Monday
Mar302009
NASA unveils new project, hopes to go to Mars
The new Orion Exploration Vehicle was unveiled today at the National Mall; plans are underway for missions “to Mars and beyond,” said Alan Rhodes of NASA. Water safety testing on the vehicle will commence next week, and when ready, its first mission will be a 2015 journey to the International Space Station.
The vehicle bears resemblance to the Apollo spacecraft from the 1960s on the outside, but on the inside, it is almost double in size. The crew on Orion will be six people, whereas Apollo could hold three. Much of the design preparation for Orion was based off of designs from the 1960s in order to reduce cost. An engineer from Lockheed Martin explained, “The physics never changed,” so they were able to make use of the original research.
NASA plans to use Orion for many different missions in the future. The vehicle has potential to go to the space station, the Moon, and Mars. The trip to Mars, however, is very daunting: a six-month journey, two-year stay, and six-month return. As of now, science is not advanced enough to handle the duration of this trip. The plan for Orion is to have a man on the Moon for six months in 2020 to test the feasibility of the Mars journey.
“This is your vehicle,” Alan Rhodes explained to a group of students, noting that NASA encourages input for improvements to the system and to the next generation of space travel.
The vehicle bears resemblance to the Apollo spacecraft from the 1960s on the outside, but on the inside, it is almost double in size. The crew on Orion will be six people, whereas Apollo could hold three. Much of the design preparation for Orion was based off of designs from the 1960s in order to reduce cost. An engineer from Lockheed Martin explained, “The physics never changed,” so they were able to make use of the original research.
NASA plans to use Orion for many different missions in the future. The vehicle has potential to go to the space station, the Moon, and Mars. The trip to Mars, however, is very daunting: a six-month journey, two-year stay, and six-month return. As of now, science is not advanced enough to handle the duration of this trip. The plan for Orion is to have a man on the Moon for six months in 2020 to test the feasibility of the Mars journey.
“This is your vehicle,” Alan Rhodes explained to a group of students, noting that NASA encourages input for improvements to the system and to the next generation of space travel.
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Mars, Orion, alan rhodes, nasa in News/Commentary
Mars, Orion, alan rhodes, nasa in News/Commentary
Apollo Astronauts Call For A Lift-Off To Mars
A group of Apollo mission astronauts said that America should work towards landing on Mars at a news conference Monday to commemorate the 40th anniversary of the Moon landing.
“The door opened when we touched down on the moon because that is what enabled humans to put many many more footprints on the surface of the moon. Landing on another object is what will enable us to put many other things, determine many other things with humans being there-inspiring many other people,” said Buzz Aldrin of Apollo 11. “America to Mars is what ought to be, not America back to the moon.”
Seven astronauts from the Apollo program participated in the news conference: Walter Cunningham of Apollo 7, James Lovell of Apollo 8 and 13, Buzz Aldrin of Apollo 11, David Scott of Apollo 15, Charles Duke of Apollo 16, Thomas Stafford of Apollo 10, and Eugene Cernan of Apollo 10 and 17.
Neil Armstrong of Apollo 11 was not present at the news conference, but those present mentioned Armstrong and his notoriety as the "first man on the moon."
Lovell said that June 20 is a national celebration, not only because of the Apollo 11 moon landing, but also because of the advances in the space program that made those steps possible.
“We just happen to be the luckiest group of people in the entire history of the modern world to have done something, to live our dreams, to go somewhere where no man has ever gone before and the responsibility is to give that back in some way or another or provide...the opportunities for those that follow in our footsteps to once again see what has never been seen before,” said Cernan.
Cernan added that less than one penny out of every tax dollar goes to support space exploration. “You decide if that’s worth it,” he asked rhetorically.
The astronauts said that people were excited about space exploration during the “space race” age, and that the U.S. needs to find ways to inspire its youth to get excited about it once again.