa.gov/science-news/science-at-nasa/2005/27jan_solarflares/

To die, you'd need to absorb, suddenly, 300 rem or more.

The key word is suddenly. You can get 300 rem spread out over a number of days or weeks with little effect. Spreading the dose gives the body time to repair and replace its own damaged cells. But if that 300 rem comes all at once ... "we estimate that 50% of people exposed would die within 60 days without medical care," says Cucinotta.
...
An Apollo command module with its aluminum hull would have attenuated the 1972 storm from 400 rem to less than 35 rem at the astronaut's blood-forming organs. That's the difference between needing a bone marrow transplant or just a headache pill.

_Tombstone_

Newly invented Aldehyde-Stabilized Cryopreservation procedure wins Brain Preservation Prize

The Brain Preservation Foundation’s (BPF) Small Mammal Prize has officially been won. A team from 21st Century Medicine, spearheaded by recent MIT graduate Robert McIntyre, has discovered a way to preserve the delicate neural circuits of an intact rabbit brain for extremely long-­term storage using a combination of chemical fixation and cryogenic cooling. Proof of this accomplishment, and the full “Aldehyde ­Stabilized Cryopreservation” protocol, was recently published in the journal Cryobiology and has been independently verified by the BPF through extensive electron microscopic examination. This answers a challenge issued to the scientific and cryonics communities five years ago by the BPF, and carries an award of $26,735.

Throughout the contest, the 21CM team was in a tight race with Max Planck researcher Shawn Mikula to be the first to meet the prize’s strict requirements. Although the prize will be awarded to 21CM, we wish to emphasize that a mouse brain entry submitted by Dr. Mikula also came extremely close to meeting the prize requirements. Dr. Mikula’s laboratory is attempting to perfect not only brain preservation (using a different method based on chemical fixation and plastic embedding) but whole brain electron microscopic imaging as well.

Focus now shifts to the final Large Mammal phase of the contest which requires an intact pig brain to be preserved with similar fidelity in a manner that could be directly adapted to terminal patients in a hospital setting. The 21st Century Medicine team has recently submitted to the BPF such a preserved pig brain for official evaluation. Lead researcher Robert McIntyre has started Nectome to further develop this method.

“​Every neuron and synapse looks beautifully preserved across the entire brain. Simply amazing given that I held in my hand this very same brain when it was vitrified glassy solid… This is not your father’s cryonics.” – Dr. Kenneth Hayworth, BPF President

This is not your father’s cryonics.

Sums it up nicely that line.

_Tombstone_

British mapping agency Ordnance Survey (OS) has released an easy-to-read map of terrain from the planet Mars.

shedweller

Do you sleep at all, Tombstone??

_Tombstone_

shedweller wrote: »

Do you sleep at all, Tombstone??

:pac:

1 Million People Agree – Sleep for 5 Hours, Its Better Than 8

Capt'n Midnight

Old hat but
Mars http://www.google.com/mars/
Moon http://www.google.com/moon/

_Tombstone_

In a white dome on a bare mountain, six of us are road-testing life in a Martian colony. This is what I’ve learned so far

_Tombstone_

OOOOOh, 21 day study exposing Mice to ionizing radiation has shown that Prunes:eek: reduce Bone Desity loss. They don't know how/why.

http://www.geek.com/science/deep-space-travel-may-be-fueled-by-a-healthy-diet-of-prunes-1647688/


I more curious what made them try prunes, the other 3 things tried were dihydrolipoic acid (DHLA), a cocktail of antioxidants and ibuprofen.

_Tombstone_

18000 people applied to be a new Astronaut.

http://arstechnica.com/science/2016/02/nasa-just-smashed-its-record-for-astronaut-applications-18000/

Looks like best they can hope for is a trip to ISS though.

Myrddin

_Tombstone_ wrote: »

I more curious what made them try prunes

One of them clearly watched Yesterday's Enterprise...

dr.fuzzenstein

All well and good, but the problem is that by the time NASA has scrimped and saved enough to buy a giant rubberband to launch anything into orbit, the military will have orbital drones that can survey and nuke any part of the planet at any time.

_Tombstone_

dr.fuzzenstein wrote: »

All well and good, but the problem is that by the time NASA has scrimped and saved enough to buy a giant rubberband to launch anything into orbit, the military will have orbital drones that can survey and nuke any part of the planet at any time.

https://thestack.com/world/2016/02/19/u-s-army-testing-3d-printed-mission-specific-drones/

Second Toughest in_the Freshers

dr.fuzzenstein wrote: »

http://greenplug.nu/wp-content/uploads/2013/04/US-Budget-Discretionary-Spending-Breakdown.jpg[/IMG]

Would 'International Affairs' not be included in Military?

dr.fuzzenstein

Second Toughest in_the Freshers wrote: »

Would 'International Affairs' not be included in Military?

Under Bush it might have been.
"If they don't like us, just bomb the fcukers back into the stone age, that'll show 'em!"

_Tombstone_

Second Toughest in_the Freshers wrote: »

Would 'International Affairs' not be included in Military?

Ya can split Military in to 3 really.

1 - Magically Disappeared
2 - Wasted
3 - Military

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KTF_a1DuIyE

_Tombstone_

Myrddin wrote: »

One of them clearly watched Yesterday's Enterprise...

I forgot about this haha, I wouldn't mind I'm only on my first run through of DS9 at the minute and watched the Quark ep only few weeks back.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZdlPaCX3S80

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WSK55kLSlQU

_Tombstone_

Russia plans return to Mars, Moon despite money woes

So EXOMARS - joint venture between ESA and Russia is set to lauch it's first mission next month, an Orbital Satellite to look for Methane in Mars Atmosphere - possible evidence of biological activity.

The second mission is....yet another waste of time cuz it's already been done - is to develop a landing system for the ESA built Rover, well it's a bit different, the lander is supposed to be a "a science lab in itself" for inspecting the landing site...we'll see.

Lack of Money and the inability to import stuff due to western sanctions over the messing in the Ukraine last year has pushed the lander date from 2018 to 20XX.

_Tombstone_

_Tombstone_ wrote: »

Ya can split Military in to 3 really.

1 - Magically Disappeared
2 - Wasted
3 - Military

The National Reconnaissance Office (they actually have a dedicated office for Spy SATS) had TWO auld Telescope Units lying arond on a shelf so they "gifted" them to NASA who are gonna use ONE for their brand spanking new WFIRST scope.

I wonder how many of them things are looking down....actually if they didn't use them, have they something better???

Them things would spot a pimple on your arse.


http://spaceflightnow.com/2016/02/18/nasa-moves-forward-with-mission-using-spy-satellite-telescope/

_Tombstone_

“No vision, no plan, no budget”

So says former NASA chief Michael Griffin on US space policy

Adds his name to a growing list now including past and present Astronauts who want to go back to the Moon first and the ESA who want to build a Moon Village.

To bring stability, Rep. John Culberson (R-Texas), has proposed legislation (HR 2093) that he says would make NASA more professional and less political. The bill would appoint a NASA administrator for 10 years instead of having him or her serving at the behest of the president. It would also reduce the influence of the White House Office of Management and Budget on space policy by having NASA’s board of directors submit a budget request directly to Congress.

Similar Legislation has got shot down in the past, I'd shoot that down for the 10 year term - far to long if you put a clown in the seat.




Orion Test Hardware in Position for Solar Array Test

Orion's service module, which will power and propel the vehicle and supply it with air and water, is being provided by ESA and built by Airbus Defence and Space. The solar array wing deployment test will verify that the qualification model wing unfurls as expected.

_Tombstone_

Directed Energy Interstellar Precursors

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WCDuAiA6kX0

Ren2k7

To bring stability, Rep. John Culberson (R-Texas), has proposed legislation (HR 2093) that he says would make NASA more professional and less political. The bill would appoint a NASA administrator for 10 years instead of having him or her serving at the behest of the president. It would also reduce the influence of the White House Office of Management and Budget on space policy by having NASA’s board of directors submit a budget request directly to Congress.

Dear god no! It was Congress that forced SLS onto NASA and WH. Obama hates SLS and for good reason, it's an expensive mess that serves no practical use, diverting funds from more worthy ventures like Commercial Crew and Cargo. Look at the mission list for SLS, it doesn't even have a mission to Mars planned despite all the talk by NASA about going to the Red Planet.

The solution is obvious, cancel SLS entirely apart from Orion and request the private sector to come up with a launcher that the companies themselves would fund, build and fly on their own dollar, with NASA simply paying them on a launch basis to get them out of Earth's gravity well. Follow the highly successful CRS program.

_Tombstone_

Why the Human body isin't ready to go to Mars....yet.

Ren2k7

_Tombstone_ wrote: »

Why the Human body isin't ready to go to Mars....yet.

I feel old now.

_Tombstone_

LAUNCH ABORT MOTOR CASE FOR ORION PASSES CRUCIAL TEST

Orbital ATK announced on Monday, Feb. 29 that it had successfully conducted a structural qualification test of the abort motor case that the company is manufacturing for NASA’s Orion spacecraft. The test was conducted on January 26 at Orbital ATK’s facility in Clearfield, Utah. The motor is a crucial part of Orion’s Launch Abort System, which is designed to ensure the safety of astronauts flying on NASA’s Space Launch System (SLS).