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Lockheed Martin Wins Contract to Build Mars Lander

Posted by ryuzaki0 on from the up-up-and-away dept.

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."

4 of 258 comments (clear)

  1. So will we reach the moon *again* by Anonymous Coward · · Score: -1, Troll

    ...before any other country does it even once?

  2. Reality: A Step Backwards by WillAffleckUW · · Score: 0, Troll

    If you actually read the article and look at the images, you'll quickly realize this is more like the Mercury capsules, and is a giant leap backward for America. Meanwhile, the Brits are landing on the moon.

    Some days, our continuing downward slide from prominence becomes more apparent. This is one of those days.

    Is it better than a Mercury capsule? Sure.

    Is it an improvement on the Shuttle? Doubtful at best, but you know they're spinning it that way.

    However, it is possible this is more suitable to the space aims of a diminished nation that is at best an equal player with the EU, China, and Japan - and may even use less fuel to get the same basic job done.

    But it's not progress. Unless you count progress as realizing we are no longer Number 1 in the Space Race.

    --
    -- Tigger warning: This post may contain tiggers! --
  3. Re:great by JakusMinimus · · Score: -1, Troll
    And why else would would we go there? Scienctists can build robots to measure effects more acuratly then they would by hand. Tourism is a collosal waste and those who go will be the people with more money than they really deserve. So really...why do we need to go there?

    Forgive me if I come off a little harsh ... but inanity such as you took the time to type out is one very good reason. We can only program robots to do so much and there is no substitute for actual human experience. Without human experience how else are we to react to the world around us? In whatever incarnation we do finally realize some semblance of "thinking" machines the era in which we do so is still some many years off.

    Another reason to "go there" would be to put some appreciable distance between myself and the fecund abberants of humanity that seem to be driving this world to calamity--yeah I'm talking about the "believers". Fuck you and your faith. I'd be happier if I had a few million kilometers between myself and the kooks with nuclear arsenals owning in aggregate more than enough warheads to slag humanity a few times over.
    --

    You can be an atheist and still not want to succumb to some weird cross-over sheep disease -- AC
  4. Re:While I agree competition is a good thing... by DerekLyons · · Score: 1, Troll
    If I am going to the moon, I would like to have a company who has a history of building manned spacecraft.

    You are pretty much stuck on this rock then - because there isn't such a company in existence today. *Nobody* has any current experience in designing manned spacecraft. Even the Russians limit themselves to modest modification to their existing craft - it will be very interesting to see how Kliper plays out (assuming it ever gets built).