New Mars Forums

I will be appearing on The Space Show myself on May 23rd so I need
to be careful what I say here but the first question which pops up
with Dennis is "Is there any political or career biased opinions in
there?" He gets paid by NASA and so far their message on human Mars
programs has been a fairly uniform 20 to 30 years away sort of talk.
I agree with his points about technical problems but to me those
don't seem to be the real problem for humans to Mars. Lack of
political will is the problem. If people wanted to go to Mars they
would commit to doing so and even if took 100 years they would work
through the problems until it happened. Unfortunately this is simply
not the case. Sometimes research is done, most times it isn't. Until
there is a firm committment by someone to go to Mars we will
continue to have to rely upon the odd study done here and there,
lots of opinions and circular reasoning as usual.

These problems, real or not, can be overcome given enough time,
research and dollars. We are not trying to invent time travel here.
Humans went to the Moon did they not? They dealt with dust and
radiation there, did they not? Humans have lived in microgravity for
extended periods have they not? Humans have survived microgravity
have they not? Humans even live in space for extended periods and
I'm sure there are systems on the ISS that have lasted more than 3
years, proving that at least some technologies can last the
distance.

Mars enthusiasts often get accused of "ignoring the issues" or
downplaying their importance but I can't agree with that. Everywhere
I go in the Mars community ALL of these problems(and more) are being
discussed in depth. Some are even working on solutions such as the
human factors studies that the Mars Society conducts at their
analogue stations, the studies of the Mars Institute, Mars Foundation or our own mission design studies.

Two complementary radar sounder instruments work together to discover hidden Martian secrets. They are the Mars Advanced Radar for Subsurface and Ionospheric Sounding (MARSIS) on the European Space Agency's Mars Express orbiter and the Shallow Subsurface Radar (SHARAD) on NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter.

MARSIS was designed to penetrate deep and it has delivered on its promise. This figure shows the base of Mars' south polar layered deposits at the deepest recorded point of 3.7 kilometer (2.3 miles).

In contrast, SHARAD was designed as a high-resolution radar for a maximum penetration of 1 kilometer (0.6 mile) has difficulty detecting the base of these layered deposits.

Minimum Mission Success
1. Land successfully on the surface of Mars and achieve a power safe state.
2. Acquire a partial 120° monochromatic panorama of the landing site.
3. Provide samples of the surface soil as well as samples from one depth beneath the surface to either TEGA or MECA wet chemistry.
4. If TEGA, analyze at least 2 soil samples to create a profile of H2O (in the form of hydrated minerals, adsorbed water, or possibly ice at the deepest level) and mineral abundances near the surface. It shall also analyze an atmospheric sample in its mass spectrometer.
5. If MECA, analyze the wet chemistry of 2 soil samples.
6. Document all non-atmospheric samples and their collection locations with images.

There was an article in NewScientist that was critical of Bush's Moon/Mars plan, but the alternative presented had some other side trips, the author of the article wanted us to do things in the Earth/Sun L1 and L2 points. L2 in particular is in permanent shadow of the Earth, so is considered an excellent place for space telescopes affording a near full view of the sky at all times with the glare of the Sun conveniently blocked out.

Current ISS and Shuttle EVA crewmember information displays will not meet the need of Constellation Program's Extravehicular Activities that will be performed on the Lunar surface. Crewmembers will need access to extended information including: procedural checklists, suit status information, caution and warning information, navigational aids, biomedical sensor readings, metabolic rate, and still imagery and video. The Constellation Program's next generation of space suits will require the means to display the graphical information listed above, ideally using a hands free device, such as an HMD.

Seattle, WA – April 21, 2008 - Andrews Space, Inc. (Andrews) announced today that it has signed a contract with the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) to conduct research and development related to NASA’s Lunar Surface Access Module.  The specific efforts focus on the Altair Lunar Lander, designed to transport humans back on the surface of the Moon for the first time in half a century.

Under NASA Johnson Space Center’s Constellation Lunar Lander Development Study, Andrews will conduct a 210-day study to independently evaluate NASA's in-house design concept for a lunar Lander that will deliver four astronauts to the surface of the moon by 2020.  Andrews will evaluate the current design, propose safety improvements and recommend industry-government partnering arrangements.

“This is an exciting time for space exploration and development”, said Jason Andrews, President of Andrews Space.  “Our dedicated team is driven to play an intricate part in pioneering space technology and advancement.”

Andrews Space is one of five prestigious companies selected for design study of the Lunar Lander craft.  Other contract awardees include Boeing, Lockheed Martin, Northrop Grumman and Odyssey.  Headquartered in Seattle, WA, Andrews will leverage its field offices in Huntsville, AL and Houston, TX to execute this contract.

The CxAT-Lunar surface campaign analysis focused on three primary trade sets of analysis. Trade set one (TS1) investigated sustaining a crew of four for six months with full outpost capability and the ability to perform long surface mission excursions using large mobility systems. Two basic habitat concepts of a hard metallic horizontal cylinder and a larger inflatable torus concept were investigated as options in response to the surface exploration architecture campaign analysis.

VIERA - Florida voters could hold the key to the future of NASA's plans for human spaceflight and, with it, the fate of the Kennedy Space Center, U.S. Sen. Bill Nelson told Brevard County commissioners and nervous space-industry officials and workers Monday.

"The next president is going to decide a lot [about the space program]," Nelson said during a presentation to a daylong county space workshop. "And East-Central Florida has an opportunity to influence the next president because, at the end of the day, Florida is going to be important this November."

Nelson, who flew aboard shuttle Columbia in 1986, was joined by Washington lobbyists, labor leaders, local business leaders and the Space Coast's two congressional representatives, Dave Weldon, R-Indialantic, and Tom Feeney, R-Oviedo, in a discussion of the problems faced by KSC as NASA prepares to retire the shuttle in 2010 and lay off thousands of workers.

The workshop was called by the county to help chart a strategy to deal with the looming job cuts and the gap in human spaceflight between the last shuttle flight and the first launch of the next generation Constellation rockets and capsules in 2015.

There were few answers, however, beyond continuing to look for ways to attract more commercial space business to the region and to secure additional funding for NASA to speed up Constellation.

Nelson said that Floridians need to press their case on the presidential candidates, Republican John McCain and Democrats Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama.

Clinton was the first candidate to outline support for "robust human spaceflight" and is seen as NASA's biggest booster of the three. But there are questions on how committed she is to the Bush administration's plans for exploration to the moon and then Mars.

McCain recently worried space supporters by backing a plan to freeze all federal discretionary spending -- including NASA's budget -- except on defense and homeland-security programs.

Obama supports human spaceflight but wants to use money from NASA to fund education reforms.

Former congressman Bob Walker, now a lobbyist working for Brevard County, told the workshop that all the candidates were starting to question whether NASA's choice of vehicles to go back to the moon -- especially the Ares rocket that has been dogged by political and technical difficulties -- was a mistake.

Nelson said he thinks "basic politics" could change the way the candidates view the space program.

Florida is a vital swing state, and the Interstate 4 corridor is the swing region. Kennedy Space Center and the entire Space Coast, which is largely dependent on NASA-related jobs, is the eastern anchor of that corridor.

"These candidates are going to be here and we need to work 'em over," Nelson said. "We need to tell them what's been wrong thus far and how to change it. . . . We need to explain how you win the state of Florida."

Lynda Weatherman, president of the Economic Development Commission of Florida's Space Coast, told the commissioners that space experts from her group had recently met McCain and Clinton campaign directors and were scheduled to meet with Obama's people in Chicago next month. The commission is to soon draft policy papers for each candidate that show how support for human spaceflight benefits their main campaign planks.