MarsBlog - Part 86

MER Coverage

I haven’t been covering Spirit and Opportunity much at all here, mainly because other blogs are putting a lot of effort into doing so. For example, Martian Soil. Check it out.

Aldridge Commission – This Week: Dayton

Experts lined up for space panel

Dayton-area participants include University of Dayton President Daniel J. Curran; Stanley Mohler, head of Wright State University’s aerospace medicine program; Gen. Gregory Martin, head of the Air Force Materiel Command, and Maj. Gen. Paul Nielsen, Air Force Research Laboratory commander.

AFRL researchers from Wright-Patterson and around the country are also on the list, as well as civilian space scientists and industry representatives.

Gov. Bob Taft’s science adviser, Frank Samuel, said he will testify at the hearing, and the commission has invited retired U.S. Sen. John Glenn, a former astronaut and the first American to orbit the Earth.

A panel of space education representatives includes June Scobee Rodgers, widow of Challenger Space Shuttle Commander Francis R. Scobee and a founder of the Challenger Center for Space Science Education. Dayton’s Kiser Middle School has one of two Challenger Learning Centers in Ohio.

The hearing is one of five the commission has scheduled around the nation as it prepares recommendations on ways to carry out the program President Bush outlined in January.

Coming Up…

Here’s a little something to whet your appetite for space exploration in 2004.

We’ve already had two already wildly successful rovers — imagine what the rest of the year could bring.

Contact the President’s Space Commission

Contact the President’s Space Commission
Chris Carberry
Political Director, Mars Society
Feb. 27, 2004

For further information about the Mars Society, visit our website at
www.marsociety.org

Those who have not contacted the President’s Commission on Implementation of U.S.
Space Exploration Policy, should do so soon. We need to make sure they hear
our message loud and clear. They can be contacted at
www.moontomars.org/notices/contact.asp.

The message that we want to convey goes as follows (Thanks to Lyle Kelly of the
Ohio chapter for putting these points together):

Continue reading Contact the President’s Space Commission

Big Boosters Under Consideration

This isn’t really a surprise, as it’s been talked about since Jan. 14, but Frank Sietzen tells of how NASA is studying new boosters.

…Join the Army, See a Different World

Soldier a stranger in a strange land.

Yep…just more proof that the Bush plan is a backdoor to militarizing space (I’m sure Bruce Gagnon will be issuing a statement on this atrocity any time now).

Axes to Hatchets

Hmm…?

Update:

IX The President

The President is a member of the Board, elected by the Board to be the Society’s chief executive officer and spokesperson. The President has authority over all spending decisions, including hiring, firing, and contracting of services, but may delegate authority in these areas to employees or others, as required. The President may act in place of the Board in all matters. However, any presidential decision taken unilaterally is subject to being overruled by the Board, should the Board act to do so within 30 days of the President’s action.

Blue Sunset

Opportunity snaps a postcard picture of sunset on Mars.

And it’s blue. !.

Life On Starship Ikea

Forget the meatballs…send Queen’s Blend and Daim.

(Hmm. Imagine an interplanetary spacecraft decked out like a Real World house…Weird, man, just…weird…)

What’s in Your Sandbox?

This puff piece on Marshall contains a troubling assertion…one which needs to be knocked down before it becomes widely accepted as the gospel truth:

Work to find a propulsion system for a ship to travel through the solar system, a Mars ship, has been underway for the past few years. Using chemical rockets like those that powered the Saturn Five and the Space Shuttle aren’t feasible for a Mars trip. Using cumbersome chemical rockets would make a Mars ship 95% fuel, and the round trip would take nearly two years. What’s needed is something more efficient, and at the Propulsion Center, that something may be electric propulsion.

Someone at Marshall is obviously looking for funding for their pet project, by positioning electric propulsion as a sine qua non for manned exploration of Mars.

Electric propulsion is not needed for manned missions to Mars. Currently available chemical propulsion technology will get humans to Mars in 5-6 months. While it’s sensible to explore long-term advanced propulsion technologies, delaying manned expeditions by another decade and spending tens of billions of dollars on propulsion R&D so that we can shave maybe a month off of the transit time is foolish when we have a serviceable alternative available to us today. As others have noted, it’s akin to asking Columbus to wait to cross the Atlantic until steam-turbine ships became available.

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