MarsBlog.net

NASA Needs a Better Shuttle Plan, Auditor Says

A year after the shuttle Columbia disintegrated over Texas, killing all seven astronauts, NASA has not figured out how to upgrade the three remaining shuttles to make them safe and usable for the next 15 years and possibly longer, the General Accounting Office said.

…”The shuttle will now be needed for another two decades,” the GAO report reads.

“Efforts to upgrade the shuttle have been stymied by the agency’s inability to develop a long-term strategic investment plan to fly the shuttle safely and a systematic approach for defining the spacecraft’s requirements because its life expectancy and mission have continued to change from an original design of a 10-year life to the year 2020 and possibly beyond.”

While the article includes two sentences on the new plan at the end, it is only to vaguely suggest the “hoax” theory…no reference is made at all to the fact that the new policy explicitly calls for the termination of Shuttle flights in 2010.

I don’t know who is out of the loop on this one, Reuters or GAO.

UPDATE:
Jeff over at Space Politics went to the source, and explains that the report was actually completed in October 2003 and submitted to Congress on January 15…the day after the policy was announced, and too late to take it into account.

Posted on February 15th, 2004 under Space Policy. Comments Off

After discovering rapidly-shifting pockets of different-temperature air near the surface, MER scientists utilized the Mini-TES infrared spectrometer to measure these variations up to a three mile altitude. Now, they plan to use Opportunity and MGS in conjunction to take the first-ever temperature profile through the Martian atmosphere.

Posted on February 15th, 2004 under Space Science. Comments Off

The Toronto Star takes a look at a couple of the logistical challenges facing manned missions to Mars.

At the risk of engaging in handwaving, I don’t see these two challenges as being all that…well…challenging.
Yes, we do need to find out where the sources of water are, so that we know what will be required to extract them, but with a large power supply it shouldn’t be all that difficult to obtain pure, useful, safe water — by filtration, by distillation, or even (if need be) by electrolysis/combustion. Some form of the latter option will probably be employed on Mars anyway, tainted water or no, to provide propellants for rovers and return vehicles.

As for the food issue, I was pleased to see the scientists cited at the end of the article working on genetically modified organisms to overcome the poor soil and low-light growing conditions on Mars. Though transgenic blue-green algae and veggies grown in untreated urine are not quite what I’d like to see on my menu, at the rate genetic research is progressing I wouldn’t be surprised to see the first astronauts on Mars feeding themselves on plants capable of growing in untreated regolith.

Posted on February 15th, 2004 under Space Technology. Comments Off

Forget Tang, Velcro, and Teflon: PCWorld has an example of real space technology spinoff in action.

Posted on February 15th, 2004 under Useful Technology. Comments Off