New Mars Forums

The university's Institute for Energy Conversion will get about $350,000 from NASA to perfect a solar panel made with plastic that can stand up to the rigors of space travel.

NASA picked several teams of researchers to develop new technologies that can be used for another proposed mission to the moon and, eventually, Mars.

The lack of an escape system "will lead to the loss of another crew," said Don Nelson, a 36-year NASA veteran engineer who worked at Johnson Space Center and closely with Marshall Space Flight Center engineers during his career.

Nelson estimates a crew escape system could be placed on NASA's remaining three shuttle orbiters for about $3.8 billion.

Crew escape systems were part of all NASA spacecraft until the space shuttle was designed in the early 1970s. Engineers felt shuttle technology could be made so reliable that an escape system would be useless.

During the original shuttle design, we looked at a crew escape system, but it would have been too heavy. We thought that technology would do the job and make the shuttle orbiter into an airliner.

Protectionism does reduce the total global wealth, but not nessesarrily national wealth. If the aim is to maximize national wealth then it is a nessarry measure. Especially in cases where foreign governments conspire against American companies (see EADS vs Boeing tanker deal).

Standardization does not work both ways if one company can offer a useable product at a small fraction of the cost. If Russia were permitted to pit Zenit-II versus Atlas-V, or Angara versus Delta-IV, and Congress demanded that NASA save money... what do you think would happen?

The American launchers would be, as the USAF puts it, "down selected." Government procurement regulations are choc full of policies that require it to use the lowest cost provider. If the Government wouldn't eliminate the US rockets, then the rocket builders would eliminate themselves since there would be unable to compete.

In the separate studies, planetary scientists and engineers are drawing up plans to send an orbiter laden with atmospheric probes and landers to Neptune, the eighth planet from the Sun. While each mission has its own way of reaching Neptune, both seek a better understanding of the planet and its surrounding 13 known moons, especially the oddball Triton.

Neptune's largest moon Triton, which astronomers believe is a non-native captive of its parent planet. It circles Neptune in a retrograde orbit, in the opposite direction of Neptune's rotation. It has a gossamer thin atmosphere where parachutes would be useless for any landing probe.

The silicon and organic photovoltaic groups are working together at Georgia Tech to accelerate the development of cost-effective solar cells to solve the energy and environmental problems simultaneously and reduce our dependence on foreign oil

A group of scientists has built a $10 million device that mimics the magnetic fields surrounding the Earth and other planets. The scientists hope to use the device to understand how the Earth's protective magnetosphere works -- and possibly gain insights into how to make fusion a feasible energy source.

This experiment is the first time a high-temperature magnetosphere has been constructed in a lab, said professor Michael Mauel, co-head of the experiment and chair of Columbia University's Department of Applied Physics and Applied Mathematics.

The 2005 Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter will search for evidence that water persisted on the surface of Mars for a long period of time. While other missions have shown that water flowed across the surface in Mars' history, the mystery remains of whether water was ever present long enough for life.

Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter will increase tenfold the number of spots surveyed close up, and will identify obstacles that could jeopardize the safety of future landers and rovers.

One of the cameras is the largest ever flown on a planetary mission and will be able to look at small-scale areas, perfect for identifying small features.

The orbiter's telecommunications system will establish a crucial service for future spacecraft. This "interplanetary Internet" can be used by numerous international spacecraft.

SHARAD (Shallow Radar)
This sounding radar will probe beneath the Martian surface to see if water ice is present at depths greater than one meter.

The Millau bridge will enable motorists to take a drive through the sky — 891 feet above the Tarn River valley for 1.6-mile stretch through France’s Massif Central mountains.

The $523 million bridge was commissioned to open a new north-south link between Paris and the Mediterranean and is expected to relieve bottlenecks caused by trucks and tourists headed to the Riviera.

Toll fees for motorists will vary from $6.50 in winter and $8.62 in summer. Trucks will have to pay $32.24 year-round.