Happening At NASA There are a lot of interesting things happening at NASA. First there is a sort of space cold war going on with China. They want to outdo NASA, but they have not reached the point yet where they are capable of doing that. To me it seems they are basing their progress in space upon the foundation NASA laid years ago. An example of what I am talking about could be the moon rover. NASA has had a very successful rover program for years and the rovers on Mars have done yeomen work. What many people do not know is that NASA and China have been exchanging space data. China shared its data about the rover on the moon and we have been sharing data with China on at least some of our space exploits. It is amazing to me we are still sharing the International Space Station with the Russians and even sometimes sharing rides to and from the station. I find it hard to believe Voyager One and Voyager Two are still sending back data. The Voyagers were probes which were sent into space 46 years ago and they still are operational. One would think after all this time and the primitive equipment the Voyages were using, they would no longer be able to communicate with NASA, but they are still sending back radio communications. The probes are no longer sending back photos, but has I said still communicating. It is predicted it will take 27,000 years for a Voyager probe to cross the Ort Cloud and take about 300 years to reach it. I am going to make a prediction which is, by that time we will be able to send out manned missions which could easily pass the Voyagers in space. Thanks to the United States and Russia to a lesser degree, the rest of the world has been able to do some catching up in the area of space. There are still problems for countries who are just starting to get into space launches. Launching giant rockets is still a dangerous proposition. It seems SpaceX has been incredibly reliable lately with its launches. One can’t really fault them for the explosion of the Starship prototype since it is experimental. I am sure after a few more launches it will also become a regular staple of the SpaceX launch program. One of the things puzzling me lately was the fact French scientists have just come out with a statement saying the moon has an inner core similar to the one in the earth. You may be asking your self why this puzzles me and I will be glad to tell you why. A couple of years ago NASA performed an experiment and the experiment consisted of crashing a rocket into the moon. They said the moon rang like a bell for over an hour which meant the moon was hollow. I have to wonder if the French scientists took that test into consideration before coming to their determination? A blinding flash of light recently lit up the sky above Kyiv, Ukraine. The Ukrainians initially said it was due to the fact a NASA satellite crashed to the earth. NASA said this was not the case, however. NASA scientists have developed a segmented tube like structure which is a snake like robot. Its official name is Exobiology Extant Life Surveyor or EELS. NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory developed it and it is being considered being used as a tool in the search for extraterrestrial life. If it is used, it is believed it will be used first on Enceladus one of Saturn’s icy moons. The Cassini probe had examined the moon, and came to the conclusion there was a liquid ocean under all that ice. It is thought the erupting plumes of water can serve as a direct route to that water and EELS should be able to use that to get into the water and look for life. EELS is equipped with a form of artificial intelligence. Looks like NASA won’t be going back to Venus anytime soon. There was a mission scheduled named VERITAS. The idea was to map the surface of Venus using infrared spectroscopy in conjunction with radar. The mission was actually cancelled by NASA itself. The money is now to be allocated to other NASA programs and at least some of them are over budget while the VERITAS program was not. NASA’s launch and flight of the Orion spacecraft was considered a success. This is the vehicle scheduled to carry the astronauts back to the moon. The flight was not perfect however. NASA said there were a few issues. One was with the heat shield. The heat shield was designed to burn down as the craft reentered earth’s atmosphere. It did that, but in so doing, more burned off of it than predicted. NASA said the shield was still in the safe margin on entry, but they want to examine this and correct it. Damage also took place to the launcher. NASA has said the Artemis 2 mission is scheduled to take place in late November, 2023. NASA wants to mine the moon, so does China. It is now being said we have to get humans to the moon before China. I say, we have to get humans to the moon again. Let’s not forget we already did that 54 years ago and according to the government we stopped a couple of years later because the public was no longer interested, according to the government. This space race is different than the ones between America and Russia. I say that because the Chinese are much better funded than the Russians were and they have all the prior data on how we did it. It is a possibility they will beat us back. NASA decided to have the Mars orbiter take a photo of China’s Zhrong rover and what they found was not good for the Chinese. The rover had not moved for months. Images were taken over a period of about 11 months. NASA believes the rover hasn’t moved since at least September 2022. The rover had been put in hibernation mode which it was supposed to automatically recover from, but so far no dice. NASA has had a problem spotting large asteroids on courses which put them close to the earth during a pass. The last one as of the writing of this article was only spotted 2 days before it past. If it had been headed to hit us, there would not have been enough time to deflect it and probably not enough distance.
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