Tag: Return to the Moon

Categories
Quick Analysis

NASA Returns to the Moon, Part 2

The New York Analysis continues its presentation of NASA’s plans to return to the Moon, and utilize its resources to expand the economy and enhance scientific knowledge.

ROBOTIC MISSIONS

Our return to the Moon begins with robots. For more than a decade, NASA’s Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter has been imaging and mapping the Moon for scientific research and in preparation for a human return. NASA’s new Commercial Lunar Payload Services (CLPS) initiative has already selected the first two robotic missions that, beginning in 2021, will deliver science and commercial payloads to the surface of the Moon. NASA has also committed to using this approach to deliver its next robotic lunar rover, the Volatiles Investigating Polar Exploration Rover (VIPER), which will conduct science investigations of the lunar volatiles at the Moon’s South Pole. The data produced by VIPER will inform future in-situ resource utilization (ISRU) technologies. On the lunar surface we will demonstrate precision landing, starting with CLPS deliveries to build experience and improve capabilities that will enhance all future landings, human and robotic. Later, the CLPS approach will be used to deliver other large cargo elements in direct support of human lunar missions. 

Overall, while orbital missions have provided extensive information about the lunar surface and its potential resources, robotic lunar surface scouts are essential to validate these observations and prepare for human habitation and utilization of the Moon’s rich array of resources from volatiles to minerals. Landers and rovers provide excellent platforms to demonstrate technologies that will enable greater lunar surface mission capabilities and have applications that extend beyond the Moon to Mars initiative, such as terrestrial robotic mining systems and next-generation power storage. Multiple landers will provide a global view of the Moon and its resources. Rovers will be used to explore the surface more extensively, carrying a variety of instruments including ISRU experiments that will generate detailed information on the availability and extraction of usable resources (e.g., oxygen and water). 

These robotic efforts will unleash a broad array of inquiry and scientific investigations. The Moon is a natural laboratory to study planetary processes and evolution, and a platform from which to observe the universe. Bombarded by solar and cosmic radiation for billions of years  and left largely undisturbed, the Moon is a historic archive of our Sun and solar system. Scientific discoveries are locked in its regolith that could lead to improved understanding of our own planet and its evolution. The far side of the Moon offers an unparalled window to look back into the beginning of the universe. It also harbors resources, such as water, that are among the rarest and most precious commodities in space, offering potential sustenance and fuel for future explorers. 

THE EARLY ARTEMIS MISSIONS 

The foundation for our return to the Moon is NASA’s Orion spacecraft and Space Launch System (SLS). The Orion spacecraft has been designed for deep space operations around the Moon for up to four crew members, and the SLS is the powerful heavy-lift rocket designed to launch it, and potentially other high-mass cargo to the lunar environment. Added to these are the two newest elements of the lunar return architecture under contract, the power and propulsion element (PPE) and the habitation and logistics outpost (HALO). Together they form the Gateway’s foundation as the Artemis lunar orbiting platform. Early Gateway operations will be autonomous, with help from NASA’s Mission Control Center at Johnson Space Center in Houston to conduct systems checkouts and capture critical scientific data about the deep space environment. Orion will deliver the first crew to Gateway when the human landing system (HLS) capability can enable lunar expeditions to be staged from the stable Gateway orbit. Building confidence in this system of an orbiting command module and deployable landers will serve as a critical analog for human missions to the surface of Mars. It will also serve as a strategic capability – allowing access and presence in the orbital lanes around the Moon and to the rest of the solar system. 

The Artemis program begins with an uncrewed flight test of the SLS and Orion (Artemis I), then a crewed flight test (Artemis II). Artemis I will see SLS send an uncrewed Orion 280,000 miles from Earth, thousands of miles beyond the Moon over the course of an approximately three- week mission. Mission controllers on Earth will collect data to assess the performance of both spacecraft. This mission will also deploy 13 CubeSats that will conduct new scientific investigations and new technology demonstrations that will engage a broader set of universities and companies in lunar exploration than ever before on a single mission. 

With the first crewed flight test of the SLS and Orion, Artemis II, astronauts will return to the vicinity of the Moon for the first time in more than 50 years. This will be an Apollo 8 moment for a new generation. At the end of this mission, NASA intends to have tested every hardware, software, and operational component of Artemis III except for the actual landing on the surface. 

Artemis III will be the culmination of the rigorous testing and nearly one million miles of flight demonstrations on the deep space transportation systems that NASA will accumulate during Artemis I and II. When Artemis III lands the first woman and next man on the Moon in 2024, 

America will have demonstrated a new level of global space leadership. With this robust lunar exploration capability re-established, NASA and the world will focus on building a sustained presence on the lunar surface in preparation for long-term development on the Moon and the human exploration of Mars. 

The Gateway will establish U.S. leadership and a sustained presence in the region between the Moon and Earth. The platform will offer astronauts easier crew returns, a safe haven in the event of an emergency, the ability to navigate to different orbits around the Moon and later, an advancement in human life support systems. 

Gateway will expand to include critical contributions from international partners, specifically, a robotic arm, substantial additional habitation volume, and refueling capabilities. Canada announced in February 2019 that it intends to participate in the Gateway and contribute advanced external robotics. In October 2019, Japan announced plans to join the United States on the Gateway with contributions to habitation components and logistics resupply. In November 2019, the European Space Agency received authorization and funding to support its planned contributions to the Gateway, the International Habitat (I-Hab), and the European System Providing Refueling Infrastructure and Telecommunications (ESPRIT), both of which will dramatically enhance the capabilities of Gateway, contributing to sustainable operations while paving the way for a future human mission to Mars. Russia has also expressed interest in cooperating on the Gateway via the contribution of an airlock. The Gateway will provide a next- generation deep space platform from which to conduct science investigations outside the protection of the Earth’s Van Allen radiation belts. The international science community has identified heliophysics, radiation, and space weather as high-priority investigations to conduct on the Gateway. The first two Gateway payloads are a radiation instrument package provided by the European Space Agency and a space weather instrument from NASA. The agency also recently awarded the first Gateway Logistics Services (GLS) contract to SpaceX to deliver cargo, experiment and other supplies to the outpost. Echoing the success of the Commercial Resupply Services program, GLS will leverage commercial partners to deliver logistics to the Gateway, supporting lunar operations while building experience and technologies for future logistics missions that can support the first human mission to Mars. 

With these core elements, logistics support, and flights of SLS/Orion underway, and the acquisition of HLS in progress, NASA is opening up other core elements of a sustained lunar presence – including the lunar terrain vehicle (LTV), the lunar mobile habitat or habitable mobility platform, the lunar foundation surface habitat (FSH), power systems, lunar ISRU systems, and expanded Gateway habitation capabilities – with new international and industry partnerships. With this approach, NASA will leverage years of hard work and national investment in the systems needed to return to the Moon, while enabling and using new partners and new capabilities to ensure that our return to the Moon is sustainable and leads directly to the first human mission to Mars. 

ARTEMIS AFTER 2024 

If the quality is poor then the product will enhance the flow of blood in the arteries and veins of penile area that also develops the blood circulation towards the manhood within you and will possess a good impact on your body that downtownsault.org generic viagra line allows the arteries to pass enough blood into the penis. Your erection can for up to 4 hours depending on your needs. side effects of levitra online levitra You will be quite contented after you get the compensation. Where check description now purchase generic levitra is the well known medicine of erectile dysfunction lie in the problem of deficient blood supply being made available to the male organ.

After Artemis III, the overall plan is to conduct operations on and around the Moon that help prepare us for the mission durations and activities that we will experience during the first human mission to Mars, while also emplacing and building the infrastructure, systems, and robotic 

missions that can enable a sustained lunar surface presence. To do this, we will develop Artemis Base Camp at the South Pole of the Moon. 

Artemis Base Camp will be our first sustainable foothold on the lunar frontier. We will initially move to one to two-month stays to learn more about the Moon and the universe. We will develop new technologies that advance our national industries and discover new resources that will help grow our economy. Overall, the base camp will demonstrate America’s continued leadership in space and prepare us to undertake humanity’s first mission to Mars. 

The three primary mission elements of Artemis Base Camp are: The LTV that can transport crew around the site; the habitable mobility platform for long- duration trips away from Artemis Base Camp and the foundation surface habitat will enable short-stays for four crew on the lunar South Pole. Combined with supporting infrastructure added over time such as communications, power, radiation shielding, a landing pad, waste disposal, and storage planning – these elements comprise a sustained capability on the Moon that can be revisited and built upon over the coming decades. 

Mobility is a major part of the Artemis Base Camp. The LTV and the habitable mobility platform will enable long-term exploration and development of the Moon. In addition to its size, the Moon’s geography is complex, and its resources dispersed. Looking at potential sites for Artemis Base Camp, such as near Shackleton Crater, shows the immense scale of the lunar geography. Robust mobility systems will be needed to explore and develop the Moon. The same is true for Mars, making the habitable mobility platform a particularly important element as we will need a similar type of vehicle to explore the Red Planet. 

In addition to establishing Artemis Base Camp, another core element of the sustained lunar presence that feeds forward to Mars will be the expansion of habitation and related support systems at the Gateway. This evolution of the Gateway’s systems to include large-volume deep space habitation would allow our astronauts to test, initially in lunar orbit, how they will live on their voyage to and from Mars. Gateway can also support our first Mars mission analogs on the lunar surface. For such a mission, we currently envision a four-person crew traveling to the Gateway and living aboard the outpost for a multi-month stay to simulate the outbound trip to Mars, followed by two crew travelling down to and exploring the lunar surface with the habitable mobility platform, while the remaining two crew stay aboard. The four crew are then reunited at the Gateway for another multi-month stay, simulating the return trip to Earth, before landing 

back home. These missions will be by far the longest duration human deep space missions in history. They will be the first operational tests of the readiness of our long-duration deep space systems, and of the split crew operations that are vital to our approach for the first human Mars mission. 

There are many factors associated with the sequence of element development, testing, and launch such as capability maturity and availability, budget, launch vehicle availability, and system complexity. For planning purposes, NASA is developing a sequence that accounts for these variables and results in an annual cadence of demonstrable progress and a gradual increase in mission duration and complexity. This plan results in the development and emplacement of the infrastructure required for a long-term sustained lunar surface presence while testing systems and gaining the operational experience required for the human Mars mission. 

The sequence as currently envisioned begins by sending lunar precursor robotic missions including VIPER by CLPS landers to provide ground truth of terrain, as well as water and metal resource availability for the human lunar landing site. To provide mobility and extended range of exploration for the first several human lunar surface missions, the LTV will be delivered to the lunar surface. The first elements of the lunar Gateway are in development and will support later sustainable human lunar landing missions. NASA anticipates its international partners will provide at a minimum the robotic arm, I-Hab, and ESPRIT to supplement the Gateway’s capabilities in lunar orbit. 

The habitable mobility platform will be delivered to the lunar surface to expand our exploration range by tens of kilometers and mission duration on the surface from 7 days to 30-45 days, enabling potential Mars surface analog missions on the lunar surface. Other key pieces of the Artemis Base Camp infrastructure are also delivered, including the foundation surface habitat, which will support a crew up to four on the lunar surface, the lunar surface power systems, ISRU demonstrations and pilot plants. 

An evolved Gateway habitation capability in lunar orbit will allow us to begin the methodical lengthening of mission durations. This approach will also allow NASA to test risk mitigation approaches for long-duration mission crew and element systems risks that are required for two- year Mars class missions. 

Once these pieces of the Moon to Mars campaign are delivered and operational, annual human missions with increasingly long durations will enhance the exploration and sustainable development of the lunar surface. 

The Report Concludes Tomorrow

Illustration: SLS rocket, the primary launch vehicle for the next phase of lunar exploration and exploitation (NASA)

Categories
Quick Analysis

NASA’s Future

NASA has submitted to Congress a plan to revitalize and add direction to America’s manned space program, after years of neglect under the Obama Administration.

The plan notes that “The call from the President and Congress for a National Space Exploration Campaign emerges at a critical point in America’s space program and its relationship to strategic issues facing the nation in space. Challenges and opportunities exist that must be addressed over the next several years. Close to Earth today, American leadership and commercial innovation, centered in part on the U.S.-led International Space Station, is starting to unleash a new economic arena. However, action is necessary to drive new commercial enterprises and provide a regulatory and security environment that enables and protects this emerging economy. Deeper into space, NASA’s shift to focus on the creation of a sustainable presence on and around the Moon with international and commercial partners comes as more countries begin to establish a presence in this region with robotic missions.”

According to the agency, “The National Space Exploration Campaign calls for human and robotic exploration missions to expand the frontiers of human experience and scientific discovery of the natural phenomena of Earth, other worlds and the cosmos.”

The Exploration Campaign has several strategic goals:

NASA will transition U.S. human spaceflight activities in low-Earth orbit to commercial operations that support NASA and the needs of an emerging private sector market. NASA intends to transition from the current model of human space activities in low-Earth orbit to a model where the government is only one customer for commercial services.  NASA will shape the plan for the transition of low-Earth orbit activities from direct government funding to commercial services and partnerships, with new, independent commercial platforms or a non-NASA operating model for some form or elements of the International Space Station by 2025. In addition, NASA will expand public-private partnerships to develop and demonstrate technologies and capabilities to enable new commercial space products and services.

Primarily grown in North America and other cooler regions of Eastern Asia, this herb viagra buy india http://respitecaresa.org/?plugin=all-in-one-event-calendar&controller=ai1ec_exporter_controller&action=export_events&xml=true is considered to be an adaptogenic herb that assist your body in adapting to stress. Sometimes, they will prescribe an anti-depressant or sildenafil soft and cialis. pfizer viagra 100mg In other words, they should be used under the medical supervision. Sometimes, it is also termed as viagra cialis levitra impotence when a man cannot ejaculate. NASA is building a plan for Americans to orbit the Moon starting in 2023, and land astronauts on the surface no later than the late 2020s. Lead the emplacement of capabilities that support lunar surface operations and facilitate missions beyond cislunar space. The Moon is a fundamental part of Earth’s past and future – an off-world continent that may hold valuable resources to support space activity and scientific treasures that may tell us more about our own planet. Although Americans first walked on its surface almost 50 years ago, our explorers left footprints at only six sites, during a total of 16 days on the surface. The next wave of lunar exploration will be fundamentally different.

NASA will demonstrate the capabilities required for human missions to Mars and other destinations. NASA will Foster scientific discovery and characterization of lunar resources through a series of robotic missions. the Exploration Campaign focuses on a transformative approach that includes the development of technologies and systems that enable a series of human and robotic lunar missions that are extensible to Mars. Key components of the Exploration Campaign already are underway and include long-duration human spaceflight on the space station, development of advanced life support systems, and continuing to lead and advance the world in deep space science missions.

NASA’s InSight mission now is on its way to Mars and will land in November to study the interior of the Red Planet. Development of NASA’s next rover to Mars continues to make excellent progress and is scheduled to launch in July 2020.

The Mars 2020 rover will aid in the search for past life and demonstrate the production of fuel and other resources that enable human exploration. The mission will also be used as a building block for a subsequent roundtrip robotic mission with the historic first rocket launch off another planet and a sample return. According to NASA, “That mission will serve as a critical precursor to an eventual series of crewed missions to Mars planned to start in the 2030’s and culminating in a surface landing, which will be supported by the work we’ll do on the Moon in the coming years.”

Illustration: NASA

Categories
Quick Analysis

NASA’s Next Big Project

The United States is on the verge of a renaissance in space, with ambitious goals to have astronauts develop a lunar base and explore Mars, as well as accomplishing new science goals using robotic spacecraft. Vice President Pence, who leads the National Space Council recently stated that “… we’re on the cusp of a new golden age of exploration.”

The first step will be developing a presence in “cislunar space” (the area between Earth and the Moon) within the coming decade. The space agency is planning to place a manned station near the moon, and use it to both develop a permanent presence on the lunar surface and use that, in turn, to facilitate a Mars mission.

According to the space agency, it is currently studying the orbital outpost concept in the vicinity of the Moon with U.S. industry and the International Space Station partners. NASA describes the value of the project: “Cislunar space offers affordable near-term opportunities to help pave the way for future global human exploration of deep space, acting as a bridge between present missions and future deep space missions. While missions in cis-lunar space have value unto themselves, they can also play an important role in enabling and reducing risk for future human missions to the Moon, Near-Earth Asteroids, Mars, and other deep space destinations.”

The platform will consist of a power and propulsion element and habitation, logistics and airlock capabilities. NASA plans to launch elements of the gateway on the agency’s Space Launch System or commercial rockets for assembly in space.

According to William Gerstenmaier, associate administrator of the space agency’s Human Exploration division, “The Lunar Orbital Platform-Gateway will give us a strategic presence in cislunar space. It will drive our activity with commercial and international partners and help us explore the Moon and its resources. We will ultimately translate that experience toward human missions to Mars.”
This medicine increases circulation of blood in the cheapest viagra price penis, thus resulting in better rigidity. The acai berry is recognized as one of the best foods to increase https://pdxcommercial.com/property/16027-se-mcloughlin-blvd-milwaukie-97267/ viagra cheap online male libido? You can drink a glass of pomegranate juice to boost virility. Another surprising report about Sildenafil was that it also cialis australia helped in preventing the onset of diabetes. Not only can this wide availability of medicine lead people viagra soft tablet pdxcommercial.com along with other such medication from outlets that are far more interested in profit than offering suitable solutions, it can also simply see people receiving inferior products that could be ineffectual or even harmful.
The power and propulsion element will be the initial component of the gateway, and is targeted to launch in 2022. Using advanced high-power solar electric propulsion, the element will maintain the gateway’s position and can move the gateway between lunar orbits over its lifetime to maximize science and exploration operations. As part of the agency’s public-private partnership work under Next Space Technologies for Exploration Partnerships, or NextSTEP, five companies are completing four-month studies on affordable ways to develop the power and propulsion element. NASA will leverage capabilities and plans of commercial satellite companies to build the next generation of all electric spacecraft.

Habitation capabilities are scheduled for a 2024 launch. Astronauts onboard will participate in a variety of deep space exploration and commercial activities in the vicinity of the Moon, including possible missions to the lunar surface. NASA also wants to leverage the gateway for scientific investigations near and on the Moon.

A Popular Mechanics review of NASA’s plans noted that “This future science station, which will effectively replace the International Space Station when it reaches retirement age in the 2020s, will be a fraction of the size but carry astronauts hundreds of thousands of miles farther into space. In fact, it might travel farther away from our planet than any other human-piloted spacecraft, including the Apollo missions. But the most exciting idea behind this new station, destined to make its home orbiting near the moon (aka a cis-lunar orbit), is it will provide a new foothold for future human missions to Earth’s closest celestial neighbors, like asteroids, the moon itself, and Mars. Because the station is in an egg-shaped orbit, stretching anywhere from 1,500 km to 70,000 km (930 to 44,000 miles) from the Moon, it would need only a little push to be sent flying to a yet-to-be-chosen destination.”

Illustration: NASA

Categories
Quick Analysis

Returning to The Moon

While the Obama Administration was redirecting NASA’s space efforts away from human spaceflight, China, Russia and others were moving ahead with ambitious plans, including   a manned landing on the moon. Other nations and private interests have followed suit.

Only America has actually landed humans on the Moon so far.

Reports from across the globe describe Beijing’s ambitious lunar exploration plans. In June, reports the Telegraph, Yang Liwei, deputy director general of China Manned Space Agency, announced China “is making preliminary preparations for a manned lunar mission.”

China belongs to the exclusive club, consisting only of the U.S., Russia, and itself that has placed its citizens in space aboard its own rockets.

China’s unmanned 2013 Chang’e3 mission, seen as preparation for an eventual manned landing, placed a lunar rover, called Yutu, onto the moon’s surface. It had multiple cameras, as well as an ultraviolet telescope. The six-wheeled vehicle, powered by solar cells, was lowered onto the moon’s surface from a ramp following the spacecraft’s successful soft landing.

The Planetary Society reports that this year, “China will launch one of its most complex and exciting missions so far, when its Chang’s-5 spacecraft attempts to land on and collect samples from the Moon and then deliver them to Earth…the mission will be an engineering feat and result in some significant science, but it also has some interesting subplots…the fact that the Chang’e-5 will be carrying out a difficult lunar orbit rendezvous rather than a simpler direct return is an indication that the mission is also a small step towards putting [its] astronauts on the Moon.”

Following that success, the China National Space Administration (CNSA), reports Popular Mechanics, “is developing a new crewed spacecraft capable of …landing taikonauts  [Chin’a term for astronauts] on the moon, according to the Associated Press. The state-run newspaper Science and Technology Daily cited CNSA engineer Zhang Bainian as saying the new spacecraft would accommodate multiple taikonauts and be similar in design to the Orion spacecraft currently under development by NASA and ESA.  China also has some of the most extensive and ambitious unmanned plans to explore the moon in the near future. A sample return mission is planned for this year. CNSA is developing a rover to explore the far side of the moon next year (which would make China the first country land on the far side of the moon), and ultimately land Taikonauts …”

Men that suffer from erectile dysfunction know that there are two kinds of medicines available cheap viagra in the sachets with the strength of 25, 50, and 100 milligrams. The issues of various home appliances are of different types that include viagra 100mg tablet dryer, washing machine, mixer, refrigerator, room heater, air conditioner, etc. The World’s Strongest Antioxidant is also getting increasingly popular as a Natural levitra 20 mg Aphrodisiac. Today’s web browsers can inform you whether or cialis online http://mouthsofthesouth.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/02/MOTS-03.18.17-Rosewood-.pdf not a web page is secure, which means that any information that you enter cannot be intercepted, so it is a good idea to use it wisely and get the highest return for your investment. The Popular Mechanics review noted that the Chinese space agency is also developing plans to construct a manned base on the moon, according to Zhang Yuhua, deputy general director and deputy general designer of the Chang’e-3 probe system. “Right now China is actively at work on the critical technology required to conduct a manned landing on the Moon’…’In addition to manned lunar landing technology, we are also working on the construction of a lunar base, which will be used for new energy development and living space expansion,’ said Zhang at a speech at the Shanghai Science Communication Forum.”

Those plans were confirmed by a Spacedaily  article. That report noted that “According to Wu Yansheng, general manager of China Aerospace Science and Technology Corporation (CASC), China is working on an idea for manned lunar landing. The mission will consist of a manned spaceship, a propulsion vehicle and a lunar lander. The manned spaceship and the lunar lander will be sent into circumlunar orbit separately. Yang Liwei, deputy director of the China Manned Space Engineering Office, said that China is in the preliminary stage of its manned lunar program.”

Russia, too, has commenced planning to put its citizens on the lunar surface.

Endgadget reports that “Russia’s Space Agency (Roscosmos) has begun planning for its first manned lunar landing, starting with a recruitment drive for potential cosmonauts. The agency is looking for six to eight trainees with a background in engineering or aviation, or those who already have experience working in the space industry. All interested candidates will go through several stages of psychological, physical and medical tests during the selection process. The chosen eight will have to undergo some intense training until four remain. Those who get the job will pilot Russia’s next-gen reusable manned spacecraft Federatsiya.”

NASA’s emphasis on human spaceflight had been downgraded by the Obama Administration, and is only now returning to a major emphasis on its human spaceflight roots.  A number of private concerns took up the slack imposed by the prior White House. The initial stages, from companies around the world, involve unmanned landings.

National Geographic  describes the private enterrise competition. “Nearly 50 years after the culmination of the first major race to the moon, in which the United States and the Soviet Union spent fantastic amounts of public money in a bid to land the first humans on the lunar surface, an intriguing new race to our nearest neighbor in space is unfolding—this one largely involving private capital and dramatically lower costs. The most immediate reward, the $20 million Google Lunar XPrize (or GLXP) will be awarded to one of five finalist teams from around the world. They’re the first ever privately funded teams to attempt landing a traveling vehicle on the moon that can transmit high-quality imagery back to Earth… Can someone actually make money venturing out into the great beyond? To a demonstrably wide range of entrepreneurs, scientists, visionaries, evangelists, dreamers, eccentrics, and possible crackpots involved in the burgeoning space industry, the answer is an enthusiastic yes.”

Moon Express  seeks to move rapidly ahead. Its’ Lunar Scout expedition is scheduled for this year. Company officials, seeking the LunarXPrize, believe it will be the first commercial voyage to the Moon, and note that “This historic expedition will demonstrate the cost effectiveness of entrepreneurial approaches to space exploration, carrying a diverse manifest of payloads.”

Categories
Quick Analysis

NASA’s Course Set to Change, Part 3

The New York Analysis of Policy and Government concludes its three part review of NASA’s future under the Trump Administration.

A Scribd-published study of a NexGen Space LLC study,  partly funded by a grant from NASA found that:

“…a human return to the Moon may not be as expensive as previously thought…America could lead a return of humans to the surface of the Moon within a period of 5-7 years … at an estimated total cost of about $10 Billion (+/- 30%) …America could lead the development of a permanent industrial base on the Moon of 4 private-sector astronauts in about 10-12 years after setting foot on the Moon that could provide 200 MT of propellant per year in lunar orbit for NASA for a total cost of about $40 Billion (+/- 30%)…Assuming NASA receives a flat budget, these results could potentially be achieved within NASA’s existing deep space human spaceflight budget…A commercial lunar base providing propellant in lunar orbit might substantially reduce the cost and risk NASA of sending humans to Mars. The ELA would reduce the number of required Space Launch System (SLS) launches from asmany as 12 to a total of only 3, thereby reducing SLS operational risks, and increasing its affordability…A permanent commercial lunar base might substantially pay for its operations by exporting propellant to lunar orbit for sale to NASA and others to send humans to Mars, thus enabling the economic development of the Moon at a small marginal cost…”

The widespread fascination with travel to Mars was given verbal support by Obama, but the premature ending of both the space shuttle program and the cancellation of its intended manned successor, the Constellation program, were not conducive to accomplishing advances in human spaceflight technology.

Although NASA wants to send Astronauts to Mars several decades in the future, the actual preliminary work to do so has been lax.

In an interview with Space.com, the Director of space policy at the Planetary Society noted that Trump “is inheriting a space program that has this nascent ambition to go to Mars but doesn’t have hardware actually flying yet.”
This medicine you may book through the online pharmacies. brand viagra canada Now that we have more adequate knowledge, it’s a high time to adopt better habits viagra prices in usa and thoughts. This has always proved to be the best and most effective when generic levitra no prescription dealing with erectile dysfunction. Enable men to enjoy firmer, bigger and longer lasting women viagra australia erection .
Given the slow pace of development of human-rated spacecraft development NASA, including the rockets to take them off Earth, a reflection of its de-emphasis during the Obama Administration, the new Administration may turn to the private sector for the necessary hardware.

Bruce Dorminey, writing in Forbes, quotes former Pennsylvania  Congressman and Trump adviser Bob Walker: “The specifics of [Trump-era] missions will be determined within the overall goal of human exploration of the solar system, but clearly, the long–term, overall goal of Trump space policy anticipates human exploration far beyond low-Earth orbit and even beyond Mars…  President-elect Trump made space policy a major part of his final campaign message and Vice President-elect Pence has been very enthusiastic about the role he would assume as head of the new National Space Council…The council would help keep space issues front and center during the Trump Administration.”

Walker, as quoted by Dorminey,  believes Trump’s space goals include:

“Setting the goal and beginning technological implementation of human exploration of our solar system by the end of this century; Re-direction of NASA budgets toward deep space science; Creation of an aggressive program for development of hypersonic technology; [and] Begin negotiations to assure the viability of the International Space Station (ISS) beyond 2028.”

The method in which space policy is set under the Trump Administration may differ significantly than that of his predecessor.  The new White House may reconstitute the National Space Council, which would be led by Vice President Michael Pence. According to Neel Patel, writing in Inverse  “Jim Muncy, a space lobbyist who leads the consultancy PoliSpace, says he’s spoken with Pence and that the now Vice President-elect is “really looking forward to the space council.”

Categories
Quick Analysis

NASA’s Course Set to Change, Part 2

The New York Analysis of Policy and Government continues its review of NASA’s role in the Trump Administration.

One mission apparently advocated by the Trump Administration is a relatively quick return to the Moon. According to the Wall Street Journal the Trump White House will seek to expand public-private partnerships for NASA, including, according to White House documents, “a rapid and affordable” return to the lunar surface.

A 2008 NASA report, developed before President Obama entered the White House and changed the agency’s focus to climate change, explained the importance of a return to the moon:

“President Bush’s 2004 proposal to return to the Moon, this time ‘to stay’ with a lunar outpost, has stimulated vigorous debate… Neil Armstrong and his colleagues demonstrated that humans on the spot provide instant interpretation of their environment, guided by color, 3D, high resolution human vision that is only now being approached by robotic systems. Even encumbered by space suits, they could instantly recognize and collect invaluable samples such as the ‘Genesis Rock’ of Apollo 15, an anorthosite that has proven essential to understanding the geologic history of the Moon. When the Apollo 17 rover lost a fender – which might have terminated a robotic rover’s mission – astronauts Cernan and Schmitt managed a field repair and kept driving. All the Apollo astronauts emplaced complex geophysical instrument stations, most operating for years until budget cuts forced them to be turned off…what could such an outpost accomplish? First, it could continue the exploration of the Moon, whose surface area is roughly that of North and South America combined. Six ‘landings’ in North America would have given us only a superficial knowledge of this continent, and essentially none about its natural resources such as minerals, oil, water power, and soil. The Moon is a whole planet, so to speak, whose value is only beginning to be appreciated.

“The Moon is not only an interesting object of study, but a valuable base for study of the entire Universe, by providing a site for astronomy at all wavelengths from gamma rays to extremely long radio waves. This statement would have been unquestioned 30 years ago. But the succeeding decades of spectacular discoveries by space-based instruments, such as the Hubble Space Telescope, have led many astronomers such as Nobel Laureate John Mather to argue that the Moon can be by-passed, and that instruments in deep space at relatively stable places called Lagrangian points are more effective…

It also tastes good like http://greyandgrey.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/07/PEF-January-2009.pdf purchase generic levitra other soft ED drugs. Utilizing free viagra without prescription permitted a huge number of ED products on this site such as viagra, viagra no prescription just to name a few, to treat their erection problem. Valerian plants roots along with rhizomes have natural sildenafil pfizer compounds that give valerian its therapeutic premises. Sex and High Blood Pressure High blood pressure condition can degrade our life qualities up to great extent sildenafil india therefore this should be treated effectively using modern medicines. “The Moon may offer mineral resources… of great value on Earth. Apollo 17 astronaut Harrison Schmitt, working with the Fusion Technology Institute of the University of Wisconsin, has shown that helium 3, an isotope extremely rare on Earth, exists in quantity in the lunar soil, implanted by the solar wind. If – a very big if – thermonuclear fusion for energy is produced on Earth, helium 3 would be extremely valuable for fusion reactors because it does not make the reactor radioactive. A more practicable use of helium 3, being tested at the University of Wisconsin, is the production of short-lived medical isotopes. Such isotopes must now be manufactured in cyclotrons and quickly delivered before they decay. But Dr. Schmitt suggests that small helium 3 reactors could produce such isotopes at the hospital. In any event, research on the use of helium 3 would clearly benefit if large quantities could be exported to the Earth.

“Returning to the most important reason for a new lunar program, dispersal of the human species, the most promising site for such dispersal is obviously Mars, now known to have an atmosphere and water. Mars itself is obviously a fascinating object for exploration. But it may even now be marginally habitable for astronaut visits, and in the very long view, might be “terraformed,” or engineered to have a more Earth-like atmosphere and climate. This was described in Kim Stanley Robinson’s trilogy, Red Mars and its successors Green and Blue Mars. A second Earth, so to speak, would greatly improve our chances of surviving cosmic catastrophes.

“Where does the Moon fit into this possibility? First, it would continue to give us experience with short interplanetary trips, which is what the Apollo missions were. These would demonstrably be relatively short and safe compared to Mars voyages, but would provide invaluable test flights, so to speak. More important, shelters, vehicles, and other equipment built for the Moon could be over-designed, and with modification could be used on Mars after being demonstrated at a lunar outpost…

“… put the arguments for a return to the Moon, and a lunar outpost, in the most general terms: the Moon is essentially a whole planet, one that has so far been barely touched. But this new planet is only a few days travel away and we have already camped on it. To turn our backs on the Moon would be equivalent to European exploration stopping after Columbus’s few landings, or China’s destruction of its giant ships to concentrate on domestic problems in the 15th century.”

The Report concludes tomorrow.