Posted on 01/10/2004 11:55:42 AM PST by demlosers
WASHINGTON, Jan. 9 (UPI) -- NASA would fuse together its robotic space systems and manned space program to accommodate the goals of President George W. Bush's new space exploration agenda, senior administration sources told United Press International.
Bush next Wednesday is expected to announce he wants to send American astronauts back the moon early in the next decade in preparation for sending crews to explore Mars and nearby asteroids. The sweeping new effort, which represents the biggest overhaul of the U.S. space program in its history, also would involve retiring the space shuttle fleet and gradually withdrawing participation in the International Space Station.
Although the plans still are only in the concept stage and have yet to be fully developed, the White House insisted advanced robotic devices be emphasized in the new space effort to supplement human space missions, sources said.
"This should end the tired old argument between manned and unmanned space flight," a source predicted.
Advancing space robotic technology will require much of the initial $800 million the president is expected to request for fiscal year 2005 as a down payment on his space plan -- it could be as much as $300 million to $500 million of the increase, sources said.
The new robots would be capable not only of exploring the moon in tandem with the visiting astronauts, but also of functioning independently from humans if necessary. Among the robotic systems under consideration would be automated facilities on the moon's surface to perform such activities as facilities construction and operation, power production and analysis of the lunar soil and minerals. The robots also would work in tandem with orbiting probes to map the moon's surface and identify its features in high detail to provide navigational aids for future landings.
Early versions of planning documents, which were shown to UPI, reveal the first missions to the moon under the new Bush initiative -- tentatively scheduled for 2013 -- would use robotic probes and orbiting spacecraft.
The orbiters could be derivatives of the current fleet of reconnaissance satellites now used around Mars. The surface vehicles could be advanced versions of the Mars Exploration Rovers, such as Spirit, which landed successfully on the Martian surface on Jan. 3, and Opportunity, which is due to land Jan. 24.
NASA already has an advanced robotic lander well into the planning stage. The Mars Science Laboratory, which is due to rendezvous with the planet in 2009, is a nuclear-powered, Volkswagon-Beetle-sized craft. It will carry an optical communications terminal to demonstrate a new laser beam communications system.
Sources also said private enterprise could play an important role in designing and building the moon craft involved in the early stages of the lunar exploration program. One idea, still in its infancy, would be to create an automated pilot plant on the moon to provide power and other resources for a human lunar outpost.
Another concept under consideration would be to build a new generation of lunar rovers, such as those used on three Apollo missions in 1971 and 1972. The new craft would be more like moon-traveling RVs, however, carrying living quarters for astronauts as well as instruments for research.
The robotic systems at first would assist human crews during missions and then continue exploration and other duties when the astronauts returned to Earth.
Sources stressed that under the new space plan NASA would have to abandon its current approach of maintaining separate programs for manned and unmanned missions. Both efforts would have to be combined, using the advantages and best features of each to explore the moon, Mars, and other parts of the solar system, which is the goal at the heart of the new Bush space doctrine.
Frank Sietzen Jr. covers aerospace issues for UPI Science News. Keith L. Cowing is editor of NASAWatch.com and SpaceRef.com. E-mail sciencemail@upi.com
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The main purpose of our space purpose in the '60's was to function as a "second path" for funding and developing rocket science in a publicly visible way, for the purpose of scaring the bejeesus out of the Soviet Union. This way we let them know what they were up against, and kept them spending their heads off on space, and kept them from spending more on building up their conventional mechanized ground forces for a WWII style assult on Europe (and, by extension, us). It also helped keep left-wing forces from being able to argue that the "military-industrial complex" was sucking too much money out of "social programs."
The robots-exploring-space initiative is going to do the same thing, only now with robotics in addition to rocket science. Why?
Because in the next big war, our front-line soldiers are going to be machines. Einstein said he didn't know what weapons world war III would be fought with, but he knew that world-war IV would be fought with sticks and stones. He was partially right.
World War IV will be fought with sticks and stones against... The Terminator.
(steely)
Right. And because any nation that can orbit a satellite can at any time drop a ton of explosive ordinance on your head.
Forward to the 2000+ years, or back to Heinlein's The Moon is a Harsh Mistress, 'the nation that controls the moon, controls the Earth.'
Why? Because the first thing to build on the moon is an electro-magnetic catapult, capable of launching ore, assembled devices, processed fuel, or just plain rocks into lunar or low earth orbit, or on a re-entry path to Earth. I don't want Chicom hands at those controls.
I was going to say, 'yeah, so' but you have raised a strong point. In the past year the Japanese have been running PR about their new generation of robots, and there is nothing comparable coming from the US or even NASA. We have glimpsed the future, and it is glaring back at us with glassy eyes. Real glass--bandpass .2 to .8 microns, sees in the dark.
Correct of course, but you know what? There was an SBIR soliciatation more than a year ago for terahertz radar that could detect DNA at a distance, or through walls
Cogitate on that. Keep in mind that typically, by the time a solicitation makes it into the public domain, it has already been prototyped by at least one vendor or research group.
(steely)
This go-round we're going to get robotic slaves.
If we are going to go back to the moon, this is the way it should be done--mostly with robots building infrastructure.
Private industry was already working on my robot slave. This is just going to divert resources away from it. Beats paying the shady to do nothing, but that's the best thing I can say about this kind of government spending.
The main purpose of our space purpose in the '60's was to function as a "second path" for funding and developing rocket science in a publicly visible way, for the purpose of scaring the bejeesus out of the Soviet Union.
So now we're going to the moon on French and Russian rockets. Swell.
Spirit rover's first drive expected mid-week
BY WILLIAM HARWOOD
STORY WRITTEN FOR CBS NEWS "SPACE PLACE" & USED WITH PERMISSION
Posted: January 10, 2004
The Spirit Mars rover completed its multi-part "stand-up" sequence today, the most complex set of mechanical deployments ever attempted by a robotic spacecraft. Resting on its now unfolded, locked-in-place undercarriage and its six ridged wheels, Spirit should be ready to roll off its lander and onto the martian surface by early Wednesday morning East Coast time to begin its long-await exploration of Gusev Crater.
On any other day, that would be a major milestone. But Wednesday morning also is the day President Bush is expected to announce a new space initiative that would end shuttle operations by 2010 and send astronauts to the moon by the middle of the next decade. The ultimate goal is to expand humanity's exploration of the solar system to Mars.
But for the Spirit team, the rover's short drive off its lander is the central focus and today's completion of the four-part stand-up sequence was a major milestone in its own right.
"After seven months of our rover being folded up in a small lander, today is the day the Spirit rover finished its final unfolding on the surface of Mars," said mission manager Jennifer Trosper. "So it now stands full height and all six wheels are in the final position and ready drive onto the surface So it's a very big day for the Spirit rover."
Chris Voorhees, the engineer credited with designing the ingenious collapsible mechanisms that allowed the rover to be folded up for its trip to Mars, said "it's been a very, very exciting couple of days for the spacecraft team."
"Spirit has spent most of the last seven months crunched up inside of a tetrahedran-shaped lander," he said. "And it is not the shape a lander wants to be in. Over the last couple of days, Spirit has performed what really, I think is reverse robotic origami as it unfolded itself and really turned itself from a lander into a rover."
Early Friday, a screw jack mechanism elevated Spirit's body so its two front wheels, stowed against the front of the craft for launch and landing, could be unfolded. The jack then lowered the body to allow its now extended rocker-bogey linkage suspension to lock in its unfolded position. Today, after verifying the linkages were, in fact, latched securely, engineers released two cables holding the rover's two back wheels in place and then extended them to give the vehicle the desired wheelbase length.
To carry out the stand-up sequence, Voorhees said, 12 explosive pyrotechnic devices had to fire, nine motorized mechanisms had to work and six structural latches had to engage. Along the way, two navigation cameras and numerous sensors had to relay data back to Earth to help engineers verify each step had been successfully completed.
"The only other number is the scores of engineers, designers, analysts, technicians, machinists, not just here at JPL but across the country, that in each their own way allowed Spirit to perform what really is one of the most complex sequence of deployments that's ever been done on a robotic spacecraft," he said.
"Being successful in that sequence, we've left Spirit in a very, very comfortable position. She's asleep right now and she's resting on all sixes, comfortably supporting herself on all six wheels and is ready and raring to go, ready for final releases to get onto the surface."
The next step in the procedure, Trosper said, is to fire cables holding Spirit's two central wheels to the lander and to move the rover's instrument-laden mechanical arm from its launch-and-landing position to its normal roving position. That work will be carried out overnight. Then, overnight Sunday, a final cable will be severed by an explosive cutter.
Engineers originally hoped to drive Spirit straight off its lander. But partially collapsed airbags to the front left and right of the lander could pose problems. Efforts to retract the bags further have not been successful and engineers are concerned that Spirit's left-side solar array could brush up against one as the rover rolls off.
"Some of our engineers spent some time in the test bed today, in our little Mars landing sandbox at JPL, and simulated the rover driving down the front ramp with the airbags in the positions that you see," Trosper said. "What we discovered was, there is a possibility, as the rover drives down the front ramp, that the rear left part of the rover's solar panel could possibly brush against the airbag that's on the left side of the lander. It's not very close, there's a little bit of margin, but it's not really a place we want to be in. We don't necessarily want to get the solar panels caught on the airbags or even to brush against the airbags.
"So we made a decision today that the egress path that we're choosing ... is to turn the rover 120 degrees to facing the right rear of the (lander) and we will drive down the egress aids."
With six independently-steerable wheels, Spirit can literally turn on a dime, rotating as required without moving laterally. The 120-degree "turn-in-place" maneuver is expected overnight Monday and if all goes well, Spirit will roll off its lander a few hours past midnight Tuesday, East Coast time.
"We are very excited about being in the final parts of moving the rover onto the surface of," Trosper said.
Well, Gore will have something to do.
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