Posted on 11/13/2016 9:35:15 AM PST by TigerClaws
President-elect Trump's unfolding space policy will refocus NASA efforts away from exploring Mars to mining valuable minerals from the asteroid belt and visiting Jupiter’s "ocean-moon" Europa, perhaps the best place to find alien life near Earth.
In 2013, huge active plumes containing water vapor being released from the surface of Jupiter’s moon Europa were discovered shooting up 1200 kilometers. This sensational find was made using the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope. Europa has been a focus of extraterrestrial research for some time, as there were clear indications that it harbors a liquid vast ocean beneath its icy crust. The plumes were not sighted again, however. The involvement of Hubble raises the possibility that Europa's elusive plumes may finally have been spotted again.
"First, perhaps, it might be best to understand why anyone would want to land on Europa at all. Europa – the second of Jupiter’s four large satellites – is clearly a special place," says Caltech's Mike Brown, the Richard and Barbara Rosenberg Professor of Planetary Astronomy. "Ever since the time of the Galileo spacecraft nearly 2 decades ago, we have recognized that Europa’s fresh icy surface, covered with cracks and ridges and transform faults, is the external signature of a vast internal salty ocean."
The key to NASA's map of search for life in our solar system is to "follow the water." When Obama took office, he told NASA to concentrate on sending humans to Mars in the 2030s. Mars is a primary target in the search for life outside Earth, and liquid water is the most important pre-requisite for life.
But Mars has undergone a billion-year drought. Evidence shows that more than 3 billion years ago Mars was wet and habitable. However, the latest research reaffirms just how dry the environment is today. For life to exist, it would need to find pockets far beneath the surface, located away from the dryness and radiation present on the ground.
The most interesting possibility of a new NASA focus on Europa is Caltech Brown's insight that "the most interesting possibility that I can think of – is that the rocky bottom of the ocean is almost like a miniature Earth, with plate tectonics, continents, deep trenches, and active spreading centers. Think about mid-ocean ridges on Earth, with their black smokers belching scalding nutrient-rich waters into a sea floor teaming with life that is surviving on these chemicals. It doesn’t take much of an imagination to picture the same sort of rich chemical soup in Europa’s ocean leading to the evolution of some sort of life, living off of the internal energy generated inside of Europa’s core. If you’re looking for Europa’s whales – which many of my friends and I often joke that we are – this is the world you want to look for them on."
The president-elect wants NASA to explore the furthest reaches of the solar system by the end of the century, according to Space Policy Online. “I will free NASA from the restriction of serving primarily as a logistics agency for low Earth orbit activity… Instead we will refocus its mission on space exploration.”
Trump’s new space plan, still a little short on details, focuses on eliminating bureaucratic waste, promoting a private-public partnership, and setting ambitious goals for NASA that will force the agency to stretch itself.
Shortly before Election Day, the new president-elect recruited former Republican congressman Robert Walker, who chaired the Science, Space, and Technology Committee in the 1990s, to help draft a plan for NASA.
Trump’s new space policy, as revealed by Walker, is designed to coordinate public and private efforts to maximize American efforts to explore the entire solar system, which includes mining valuable minerals from the asteroid belt and visiting Jupiter’s moon Europa, perhaps the best place to find alien life near Earth.
Trump also plans to bring back the National Space Council, last in operation under George H.W. Bush, explore deep space, and encourage commercial partners to build a new economy in low Earth orbit, Walker told Mother Jones.
“If you’re looking at technology that looks for the solar system, you are then likely to move toward plasma rockets, toward nuclear-powered rockets, certainly toward solar sails,” said Walker
“The United States of America is the only nation that can protect space for the free world and for responsible entities, and preserves space for generations to come," said U.S. Rep. Jim Bridenstine, who is on the short list to head NASA, told SpaceNews. "America must forever be the preeminent spacefaring nation.”
I thought the primary purpose of NASA was to make Muslims feel good about inventing the zero.
Both the La Grange points and the moon need to be secured before moving on.
Kick her butt out through the hatch as we go by Jupiter, and let her parachute in. 1. Landing and taking off again is too expensive.
2. Parachuting her in rules out a chance of her changing her mind. We can’t take that chance.
No, despite her wish, she's going to the moon where she can room with Alice Kramden.......
Europa and the Pirate Twins - Thomas Dolby
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rG7SMKXtrPM
He’s an astronomer too!!! This is just too good.
We have one of the greatest solar systems. Trump will just unleash its powers.
The Space Program was the only government project that ever paid for itself.LOL. Yeah like AMTRAK and the USPS.
There MUST be a mistake here. It is well known that Conservatives are all anti-science!! /s
First thing Mr Trump needs to do with NASA is reconvert it back to a space exploration agency..........cancel Obama’s “NASA’s directive is to make Muslims feel good about themselves” BullSheet!
besides, the only way Muslims will really feel good about themselves is if they break free from their Moslem murder cult, and let Islam die for lack of membership
“We have one of the greatest solar systems. Trump will just unleash its powers.”
He will unleash them bigly.
ALL THESE WORLDS ARE YOURS - EXCEPT EUROPA.
ATTEMPT NO LANDINGS THERE
He and Barron can go see the new Heroes and Legends @ Cape Canaveral, wouldn’t that be cool?
Making NASA great again will be Pence’s job.
Pence? OK. Pence sounded quite good in the campaign...
Trump is even making the solar system Great Again!
...
Yes, the policy looks good to me.
Thank You Trump!
NASA has had this ridiculous Mars obsession going on for way too long. Time to clean house!
https://www.scientificamerican.com/media/inline/has-nasa-become-mars-obsessed_2.jpg
Commercial launch services. NASA as a space “business incubator” and “basic science institute”, like the hunt for life. This is how it should be!
“those proposing such should enlighten themselves about the principles of physics vis-a vis energy “
And how much is the cost of energy sources for rockets (hydrogen, kerosene, oxygen) versus the price of gold, platinum, gemstones like peridot, etc? Because that’s what you’re trading: cheap propellants for incredibly valuable returns.
“you can for practical purposes , “mine” almost anything from seawater or Rocky Mountain granite by the part per million than you can from outer space”
The concentrations of precious metals on a good asteroid are several times better than you find in the best mines on Earth. With zero overburden (the expensive part in mining is often removing overburden). Pre-crushed for you. With little energy required to lift it off the surface. Some steroids are also laced all the way through with peridot.
Of course you don’t even need to consider that because just the value of asteroid material alone is huge. The worst quality, rusted, un-aesthetic iron asteroid samples on Earth go for about $1000 a pound. Good stuff goes for thousands to millions of times more. And there’s a huge market for it.
There’s potential. Let’s go for it.
—then let it be funded privately—you are welcome to be the first investor——
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