NASA News December 11, 2014

There is a lot of stuff going on at NASA even with their budget reductions. As of the date of the writing of this article NASA’s New Horizon spacecraft is awake and almost ready to examine Pluto and send back photos. NASA is saying Pluto is the last planet in our solar system to be visited by a spacecraft, but we all know by now it is not a planet anymore and if anyone should know this it is NASA. Anyway this craft has been hibernating off and on for almost 9 years on its way there. Can you imagine how much technology has advanced since the launch of this craft? It is certainly obsolete by every technology standard, but the result of its trip will be astounding never the less, if all goes well. The craft is now 162 million miles from Pluto and was 2.9 billion miles away when launched. This trip also illustrates the time required to just travel one way in our solar system and shows the necessity for much more advanced forms of travel. We have to be able to reach anywhere in our solar system in a fraction of that time, if we ever want to travel to other solar systems in our galaxy.

The Russians are very conscious about rocks in space hitting us, especially after the close call they had recently when a meteor blew up over one of their cities. A Russian scientist spotted a 1,300 foot wide asteroid which crosses the earth’s path every couple of years and said it would eventually hit us and he also said it was very hard to calculate accurate orbits for these rocks since they were affected by gravity from other objects. NASA has said we have nothing to worry about and it won’t get close enough to the earth for the next 150 years to worry about. They are saying their calculations show the asteroid 2014 UR116 will be at its closest point in 2047 when it gets only within 2.7 million miles of the earth. Seems NASA thinks it can calculate its position accurately.

More news from Mars, according to NASA. The scientists at NASA believe they have found evidence that a lake once existed on Mars. They said, "Ancient Mars maintained a climate that could have produced long-lasting lakes." The Curiosity rover has been exploring the Gale Crater, which has a mountain in it. NASA believes the flow of water driving sediment could have been responsible for creating the mountain. The Curiosity deputy project scientist Ashwin Vasavada said, "If our hypothesis for Mount Sharp holds up, it challenges the notion that warm and wet conditions were transient, local, or only underground on Mars." I would like to put this in much plainer language. He is saying Mars could have been like earth and for a long time. This also means life could have been abundant there and maybe there was even intelligent life. All this is still being investigated however.

The Italian astronaut who almost drowned in his spacesuit last year (2014) is having the suit examined by both NASA and Houston Methodist Hospital. The suit is in a research lab because NASA wants to be able to pinpoint problems with its spacesuits and avoid what happened to the Italian astronaut when others use their spacesuits. The suit is undergoing CT scans. It is believed that taking 3D photos of the suits will aid in developing a system to better diagnose malfunctions. The astronaut is Luca Parmitano who said, “I never thought about seeing a spacesuit lying on a surgeon’s table. That is a first for me.”

Congress wants to give NASA more money than the president allotted. They are creating a bill which would give NASA 18.01 billion dollars which is more than Β½ billion more than President Obama wanted to. Is this out of generosity? I always remember how certain agencies in the government are given the power to take money from other budgets without telling them or us and because of this I have to wonder if this money is really for NASA or is the money being put there for some other secret agency to take advantage of? There are just so many shady deals going on so one cannot believe everything he is told. The truth is NASA needs money if it is going to try and conquer space. There are long term benefits to this such as increased technology and the chance to get to other worlds where we can mine and such. It is short sighted not to fund NASA to the full extent, because it will provide future benefits to all of us and also to American companies.

The Orion space capsule performed flawlessly and is now back in the hands of NASA. As you might recall this is the space capsule which will be used to ferry astronauts back to the moon and to Mars. On the outside it resembles the Apollo capsule, but that is where the resemblance stops. First of all the systems on the Orion are designed to be able to be replaced as new technology comes along. It has more than 50% more volume than the Apollo capsule. Its control systems were derived from those of the Boeing 787 Dreamliner and are all digital. It has automatic controls which can be operated manually in an emergency. The waste management is greatly improved. The onboard computers will be far more advanced than on any other spacecraft. This is not you grandfather’s Apollo capsule.

NASA is hoping the development of the Orion capsule will open a new era for America and for space exploration. Most people you talk to are ready for us to perform manned exploration of the planets in our solar system and of the moons. There are an incredible amount of moons in our solar system. If we count the moon of Pluto there are 148 moons and 27 provisional moons. That is a lot of places to explore. Some of the moons are large enough to be able to find life on if we got lucky. Maybe I shouldn’t say lucky, because we might not like what we find. The point I am trying to make is there are enough opportunities for exploration right here to keep us busy for another 100 years after we get started. The opportunity for mining is incredible. All the companies have to do is figure out the cheapest way to accomplish this.

SpaceX and Boeing were awarded contracts worth 7 billion dollars.