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Yup.Originally Posted by Roger E. Moore
The Space Exploration policy of this admin seems to be no policy, or rather an ever changing array of policies. But none will happen without a committed, reliable budget.
Getting a reliable budget for anything seems to be a difficulty even beyond the norm nowadays.
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When is the manned mission to Pluto, which as you know, is part of Mars?
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Don't be silly. Pluto is a dog, and Mars a candy bar. Dogs and candy bars are completely different.
As above, so below
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I keep finding myself surprised at Blue Origin getting NASA contracts, considering the President's opinion of the guy who owns it.
Cum catapultae proscriptae erunt tum soli proscript catapultas habebunt.
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Maybe he hasn’t made the connection.
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Guess this goes here. Major work underway, but still no one dares speak The Price That Must Be Named.
https://phys.org/news/2019-06-nasa-i...moonshots.html
Do good work. —Virgil Ivan "Gus" Grissom
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"Reality check" on Orion and Artemis.
https://arstechnica.com/science/2019...nding-program/
Do good work. —Virgil Ivan "Gus" Grissom
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They've been hating on SLS over there.
Something they don't like to report.
A Peacekeeper/Orion (modern day Little Joe) tested the Orion abort profile--and it passed.
And Starship' abort motor is....?
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Where are the passenger parachutes in a 747? SLS/Orion is a "small" capsule launcher, while Starship is an interplanetary vehicle with a 100 pax capacity. You can't expect similar safety solutions applying to both. Its safety features are akin to similar aircraft: it's mostly about redundancy and reliability. It is not realistic to have an escape tower on a crew compartment of that size. Sure it would be nice if it could, but it can't so the risk is minimized in other ways. By the way, you could say that Starship is the launch abort system of the entire earth launch stack as it can separate from the booster if something would go wrong with it.
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It looks like the Trump administration and the House Science Committee are going in two different directions.
https://spacenews.com/house-introduc...ars-over-moon/
The leadership of the House Science Committee introduced a NASA authorization bill Jan. 24 that seeks to significantly alter NASA’s current plans to return humans to the moon and make them part of an effort to send humans to Mars.
The bill, designated H.R. 5666 and introduced by Rep. Kendra Horn (D-Okla.), chair of the committee’s space subcommittee, seeks to put a human return to the moon within the context of a larger “Moon to Mars” program that would no longer have the goal of returning humans to the surface of the moon by 2024, as Vice President Pence announced in March 2019.
“The Moon to Mars program shall have the interim goal of sending a crewed mission to the lunar surface by 2028 and a goal of sending a crewed mission to orbit Mars by 2033,” the bill states.
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The Planetary Society on the house proposals.
https://www.planetary.org/blogs/case...rnerstone.html
The U.S. House of Representatives just released its draft of the NASA Authorization Act of 2020, which would re-organize NASA's human spaceflight program, narrow and delay lunar exploration goals, and prioritize the effort to send humans to Mars by the early 2030s. The legislation stands in contrast to the Trump Administration's current policy of returning astronauts to the lunar surface by 2024 and establishing a broad, sustained lunar presence thereafter.
The bill, H.R. 5666, was introduced late Friday night by the Democratic and Republican leaders of the House's space and science committees. The bipartisan legislation spans over 100 pages and touches on nearly every aspect of the U.S. civil space program. In this analysis, I will focus solely on its directives for human exploration.
HR 5666 presents a dramatically different vision from the White House's current human spaceflight plans, and also stands at odds with its counterpart Senate bill introduced last year. And unlike annual funding bills, legislation of this type is not required to keep NASA open and working. For these reasons, it is unlikely to become law as-is.
But it is significant, nonetheless. And the key to its significance—and to correctly understanding its intentions—is how it considers the role of Mars in defining human spaceflight goals. HR 5666 takes the position that Mars is a near-term (< 20 years) goal and attempts to craft a serious policy framework in support of that effort. By implication, it considers the current lunar return program, Artemis, as primarily a lunar-focused effort that will direct resources away from the Mars goal, and attempts to limit its ambitions accordingly.
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Most recent funding for NASA has drawbacks.
https://www.space.com/nasa-2021-budg...opes-stem.html
Do good work. —Virgil Ivan "Gus" Grissom
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"NASA's 2024 moonshot may not work"
https://www.axios.com/nasa-2024-moon...049de5fa6.html
The coronavirus and agency shakeups are making NASA's goal of landing people back on the Moon in 2024 seem less likely.
Why it matters: The Trump administration has hung its hat on the Artemis Moon program as its defining space policy, with the goal of accomplishing the first crewed landing before the end of President Trump's second term — if he is re-elected.
"I think basically, making 2024 would be a miracle," John Logsdon, the founder of the Space Policy Institute at George Washington University, told Axios.
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"Trump unveils new national space policy for US leadership off the Earth"
https://www.space.com/trump-unveils-...-us-leadership
President Donald Trump released a new national space policy Wednesday (Dec. 9), laying out the fundamental principles of, and chief priorities for, the United States' diverse space activities going forward.
The document, which you can read here, has four main top-level goals, White House officials said: expanding the American commercial space sector, increasing international cooperation, continuing ambitious science and exploration activities, and bolstering national security and the United States' leadership position in space.
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You do realize this is a piece of pure political theatre right? It has no practical meaning other than Trump pretending he will be in the White House after 20th January.
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Yeah, but with him it’s all about attention and he knows if he makes the right noises he can still get space nerds gushing over him and ignoring that he looked right at a solar eclipse and said the moon was part of Mars.
The greatest journey of all time, for all to see
Every mission makes our dreams reality
And our destiny begins with you and me
Through all space and time, the achievement of mankind
As we sail the sea of discovery, on heroes’ wings we fly!
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Okay, and that is enough about Trump and whether he wants attention or not.
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I would just say, read the article, especially the last paragraph.
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The White House released a new space policy directive Dec. 16 intended to serve as a strategic roadmap for the development of space nuclear power and propulsion technologies. Space Policy Directive (SPD) 6, titled “National Strategy for Space Nuclear Power and Propulsion,” discusses responsibilities and areas of cooperation among federal government agencies in the development of capabilities ranging from surface nuclear power systems to nuclear thermal propulsion, collectively known as space nuclear power and propulsion (SNPP).
SPD-6 sets out three principles for the development of space nuclear systems: safety, security and sustainability. It also describes roles and responsibilities for various agencies involved with development, use or oversight of such systems. Much of the document, though, is a roadmap for the development of nuclear power and propulsion systems. It sets a goal of, by the mid-2020s, developing uranium fuel processing capabilities needed for surface power and in-space propulsion systems. By the mid to late 2020s, NASA would complete the development and testing of a surface nuclear power system for lunar missions that can be scalable for later missions to Mars.
https://spacenews.com/white-house-re...ower-strategy/
Do good work. —Virgil Ivan "Gus" Grissom
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NASA, UN Sign Memorandum of Understanding on Peaceful Uses of Space
https://www.nasa.gov/press-release/n...-uses-of-space
Do good work. —Virgil Ivan "Gus" Grissom
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The House of Representatives passed legislation Dec. 16 to protect Apollo-era artifacts on the moon and to rename another NASA facility after the first man to walk on the moon. The House passed on a voice vote S. 1964, the “One Small Step to Protect Human Heritage in Space Act.” The bill was introduced last year in the Senate by Sens. Gary Peters (D-Mich.) and Ted Cruz (R-Texas), where it passed it by unanimous consent around the time of the 50th anniversary of the Apollo 11 mission in July 2019.
https://spacenews.com/house-passes-two-space-bills-2/
Do good work. —Virgil Ivan "Gus" Grissom
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The last hurrah of the Trump space policy.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4095/1
On December 9, the National Space Council met for the eighth and last time in the Trump Administration at the Kennedy Space Center. The event, held in the Apollo/Saturn V Center there, with that rocket above attendees’ heads, was something of a season finale for the council. Cabinet secretaries and other officials spent about an hour recounting the work they had done in space policy in the last four years, from the establishment of the Space Force to commercial space regulatory reforms.
“Allow me to express my appreciation to all of the members of the space council and to reflect, for just a few moments before we get started, on how much has changed over the last four years,” Vice President Mike Pence said in his opening remarks. “One thing is clear: in four short years, America is leading in space once again. It’s true.”
Some might take issue with that claim, not because they don’t think America is leading in space but that America was already leading four years ago. Many of the achievements of the last four years had their roots in earlier administrations, like the commercial crew program that restored human orbital spaceflight capabilities to the US.
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"No bomb-grade uranium in space, says White House"
No bomb-grade uranium in space, says White House
A month before it turns over the White House, the Trump administration has issued a new policy on space nuclear reactors that all but prohibits the use of highly enriched uranium (HEU) fuel. NASA, which had previously planned to use an HEU-fueled reactor to provide power on the lunar and Martian surfaces, now promises to use only low-enriched uranium (LEU).
In a space policy directive issued on 16 December, President Trump spelled out a “national strategy for space nuclear power and propulsion (SNPP)” that applies to both radioisotope power systems and fission reactors being developed to provide surface power and to propel spacecraft and rovers. The directive states that the use of HEU in SNPP systems “should be limited to applications for which the mission would not be viable with other nuclear fuels or non nuclear power sources.” HEU-fueled space systems must be approved by a gauntlet of White House entities, including the Office of Management and Budget, the Office of Science and Technology Policy, and the National Security Council. Other relevant agencies also could be invited to participate in the review, the directive stated.
NASA’s current radioisotope systems generate electricity from heat produced by the radioactive decay of plutonium-238. Although highly toxic, that isotope does not present proliferation risks.
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The White House Releases National Strategy for Planetary Protection. The National Strategy for Planetary Protection reflects the critical importance of planetary protection to the future of space science, exploration, and life on Earth. Planetary protection refers to the policy and practice of protecting future scientific investigations by limiting biological contamination of other planetary bodies through exploration activities and protecting the Earth’s biosphere by avoiding harmful biological contamination by returning spacecraft.
https://scitechdaily.com/the-white-h...ry-protection/
Do good work. —Virgil Ivan "Gus" Grissom
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White House executive order promotes development of space and defense nuclear power systems. Less than a month after issuing a policy directive on space nuclear power, the White House released an executive order Jan. 12 seeking to promote the development of small nuclear reactors for space and defense applications. The executive order, “Promoting Small Modular Reactors for National Defense and Space Exploration,” includes separate directions for NASA and the Defense Department to pursue small nuclear reactors for their uses, while cooperating on common technologies for those systems.
https://spacenews.com/white-house-ex...power-systems/
Do good work. —Virgil Ivan "Gus" Grissom
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"Bridenstine leaves NASA, calls for unity in space, science efforts"
https://www.spacedaily.com/reports/B...forts_999.html
NASA Administrator Jim Bridenstine stepped down as planned Wednesday and posted a message on Twitter to thank employees and all who supported his tenure at the space agency.
Bridenstine, who left on the day of President Joe Biden's inauguration, made a public plea for continued support of NASA and planned missions to the moon and Mars.
He referenced historic disagreements at the agency and in Washington over whether to support another moon mission or a Mars mission, or simply to focus on Earth sciences.
"It's not about the moon or Mars, which put us in conflict in the House of Representatives between Republicans and Democrats. It's about both," Bridenstine said.
"It's about going to the moon to get the science and discovery that we need to learn how to live and work in another world for long periods of time."
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