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Lockheed Martin Wins Contract to Build Mars Lander
Lord_Slepnir writes "Lockheed Martin has won a contract to build the Orion crew exploration vehicle that will eventually take humans to the moon and then on to Mars. This vehicle will hopefully also replace the aging space shuttle fleet. According to NASA the vehicle will have manned missions by 2014 and moon missions by no later by 2020."
Of course yes, there is a whole different social reason to go there and whatever, and times have changed..
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clever truncation of the sentence. The point is we are finally getting back into real exploration. If we have to make some runs to the moon to get to mars, then fine. I think it is great that we are getting back into the manned exploration of the solar system. I think that most of us that remember the 60's and 70's thought we would be well past the point we are at now.
Considering that GW Bush's "vision" of human space exploration of the moon is crowding out much more productive and waaaay less expensive robotic exploration and even basic research at home, I'm even less convinced this is the right way forward. We could also consider the source, but we wouldn't want to get distracted by other failed visionary projects (such as democratizing the middle east by attacking Iraq) when evaluating a plan on its merits.
Certainly, human exploration is much more flashy and is the only type of exploration that captures the imagination of the average population. But what can we possibly learn from doing yet another moon mission? If you're looking to explore the universe, more systems like Hubble will do fine. If you're looking to explore the solar system, robotic probes go farther for a lot less. If you're looking for a microgravity environment, the ISS will do fine. If you're looking for a launch platform to Mars, the ISS or - for that matter - any old orbit around earth is much closer to home (read inexpensive).
Perhaps I'm missing. If so, I'd be happy to hear about it.
So really...why do we need to go there?
Because we can.> That's my opinion. I believe I said, if we're basically giving up our lead role in space, it's not a bad choice, if overly expensive, to basically downgrade to this.
Instead of using a capsule for reentry and orbital transit, what do you think NASA should be doing instead? And what is it that other countries are doing which puts them in the lead?
In some ways it is better than the shuttle. For one, the design concept (cargo and especially re-entry shield as far away as possible from the explosive stuff and things that fall off) is inherently safer. It is more versatile in that it's mass and re-entry concept does not limit it to low earth orbit. It is thermally a better overall re-entry design. Even the landing is simpler, although it may not seem so at first review (the shuttle has only 2 or 3 landing options and it comes in really fast).
And there are ways that it's inferior. It can't return a large cargo to earth. It can't support major missions on it's own (like Columbia's last mission, where it carried a pressurized science module with over 100 experiments). It can't serve as nearly as effective work platform (think Hubble repair), lacking an airlock and that cool robotic arm. It will only look pretty darn awesome instead of freaking, amazingly awesome when taking off and landing. Etc.
The point that I really want to make with this post is that we are still number 1, although I wish we had needed to work twice as hard to maintain the lead we have over anybody else. Instead Russia, the historic embarrasser of riches, is hanging onto the success of their Soyuz design and doing almost nothing else. Off the top of my head I can't think of a mission not related to the ISS in years, aside from commercial launches. China is talking big, but at this point has launched 3 people on two manned missions and has an unmanned lunar mission in the works. Europe as a whole is looking good, with several major ISS modules to their credit, the Mars and Venus Express probes plus a few smaller missions like SMART-1, and a healthy commercial market, but no real ambitions for growth. Japan has stayed on the down low, catching headlines for the ill-fated but ambitious missions to an asteroid and Mars, but backing away from their original intent to contribute a laboratory module to the ISS. Only the EU and Russia have together proposed a new manned spacecraft, the Klipper, but have not yet committed any real money to it.
In the meantime, the US has continued to carry the bulk of the ISS (although as much due to our own desire to as to any other partner's avoidance of it). The shuttle has successfully returned to flight. Its replacement is well underway. Unless I'm forgetting something, with Hubble, Chandra, SOHO, and Spitzer we're the only nation managing major space-based observatories. We have probes on their way to Mercury (Messenger) and Pluto (New Horizons), a fantastic probe returning tons of data on Saturn (Cassini), and three orbiters around Mars. Then there's those indominatable rovers, which have been operating for over 10 times as long as their design goal and are soon to be joined by the Phoenix Polar Lander, followed by the impressive Mars Surface Laboratory in 2009. Don't forget Deep Impact or Stardust either, the former of which looked inside one comet, while the latter collected samples from another. As far as the moon goes, the Lunar Reconnaisance Orbiter will launch in 2008 with follow-ons to be designed based on research over the next five years.
And the private side of things looks good, too. The Boeing and Lockheed's Delta and Atlas lines are maintaining a reasonable market share. Investors are excited about Virgin Galactic and Scaled Composites. Orbital Sciences in holding up the small end of orbital things, with SpaceX coming up fast behind. Speaking of SpaceX, they're looking quite sharp with the Dragon capsule and Falcon IX well under development for the COTS program (and Orbital Sciences is subcontracting for the other COTS winner).
I think the progress is frustratingly small, but it's there, and it's certainly not backwards.
The problem is - Zubrin's cleverness and and ability at analysis is matched by his overconfidence in the products thereof. He has a strong tendency to treat his ideas as if they were simple solutions with no real development needed, ready for deployment fairly easily - when the truth is that they are anything but. His Nuclear Salt Water Rocket for example has never been modeled, and only examined on the theoretical level at the grossest of scales. Yet he, and his disciples, treat it as if it were mature technology ready for use with only a few tweaks. The same is true of his scheme for producing fuel in situ on Mars. No developmental work has been done, and very little basic research - yet he argues it convincingly enough that many people assume (as does the poster you are replying to) that its a 'done deal'.
The Case for Mars *is* a feel good read - but that's about all it is. It's much close to fiction than reality. The 'truck driver' schemes keep coming up - because they are (in the main) something that can be accomplished by working within the bounds of existing or near term technologies (the GP vastly overstates the case), while Zubrin's are almost completely undeveloped and are at or beyond the bleeding edge.
I wish I had mod points.
Opta ardua pennis astra sequi.
"There is no strife, no prejudice, no national conflict in outer space as yet. Its hazards are hostile to us all. Its conquest deserves the best of all mankind, and its opportunity for peaceful cooperation many never come again. But why, some say, the moon? Why choose this as our goal? And they may well ask why climb the highest mountain? Why, 35 years ago, fly the Atlantic? Why does Rice play Texas?
We choose to go to the moon. We choose to go to the moon in this decade and do the other things, not because they are easy, but because they are hard, because that goal will serve to organize and measure the best of our energies and skills, because that challenge is one that we are willing to accept, one we are unwilling to postpone, and one which we intend to win, and the others, too."
It is a far better use of our energy than immolating each other while arguing about god.
Sign me up. I'll dig ditches for the launch pad if that's what it takes for me to be involved.