The Future of NASA

Mining asteroids has never looked so cool:

NASA Reveals New Plan for the Moon, Mars & Outward
By Leonard David for Space.com

You gotta check out the Lagrangian point presentation and the Raver Space Miner Video embedded within the article (and linked to at the bottom of both pages, if you have trouble with any of the links above).

Here's the full text of the article in case the link goes bad:

http://www.space.com/news/beyond_iss_020926-1.html

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NASA Reveals New Plan for the Moon, Mars & Outward
By Leonard David
Senior Space Writer
posted: 07:00 am ET
26 September 2002

A SPACE.com Exclusive

To boldly go, the timeless and optimistic Space Age theme, looks to have been reclaimed from a NASA lost-and-found drawer as long-range planners prepare to reveal next month a new roadmap for robotic and human missions to deep space, SPACE.com has learned.

The 21st Century, science-driven agenda is designed to propel exploration beyond the International Space Station and involves a new habitation complex that would be built between Earth and the Moon, serving as a portal to Mars and other solar system targets.
Images

A key to relearning how to live and work beyond low Earth orbit is establishing an L1 Gateway, a point of gravitational balance between Earth and the Moon. From L1, space science advancements are possible, as well as moving humankind back to the Moon and onward.

A blend of robots and humans transforms the Moon into a 21st Century hub for science and a jumping off point for deep space missions.

Artificial gravity generated by a Mars rotator transfer vehicle helps thwart the impact of microgravity on the human body during lengthy voyages.
More Stories
The Top 3 Reasons to Colonize Space
Worldwide Focus on Going to the Moon
Moon Holds Earth's Ancient Secrets
Multimedia
See the Vision: Gallery of renderings reveals NASA's plans
Grasp Lagrangian Points: Graphic explains how they work
VIDEO: L1 Gateway
VIDEO: Drilling on the Moon
VIDEO: Transfer to Mars

Somewhat secretive, this behind-the-scenes stratagem has been years in the making.

A NASA Exploration Team (NExT) is prepared to showcase their springboard vision for returning to the Moon, visiting asteroids, and trekking on to Mars and beyond. At the upcoming World Space Congress to be held Oct. 10-19, an expected throng of some 13,000 officials from various nations will descend on Houston, Texas. This once-a-decade gathering provides a status report on global space prowess.

Part of NASA's message at the meeting will be portraying "what next" for exploration beyond low Earth orbit. In exclusive interviews with SPACE.com, key members of NExT detailed the plan.

Step 1: New space hotel

"We've been putting together a multi-disciplinary, long-term strategy … a road map, along with defining the necessary strategic investments in key technologies," said Gary Martin, leader of NExT and assistant associate administrator for the Office of Space Flight at NASA Headquarters. "We're looking at a stair-step of capability. Our first stair step is Earth's neighborhood."

This approach will be discovery-driven and technology-enabled, with exploration involving the staging of future missions at the Earth-Moon Lagrange point, L1 -- a literal Gateway to the future of space exploration.

A Lagrangian point -- also called a libration point in space -- is a spot at which a small body, under the gravitational influence of two large bodies, will remain somewhat at rest relative to them. In each system of two heavy bodies -- say the Sun and Jupiter, or Earth and the Moon -- there exist five theoretical Lagrangian points.

The Earth-Moon L1 Lagrange point is at a distance of some 200,000 miles (323,110 kilometers) from the Earth, or 84 percent of the way to the Moon.

NASA's Martin said the L1 Gateway, replete with a habitat for crew occupancy, is a good spot to support a locus of activity. Both humans and their robotic partners can transform this zone into a bustling hub for testing hardware, supporting science operations, and as astronaut training ground to prep crews for long-haul sojourns into deep space.

Beyond L1

Sites on the Moon, for instance, can be easily accessed from an L1 Gateway. The same goes with travel to Mars or asteroid targets. Also, assembly, repair, and maintenance of a "telescope farm" of orbiting instruments can be done on site, then nudged over to the Earth-Sun L2 location.

"The L-points have become unique locations where you can do a lot of things," Martin said. "We found the more we look at them, the more nice things we find."

Harley Thronson, director of technology and senior science lead for NExT, said the semi-stable L1 Gateway offers a number of attractive capabilities. For one, returning back to Earth in a hurry due to an emergency is possible. But it can also be the first step on the way to putting people elsewhere and sending them to even more distant places, he said.

Many tasks would be automated.

"Science facilities could be deployed, rescued, upgraded and checked out there by humans and telerobotic systems…or sent into deep space to other libration points throughout the solar system," Thronson said.

Thronson stressed that NExT is not solely dedicated to dispatching human crews outward. Their work is geared to improve robotic capabilities, as well as enhance human attributes, particularly through improved space suits. Studies are also underway to investigate ways to bring human and machine strengths together.

Sights on Mars

NExT has a strong track record for steering NASA to embrace several new initiatives. An in-space propulsion program is underway. A nuclear systems initiative is being pursued. Starting next year, a radiation program is scheduled to begin, said Lisa Guerra, Special Assistant to the Associate Administrator in the Office of Biological and Physical Research.

Some of this work is essential in preparing for crewed missions to Mars.

"It would be a combination of looking at radiation health issues with the crew and a program tied to the space station," Guerra said. "Ground research will also assess potential alternatives to active or passive shielding for future missions."

Shoving off to places like Mars in speedier fashion -- through nuclear propulsion, as example -- can cut down crew exposure time to radiation. In addition, taking a fast route to the red planet also minimizes prolonged human exposure to the debilitating effects of microgravity.

On the other hand, NExT is supporting research into artificial gravity.

"A lot of the data we're getting on our space station increments will help determine performance of the crew in a six-month microgravity environment. If we could limit our missions to six months, with fast transit, then maybe you don't need artificial gravity," Guerra explained.

NExT is nonetheless looking at a vehicle design using artificial gravity. As medical information matures, whether or not an artificial gravity initiative is required is a future decision, she said.

An illustration of the artificial gravity spacecraft and other artist renderings of the new space vision were provided to SPACE.com and are included in an image gallery.

ISS: Technological teething

The International Space Station is a workhorse for furthering NExT goals, Martin said.

"It's a very necessary platform," he said. "The station is going to lay the groundwork not only on ways to protect against radiation, but also bone loss. We actually have a list of 55 critical roadmap items for humans to work safely and productively in orbit."

The ISS serves as a technological teething place, where astronauts learn how to construct and maintain large scientific platforms with the help of robots. How to evolve to advanced "closed life support" systems becomes feasible too, Martin said. "We can't go to the next steps without the station," he added.

What celestial port-of-call deserves first billing, the Moon or Mars?

"NExT is science-driven. We will go where the science says it makes sense that we go," Martin said. "Mars is one of the most important scientific destinations where it looks like humans and robots will actually be helpful to the science research ... over time. But this doesn't end with Mars."

NExT planning calls for "sustainable space capabilities."

"We're not looking at planting flags, not being able to go back for 100 years," Martin said. "The systems we see would take humans to Mars, or to the asteroids. They are reusable systems that might be nuclear in nature, lasting upwards of 10 years and maybe used for three missions or more to Mars or to the asteroids at this point."

Can NASA do it?

The blueprint for the years and decades to come is one of incremental buildup.

There are decision points on how fast, and how far, space exploration can proceed. That enables testing of technologies to achieve greater reliability and understanding of costs for the next steps in exploration.

Yet there is one omnipresent issue that NASA must deal with: Does the space agency even have the talent and tools to pull off a grand plan to move onward and outward?

Martin admits the aging of NASA has taken a toll.

"As plans become crisper and things become more near term, we're looking at skills needed, the core capabilities we need to protect, and what facilities are required. It's a part of the overall strategy that we're building," Martin said.

"Probably the highest priority product of NExT has been the identification of technology priorities that we felt the agency had to invest in," Thronson said. "If we had one goal, it's delivering the tools to understand the technology and the options." That will permit managers and politicians to decide what NASA should do scientifically, robotically, and with humans in space.

"And when they are ready to make the decision, we want to be there with the capabilities, the hardware, the understanding, the scientific goals … so they can make those decisions with confidence," Thronson said.

Not your father's space agency

But just how bold and strident should NASA become in scripting a new master plan for space exploration? After all, there have been fumbles in past years.

And given the turmoil that creeps through every squeaky joint of the International Space Station (ISS) project, well, this isn't your father's NASA anymore. Nor is it the Camelot space program fielded by U.S. President John F. Kennedy in the early 1960s.

Howard McCurdy, space scholar and chair of American University's Department of Public Administration in Washington, D.C., suggests a reason behind NASA taking a step-by-step approach to deep-diving space exploration.

Just as the space station was viewed as the "next logical step" beyond the space shuttle, McCurdy told SPACE.com, a return to deep space activities is also viewed as the next logical step beyond the ISS.
See NASA's Vision

Image Gallery
Artist's renderings of the step-by-step plan by John Frassanito & Associates, Inc.

Lagrangian Points Graphic
Learn what they are and how the work.

Cool Videos
Experience the future of spaceflight as if you were there today:

* L1 Gateway
* Drilling on the Moon
* Transfer to Mars
* Mars Geology

"This incremental, step-at-a-time approach was adopted by space advocates after President Richard Nixon in 1970 denied the request for a comprehensive long-range plan," McCurdy said. "NASA leaders have always viewed their mission as the extension of human presence into space. They have chosen to pursue this goal incrementally because they were told not to divert their attention beyond the space station until that project neared completion. Not only are they ready to undertake missions beyond, they have been waiting to do so since the agency was born."

Although the NExT plan is far from being a done deal, the long-range look has been okayed by the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) -- a tight-fisted handler of money. OMB's primary mission is to assist the President in overseeing the preparation of the federal budget and to supervise its administration in Executive Branch agencies.

The NExT budget is $4 million a year, Martin said.

Spending more money and taking the stepping stone approach as identified by NExT is contingent on approval by the U.S. Congress.

Next Page: NASA emerging from era of uncertainty
**

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NASA Reveals New Plan for the Moon, Mars & Outward (cont.)

NASA on the rebound

NASA is undergoing an important change, said John Logsdon, director of the Space Policy Institute at George Washington University in Washington, D.C. There is recent encouragement from top NASA officials that the agency's space planners should become "open and explicit" about the wherewithal for going beyond Earth orbit, he said.

"NASA seems to me to be coming out of a low point, after the months of uncertainty about the future of the ISS and the shuttle," Logsdon said.

Logsdon said the space agency's chief, Sean O'Keefe, has put in place at NASA Headquarters a combination of people new to NASA and veterans of human space flight. "They are painting a quite different and more optimistic future for humans in space than has been the case for the past few years," Logsdon noted.
Images

A key to relearning how to live and work beyond low Earth orbit is establishing an L1 Gateway, a point of gravitational balance between Earth and the Moon. From L1, space science advancements are possible, as well as moving humankind back to the Moon and onward.

A blend of robots and humans transforms the Moon into a 21st Century hub for science and a jumping off point for deep space missions.

Artificial gravity generated by a Mars rotator transfer vehicle helps thwart the impact of microgravity on the human body during lengthy voyages.
More Stories
The Top 3 Reasons to Colonize Space
Worldwide Focus on Going to the Moon
Moon Holds Earth's Ancient Secrets
Multimedia
See the Vision: Gallery of renderings reveals NASA's plans
Grasp Lagrangian Points: Graphic explains how they work
VIDEO: L1 Gateway
VIDEO: Drilling on the Moon
VIDEO: Transfer to Mars

Some space veterans urge NASA to wean itself off of the glory days of Project Apollo -- the lunar landing effort. Paul Spudis, a space scientist formerly with the Lunar and Planetary Institute, is one of them. Spudis will soon start work at a facility that contracts to build and manage NASA missions, the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory in Laurel, Maryland.

"NASA has a problem," Spudis says. "It's trying to come up with some rationale that will recreate Apollo … and that's not going to happen."

Apollo was not about exploring the Moon. In fact, it was not about space at all, Spudis said during a recent gathering of lunar scientists.

"It was basically a battle in the Cold War," a super-charged competition between the former Soviet Union and the United States, Spudis said.

NASA's current mantra -- to seek and understand life in the universe and to send life out there -- is not a mission, Spudis contends. "That's a catechism…a catechism of the true believer. The problem with catechisms is that they are not embraced by the non-believers."

Spudis considers a human return to the Moon within 5 years a doable proposition. Also, it's a politically viable time horizon. Besides, such a program builds up national economic infrastructure and national security.

"A Mars mission doesn't do either of these things, but a Moon mission does both," Spudis said.

Utilizing existing space-launch capability, the ISS, and the L1 Gateway as a jumping off point, reaching for the Moon can be within reach once again, Spudis figures. Once there, learning how to use the precious resources that exist on the Moon for civilian government, private sector, and military purposes is on top of the to-do list.

Meanwhile, one outcome of such a program would be a cultivated region of space between low Earth orbit and the Moon.

Discipline and competence

Stirring up political will in Congress to plow money into space and ease up on entitlement spending will be necessary if NASA is to sustain a more vibrant program. So argues Harrison Schmitt, an Apollo 17 moonwalker and former U.S. Senator from New Mexico.

Schmitt senses that NASA must revisit its roots. That is, mimic its predecessor, the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics (NACA). Before being turned into NASA in 1958, NACA spurred the aeronautical industry into existence, as well as created the tone for private sector investment in air transportation. That needs to happen for space, he said.

Looking back at Apollo, Schmitt adds a cautionary note.

"Deep space is still a very difficult place to work. A highly competent, highly disciplined management structure is going to be essential," the former astronaut said. "That was what made Apollo work, in addition to the motivation and enthusiasm of people in their twenties, those that were actually carrying the spear," he said.

"We can work in low Earth orbit now, with a less than competent management structure," Schmitt says. "We're proving it every day." But deep space exploration requires the discipline and competence that drove the Apollo successes, he said.

"Some day we will extend beyond the Moon," Schmitt says. "But it's not there yet."
------------------------------------------------------------------------

See NASA's Vision in Multimedia

Image Gallery
Artist's renderings of the step-by-step plan by John Frassanito & Associates, Inc.

Lagrangian Points Graphic
Learn what they are and how the work.

Cool Videos
Experience the future of spaceflight as if you were there today:

* L1 Gateway
* Drilling on the Moon
* Transfer to Mars
* Mars Geology

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Posted by Lisa at September 30, 2002 10:13 PM | TrackBack