MARS...Let's Go!

[Greji]

The Space Agency has the bit between its teeth now
Channelnewsasia: Confidence restored, Japan aims for station on the moon in 2025
Japan's space agency, fresh from its first satellite launch since a 2003 failure, aims to put a manned station on the moon in 2025 and to set up a satellite disaster alert system.

The only problem they will face is how to get there. Only one of five or more rockets they launch get high enough to clear the atmosphere. Maybe an escalator, that will provide employment for the watch your step girls.

[Buraku]

Commander Eileen Collins said astronauts on shuttle Discovery had seen widespread environmental destruction on Earth and warned on Thursday that greater care was needed to protect natural resources.

Widespread environmental damage seen from shuttle



Commander Eileen Collins said astronauts on shuttle Discovery had seen widespread environmental destruction on Earth and warned on Thursday about to protecting natural resources of the planet.

earlier on...

Nasa has decided a further spacewalk to repair a torn thermal blanket on the shuttle Discovery is not necessary.



The US space agency told the seven crew members the shuttle would be safe for re-entry, due on Monday, despite the torn blanket below the cockpit window.

On Wednesday, astronauts removed protruding material from the orbiter's underside which was threatening the heatshield's integrity.

It is the first mission since Columbia overheated and broke up on re-entry.

If Nasa had decided upon a further spacewalk, it would have been the fourth carried out by the Discovery crew.



Her comments came as NASA pondered whether to send astronauts out on an extra spacewalk to repair additional heat-protection damage on the first shuttle mission since the 2003 Columbia disaster.


"Sometimes you can see how there is erosion, and you can see how there is deforestation. It's very widespread in some parts of the world," Collins said in a conversation from space with Japanese officials in Tokyo, including Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi.

"We would like to see, from the astronauts' point of view, people take good care of the Earth and replace the resources that have been used," said Collins, who was standing with Japanese astronaut Soichi Noguchi in front of a Japanese flag and holding a colorful fan.

Collins, flying her fourth shuttle mission, said the view from space made clear that Earth's atmosphere must be protected, too.

"The atmosphere almost looks like an eggshell on an egg, it's so very thin," she said. "We know that we don't have much air, we need to protect what we have."

While Collins and Noguchi chatted, NASA officials were deciding whether a torn insulation blanket protecting part of the shuttle surface could rip off and strike a damaging blow to Discovery when it re-enters the atmosphere.

Meanwhile, controversy has broken out over whether the space agency heeded warnings about possible technical problems to Discovery ahead of its launch.

A leaked internal report from last December warned of deficiencies in the way insulation foam was being applied to parts of the fuel tank to be used by Discovery.



A piece of foam fell off the tank during Discovery's launch, prompting Nasa to ground its entire shuttle fleet.

[Mulboyne]

Can you decide which thread you want to post on? This is virtually identical to your contribution to Gaijin In Space

http://www.fuckedgaijin.com/forums/showthread.php?t=12432

I can see the problem, mind you, since it looks like Gaijin in Space is a split topic. Pick one, anyway.

Space travel is getting easier:

[Buraku]

Hurricane Katrina fucked up NASA

http://www.internetweekly.org/images/laura_bush_tough_love.jpg
http://home.nyc.rr.com/eriador/bush/laura%20abuse.jpg

Shuttle facilities suffer damage

Two NASA facilities in hard-hit Louisiana and Mississippi were spared the brunt of Hurricane Katrina's wrath, but officials hinted that storm-related expenses may yet reach $1.1 billion and conceded that the disarray adds more uncertainty to the next shuttle launch.

[AssKissinger]

http://www.usatoday.com/tech/science/space/2005-09-06-mars-armstrong_x.htm

Neil Armstrong said Tuesday that a manned mission to Mars will not happen for at least 20 years — but the effort might be easier than what it took to send him to the moon in 1969.

"It will be expensive, it will take a lot of energy and a complex spacecraft. But I suspect that even though the various questions are difficult and many, they are not as difficult and many as those we faced when we started the Apollo (space program) in 1961."

[kurohinge1]

I wouldn't hold your breath for Mars as the next manned moon mission is due to take 13-15 years ...

Moon voyage nudges $137bn

September 20, 2005 - 8:19AM

NASA estimated it will cost $US104 billion ($136.64 billion) to return astronauts to the moon by 2018 in a new rocket that combines the space shuttle with the capsule of an earlier NASA era.

... The new space vehicle design uses shuttle-like rocket parts, an Apollo-style capsule and lander capable of carrying four people to the surface. The rockets - there would be two, a small version for people and a bigger one for cargo - would come close in height to the 109-metre Saturn 5 moon rocket. They would be built from shuttle booster rockets, fuel tanks and main engines, as well as moon rocket engines. The so-called crew exploration vehicle perched on top would look very much like an Apollo capsule, albeit larger.

"Think of it as Apollo on steroids," Griffin said.

The crew exploration vehicle would replace the space shuttle, due to be retired in 2010, but not before 2012 and possibly as late as 2014 depending on the money available, Griffin said.

It could carry as many as six astronauts to the international space station.

If all goes well, the first crew would set off for the moon by 2018 - or 2020 at the latest, the president's target year.

Unlike Apollo, the new lunar lander would carry double the number of people to the surface of the moon - four - and allow them to stay up to a week, or twice as long. It also would haul considerably more cargo ...
more

[kurohinge1]

Hope on the event horizon?

Welcome to Mars express: only a three hour trip

AN EXTRAORDINARY "hyperspace" engine that could make interstellar space travel a reality by flying into other dimensions is being investigated by the United States government.

The hypothetical device, which has been outlined in principle but is based on a controversial theory about the fabric of the universe, could potentially allow a spacecraft to travel to Mars in three hours and journey to a star 11 light years away in just 80 days, according to a report in today's New Scientist magazine.

The theoretical engine works by creating an intense magnetic field that, according to ideas first developed by the late scientist Burkhard Heim in the 1950s, would produce a gravitational field and result in thrust for a spacecraft.

Also, if a large enough magnetic field was created, the craft would slip into a different dimension, where the speed of light is faster, allowing incredible speeds to be reached. Switching off the magnetic field would result in the engine reappearing in our current dimension.

The US air force has expressed an interest in the idea and scientists working for the American Department of Energy - which has a device known as the Z Machine that could generate the kind of magnetic fields required to drive the engine - say they may carry out a test if the theory withstands further scrutiny.

Professor Jochem Hauser, one of the scientists who put forward the idea, told The Scotsman that if everything went well a working engine could be tested in about five years.

However, Prof Hauser, a physicist at the Applied Sciences University in Salzgitter, Germany, and a former chief of aerodynamics at the European Space Agency, cautioned it was based on a highly controversial theory that would require a significant change in the current understanding of the laws of physics ... more

[Buraku]

'highly controversial theory that would require a significant change in the current understanding of the laws of physics'

in other words there is little or no practical application with this stuff for years,
and most of it will be only remembered as 'sci-fi' gibberish

[kurohinge1]

... in other words there is little or no practical application with this stuff for years,
and most of it will be only remembered as 'sci-fi' gibberish

That's the spirit!

After all, these scientist types have brought us nothing but trouble since we stopped burning them at the stake.

[Greji]

... in other words there is little or no practical application with this stuff for years,
and most of it will be only remembered as 'sci-fi' gibberish

That's the spirit!

After all, these scientist types have brought us nothing but trouble since we stopped burning them at the stake.

Kuro! What backward country are you from. Burning at the stake polutes the ozone layer. You boil in oil! They make great lye soap!

BTW, Don't worry about Buraku. He's just depressed that China hasn't nuked Japan yet because of the stagnant economy and Yasukuni visits.

[Buraku]

He's just depressed that China hasn't nuked Japan yet because of the stagnant economy and Yasukuni visits.

Nukes, missiles, super-sonic aircraft, ICBMs, subs, Nuclear power....now there's some real applications of science and physics....not this trekkie Otaku gibberish about tachyon/graviton particles and hyper-spaces

[kurohinge1]

... Nukes, missiles, super-sonic aircraft, ICBMs, subs, Nuclear power....now there's some real applications of science and physics....not this trekkie Otaku gibberish about tachyon/graviton particles and hyper-spaces

And thousands of years ago, Buraku's ancestors said:

"Fire, axes, bows, arrows....now there's some real applications of science and physics....not this trekkie Otaku gibberish about missiles, super-sonic aircraft, ICBMs, subs and Nuclear power."

At least some things never change.

[Buraku]

and do you know what,
they were damn right. Paleolithic cave-dwellers at Lascaux neither had the mental capacity, technical skills or industry to ever produce a passenger Boeing, or the brain cells or physical ability to ever make a Soviet submarine...

Cave men with their little brains could only really make grunting noises when they enjoyed their food, do primitive rain dances and painted nice child like pictures of wild deer on cave walls...it was best for those cave dwellers to wait a few thousand years, wait for the Romans, Chinese dynasty or Da Vinci.... or wait until the human race evolved enough to grasp this knowledge on flying machines and others scientific marvels.


Even the guys at NASA and Europe admit all this hyperspace theory of science is waaayyy too far into the future, the best way to get to Mars is to forget building UFO hyperspace wormholes and start using one of those old fashioned Apollo or Soyuz style missions.

[Greji]

Cave men with their little brains could only really make grunting noises when they enjoyed their food, do primitive rain dances and painted nice child like pictures of wild deer on cave walls...

You sure you aren't talking about the guys at NASA?

[kurohinge1]

Now we can see where we're not going.

[BeantownBastard]

How about
[SIZE="7"]MARS ENJOY[/SIZE] or
[SIZE="7"]FOR YOUR MARS LIFE[/SIZE]

[Buraku]

The Space Agency has the bit between its teeth now
Channelnewsasia: Confidence restored, Japan aims for station on the moon in 2025
Japan's space agency, fresh from its first satellite launch since a 2003 failure, aims to put a manned station on the moon in 2025 and to set up a satellite disaster alert system.

Shuttle set to launch with lingering safety issues amid safety questions
http://www.gainesville.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20060701/WIRE/207010313/1117/news

China took foreign reporters on a tour Wednesday of the command center of its secretive space program, a gesture of openness to encourage Washington and other governments to allow Beijing a role in joint manned space projects.
http://www.newsone.ca/hinesbergjournal/stories/index.php?action=fullnews&id=198629

United States President George Bush's plan to send people to Mars in coming decades received a green light on Thursday as the House of Representatives passed a bill funding the annual budgets of Nasa and the departments of commerce, justice and state.
http://www.iol.co.za/index.php?set_id=1&click_id=31&art_id=qw1151616604689B225

[kurohinge1]

[SIZE="3"]Japan aims for Moon base by 2030[/SIZE]

Japan's space agency has set a goal of constructing a crewed lunar base by 2030, an official said on Wednesday.

The Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) revealed its ambition to an international conference in Tokyo this week but has not yet been allotted the budget for the ambitious project.

JAXA hopes to launch a satellite into lunar orbit in 2007, followed by uncrewed spacecraft that will land on the Moon and collect lunar rock samples.

Under the plan, astronauts will be sent to the Moon around 2020 to start construction of the base that will be completed by 2030, the agency said. Japan had earlier given 2025 as the target date for a lunar base.

"The feasibility of the plan is unclear at this point as we need to gain understanding by the government and the Japanese people on our plan, but technologically it would be possible in a few decades," said Satoki Kurokawa, spokesman for JAXA.

"Exploring a frontier is always a mission of science. In addition, space programmes have the potential to create cutting-edge technologies, particularly in the field of robotics," he said . . . more

Previously they said 2025. Now its 2030.

With the loss of their Mars probe, the Earth observation satellite, the delayed Moon probe and the forced destruction of the rocket with spy satellites 10 minutes after lift-off, the only thing that they seem to be successfully putting up at the moment is the date.

]http://iss.sfo.jaxa.jp/astro/pict/p-022-05797s.jpg[/IMG]

[Buraku]

the only thing that they seem to be successfully putting up at the moment is the date.

]http://iss.sfo.jaxa.jp/astro/pict/p-022-05797s.jpg[/IMG]

more on it

Nippon's plan
' ta concrete all over da Moon '

Transform the view of the Moon

into this


Japanese space engineers are embarking on an ambitious plan to have a permanent base on the moon no later than 2030.
http://www.shortnews.com/shownews.cfm?id=56077&CFID=5921492&CFTOKEN=37592717
Ideally, construction would begin in 2020, and finish ten years later.

[Buraku]

China and Russia plan to launch a joint mission to Mars in 2009 to scoop up rocks from the red planet and one of its moons, a Chinese scientist said on Wednesday.
http://www.cnn.com/2006/TECH/space/08/24/china.russia.mars.reut/

Russia will launch the spacecraft, while China will provide the survey equipment to carry out the unmanned exploration, Ye Peijian, a senior scientist at the Chinese Academy of Space Technology, told a meeting in Beijing, according to the official Xinhua news agency.

[Taro Toporific]

[INDENT]Lockheed wins huge Nasa contract
Washington (dpa) - Lockheed Martin Corp won the first major contract Thursday for a new era of US space exploration, kicking off an ambitious effort to return humans to the moon and one day launch them to Mars.
Nasa, the US space agency, chose the US aerospace giant over a rival team of Boeing Co and Northrop Grumman Corp to build the crew capsule for the next generation of spaceships, which will replace the space shuttle fleet slated to be retired in 2010...The design of the Orion capsule is the first step....
....Orion's first flight is due by 2014, but Nasa chief Michael Griffin has said he would like to launch the new spacecraft several years earlier.
With Russia, China and Japan now competing in the space race, Nasa wants to avoid a lengthy gap in launch capability between the shuttle's retirement and Orion's debut. ....more ...[/INDENT]

[SIZE="4"]The atomic spaceship ORION is go! [/SIZE]Watch the video of the real ORION , YouTube

[With the loss of their Mars probe, the Earth observation satellite, the delayed Moon probe and the forced destruction of the rocket with spy satellites 10 minutes after lift-off....

[Buraku]

Lunar Outsourcing

http://accidentalblogger.typepad.com/accidental_blogger/2006/05/lunar_outsourci.html
In the fast developing friendly atmosphere of co-operation between the world's oldest and largest democracies, as the US and India like to call themseves, a new collaborative frontier has opened up. According to an agreement signed between NASA and the Indian Space Agency, the Indian unmanned mission to the moon in 2008 will include carrying US lunar mapping instruments. The mutually beneficial deal will cut cost for the US in trasporting scientific payload to outerspace and the Indian endeavor will gain from the technical and strategic input from NASA.
http://www.internetweekly.org/photo_cartoons/cartoon_bush_nasa.html
"American outsourcing to India is approaching a new frontier: outer space.


From Shuttle to Orion
http://english.ohmynews.com/articleview/article_view.asp?article_class=4&no=315469&rel_no=1
NASA's Constellation Program is set to become a milestone in human space flight

After several delays, the US Space Shuttle Atlantis lifted off from Cape Canaveral in Florida at 11:15 a.m. (1500 GMT) on Saturday with six crew members on board.
http://science.monstersandcritics.com/news/article_1199652.php/Atlantis_space_shuttle_blasts_off_from_Cape_Canaveral
The shuttle is on its way to the International Space Station (ISS) with parts on a mission expected to last 11 days. The shuttle is scheduled to dock at the ISS at noon on Monday GMT

Europe's SMART-1 Crashed
http://www.abovetopsecret.com/forum/thread223776/pg1

China will strengthen cooperation with the international community in the space industry, aiming for the peaceful development of space, a senior Chinese official said here Monday.
http://www.spacewar.com/reports/China_Seeks_Closer_Intl_Co_Op_In_Space_Industry_999.html

China would also seek to expand its share of the international market for satellite launches and other space services, said Jin Zhuanglong, deputy director of the Commission of Science, Technology and Industry for National Defense.

[Buraku]

Ground controllers on Wednesday successfully performed a major maneuver of NASA’s Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter ― an “end game” tactic that puts the orbiting probe a step closer to studying the Red Planet with its entire suite of science sensors.
http://msnbc.msn.com/id/14588454/
For months, the MRO has been aerobraking ― using the friction of the planet’s thin atmosphere to slow the craft. That technique saves on onboard propellant.

will NASA get to stick their flag in Mars before China claims the red planet ?

[Taro Toporific]

[floatl][ [/floatl][
The Space Agency has the bit between its teeth now
Channelnewsasia: Confidence restored, Japan aims for station on the moon in 2025
Japan's space agency...aims to put a manned station on the moon in 2025 and to set up a satellite disaster alert system. .....

[floatl][/floatl]
[SIZE="3"]
Japan recommends scrapping moon mission[/SIZE]
Yahoo! News / Associated Press / 2006 Jan 15, TOKYO ---Japan's space agency has recommended scrapping its first moon mission after more than a decade of delays, a spokeswoman said Monday, in the latest blow to the country's beleaguered space program.
The Lunar-A probe was envisioned as planting two seismic sensors on the lunar surface to gather information about the moon's core and learn more about the origins of the Earth's only natural satellite...more...

[Buraku]

Lisa Nowak, NASA Astronaut, Charged with Attempted Kidnapping
http://mypetjawa.mu.nu/archives/186429.php

[kurohinge1]

Lisa Nowak, NASA Astronaut, Charged with Attempted Kidnapping
http://mypetjawa.mu.nu/archives/186429.php

[SIZE="7"][color="Red"]From this:[/color] [/SIZE] [SIZE="7"]
[color="Red"]to this:[/color][/SIZE]

So, an active astronaut, married with 3 kids, goes bonkers because she thinks another astronaut is seeing a third astronaut who she says she's wasn't romantically involved with . . .

Whatever the real history, it's a fall as spectacular as the descent from the International Space Station back to Earth must've been.

I guess all those vigorous psych. tests amounted to very little in the end.

[Buraku]

Japanese Astronaut To Bring Noodles To ISS
http://www.spacedaily.com/reports/Japanese_Astronaut_To_Bring_Noodles_To_ISS_999.html

[Buraku]

So, an active astronaut, married with 3 kids, goes bonkers because she thinks another astronaut is seeing a third astronaut who she says she's wasn't romantically involved with . . .

Whatever the real history, it's a fall as spectacular as the descent from the International Space Station back to Earth must've been.

I guess all those vigorous psych. tests amounted to very little in the end.

As low as an astronaut can go
http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/editorial/outlook/4561945.html

[Buraku]

some NASA bashing

In space, no one can hear you spend
http://media.wildcat.arizona.edu/media/storage/paper997/news/2007/03/07/Opinions/In.Space.No.One.Can.Hear.You.Spend-2761630.shtml

[Buraku]

First lunar orbiter launches in August
http://search.japantimes.co.jp/cgi-bin/nn20070413a4.html
Kyodo News
Japan's first lunar orbiter will lift off in August aboard a domestically developed H-IIA rocket from the Tanegashima Space Center in Kagoshima Prefecture, the chief of the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency said Thursday.