SpaceX Dragon to Launch Space Mice, 3D Printer and More for NASA

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CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. SpaceX might be a few years away from launching human astronauts into orbit, but this weekend, the company is sending a miniature crew of live passengers into space.

An intrepid all-female group of 20 mice will ride inside SpaceX'sDragon space capsule early Saturday (Sept. 20) when it blasts off atop a Falcon 9 rocket on a delivery run to the International Space Station.

The mice are among a motley batch of cargo that includes some unusual items and milestones: the first 3D printer in space, mutant fruit flies, an Earth wind-watching radar, a mouse X-ray machineand a commercial experiment designed to make a better golf club. Dragon's flight scheduled for 2:14 a.m. EDT (0614 GMT) from Florida's Cape Canaveral Air Force Station will be SpaceX's fourth official resupply mission to the astronaut outpost under a contract with NASA. [See photos from the SpaceX-4 Dragon mission]

The space-bound mice will be the first residents of NASA's new Rodent Research habitat, which scientists will use to study the animals' behavior and health. NASA's past rodent astronauts that flew aboard the space shuttle rarely spent more than two weeks in space. This mission primarily intended to test out the new habitat and hardware will last 30 days.

"Never were we able to achieve a flight experiment of this duration, so we'll get some new information," said Ruth Globus, project scientist for the rodent habitat at NASA's Ames Research Center in Moffett Field, California.

The 4-month-old adult mice prepping to take flight belong to a popularly used strain of inbred black-colored lab mice known as C57 Black 6. Using cameras inside the rodent habitat, scientists will monitor the rodents' behavior in microgravity.

"Rodents don't just float around and have fun," Globus told reporters here. "They tend to hold onto the walls. They move around a lot like monkeys do. They run around. They're very physically active."

But that pattern of behavior could change the longer they stay in space, Globus said.

Astronauts lose muscle and bone strength quickly when they go to space. And the same is expected to happen to mice. Researchers will measure the rodents' loss in bone density throughout the flight using a new X-ray machine called the Bone Densitometer. Built by Techshot, the microwave-sized instrument is also launching inside Dragon on Saturday. It will be the first X-ray source to be on the space station.

The mice won't be returning home alive; at the end of their month-long mission, the rodents will be euthanized and dissected by the astronauts so that certain parts can be frozen and preserved for study back on Earth, Globus said. (Scientists are particularly interested in looking at the creatures' hind-leg muscles, liver and spleen.)

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SpaceX Dragon to Launch Space Mice, 3D Printer and More for NASA

Chronic medical condition no bar to space travel

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New York, Sep 18 (IANS): Nurse a desire to travel in a space taxi but wary of the space flight and its impact on high blood pressure or diabetes? Take heart.

The aerospace medicine group at the University of Texas' medical branch, Galveston, has studied how average people with common medical problems would be able to tolerate the stresses of commercial space flight.

"This study further supports the belief that, despite significant chronic medical conditions, the dream of space flight is one that most people can achieve," lead author Rebecca Blue said.

Historically, space flight has been reserved for the very healthy.

"Physiological stresses of flight include increased acceleration forces or 'G-forces', during launch and re-entry as well as the microgravity period," said Blue.

"Our goal was to see how average people with common medical problems like high blood pressure, heart disease, diabetes, asthma and back and neck injuries who are not necessarily as fit as a career astronaut would be able to tolerate the stresses of an anticipated commercial spaceflight," Blue added.

In a simulated flight environment, researchers wanted to see if centrifuges were equally tolerable for individuals with complex medical histories or whether there were certain conditions that would make it more difficult for them to handle the flight.

Overall, they found that nearly everyone with well-controlled medical conditions who participated in this project tolerated simulated flight without problems.

The study appeared in the journal Aviation, Space and Environmental Medicine.

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Chronic medical condition no bar to space travel

Made in Space Announces Launch of First Zero-Gravity 3D Printer to the International Space Station

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On September 20 at 2:14 AM ET, the first 3D printer intended for in-space use will depart aboard a rocket from Cape Canaveral, Fla., headed for the International Space Station (ISS).

This machine shop for space will mark the first time that a multi-purpose manufacturing device will be utilized off-world to create parts, tools and emergency solutions. Developed by Made In Space, Inc., under a contract with NASA Marshall Space Flight Center (MSFC), the 3D printer is part of a technology demonstration intended to show that on-site, on-demand manufacturing is a viable alternative to launching items from Earth.

Everything that has ever been built for space has been built on the ground. Tremendous amounts of money and time have been spent to place even the simplest of items in space to aid exploration and development, said Aaron Kemmer, Chief Executive Officer of Made In Space. This new capability will fundamentally change how the supply and development of space missions is looked at.

Following delivery to ISS, the 3D printer is scheduled to be installed in the Microgravity Science Glovebox (MSG) to conduct its series of prints. The printer will create a series of test coupons, parts, tools, use case examples and even STEM project designs by students as part of the 3D Printing in Zero-G Experiment. This experiment, intended to demonstrate additive manufacturing capabilities in space, was developed through a partnership between Made In Space and NASA MSFC. Made In Space is working with business partners to formulate additional use case examples to demonstrate printer capabilities.

Made In Spaces additive manufacturing technology creates 3D objects layer by layer from filament through an extrusion method specifically adapted for the challenges of the space environment. In addition to designing and building the hardware, Made In Space will be operating the printer from a mission control ground station.

There were dozens of specific problems we had to solve in constructing a 3D printer for the Space Station. From thermal process adjustments to rigorous safety requirements, the challenges our team had to overcome were numerous, and were deeply proud to see the results of the work done by the Made In Space and NASA MSFC team now head out for a grand field test, said Kemmer.

This first printer will be using ABS plastic while the second generation unit, scheduled for delivery to ISS in 2015, will offer multiple material capacity and an increased build volume. The second Made In Space printer will be available for use by businesses, researchers and anyone who wants to create in-space hardware rapidly, affordably, and safely.

Placing additive manufacturing in space will lead to similar capabilities on every future space station, deep space exploration vehicle, and space colony, said Kemmer. Rapid construction of important materials is a critical need if humans are going to establish a greater footprint in our universe.

Made In Space developed the zero-gravity printer through NASAs Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) program. The prototype unit was tested on Zero-G Corporations modified Boeing 727 parabolic airplane, made possible by NASAs Flight Opportunities Program. The flight unit passed NASAs extensive safety and operational standards on the way to being deemed flight ready.

Kemmer said, This is more than a 3D printer. Its more than a machine shop in space. Its a landmark for humanity. For the first time in the history of our species, we will be manufacturing tools and hardware away from the Earth. Now that weve made this breakthrough, the sky is no longer the limit for additive manufacturing the era of off-world manufacturing has begun.

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Made in Space Announces Launch of First Zero-Gravity 3D Printer to the International Space Station

Stockman congratulates NASA, Boeing, and Space X for launching new era in space flight

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Congressman Stockman congratulates NASA, Boeing, and Space X for inaugurating a new era in commercial space ventures with todays award of contracts to launch American astronauts once again on American rockets.

The selection of the Boeing CST-100 spacecraft and the Atlas V rocket, plus Space Xs Dragon spacecraft and Falcon-9 rocket offer vital redundancy in the event of problems with any single system.

Stockman applauded the efforts by both companies in building the next generation of spacecraft to transport astronauts to the International Space Station.

Boeing has been building spacecraft since the dawn of the space age, and I am excited to see their spacecraft selected in this competition. Space X has created an exciting space industry from scratch, which is bringing the satellite launch market home to the United States, and we will see more exciting commercial space ventures from them in coming years.

Stockman warned of increasing tensions with Russia over Ukraine: I urge both companies to find ways to launch a year earlier than planned, to counter any potential threats by Russia against launching our astronauts.

Stockman also offered encouragement to Sierra Nevada for their innovative Dream Chaser mini-shuttle, and expressed hope they would continue development for the commercial space market or future NASA contracts.

Stockman represents the Johnson Space Center in Houston.

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Peter Thiel: the billionaire tech entrepreneur on a mission to cheat death

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Thiel, whose net worth is reported to be $2.2 billion, is Silicon Valley royalty, and a singular figure even in that rarefied world. He is a gay practising Christian, a libertarian who has thrown money and support behind the political campaigns of the Republican John McCain and the Libertarian Ron Paul, and who sits on the steering committee of the Bilderberg Group the elite band of the rich and powerful from politics, industry and business that convenes each year to discuss nobody-outside-the-inner-circle-quite-knows-what. Above all, he is a man with a utopian belief in the power of technology to change the world.

Through a variety of venture capital funds and his non-profit Thiel Foundation, Thiel has invested substantially in space travel, artificial intelligence, biotechnology and information technology. He has been one of the most public champions of seasteading the idea of establishing floating communities outside territorial waters and beyond the regulatory powers of governments. His Thiel Fellowship programme encourages clever people under the age of 20 to forgo a college education and start their own companies. And he has poured millions of dollars into what he calls the immortality project. I would like to live longer, and I would like other people to live longer. His belief is such that he has signed up with Alcor, the leading company in the field of cryogenics, to be deep-frozen at the time of his death as much as an ideological statement, he says, as in any expectation of being thawed out any time in the near future. In telling you that Ive signed up for it [cryogenics], theres always this reaction that its really crazy, its disturbing. But my take on it is its only disturbing because it challenges our complacency.

Peter Thiels fortunes may rest largely in Silicon Valley, but he lives and works in San Francisco. His office is in a low-slung building in the Presidio, the national park close to the Golden Gate Bridge, which is also home to George Lucass film business. Thiels offices house his hedge-fund business, one of his venture capital funds and the Thiel Foundation. Founders Fund, the venture capital firm that he runs with six partners, is in a neighbouring building. Thiels home, in the Marina district overlooking the ocean, is a five-minute drive away. He also owns a home in Maui, Hawaii.

Thiel has invited me to join him for breakfast, prepared by his own chef, which we eat in a glass-walled conference room. Thiel is of medium height, stocky in build, and moves like a man who, even at the age of 46, has not quite got used to his body. He has come from a run he does a three- or four-mile jog two or three times a week, and enjoys hiking and surfing and is dressed in a T-shirt, chinos and trainers. He is eating an egg-white spinach omelette Im on a crazy diet, he grumbles. I am eating a cheese omelette with the yolk left in, a side of bacon and a bowl of fruit, at which he occasionally throws covetous glances.

Almost the first thing Thiel does after we have been introduced is to ask what are the three most interesting things Ive encountered in the past year. He might learn something new, he explains, and it gives me a better idea of the kind of things you might want to explore.

Peter is very different from most people in Silicon Valley, Luke Nosek, one of the co-founders of PayPal, and now on the Founders Fund board, told me. With a lot of people the conversation is about how are we going to make more money; with Peter the conversation is How are we going to figure this out? He has a tremendous curiosity about how the world works, and all the philosophical and moral questions around that. Another colleague evaluated his ability for casual bar talk as very low. The ability to recall a data point what was gold trading at on day five of the Second World War and what was the impact of that? He has it like a record-book.

Thiel was born in Frankfurt, Germany, in 1967, the son of an engineer who moved his family to America when Thiel was one, eventually settling in Foster City, California. He has a younger brother, Patrick. Growing up, Thiel displayed all the traits of the brilliant, slightly nerdish loner.

He was a fanatical chess-player, becaming one of the highest ranked under-21 players in America; an avid reader of science fiction Isaac Asimov and Robert Heinlein in particular. He played Dungeons and Dragons, and was obsessed with Tolkien; two of Thiels businesses are named after Tolkien references: a technology investment fund Mithril (a precious metal found in Middle-earth) and Palantir, his data analytics company, named after the seeing stones in The Lord of the Rings.

Thiel studied philosophy at Stanford University before going on to Stanford Law School, and working in a law firm in New York and then as a derivatives trader on Wall Street. None of this quite answered what he describes as his world-changing aspirations.

The seed of Thiels libertarian beliefs was sown at Stanford. He founded a student newspaper, The Stanford Review, and co-authored a book, The Diversity Myth, attacking political correctness on campus. And he read Solzhenitsyn and Ayn Rand, the eccentric Russian author whose advocacy of ferocious laissez-faire capitalism, and her celebration of the heroic, individualistic genius fighting against bureaucratic regulation, made her something of a patron saint among the entrepreneurs of Silicon Valley. The charismatic founder is a characteristic of many Silicon Valley start-ups, Thiel says, but you need a whole team to get things done.

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Red tide nears Pinellas beaches after brief retreat

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TAMPA The red tide bloom in the Gulf of Mexico that was threatening the tourist-soaked beaches of Pinellas County reversed its course last week and began ebbing from the coastline.

That was great news for the visitor-dependent beach communities hoping to be spared the coughing and wheezing brought on by red tide toxins and the stench of dead fish washing ashore.

Then, as quickly as scientists spotted the about-face, the red tide again switched courses and continued its march toward shore.

The red tide bloom off Pasco and Pinellas counties had been moving north-northwest for almost a week, said Jason Lenes, a researcher with the University of South Floridas Collaboration for Prediction of Red Tides.

Yesterday, the currents reversed again, he said Wednesday, and the forecast for the next three days is back to the south-southeast.

The wobble is not unusual this time of year, he said, as weather systems brushing over the state dictate the direction of the bloom.

The bloom was spotted about six weeks ago and stretched about 20 to 40 miles offshore between Dixie and Pasco counties. It was estimated to be some 90 miles long and 60 miles wide, the largest Gulf bloom since 2006.

This week, the bloom remained between 5 and 35 miles offshore in Taylor and Levy counties and 10 to 20 miles offshore from Levy south to Pasco County.

Over the Labor Day weekend, dead fish began washing up on Honeymoon Island in north Pinellas County. They likely were killed by red tide farther offshore and to the north, scientists said, though there was some evidence of red tide close to shore. Scientists two weeks ago said the bloom had drifted to within 5 miles of the coastline.

Lenes said that along the coastline, the currents mainly are controlled by the direction and intensity of the winds.

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Red tide nears Pinellas beaches after brief retreat

Jo'burg residents battle Red Ant evictions

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Costly "compassion training" doesn't seem to be working on the infamous eviction crew, who are seen to have little regard for people or possessions.

The Red Ants evict residents of Castle Blaney, near Hillbrow in the Johannesburg central business district, on a cold Monday morning. (Oupa Nkosi, M&G)

Four trucks full of Red Ants so named because of their red overalls are parked outside the Hillbrow magistrates court. I asked them where they were going, but they couldnt, or wouldnt tell me.

The trucks set off and I follow them on foot, easily keeping pace. They pull up outside a block of flats Castle Blaney, just next to Park Station and the Red Ants jump out, forming a line outside the nine-storey building.

Its still early, and a cold morning. The residents are gripped with panic. They begin throwing their possessions: furniture, televisions, beds, mattresses, kettles and microwaves from the windows on to Leyds Street below.

Others throw black plastic bags of clothes from the balconies, which quickly pile up. There are loud whistles, and pedestrians scatter as possessions rain down. One man drops two bottles of whisky from his fourth-floor window; they land on a mattress.

From the fourth floor a burly man slowly opens his worn curtain. He looks down on the street, littered with belongings. The guards shout: Phuma wena! Phuma wena! [Move out!]

The man lets the curtain fall and moves away from the window.

Wall of Ants The Red Ants, armed with crowbars, wooden sticks and rifles, form a wall in front of the entrance. They appear to be giving the residents a chance to gather their possessions before they enter the building.

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Jo'burg residents battle Red Ant evictions

Modis $53 Billion Xi-Abe Windfall Hinges on Red Tape War

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A bear hug, a riverfront stroll and a swing-set session helped Prime Minister Narendra Modi win more than $53 billion in loans and investment pledges from China and Japan this month. Hell need to make progress on cutting Indias red tape to turn those promises into reality.

Chinese President Xi Jinping yesterday in New Delhi pledged $20 billion in investment for Modi over the next five years to narrow Indias largest trade deficit with any single country. That adds to the $33 billion in loans and investment Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe promised on Sept. 1.

Modis ability to draw funds from Asias two biggest economies is crucial to meeting his $1 trillion investment target by 2017 to revive Indian growth lingering near a decade low. Doing so will require him to streamline a bureaucracy that held up more than $350 billion in projects under former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, who lost power to Modi in May.

Its very difficult to pinpoint a number which these countries can reach because of the economic climate, Siddhartha Sanyal, chief India economist at Barclays Plc, said by phone from Mumbai. India needs to prioritize removing of the bottlenecks so that it can compete.

During a 2010 visit to India, former Chinese premier Wen Jiabao signed pacts valued at $16 billion, including $10 billion in equipment sales from Shanghai Electric Group Co Ltd. for three Reliance Power Ltd. power plants. Since then, units of one plant have been commissioned while the others are stalled due to lack of fuel and land permits.

Japanese and Chinese foreign direct investment to India has totaled $17.5 billion since April 2000, with just $410 million of this from China. More than doubling that in the next five years will require a complete overhaul of Indias investment climate, said C. Uday Bhaskar, a distinguished fellow with the Delhi-based Society for Policy Studies.

Indias capacity for being able to ingest and take in this kind of investment is limited, Bhaskar said by phone from Delhi. India needs to acquire that capacity and do so in a speedy manner. They have not demonstrated that ability yet and remain mired in red tape and procedural delays.

Singh formed a committee in June 2013 to clear 463 blocked investments worth 22 trillion rupees ($362 billion). While 176 proposals worth 6.48 trillion rupees have been approved so far, only 60 have begun construction, said Anil Swarup, who heads the committee, known as the Project Monitoring Group.

The pace at which things are happening is faster than what we saw in the past, Swarup said in a Sept. 3 interview. In the previous government, our job was just to see that the clearances would happen and we would assume that it was translating to work on the ground. The present government has asked us to do the leg-work and make sure that it is.

India ranked 134 of 189 economies in the World Banks Ease of Doing Business 2013 index, with China at 96. Since he came to power, Modi raised foreign investment ownership caps in defense and railways, and pledged to revive Indias manufacturing to reduce its reliance on imports.

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Modis $53 Billion Xi-Abe Windfall Hinges on Red Tape War

NASA’s MAVEN Approaches Mars After 10 Months And 442 Miles – Video

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NASA #39;s MAVEN Approaches Mars After 10 Months And 442 Miles
NASA #39;s Mars Atmosphere and Volatile Evolution orbiter (MAVEN) is approaching its destination over Mars. It #39;s the first spacecraft sent specifically to research the red planet #39;s upper atmosphere...

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NASA's MAVEN Approaches Mars After 10 Months And 442 Miles - Video

Fluid-Structure Interaction of the NREL/NASA Wind Turbine using Abaqus, CSE, OpenFOAM and EMPIRE – Video

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Fluid-Structure Interaction of the NREL/NASA Wind Turbine using Abaqus, CSE, OpenFOAM and EMPIRE
The isosurface of the Q criterion is rendered for 7m/s inlet velocity. Moreover, the isosurface is colored via the magnitude of the velocity. The displacement is scaled by a factor of 70. http://em...

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Fluid-Structure Interaction of the NREL/NASA Wind Turbine using Abaqus, CSE, OpenFOAM and EMPIRE - Video

How NASA Users The "Blinds Effect" To Hide Artifacts From Images – Video

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How NASA Users The "Blinds Effect" To Hide Artifacts From Images
This video is purely speculative and my take on why we get back such shotty pictures one day when on the very same day we get back crystal clear ones. The content within is what the factor...

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How NASA Users The "Blinds Effect" To Hide Artifacts From Images - Video

NASA keeping close eye on Arctic climate

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By Becky Oskin, Senior Writer

NASA's DHC-3 Otter plane flies in Operation IceBridge-Alaska surveys of mountain glaciers.(REUTERS/NASA/Chris Larsen)

A speedy trip across Alaska's vast, roadless tundra and tall mountains requires travel by air. The state has more private planes for each of its residents than any other state in the union.

Three NASA science missions traveled the Alaskan way this summer, soaring above Arctic sea ice, piloting over permafrost and gliding past mountain glaciers. The projects are tracking changes in the rapidly warming Arctic that are best monitored by air.

"We can't do everything with satellites," Tom Wagner, NASA's cryospheric sciences program manager, said during a media teleconference Sept. 16.

The Carbon in Arctic Reservoirs Vulnerability Experiment (CARVE) surveys permafrost two weeks out of every month in a C-23 Sherpa aircraft fitted with instruments that measure greenhouse gases. Huge areas of Alaska, Canada and northern Russia have permafrost, soil that remains frozen year round. But permafrost soils are warming even faster than Arctic air temperatures, increasing as much as 2.7 to 4.5 degrees Fahrenheit in the past 30 years. As the soil thaws, carbon stored on ice for centuries escapes. [On Ice: Stunning Images of Canadian Arctic]

Permafrost holds 1,000 billion metric tons of carbon, said Chip Miller, CARVE principal investigator at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California. And that carbon, once freed from the soil, can transform into climate-warming gases, such as methane and carbon dioxide. Scientists are tracking whether atmospheric levels of these gases are higher above permafrost than in other areas.

The interplay between melting ice and the atmosphere is also a focus for the new Arctic Radiation IceBridge Sea and Ice Experiment (ARISE). Launched this summer, the experiment measures how clouds help or hinder global warming above Arctic sea ice. Clouds reflect sunlight, cooling the Earth, but they can also trap heat radiating from the planet, boosting surface temperatures, said Bill Smith, principal investigator for ARISE at NASA's Langley Research Center in Hampton, Virginia. ARISE scientists plan to untangle this tricky relationship.

And as the researchers scan clouds and ice offshore Alaska, flying aboard a NASA C-130 Hercules aircraft, the agency's satellites will also spy on the same spots. The simultaneous collection of data will help improve Arctic satellite monitoring, Smith said.

Finally, NASA's long-running Operation IceBridge is monitoring the health of Alaska's glaciers. Twice a year, before and after the summer melt season, researchers scan up to 140 mountain glaciers with a plane-mounted laser altimeter. Two decades of data indicate glaciers in southern Alaska are losing ice, though not as rapidly as in West Antarctica, said Evan Burgess, a University of Alaska Fairbanks glaciologist and member of the IceBridge Alaska team.

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Why NASA is turning to Elon Musk

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NEW YORK (CNNMoney)

Before grounding the program in 2011, NASA flew 135 missions to the International Space Station, the single most expensive object ever built, with an estimated all-in cost of $150 billion.

The International Space Station is a floating laboratory in space that travels at speeds of 17,240 miles per hour, circling the planet every 90 minutes. (Oh, and despite being located in low earth orbit, about 250 miles high, the station has a Houston area code.)

So why are they giving the job to Boeing and SpaceX? NASA wants to pursue something far sexier.

This week, NASA administrator Charles Bolden spent time talking about these greater ambitions:

"We will conduct missions that will each set their own impressive roster of firsts. First crew to visit and take samples from an asteroid. First crew to fly beyond the orbit of the moon. Perhaps the first crew to grow it's own food and eat it in space. All of which will set us up for humanity's next giant leap: the first crew to touch down on and take steps on the surface of Mars."

Even so, NASA won't be able to pull that off on its own, at least according to Elon Musk, the entrepreneur behind SpaceX.

"My best guess is that the establishment of a self-sustaining city on Mars will have quite a bit of NASA involvement," Musk told CNN. "But I think it's going to be a public-private partnership. It might be more private than public."

The reason? Cost and bureaucracy. "It doesn't matter how smart someone is within the government, it simply can't be accomplished with that structure," said Musk.

"I don't think NASA could establish a self-sustaining city on Mars simply because it would be cost prohibitive. If NASA did it the traditional government way, the cost of doing it would exceed the federal budget."

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Why NASA is turning to Elon Musk