NASA is currently evaluating a human mission to an asteroid. Experts at several NASA centers are sketching out a prospective piloted stopover at an asteroid — a trek that could return samples from a targeted space rock as well as honing astronaut proficiency and test needed equipment for other space destinations. Read more
When the 124th space shuttle external tank shipped from NASA’s Michoud Assembly Facility in New Orleans, La., this week, it marked another milestone in the facility’s history – beginning with the nation’s first trip to the moon and continuing as NASA further explores the moon, Mars and other destinations in our solar system. Read more
It was vintage Stephen Hawking. The world’s most famous astrophysicist, receiving the Royal Society’s Copley Medal, Britain’s highest scientific award, used the opportunity to warn that “the long-term survival of the human race is at risk so long as it is confined to a single planet”. So we must go, as Buzz Light-Year would put it, “to the stars — and beyond!”
Hawking first became famous for his triumphant career in science despite being almost totally paralyzed by motor neurone disease: the Royal Society’s president, Lord Rees, said he had contributed “as much as anyone since Einstein to our understanding of gravity”. His best-selling book A Brief History of Time made him wealthy beyond the dreams of the average Cambridge professor of mathematics. At the age of 64, however, his main concern is the future he will not see.
“Sooner or later, disasters such as an asteroid collision or nuclear war could wipe us all out”, Hawking said after the ceremony. “But once we spread out into space and establish independent colonies, our future should be safe. There isn’t anywhere like the Earth in the solar system, so we would have to go to another star”. Read more.
From New Scientist comes this review of human spaceflight during 2006. Read the article.
From The Space Review:
This present generation is one which as grown up watching science fiction films. Among the great films one must include Stanley’ Kubrick’s 2001: A Space Odyssey and George Lucas’ Star Wars. Both films amply displayed why these films were science fiction. Depicted were impossibly large space stations, mind-boggling Moon bases, and interplanetary or intergalactic spaceships of inconceivable size and power. In the world of science fiction there are no limits, and the funds needed to build such colossal structures and spacecraft are apparently unlimited as well. Read more
Three aerospace companies opened a program office Tuesday to compete for work on NASA’s Ares I crew rocket.
ATK Launch Systems, Lockheed Martin Inc. and Pratt & Whitney Rocketdyne have formed Team Ares and said they will bid to develop the upper stage of the Ares I rocket.
The office is headed by former space shuttle astronaut Jim Halsell, who retired from NASA in November to take over as ATK’s vice president and program manager for Ares upper-stage work. Read more
House Science Committee Chairman Sherwood Boehlert (R-NY) on Friday sent the following letter to the Honorable Rob Portman, Director of the Office of Management and Budget (OMB). In his letter, Boehlert urged additional science funding, specifically highlighting the importance of fully funding the President’s American Competitiveness Initiative (ACI). Read more
A LITTLE Barrow in Furness firm from the Northeast of England has won a £1.8m contract from the NASA space agency to help it design a manned spacecraft to conquer Mars. It is the latest space success for Structured Software Systems Ltd (3SL), which is located in humble offices above Barrow’s indoor market. Read more
Details have emerged of Orion crew exploration vehicle design reconciliation decisions between NASA and prime contractor Lockheed Martin. The number of parachutes, retro-rocket location, heatshield structure and use of crushable zones have all been agreed between the US space agency and Lockheed, three months after the contractor was selected to develop the vehicle. Read more
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