NASA Administrator Optimistic On Future Of Human Space Travel

By Vanessa Remmers

NASA Administrator Charles Bolden expressed optimism on the future of human space travel Monday despite hearing frustration from members of the House Science, Space, and Technology Committee on NASA delays on a long awaited space launch system.

After explaining the delay in terms of necessary cost estimates, Bolden outlined future goals in space programs including targeting an astroid by 2025, launching the space launch system and continuing the life of the international space station.

“We do have a program, we do have a plan, you have a given us a budget and I am confident that we are going to be able to execute it,” Bolden said.

Bolden’s confidence in future space exploration did not waver when the topic of sufficient funding arose.

“Some say that this final shuttle mission will mark the end of America’s fifty years of dominance in human space flight,” Bolden said. “As a former astronaut and the current NASA administrator, I’m here to tell you that American leadership in space will continue for at least the next half century because we have laid the foundation for success.”

Bolden’s insistence on continued human space exploration was met with criticism from Rep. Dana Rohrabacher (R-Calif.) after the California Republican questioned the program’s budget in a time of fiscal crisis.

“We can’t go to the moon until our folks can go to the grocery store,” Chairman Ralph Hall (R-TX) said, clarifying Rohrabacher’s argument that human space exploration should be sidelined in light of the national debt. “The economy is going to tell us when we can [continue human space exploration].”

Treatment Of NASA Employees: A Space Travesty?

By Monique Cala University Of New Mexico/ Talk Radio News Service

Rep. Pete Olson (R-Texas) questioned NASA Administrator Charles Bolden Thursday over what appeared to be a lack of respect shown towards the agency's employees following the release of NASA's budget request for fiscal year 2011.

“There was a statement made by a very senior political appointee in NASA's front office, Mr. Alan Ladwig. He said: 'For those who fuss over President Obama’s Budget for NASA I have two words ‘Bite Me,’" said Olson. “Thats one hell of a message to send to thousands of loyal NASA employees and contractors who have given their life to human space flight.”

Bolden responded to Ladwig's alleged comments, and reassured the committee that Ladwig’s statement was not the message NASA intended to send to its employers or the United States. Bolden told the committee he would look into the claim and take care of what he described as as an 'unacceptable' action.

Rep. Bart Gordon (D-TN) challenged the speed at which NASA employees were informed of the new budget.

“Many Folks in your own agency do not appear to have known what was in the budget request until the very weekend before it was released,” said Gordon. “In addition, it has taken almost a month for Congress to get the NASA budget justification documents, a state of affairs that is not -and should not be- an acceptable way of doing business with regard to such an important national endeavor.”

Bolden apologized for the delay between communication efforts and acknowledged recognizable concern as NASA takes a ‘historic shift.'

“NASA’s exploration efforts will focus not just on our moon, but also on near earth astroids, strategic deep space zones and the planet Mars and it’s moons,” he said.

A full copy of the proposed FY2011 Budget for NASA can be found on the NASA website.

NASA's Ice Bridge Team Heads To Antarctica, Where It's Warm

By Julianne LaJeunesse - University of New Mexico, Talk Radio News Service

NASA will fly its 157 foot DC-8 laboratory aircraft south for some of the winter, where officials hope to use radar and airborne and imaging lasers to collect and record changes to sea ice, ice sheets, and glaciers. NASA says that all of these are experiencing the effects of warming in some areas, and snow and ice accumulation in others.

"Our motivation in these aircraft observations, is based on our concern about the contributions of the ice sheets to sea level rise," said Seeyle Martin, the chief scientist of Operation Ice Bridge, which is a six-year effort by NASA to fly to each of the earth's polar regions each year.

Martin added that NASA surveyed Greenland in the 1990's and found that ice mass loss is increasing by 7 percent each year. However, said Martin, "we do not have a comparable number for Antarctica."

The Operation Ice Bridge team will be based in Punta Arenas, Chile through mid-November, where they will make up to 17 flights, passing in and out of West Antarctica, the Antarctic Peninsula, and the Southern Ocean.

Tom Wagner, a cryosphere program scientist at NASA's Washington, D.C. headquarters, said in a NASA press release that the team will use equipment which he called "the only way to find out where change is occurring in remote continent-sized ice sheets like Antarctica."

That equipment includes NASA's Ice, Cloud and Land Elevation satellite laser, which will be used before using the Airborne Topographic Mapper. When the equipment is used collaboratively, scientists will be able to calibrate the data that satellite alone cannot map. The NASA team will also use radar depth sounding to measure ice sheet thickness, a laser vegetation imaging sensor, a snow radar, and a gravimeter, which will measure the changes in gravity the team expects to encounter at the edges of the Pines Island Bay.

Robin Bell, a geophysicist at Columbia University, said that the Ice Bridge endeavor is unique and will answer many questions about why ice sheets are changing.

"Ice Bridge is going to allow us to look at the base of the ice sheets, where the warm ocean water is reaching the bottom of the ice sheet, and where those... glaciers may actually be lubricated by water," she said.

Apollo Astronauts Call For A Lift-Off To Mars

By Courtney Ann Jackson - Talk Radio News Service

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.

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.