Nasa Shuttle, ISS Woes & To-Mars

SpaceNut · 2007-02-12 22:20:53

The completion of a laboratory module for the International Space Station depends on financing,
Russia to launch laboratory module to ISS in 2009 an ERA manipulator and DMS-R data management system designed by the European Space Agency may be installed on the module, which can be also used for paid research.

World's only space dust detector binned

The only experiment designed to survey and trace the origin of space debris too tiny to be tracked by radar has been cancelled. Ironically, the cancellation comes on the heels of a Chinese anti-satellite weapons test that generated more debris than any other satellite break-up in the 50-year history of space launches.
Department of Defense's Space Test Program, which was going to launch and deploy LAD-C, decided to halt work on the $5 million project.
An international team of scientists had been planning to capture and catalogue this dust from outside the International Space Station with an experiment called LAD-C (Large Area Debris Collector). Meant to be launched on a shuttle in 2008, LAD-C was going to catch the debris in a sponge-like aerogel mounted on a 10-square-metre aluminium grid.
When a piece of space debris hit the aerogel, it would have sent vibrations along the metal grid, where piezo sensors similar to the ones in electronic drum kits would have picked up the signal.
A computer would have registered the location, impact speed and timing of the strike, and based on the orientation of the space station, this would have given the particle's orbital trajectory. Researchers would then know whether it came from space junk, an asteroid or a comet, and would be able to study its composition when the experiment was brought back to Earth in 2009

SpaceNut · 2007-02-18 11:59:30

A whole lot of training going on in Russia for the seats to the ISS some from the tourist category while the other is a would be partner nation.

American millionaire arrives in Moscow for ISS flight training

U.S. millionaire Charles Simonyi who is set to fly to the International Space Station (ISS) as a space tourist April 7 arrived in Moscow Sunday for final training.

SKorea's potential astronauts set for training in Russia

South Korea's first two potential astronauts will this month start a year of training in Russia before one of them heads to the International Space Station, officials said Sunday.
The Korea Aerospace Research Institute said the pair will leave on February 27 and begin training at the Gagarin Cosmonaut Training Center from March 7 after a week of medical check-ups.
Only one will be chosen to travel aboard the Russian spacecraft Soyuz and undertake 18 scientific experiments at the International Space Station during his or her week-long mission in April 2008

SpaceNut · 2007-02-20 20:16:33

Keep space station in budget's orbit, Glenn says; 1st American to circle Earth, exactly 45 years ago, urges support for project

The country is not getting its money’s worth out of the international space station, John Glenn said Tuesday, the 45th anniversary of the day he became the first American to orbit the Earth.
Diverting money from the orbiting research outpost to President Bush’s goal of sending astronauts back to the moon and eventually on to Mars is preventing some scientific experiments on the space station,

GCNRevenger · 2007-02-20 21:41:37

That would be because it is not - I repeat, NOT - possible to get "our monies worth" because the ISS is a mind-boggling-ly expensive waste of perfectly good aluminum and silicon. These experiments slated for the space station are absolutely unimportant and are a pitifully flimsy pretext for the Shuttle & Soyuz work project the station actually is.

cIclops · 2007-02-20 22:49:08

The country is not getting its money’s worth out of the international space station, John Glenn said Tuesday, the 45th anniversary of the day he became the first American to orbit the Earth.
Diverting money from the orbiting research outpost to President Bush’s goal of sending astronauts back to the moon and eventually on to Mars is preventing some scientific experiments on the space station,

It might be interesting to know what Glenn actually said, this is AP/MSNBC's paraphrasing.

SpaceNut · 2007-03-15 19:40:53

Usually by this point a thread this size would have blown up so thanks Josh for that last upgrade to the blog.

Space station sinks to new low — but it’s OK; NASA says that’s part of its plan for finishing the orbital outpost
Under the inexorable decay of air drag, its orbital path around Earth has slipped down to 207 miles (332 kilometers), the lowest average altitude in the nine-year life of the project.

070315_iss_hmed_2p.hmedium.jpg

December picture taken from the shuttle Discovery

SpaceNut · 2007-04-10 10:23:58

NASA signs five-year $719 million International Space Station crew and cargo contract with Russia's Federal Space Agency

The firm-fixed price extension covers crew rotations for 15 crew members, six in 2009, six in 2010 and three in 2011, and the delivery and removal of 5,600kg (12,300lb) of cargo.
With the contract the US space agency is also purchasing a Russian Docking Cargo Module flight in 2010 for the delivery of 1,400kg of NASA cargo to the ISS. That cargo is the outfitting hardware for Russia's ISS Multipurpose Laboratory Module. NASA is obligated to deliver the Russian module's hardware under a 2006 addendum to the ISS Balance of Contributions Agreement between NASA and the FSA.

Hurry up COTS program...

SpaceNut · 2012-05-14 20:02:03

Many have felt this way....

Why ISS can advance Mars exploration

When Explore Mars first decided to begin the International Space Station and Mars Conference series, I was quite skeptical. Like many others in the Mars community, I didn’t see how ISS could be of much value to Mars exploration. Truth be told, I thought it served as nothing but an obstacle to Mars exploration.
However, after running several ISS and Mars programs, including conferences in Washington, DC, and in Strasbourg, France, I have come to realize that ISS can potentially be extremely valuable in advancing the cause of getting humans to Mars. However, this value will not necessarily happen automatically. While some of the essential utilization decisions have already been made, decision makers at NASA, as well within the international partnership, need to embrace some specific concepts if ISS can truly help advance the goal of sending humans beyond low Earth orbit (LEO)—specifically to Mars.

JoshNH4H · 2012-07-25 21:30:08

That conclusion largely doesn't follow from the few examples given in the article. The three examples that they give are the potential for an ISS Mars Analogue mission where station time models time spent in transfer from Earth to Mars, the relatively successful model of international cooperation demonstrated with the ISS, and its utility as a spur for commercialization of the launch industry.

I would respond that it is important, if you've decided that you actually want to get started on space colonization, to make sure that every dollar that you spend does double, triple, or even quadruple duty. So, for example you test what people can and can't survive, first with a few biological experiments that can but do not have to be on the ISS- for example, they could be free floating. These could be given to the highest bidder to spur commercialization and the results could be shared on an international scale. Given the results of these experiments, you can then build and test a prototype, and use commercial launchers for that; When you want to givde a flight test you can also test human endurance by leaving one of them in LEO for a few months.

Given the extent to which scientific experiments can be automated, there is not much loss from not having your experiments associated with the ISS. Bonus points if you bring in private enterprises or universities to build, operate, and launch the satellites for you while you just pay for results.

Impaler · 2012-07-26 05:38:14

Well their are 2 arguments that can be made, Having DONE the ISS program has been worth it, and continuing to DO the ISS is worth it.

I think their is a much stronger argument for the former, most of the ISS technology development, international cooperation and program management experience has already been gained primarily during the 90's time frame. Continuation of the ISS has potential benefits but they are based on effective utilization from now on and this is harder to do because their is less and less 'new' stuff to do every day withing volume/power/logistical constraints set at the start of the program. I think virtually all the remaining benefit of ISS will be in the area of system reliability and maintenance improvements and cost of operation reductions, COTS is just the most obvious example of cutting into the launch costs.

I don't think their is any argument that we (and by we I mean principle the USA which was massively behind the Soviets in LEO endurance tech and experience) could have gone Beyond Cis-lunar without doing the Freedom/ISS project in one form or another. Before that we had zero experience in on-orbit assembly and we were using almost entirely open-loop life support that lasted a week or two.

GW Johnson · 2012-07-26 10:18:02

IMHO the ISS has taught us two very important things: (1) how to assemble very large structures from docked modules, and (2) some fuzzy but useful practical limits for exposure to microgravity.

Item (1) is essential to going to destinations beyond the moon. The only practical way to do things like that is assembly of the vehicle in orbit. The most mass conservative architectures result when you do an orbit-to-orbit transit vehicle built for at least partial re-use, with appropriate landers for use at destination. These are the lessons of Apollo, even though we didn't do Apollo itself that way.

Item (2) is just observational. I notice they rotate crews every 6-7 months. It is not that hard to fully recovery from microgravity disease. There is a cosmonaut who recovered from 440 days, but it took him a long time for a difficult recovery. That says we need artificial gravity, and not knowing any better, it ought to be 1 full gee, or pretty near.

What the ISS could do for us next is answer the question "how much gee is enough?". That will require the medical centrifuge that they never launched. I hear it still exists, and if an Atlas-V-552 can't fling it up there, then a Falcon-Heavy soon will be able to.

GW

SpaceNut · 2012-07-27 18:20:15

"The International Space Station: A Platform for Research, Collaboration, and Discovery." With assembly of the International Space Station complete as of May 2011, the focus has now shifted from construction to full scientific utilization through 2020 and beyond.

Currently Nasa and The Center for the Advancement of Science in Space (CASIS) agreement in September 2011. That's 1 month of operations in FY 2011 and 9 months of operations in FY 2012. If CASIS is following the reference model, then it should be well along the way toward having raised $2,892,000 by now.

What CASIS can do for you "CASIS is determined to facilitate the development of ground-breaking products and technologies on the ISS for the benefit of people on Earth," said CASIS Interim Executive Director Jim Royston.

The CASIS management team will support and assist researchers and principal investigators in transitioning their science and research experiments into manifested payloads that will be launched and delivered directly to the National Lab.
CASIS also offers researchers the opportunity to network with colleagues, businesses and funding sources to expedite the forward movement of your research projects.

Meanwhile, real research results continue to be distributed by NASA - but CASIS is either oblivious to this research or is uninterested in telling potential users of the ISS about what is being done on the ISS.

http://www.iss-casis.org/NewsEvents/PressReleases.aspx

SpaceNut · 2012-09-16 18:07:18

Wow try number three to post information....

It would seem that the ISS and its importance to being a space platform for science and of launching man into space is all but forgotten by the main media....Here it sits orbiting in LEO orbit and like clock work the partners and Nasa have maintained a crew onboard learn how to live and work in space.
Recently the Japanese resupply ship ends mission with fiery re-entry with it destroying the garbage-filled spaceship as planned friday, after a nearly two-month mission.

What did it do on this mission?

The HTV is wrapping up a 47-day stay at the space station, in which the craft delivered food and clothing, an aquatic habitat experiment, an Earth observation camera, and other supplies.
The cargo craft also delivered five small CubeSat satellites and a Japanese-built deployer apparatus. The CubeSats will be released outside the space station beginning this fall.

SpaceNut · 2014-04-22 21:04:37

The station is still being provide with the help of partners inspite of the Russian situation. That said the ISS, Ares V Orion resurected as the SLS, with the asteriod mission and possibly the moon on Nasa's plate.

NASA's Human Path to Mars

NASA is developing the capabilities needed to send humans to an asteroid by 2025 and Mars in the 2030s - goals outlined in the bipartisan NASA Authorization Act of 2010 and in the U.S. National Space Policy, also issued in 2010.
Our next step is deep space, where NASA will send a robotic mission to capture and redirect an asteroid to orbit the moon. Astronauts aboard the Orion spacecraft will explore the asteroid in the 2020s, returning to Earth with samples. This experience in human spaceflight beyond low-Earth orbit will help NASA test new systems and capabilities, such as Solar Electric Propulsion, which we'll need to send cargo as part of human missions to Mars.
Engineers and scientists around the country are working hard to develop the technologies astronauts will use to one day live and work on Mars, and safely return home from the next giant leap for humanity

I would also say that we are working very hard on this as well,,,

SpaceNut · 2014-05-06 20:06:33

NASA Television to Air Expedition 39 Crew's Return from Space Station

Three crew members currently aboard the International Space Station are scheduled to end more than six months on the orbiting laboratory Tuesday, May 13 (U.S. time), and NASA Television will provide complete coverage of their return to Earth, from farewells to landing.

Excelsior · 2014-05-06 22:42:05

All right Russia, if you try anything, it will be on camera.

SpaceNut · 2015-01-27 21:22:39

With the CST-100 and Dragon V2 going on line for human transport to the station the much relied on seats will be looked at again once more as Nasa will save money by not purchasing them any longer.

The station and partners normally barter for what is needed rather than exchanging cash but that was not the case with the seat requirement to keep the US side of the sation Manned but that is going to change.

NASA expects mixed crews aboard Soyuz, U.S. ferry ships

NASA hopes to begin launching U.S. and partner astronauts to the space station aboard Boeing and SpaceX ferry craft in the 2017 timeframe, but agency managers expect to continue sending crew members up aboard Russian Soyuz spacecraft -- and Russian cosmonauts aloft aboard U.S. vehicles -- as a hedge against problems, like crew illness, that could force some station crew members to make an emergency return to Earth.
Without mixed crews, an illness could force everyone who came up with the sick crew member to depart aboard the vehicle that brought them to the station. If it was a U.S. or partner crew member, everyone who launched with that astronaut aboard a Boeing or SpaceX ferry craft would have to return to Earth, leaving the station in the hands of Russian cosmonauts who launched aboard a Soyuz spacecraft and who are not trained to operate NASA systems.
"If we do not mix the crew members across vehicles then when a rescue vehicle left, either the Russian segment or the U.S. segment would be without any crew that are experts on those systems. In other words, if the incapacitated crew member was a USOS (U.S. Orbital Segment) crew member and we did not mix crews, then the entire USOS crew would be leaving the station."
That would leave the laboratory in the hands of Russian crew members "who are not trained to operate and maintain the USOS," Suffredini said. "So mixing crew members eliminates this threat."
NASA's current contract for Soyuz seats does not cover 2018

SpaceNut · 2015-01-28 20:27:28

NASA’s ISS mission next step toward deep space travel

The crew of Expedition 44 is different in that two of the three members are going to remain on the ISS for a complete year. That is six months longer than the typical U.S. stay on the Station.
During the Program and Overview Briefing Jan. 15 at Houston’s Johnson Space Center, the panel, consisting of ISS Program Manager Michael Suffredini, ISS Expedition Flight Director Emily Nelson, ISS Program Scientist Julie Robinson and Kelly’s Lead Flight Surgeon Steve Gilmore, emphasized that this will be the first mission with one goal of conducting scientific experiments to study the effects of extended time in spaceflight.
“We have data for up to six months,” said Nelson. “We’re very interested in what comes back from the 6 – 12 month period.”
The extended time in space will allow NASA to conduct between 400 – 500 investigations in the year that Kelly and Kornienko are on the ISS. The resulting data will help NASA move forward toward deep space travel and assist other researchers with medical and environmental advances.
“Knowing what to expect in long-term stays in space will help us prepare for, say, a mission to Mars,”

SpaceNut · 2015-01-31 00:38:03

We take for granted the support system of partner provide services to the ISS to keep a crew safe and this is what happens when the balance of those are skewed by any loss of ability...

NASA, Partners Work to Avoid Water Shortage on ISS

Following the loss of a Cygnus freighter when its Antares booster exploded after launch on Oct. 28, NASA officials emphasized the International Space Station (ISS) crew was in good shape on supplies, which could last into March without any other ships visiting the facility.
As if on queue, a Russian Progress freighter blasted off for the station the following morning, which officials said demonstrated the wisdom of redundant supply systems.
All that was true enough. Behind the scenes, however, officials were concerned over one critical item aboard station: water. The suspension of Cygnus flights for at least a year threw a monkey wrench into NASA’s plan to use the cargo ship to resupply the station with H2O.
It also left station astronauts dependent upon the success of a Japanese HTV freight set for launch only weeks before they would ran out of water on Sept. 2.
NASA had planned to certify Cygnus to carry water to the space station in early 2015; there were no plans for certifying SpaceX’s Dragon cargo ship to do the same. Orbital plans to launch its next Cygnus aboard a United Launch Alliance Atlas V rocket, but that flight is not scheduled until Nov. 19.
Meanwhile, ESA has ended flights of its ATV cargo ship, which was certified to carry water. With the ATV program over and Cygnus off-line, the space station was left with two vehicles capable of carrying water, the Russian Progress and Japanese HTV.
HTV flights are now limited to once per year; the next one is planned for August 17, just over two weeks before ISS would run out of water on Sept. 2 unless it was resupplied by other vehicles. The schedule provided very little margin for error, ASAP said.
“The ISS program responded quickly by initiating discussions with SpaceX to have them certify their vehicle for water (targeting SpaceX CRS-6 in April/May 2015), initiating negotiations with the Russians to potentially fly water on one of their Progress vehicles, and making all efforts to return the Sabatier system on the ISS to operational status for water production,” the report stated.
“This response is viewed by the Panel as appropriate, and there is confidence that adequate water supplies will be maintained on the ISS,” ASAP added.

So how long has the Sabatier system been down? Also how long was it operational until failure as this directly effects a mars mission?

SpaceNut · 2015-04-08 17:43:26

As this topic suggests we are caught in a catch 22 of keeping going what we have, trashing it all together and a ta wim changing direction as each change in office happens.

Kicking The Can Down the Road to Mars

A recent NASA presentations at the NASA Advisory Committee's Human Exploration and Operations Committee Meeting was the topic: radiation risks during a human mission to Mars.

Of course as the article details Kieth goes on to say that he has been listening to this discussion at various levels of technical jargon for 30 years with in the "nutshell NASA feels today (as it has for a while) that the radiation risk to humans traveling to/from a mission to the Martian surface is acceptable. There are no show stoppers. No one is likely to die, get hurt, not be able to do their job, help others etc."

kbd512 · 2015-04-09 19:29:09

We're always kicking the can down the road to Mars. It's a favorite pastime of the President, Congress, and NASA.

We may eventually put humans on Mars, but it will probably be in spite of the President, Congress, and NASA, not because of them.

Nobody in charge at NASA is interested in actual space exploration. I can't believe I just said that. It's sad.

We live in a strange new world where corporate execs are more interested in spending their own money to explore other worlds than our own government sponsored agency specifically created for that purpose is.

RobS · 2015-04-09 20:22:05

That "Kicking the Can" article was pretty good. The problem isn't that no one wants to go to Mars. The problem is that everyone wants a piece of the Mars pie, and they have lobbyists, so any Mars plans are big and bloated. They may actually be more dangerous as well, because of their inevitable complexity. People who do radiation research exaggerate the danger. people who want us to go fast using their ultra-expensive, not-yet-ready propulsion systems exaggerate radiation and other dangers. The people who want to go to the moon first insist it's essential. Etc.

SpaceNut · 2021-01-28 20:24:17

Seems the Challenger shuttle topics have been lost in the great crash....

The space shuttle Challenger exploded over Cape Canaveral, Florida, on Jan. 28, 1986. Thursday, Jan. 28 marks the 35 th anniversary of the space shuttle Challenger disaster.

The lose of the shuttle Challenger]

The crew we lost

Why it occurred

Mars_B4_Moon · 2023-02-20 13:42:32

"We're not calling this a rescue Soyuz."

https://www.supercluster.com/editorial/ … scue-soyuz

For the first time in the 22 year history of the ISS, a docked spacecraft has been declared unfit to return its crew. A meteoroid strike damaged the Soyuz MS-22 spacecraft, and 3 temporarily stranded astronauts now wait for the launch of a new ride home.

Mars_B4_Moon · 2023-09-25 10:28:13

NASA reveals new plan to deorbit International Space Station

https://newatlas.com/space/nasa-new-pla … e-station/

New Mars Forums

Announcement

#326 2007-02-12 22:20:53

Re: Nasa Shuttle, ISS Woes & To-Mars

#327 2007-02-18 11:59:30

Re: Nasa Shuttle, ISS Woes & To-Mars

#328 2007-02-20 20:16:33

Re: Nasa Shuttle, ISS Woes & To-Mars

#329 2007-02-20 21:41:37

Re: Nasa Shuttle, ISS Woes & To-Mars

#330 2007-02-20 22:49:08

Re: Nasa Shuttle, ISS Woes & To-Mars

#331 2007-03-15 19:40:53

Re: Nasa Shuttle, ISS Woes & To-Mars

#332 2007-04-10 10:23:58

Re: Nasa Shuttle, ISS Woes & To-Mars

#333 2012-05-14 20:02:03

Re: Nasa Shuttle, ISS Woes & To-Mars

#334 2012-07-25 21:30:08

Re: Nasa Shuttle, ISS Woes & To-Mars

#335 2012-07-26 05:38:14

Re: Nasa Shuttle, ISS Woes & To-Mars

#336 2012-07-26 10:18:02

Re: Nasa Shuttle, ISS Woes & To-Mars

#337 2012-07-27 18:20:15

Re: Nasa Shuttle, ISS Woes & To-Mars

#338 2012-09-16 18:07:18

Re: Nasa Shuttle, ISS Woes & To-Mars

#339 2014-04-22 21:04:37

Re: Nasa Shuttle, ISS Woes & To-Mars

#340 2014-05-06 20:06:33

Re: Nasa Shuttle, ISS Woes & To-Mars

#341 2014-05-06 22:42:05

Re: Nasa Shuttle, ISS Woes & To-Mars

#342 2015-01-27 21:22:39

Re: Nasa Shuttle, ISS Woes & To-Mars

#343 2015-01-28 20:27:28

Re: Nasa Shuttle, ISS Woes & To-Mars

#344 2015-01-31 00:38:03

Re: Nasa Shuttle, ISS Woes & To-Mars

#345 2015-04-08 17:43:26

Re: Nasa Shuttle, ISS Woes & To-Mars

#346 2015-04-09 19:29:09

Re: Nasa Shuttle, ISS Woes & To-Mars

#347 2015-04-09 20:22:05

Re: Nasa Shuttle, ISS Woes & To-Mars

#348 2021-01-28 20:24:17

Re: Nasa Shuttle, ISS Woes & To-Mars

#349 2023-02-20 13:42:32

Re: Nasa Shuttle, ISS Woes & To-Mars

#350 2023-09-25 10:28:13

Re: Nasa Shuttle, ISS Woes & To-Mars

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