Now that the Space Shuttle has officially reached its end of life, I woke up this morning with two very profound questions: (1) how will the International Space Station be resupplied? (2) how will the USA conquer Mars? Let’s try to find answers for both of them.
How will the International Space Station be resupplied?
For many years, the International Space Station was serviced by the Russian Soyuz and Progress spacecrafts (both launched by a Soyuz rocket), the European Automated Transfer Vehicle, the Japanese H-II Transfer Vehicle and the American Space Shuttle only.
In 2008, in anticipation of the Space Shuttle retirement, NASA awarded a contract to a company called SpaceX to resupply ISS from 2010 onwards. The founder of SpaceX is Elon Musk, co-founder of PayPal a few years ago. The company will use their Falcon 9 launcher and Dragon spacecraft.
One interesting aspect of this arrangement is that, for a few years at least, the USA will depend on a commercial company for their access to low-level orbits. I’m not too sure the NSA or Pentagon likes this very much… but, oh well, life is never perfect.
How will the USA conquer Mars?
Mars is far and the Falcon 9 is not powerful enough to send a spacecraft there.
Barack Obama wants Americans on Mars by 2030… without investing a lot of money as the US economy is not in a very good shape. He has cancelled the costly Constellation program and, instead, wants NASA to reuse technologies which already exist to build a powerful heavy launch rocket and a spacecraft.
NASA has responded by announcing that, by 2016, it will build a Space Launch System (SLS), which reuses the engines of the Space Shuttle as well as its rocket boosters. The SLS will be able to carry a spacecraft very far in space…
… and the spacecraft will be the Multi-Purpose Crew Vehicle (MPCV), derived from designs and tests made during the Constellation program. The MPCV does not ressemble the Space Shuttle at all but looks more like the old Apollo spacecrafts. But, as you can easily guess, it’s a state-of-the-art technology beast and I’m sure the four lucky astronauts to Mars will enjoy their trip very much. (Let’s hope they don’t meet Alien.)
very amazing research conducted. didn’t know that NASA actually outsource its space jobs to companies like SpaceX
Thanks. I did spend a few hours to understand everything.
I, too, was surprised to learn about SpaceX. The USA is really the land of
doers instead of talkers…
Instead of sinking loads of money to explore space, I think the US should try to find ways to create sustainable jobs for the 14 million unemployed citizens & fix their economy.
Going on Mars is important too :-)
More seriously, we, humans, need to dream. And going to Mars can make a lot
of us dream (like going on the Moon made our parents dream.) And, when you
think about it, space exploration (and wars…) have always triggered
massive innovations which are essential for the development of humanity…
and the creation of new jobs.
Who knows? Maybe those new space initiatives will profoundly change the way
the US economy works. For instance, awarding a contract to SpaceX instead of
putting loads of public funding into reinventing the wheel. And, of course,
reusing the engines and boosters of the Space Shuttle. Things are changing.
How about the Chinese being first to Mars? :)
Or at least being back to the moon first.
Who knows? ;-)
“(Let’s hope they don’t meet Alien.)”  Even if they do, the only countries Aliens would destroy are US, China, Engalnd, India, Russia or so..just like in the movies :)  Aliens are always seen in US, so….
Creating jobs for the poor is less glamourous than going to space but you can’t dream with an empty belly. The US has regressed when it comes to the welfare of its citizens. Look at the New Deal for instance. It’s dead.
Program has been cancelled because the X37B is operational and probably a model of blackstar too.
Most probably :-)
1. Regarding the economy stuff, I do not know whether there’s arrangement between microsoft and us DoD but Some guys already integrated linux in a rocket – http://www.linuxjournal.com/magazine/linux-powered-amateur-rocket-goes-usb
2. Who knows when these guys will be on Mars? This remind me of the anime titled Gundam :) They got some kind of ‘tube’ which connects earth to space. The story is related mostly to politics and power :)