NASA Aims For Mars Two Years After Columbia Disaster

spacedaily.com ^ | 07/08/05

[KevinDavis]

The Columbia tragedy in February 2003 forced a deeply wounded NASA to reform, but the space agency hopes for a triumphant return to flight next week with the Discovery shuttle's launch amid ambitious plans for missions to the Moon and Mars.

An investigation on the Columbia accident took aim at NASA culture, criticizing officials' obsession with respecting flight schedules to finish work on the International Space Station, to the detriment of astronaut safety. Seven crew members died in the crash over Texas.

The disaster also prompted President George W. Bush to retire the shuttle fleet by 2010, 10 years earlier than the National Aeronautic and Space Administration had planned, and replace it with a new spacecraft.

[Mamzelle]

re: For a trillion dollars, what kind of results can one expect to get with manned versus unmanned? )))

Careful. You're liable to hear a lot of squealing from wannabe jockeys--and vicarious jockeys.

They're the ones who got us this low-orbit shuttle merry-go-round with spiders building webs in "space" (the shuttl/ss is not really space), instead of an armada of nifty probes to Jupiter .

[Mamzelle]

There's a private spaceport being built on 165K acres in West Texas--financed by the guy who designed Doom and Quake. They think they'll have their first "ride" in six or seven years. Hope it has fewer bugs than the games did...but at least they don't want to ride on my dime.

[Mamzelle]

re: 1. It is not going to cost a trillion dollars. )))

Well, now...that's just plain funny. How much will it cost me for joytoys for joyboys?

2. Manned missions can do a lot more than robots.

I guess you missed that brilliant NASA computerized crate scraping the side of a comet a week ago. We couldn't have done that with manned craft because we'd have had to bring 'im home for his parade and rehabilitation. It is a lot cheaper not to have to bring a craft home.

3. Also we have to leave this stikin rock...

Infantile...so much that is driving NASA policy is just plain infantile

[anymouse]

I think you are confused. Jeff Bezos of Amazon fame is building his Blue Origin rocket test facility in West Texas.

You where thinking about John Carmack, who designed Doom and Quake and is now running Armadillo Aerospace up in the Dallas area.

Of course Elon Musk of PayPal fame has done some rocket engine testing for his SpaceX company's rocket in Central Texas.

With so many Internet mogels running rocket companies in Texas, it can be confusing keeping up on their progress. :)

[Mamzelle]

reWith so many Internet mogels running rocket companies in Texas, it can be confusing keeping up on their progress. :))))

Indeed! Thank goodness there are only three of any consequence.

[RightWhale]

From the beginning the various resources of outer space will be scattered, one kind here, another kind there. It will not be as if a family could settle in one place and find or grow everything they will need to maintain a household, but it will be trade. Water will be in one place, iron in another. The situation will be large scale shipments of single resources, which only large corporations can undertake. Money in some form will be the intermediate for all transactions since simple trade of household surplus for immediate survival will be impossible.

Distance will not be measured in miles but in time. Time management is essential to business. The inner solar system presents distances of two to eighteen months depending how things line up. Improved propulsion should cut the distance as space development proceeds and the bottom line should reflect that improvement.

Development of the distant resources of the solar system will become practical in a business sense when the distances are reduced to months rather than years and decades. During all this development, the presence of humans in interplanetary space will continue to be uncommon as that would cut into the bottom line substantially. The main presence of humans would be the bases on the moon. Secondary bases could be on Mars. All these bases would initially be of a scientific nature, there being no reason to use manned bases in either place for resource handling.

[RightWhale]

Several states have space bases of one kind or another. Oklahoma has a space program of its own, as does California. Even Alaska has a couple of bases. Maybe it's a stretch to call them bases at this point, but they have the necessary range and zoning for rocket launches. I would like to see space bases as common as municipal airports, whether private as some airstrips are, or managed by the public agency.

[NicknamedBob]

"The situation will be large scale shipments of single resources..."

But there is no reason to ship anything anywhere, unless people are there!

In today's inner cities, the resources are available. The demand is there. And the profit potential is high, but the major corporations don't go there because they are risk-averse.

Only the small, tight-knit family grocer is willing to take the risk, and only because his family backs him.

Resources are where you find them. In Coober-Pedy, the mines became the homes, and the homes are the mines. I would suspect the asteroids will be similar.

A hole in a rock may not appeal to an employee, but it might be just the thing for a family which is society-averse, or even a couple of individuals.

[NicknamedBob]

[BigCinBigD]

July 4th 2021 10am Eastern time.
The nation cheared as Mars 1 made a safe landing on the Red planet after a 10 month trip.
United States Navy Commander Sally McNally became the first human on Mars a half hour later. ;)

[RightWhale]

The Warner Bros movie High Frontier [I think that is the title] with Sean Connery was an excellent attempt to portray space mining as it has been conceived up to now. Most likely, though, such mining and even shipping of the product will be entirely automated.

Where will shipments go?

Some to the moon and Mars, but most to earth. Earth will be the Athens or Rome of the solar system for a long time.