Monthly Archives: January 2021

While 2020 was a challenging year for the space industry (and everyone else) amid the coronavirus pandemic, a bunch of exciting missions that will launch or arrive at their destination in 2021 continued to move forward.

From Mars to asteroids, robots, humans and much more, we'll see space exploration continue to expand across the solar system.We'll also see some new rockets take flight from companies like Firefly Aerospace and Relativity Space.

Here's what we're looking forward to:

The space industry is rapidly expanding and the Red Planet is the hottest destination for missions, it seems. NASA will continue its long-running search for life with the Perseverance rover, which will cache Martian samples for eventual analysis on Earth and test out the first-ever Mars helicopter, called Ingenuity.

China's ambitious Tianwen-1 mission, the first Mars mission for the country, will see an orbiter, lander and rover all explore the Red Planet. The United Arab Emirates also sent its first mission, the Hope orbiter, to Mars to inspire the "next generation."

Boeing had a number of issues when its commercial crew Starliner Orbital Test Flight-1 (OFT-1) launched into space in 2019 it didn't reach the International Space Station as planned and both NASA and the company investigated and implemented some lessons learned for another try in 2021.

Boeing hopes to launch a second attempt on March 29, 2021 after addressing the software issues that prevented Starliner from reaching its destination the first time. If Boeing succeeds, this will make Starliner the second commercial crew spacecraft certified to bring astronauts to orbit, after SpaceX's Crew Dragon.

Assuming that Starliner passes its uncrewed flight test, Boeing plans to send up three astronauts to the International Space Station no earlier than June 2021. NASA astronauts Mike Fincke, Nicole Mann and Barry "Butch" Wilmore will fly with Boeing's first crewed test flight. Boeing astronaut Chris Ferguson was originally assigned to command the mission, but stepped down from the oft-delayed flight for personal reasons in October 2020.

Japan's first moon rover, called Yaoki, will take flight aboard the rookie mission for United Launch Alliance's new Vulcan Centaur rocket in 2021. The new booster will phase out the Russian-made engines that powered ULA's long-running Atlas line, replacing them with Blue Origin-made engines.

Yaoki will fly to the moon along with the Pittsburgh-based company Astrobotic's Peregrine lander on a mission sponsored by NASA's Commercial Lunar Payload Services (CLPS) program. If the mission goes to plan, the cremated remains of noted science fiction writer Arthur C. Clarke will be deposited on the moon.

Washington state-based company Blue Origin will send its first orbital rocket aloft in 2021, if all goes to plan. Named New Glenn after the NASA Mercury astronaut John Glenn, the rocket can send up to 14 tons (13 metric tons) to geostationary orbit and 50 tons (45 metric tons) to low Earth orbit.

NASA and Blue Origin recently announced the rocket will be added to NASA's fleet of commercial launch vehicles; NASA already has used Blue Origin's suborbital rocket New Shepard (named after NASA Mercury astronaut Al Shepard.)

NASA's ambitious James Webb Space Telescope (JWST), which scientists hope will reveal more about exoplanet atmospheres and the early universe, has already been delayed many years from its original launch date in 2007. But, despite these delays, the telescope is almost ready now and final testing is being readied on some of its more complex parts, such as its sunshield.

July 2020, the pandemic forced JWST to delay seven months further into 2021, from March to October.. However, while the telescope may make this possible date, NASA wants to get the telescope right and will take the time it needs, the agency says.

An ambitious new NASA mission called Lucy should launch in October or November to study eight space rocks over nearly a decade.

The spacecraft will be the first from NASA to visit Jupiter's Trojan asteroids, which orbit the sun in two clusters; one group is behind Jupiter and one is ahead of it. Lucy will also pass by a main-belt asteroid on its way to the huge gas giant planet.

If NASA's ambitious Space Launch System megarocket can clear its testing hurdles this year and construction is completed on time, the agency's Artemis I mission will fly around the moon after a launch in November 2021.

This will be the first launch for SLS and the second for NASA's Orion spacecraft, which first had an uncrewed space mission back in 2014. Artemis I is key to NASA's plans to land humans on the moon, as the agency plans a crewed orbital moon mission in 2023 and then a crewed landing in 2024. Meeting the landing deadline, however, may also be contingent on NASA receiving more money for its human landing system, administrator Jim Bridenstine has warned Congress.

The Russian lander Luna-25 may be the first Russian craft to reach the moon's surface since it was part of the Soviet Union. Russia plans to launch the moon mission in 2021 with nine instruments on board.

Luna-25 will touch down at the moon's south pole to research the lunar regolith and exosphere (atmosphere). This region is under consideration for crewed moon missions by NASA and other space agencies in the future. The Soviet Union sent several uncrewed missions to the moon between the 1950s and 1970s, including the first spacecraft to hit the surface (Luna 2 in 1959), the first spacecraft to soft-land (Luna 9 in 1966) and the first robotic lunar rover (Luna 17/Lunokhod 1 in 1970), among other milestones.

The End-of-Life Services by Astroscale-demonstration (ELSA-d) mission is set to launch in March 2021 on a Russian Soyuz rocket from Kazakhstan in a bid to deal with the growing problem of space junk in orbit.

The dual spacecraft mission includes a 385-lb. (175 kilograms) "servicer" and a 37-lb. (17 kg) "client" that will use rendezvous technology and a magnetic capture mechanism in orbit. Orbital debris is expected to increase in the coming years as more companies send tiny spacecraft into low Earth orbit.

SpaceX plans to send astronauts with Houston-based company Axiom Space into space in 2021 for a mission to the International Space Station.

The trip will likely feature eight days at the station and two days of travel time. While tourists have visited the space station before, Axiom notes this will be "the first-ever fully private" trip to the station. NASA hopes to open up the space station for even more commercial opportunities in the future, although Congress has not given the agency as much money as desired in fiscal 2021 for these plans.

Houston-based company Intuitive Machines plans to fly the robotic Nova-C lander on a NASA-sponsored flight in 2021, launching on a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket. The lander will send five NASA Commercial Lunar Payload Services (CLPS) payloads to the surface and will send data to our planet for 13.5 Earth days.

Other customer payloads will fly aboard Nova-C as the lander still has capacity for the mission. "Our partnership with Intuitive Machines is a great example of two private companies working together with NASA to advance space exploration," SpaceX President Gwynne Shotwellsaid in a statement.

After several ambitious tests in 2020, SpaceX may send its first commercial payload aloft on a Starship spacecraft in 2021. Jonathan Hofeller, SpaceX's vice president of commercial sales, said back in June 2019 that the company was talking with several telecom companies for that launch opportunity.

Even if SpaceX doesn't make that tentative date, however, it is moving forward quickly with Starship development, including an ambitious maneuvering test in December 2020. The company plans to eventually use Starship for crewed Mars missions.

The United Launch Alliance, Blue Origin and SpaceX aren't the only companies planning to launch new rockets in 2021. Several small-satellite launch companies also hope to reach orbit in the coming year, including Firefly Aerospace, Relativity Space and Virgin Orbit.

Texas-based Firefly Aerospace initially hoped to launch its first Alpha rocket, a two-stage booster for smallsat launches, in 2020 but is now aiming for multiple missions in 2021. In addition to the Alpha rocket's debut launch from Vandenberg Air Force Base in California, Firefly plans to launch at least two more missions in 2021 under a new launch agreement with Adaptive Launch Services.

Relativity Space is a startup in Los Angeles, California building the Terran 1 rocket, a completely 3D-printed booster that will launch small satellites from pads at both Cape Canaveral, Florida and Vandenberg. The company is expected to launch its first flight in 2021 and recently received its second launch contract from NASA among other commercial agreements.

Virgin Orbit is a small-satellite launch company founded by British billionaire Sir Richard Branson that spun out of the entrepreneur's Virgin Galactic space tourism company. Virgin Orbit is building LauncherOne, an air-launched rocket for smallsat launches, and has already launched one test flight that did not reach space.

The company had hoped to launch a second test flight of LauncherOne in December 2020, but the ongoing coronavirus pandemic has delayed the flight.

Follow Elizabeth Howell on Twitter @howellspace. Follow us on Twitter @Spacedotcom and on Facebook.

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These are the space missions to watch in 2021 - Space.com

Despite the mind-numbing stream of badnews surrounding the coronavirus, lockdowns, politics and much more, the year 2020 was full of progress in the space technology industry, and 2021 promises much more to come, and all at a rapid pace. Here's a quickroundup of just a few of the major players in space, and some of their plans for the coming months.

SpaceX is of coursefront and center with their reliable Falcon 9 launch system and it's rapid turnaround ability and multiple reusability of it's booster stages. Everyone said it couldn't be done, but Elon Musk's company has proven it certainlycan be done, and is doing so with almost monotonous regularity.They arelaunching frequently and efficiently, putting into orbit satellite additions to theirownStarlink internet satellite constellationand carrying payloads for other companies, as well as supplies and crew members for the International Space Station. Two more crewed flights are scheduledin 2021.

The loudest buzz however,surrounds their full-scale Starship test flights, the firstof which(SN8) launched December 08, 2020. The amazing launchand flight of SN8 was a spectacular success, and despite it's hard (and fiery) landing, it was right on target, and provided SpaceX the engineering data needed to continue improving it's design, systems and software. SpaceX has always pushed the envelope very hard, often forcing failures in testing,but actively uses those events to identify problem areas and produce success.

Starship, the company's program for eventually returning humans to the Moon and Mars, is still in the early stages of development, but progress at the company is always extraordinarily fast. Several othertest versions of Starship have already been built or are being assembled, and necessary design changeswill be made according to data gained in each test flight.

According to several sources, the next iteration (SN9) is likely to launch within the firstfew weeks in January, 2021, and promises to be another spectacular event at their Boca Chica Beach launch facility near Padre Island, Texas.

Another mover and shaker in space technology is Rocket Lab, a U.S. company which live-streams their launches from a gorgeous launch facility on the rocky coast of New Zealand. Rocket Lab is making excellent progress on reusability of their small, lightweight launch vehicles, Electron.

Launched last July, NASA's latest Mars rover Perseverancewill also be making news with a landing on February 18th, 2021, and will demonstrate new technology in the form of a multi-rotor helicopter which will deploy then fly in the thin atmosphere of the "Red Planet".

Richard Branson's space tourism venture Virgin Galactic is nearing the end of testing, and is rapidly moving closer to taking paying passengers into low altitude space, andBlue Origin's first manned flight of it's New Shepard vehicle, andBoeing's Starlinerproject is making progress in it's contract with NASA for manned spaceflight.

These are just a few U.S. companies, all making fantastic achievements, and all, just a few years ago, were nearly unheard of.

Two great sites I follow in my feeble attempts to stay current are:Behind The BlackandSpaceflight Now. Another great up-to-the-minute source is an appcalledSpace Launch Now,available at theGoogle Play and iTunesapp stores.

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2021 Promises Very Exciting Year In Space Exploration - News/Talk 790 KFYO

Foreground: Rachel Brachman, public engagement specialist at NASAs Jet Propulsion Laboratory in California. Background: Holden Crater on Mars. (Background photo via NASA/JPL-Caltech/University of Arizona)

For a full portrait of Rachel Brachmans passions and proficiencies, dont look at her LinkedIn. Start with her merit badge counselor registration.

Brachman, a public engagement specialist at NASAs Jet Propulsion Laboratory in California, is a counselor for seven merit badges: Art, Astronomy, Canoeing, Disabilities Awareness, Horsemanship, Inventing and Space Exploration.

Each of these badges reflects a different aspect of my life, she says.

As a NASA specialist at the place where scientists built the Mars rover Curiosity and Saturn probe Cassini, Brachman is a natural to serve as a counselor for the Space Exploration merit badge.

Since Ive been working at NASAs Jet Propulsion Laboratory for 17 years, Ive had a front-row seat during significant moments in space exploration history, she says. I love sharing what Ive learned about Saturn and Mars with Scouts who are earning their Space Exploration merit badge.

Brachman has been an active Scouting volunteer since her son became a Tiger in 2011 and a merit badge counselor since 2017. We asked Brachman for her top advice for merit badge counselors, which youll find below. She also shares a lovely free-verse poem about why she takes time to serve in this role. And finally, Brachman tells fellow volunteers about a NASA-sponsored essay contest no space-loving Scout will want to miss.

3 2 1 lets go.

Brachman was born in London, Ontario, and was a member of Girl Guides of Canada. She worked her way up through that program and became a Brownie, Guide and Pathfinder. She even earned the All Round Cord, a since-discontinued award that required girls to complete adventures and earn badges in subjects like astronomy, first aid and citizenship.

Brachman was active in science fairs throughout school and made it to the Canada-Wide Science Fair three times. In sixth grade, she won a silver medal at the fair for an invention that helped nonverbal children use a computer to communicate.

After high school, Brachman studied physics at Brandeis University in Massachusetts and earned a master of space studies degree at the International Space University in France.

She worked at the Canadian Space Agency, NASAs Ames Research Center, The Planetary Society and Caltech before landing a job at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in 2003.

In 2011, Brachmans son joined Scouting as a Tiger. Brachman signed up, too, serving first as a volunteer in his Cub Scout pack and then in his Scouts BSA troop. Her current role is advancement chair for Troop 191 of Sherman Oaks, Calif. (Western Los Angeles County Council), where her son is a Life Scout working on his Eagle project.

As a Space Exploration merit badge counselor with the Western Los Angeles County Council, Brachman enjoys sharing her love of space with the Scouts who participate in WLACCs Virtual Merit Badge University.

Ive taught the online Space Exploration merit badge class 16 times since April 2020, with a dozen Scouts in each class from all across the United States, Brachman says. Im a strong believer in paying it forward. So many people have contributed to my education along the way, and its my job to make sure the next generation is inspired and educated, too.

With the Space Exploration merit badge, Brachman knows shes working with a head start. Based on its name alone, the merit badge is one of the coolest-sounding badges on the entire list of 137.

But any merit badge can be memorable and meaningful if delivered in the right way. You just need passion for the subject and a willingness to help Scouts experience something new.

Share what you know about your subject, and make sure Scouts have a chance to share what they know about the subject, too, Brachman says. Be a mentor and a role model for your Scouts. As with all Scouting activities, Be Prepared.

Brachman suggests using technology to help you a PowerPoint presentation, perhaps but warns against turning your merit badge into a lecture. Scouts will have a better experience if they get to interact with the counselor and their fellow Scouts.

Leave lots of time for Scouts to ask questions, Brachman says.

And what if youre planning to teach the Space Exploration merit badge but dont have a job at NASA? Dont sweat it.

NASA has some fantastic resources for teachers that can also be used by merit badge counselors, Brachman says. You can use primary sources photos, videos and lesson plans from NASA to show examples of past and present space missions. I like using NASAs Eyes on the Solar System software to show where all of NASAs spacecraft are at the moment and what theyre exploring.

Brachman shared this free-verse poem about her experience as a merit badge counselor, and I enjoyed it quite a lot. Take a look:

Scout Merit BadgesToday I am teachingArt and Space Exploration.Tomorrow I willbe teaching two Inventing workshops.As a merit badgecounselor, my biography is spelled out in the badges I counsel.Art. Astronomy.Canoeing. Disabilities Awareness. Horsemanship. Inventing. Space Exploration.That sums up mylife pretty nicely.What I do and whatI love and what I care about.It summarizes thedifference I want to make in the world.Making it more beautiful.Learning and wonderingabout the universe.Going on adventureswhile getting stronger and staying healthy.Helping other people.Connecting withnature.Being creative andsolving problems.Making new discoveries.Not a bad life sofar.Im glad to be ableto share what I have learned so farWith Scouts whoare seeing it for the first timeAnd following theirown paths through life.

As part of her role at JPL, Brachman gets to run NASAs 2020-2021 Scientist for a Day essay contest for students in the fifth through 12th grade.

Brachman asked me to share the opportunity with blog readers, believing that the contest is especially appropriate for Scouts.

Scouting is all about adventure and exploration. NASA shares these goals, she says. Many astronauts started off in Scouting, because the life skills learned in Scouting also serve you well at NASA.

The contest, which runs through Feb. 12, 2021, asks participants to study three of Uranus moons, choose one and write about why that moon would be the best place to visit with a spacecraft someday.

NASA wants to know what you think, so dont just repeat facts you find online, Brachman says. Why do you think one moon would be more interesting to explore than another? What do you hope you might find if you explore this moon?

Learn more here and submit your essay here.

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NASA specialist on why she's a Space Exploration merit badge counselor - Scouting Magazine

As was evident during the space race of the sixties, politically-fueled competition can go hand-in-hand with scientific collaboration. Such was the case on December 16, when Chinas Change-5 return capsule landed in the grasslands of the countrys Siziwang Banner near the Mongolian Border. Scientists around the world have been eagerly awaiting its arrival.

The reentry and recovery marked the end of a historic 23-day mission. Employing similar maneuvers to the later Apollo missions (lunar lander separates and reconnects with craft orbiting the moon before returning to Earth), Change-5 became the first spacecraft to successfully accomplish the feat robotically since the Soviet Unions Luna 24 probe in 1976, and the first to do such a difficult maneuver on an unmanned mission. The flights success is a welcoming sign for upcoming missions to the moon, and is arguably Chinas crowing achievement to date in space.

The success of the automated spaceflight aside, Change-5s primary mission was to return samples from the moon for the first time since the seventies. The craft landed near the moons Mons Rmker in a region known as Oceanus Procellarum (Ocean of Storms). Automated systems onboard directed the landing site away from nearby craters and landed the 4-ton probe on the lunar surface. NASAs Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter captured an image of Change-5 hours after landing.

The landing site was an area believed to be newer than the majority of the moons surface, being the site of ancient lava flows. Without active volcanoes, an atmosphere, or sources of change beyond the occasional meteor impact, many have concluded that the moon is geologically dead. However, recent studies have cast doubt on the conclusion of complete geological inactivity, spurring scientists to gather more evidence.

Jessica Flahaut, a planetary geologist at the University of Lorraine in France, said, Remote sensing data from the last decades have also shown a number of curiosities, including felsic domes, irregular mare patches, and rock types at the lunar surface, which we dont have in the sample collection yet. It is therefore key to insist that lunar exploration is still only at its beginning, and that there is much more to do.

Change-5 seeks to help calibrate our understanding of the moons age, and did its part by drilling into the rocky surface during the first few days of December. In its rendezvous with the return capsule, the probe stashed away 2 kilograms of precious moon material. Its backup craft, Change-6, will be repurposed for exploring a different area of the lunar surface, and versions 7 and 8 will reportedly be used to help establish an international lunar research station, one in which the United States will utilize as it leads the way for crewed landings later this decade.

The return of astronomical samples has been in the news on the American front recently as well, with NASAs OSIRIS-REx probe collecting the first sample of an asteroid (Bennu) to be returned to earth this October. The asteroid material will return to Earth in 2023, an unprecedented feat for the robot that had been orbiting the asteroid since 2018.

While 2020 will go down as a year with more than its share of shortcomings, its been perhaps the most exciting year in space exploration in decades. The United States is leading the way, but is undoubtedly assisted by a growing international community of interstellar capabilities.

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2020: The Year of Exciting Space Exploration - ClearanceJobs

Representational image.  |  Photo Credit: iStock Images

Despite the pandemic raging across hundreds of countries, 2020 did turn out to be quite significant for space exploration. From the stunning images of the Martian surface that NASA's Curiosity rover sent back, to the NASA astronauts being shuttled to the International Space Station aboard a novel SpaceX Crew Dragon rocket, there were some incredible milestones hit over the course of the last year.

But if science ever rested on its laurels, we would never have made it this far. With that in mind, what does 2021 have in store for humanity's pursuit of space exploration?

Well, the answer is quite a lot. To begin with, in the early months ofnext year, three spacecraft on individual Mars exploration missions Mars 2020, Tianwen-1 and Hope are all set to enter the Red Planet's orbit. The United Arab Emirates' Hope orbiter is scheduled to reach by February 9 while NASA's Perseverance rover attempt to touch down on Mars' surface on February 18. The Chinese lander is scheduled to arrive in late April.

The Perseverance mission is particularly unique in that it isn't just martian rock samples that NASA is looking to collect. The rover also houses a tiny helicopter named Ingenuity which, once Persevearance lands, will begin making short test flights into the Martian skies. This will mark the first time a rotorcraft will take flight on an extraterrestrial planet.

Later in May, the astronauts that SpaceX's vessel flew to the ISS will return before a second SpaceX Crew Dragon mission with another four astronauts will make their way to the orbiting station. The second batch of astronauts, like the first one, will also spend six months aboard the ISS.

2020 saw a lot of talk of doomsday asteroids and that may continue in 2021 but for another reason. In July next year, NASA plans to conduct a Double Asteroid Redirection Test the Earth's first-ever planetary defence project. Simply put, it is going to hurl a projectile no larger than a small car at an asteroid moon to make impact in Autumn 2022. Researchers are hoping to study the impact and how effective the mission is in changing the trajectory of the asteroid.

NASA will also launch its James Webb Space Telescope in 2021. The massive telescope is optimised to collect light in the infrared spectrum and the hope is that it will help us peer deep into the early universe to uncover truths about the first galaxies ever created.

But perhaps, the biggest endeavour that NASA will begin prepping for in 2021 is the Artemis 1 mission. Earlier this year, the American space agency revealed its intention to send a manned mission back to the Moon by 2024. However, the first step of this mission will entail launching the SLS rocket-enabled Orion spacecraft around the Moon without a pilot.

Not to be outdone though, Russia is also gearing up to launch its Luna-25 spacecraft next year to land a lunar vehicle on the surface of the moon making it the first Russian moon mission since 1976. Russia's State Space Corporation Roscosmos has also announced that it may begin offering space tours in 2021 commencing with the launch of two tourists into orbit.

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Setting sights on the stars: What does 2021 have in store for space exploration? - Times Now

BREVARD COUNTY, Fla. Elton John might have said it best in his iconic song"Rocket Man""Mars ain't the kind of place to raise your kids."

More than 50 years after we sent humans to the moon the closest celestial body to Earth the plan is still to head to Mars, something many astronauts who have flown in space thought we would have alreadyaccomplished.

"I just assumed by the time I got to be old enough to go into the space program, you know we'd be living on Mars or I'd be working on Mars just as a scientist," Mae Jemison, thefirst African American woman in space,told university students at the Kennedy Space Center Visitor Complex in December 2019.

But despite the fact humankind has been unable to send anyone to another place in the universe besides the moon, there are still many with the hopes and expectation that we will become a multi-planetary species in the near future, starting with our red next-door neighbor.

Billionaire entrepreneurs like Elon Musk and aspiring young astronauts like Alyssa Carson, a sophomore studying astrobiology at Florida Tech, hope to one day live on Mars.

"Eventually the sun will run out of fuel to burn … and conditions on Earth are going to be very different from our normal regular life now," Carson told Florida Today, part of the USA TODAY Network. "It's not necessarily saying Mars is the savior here … but Mars is that first step in getting people a bit more accustomed to even thinking about living on other planets and being able to colonize someplace else."

Even Musk's aerospace company, SpaceX, was founded with the "ultimate goal of enabling people to live on other planets," according to its website.

But how feasible is that?Do we want to settle on a planet where we can't even breathe?

According to NASA administrator Jim Bridenstine, we have the technological capability to go to Mars. The problem is money, or lack thereof.

Under Space Policy Directive 1, President Donald Trump tasked NASA with sending the next man and first woman to the moon by 2024 and then eventually heading on to Mars. But this isn't the first time a president has said we're going back to the moon or we're finally sending humans to the Red Planet.

After John F. Kennedy made his declaration that we would "put a man on the moon," several other presidents have tried to walk in his footsteps. But unlike Kennedy, none have come close to succeeding.

On the 20th anniversary of Apollo 11 in 1989, President George H.W.Bush said we would return to the moon and go on to Mars, but in the end, the priceprovedtoo high.

His sonPresident George W. Bush echoed the same goal.

Under the Constellation program, the plan was to return to the moon by 2020 and then head to Mars, but the project was ultimately scrapped after a series of delays and increasingly high costs.

President Barack Obama also hoped to go to Mars. Instead of proposing returning to the moon, however, Obama said we should send astronauts to an asteroid by 2025 before moving on to Mars. Congressional Republicans rejected the idea, andnothing came to fruition.

NASA Administrator discusses crewed missions to Mars

NASA Administrator Jim Bridenstine discusses NASA's ability to send humans to Mars

Rachael Joy, Florida Today

Then cameTrump's turn.

After heading back to the moon in the next four years under the Artemis program, the next big milestone would be a trip to Mars.

But again, the problem boils down to spending what's necessary to send astronauts there, Bridenstine said.

"The question isn't whether or not we're technologically capable of doing it, because we are. The question is whether or not we have the political will to do it,"hetold reporters at Kennedy Space Center in July for NASA's Mars Perseverance rover launch.

The Apollo program, Bridenstine pointed out, was driven by the need to beat the Soviet Union to the moon, which is why Congress appropriated vast sums of money to NASA. Today, that's no longer the case.

With no Cold War to encourage federal spending on the program, NASA instead is looking to international partners to help pay for any trip to Mars.

"Today we don't have thatlarge power competition that we had back then, but what we do have is we have international partners, we have commercial partners, we have technological advances that are so far beyond what we had in the 1960s," Bridenstine said. "So the answer is yes, we can do it. The question is: Will we receive the budgetto do it right now?"

It is unclear how much support the incoming Biden administrationis going to give the Artemis program.

Money isalso anissue for SpaceX's Mars plans.

As a private company, SpaceX can't rely solely on taxpayer dollars to send humans there. Instead, the aerospace company is looking for other revenue streams to help pay for a Mars mission, such as its Starlink internet constellation.

Aside from providing internet connection to people living in remote areas around the world, Starlink will also help fund SpaceX's goal of having people live on Mars or at least, that's the plan.

But first, Starlink has to be successful.

Not everyone believes sending people to live on Mars is the right move, however.

Bill Nye, CEO for the Planetary Society and famously known as "Bill Nye the Science Guy" for his TV show that aired in the '90s, is one of those who doesn't believe in setting up camp on Mars.

"I would love to go to space, you guys.But this idea of living on another world where we can't be outside just doesn't sound that appealing," Nye told reporters in 2019 before the launch of the Light Sail 2 project he and other Planetary Society members had worked on.

"You think you want to go to Venus?We'd be vaporized in a second, way less than a second," Nye said. "And then on Mars, there's nothing to breathe. There's nothing to breathe, people. It's not just there's nothing to eat, there's nothing to breathe. So, you know if you live in a dome and you go outside, you're going to put on a spacesuit and you're in another dome, like my good friend Sandy the squirrel," referencing the character from the children's TV show"SpongeBob SquarePants."

And as of now, that's really the only option for humans to live on Mars a dome. It would essentially be like how actor Matt Damon' character lived in the sci-fi film "The Martian."

Even the author of "The Martian," on which the sci-fi film is based, doesn't believe we're close to having a human settlement on Mars.

"Mars is horribly inhospitable," Andy Weir told Florida Today via email. "Though it's an awesome idea living on Mars it would be far easier to colonize Earth's ocean floor. There won't be a significant settlement on Mars until there's an economic reason for a city to exist there. Like Antarctica,the only people there are researchers because there's no reason to be there otherwise."

So like Nye, Weir isn't inclined live on Mars.

Bill Nye doesn't think humans should live on Mars

Bill Nye, CEO of the Planetary Society, talks to FLORIDA TODAY reporters Antonia Jaramillo and Rachael Joy about the idea of humans living on Mars.

Staff, FLORIDA TODAY

"Nope! I write about brave people, but I'm not one of them," Weir said."I like Earth and plan to stay."

Others argue there's another way to live on Mars that doesn't include living in a dome. The only problem is the logistics ofchanging the Martian landscape into one that can support human life.

Called "terraforming," this essentially involves transforming Mars into a more Earth-like habitat. It's what Musk has proposed doing and what astrophysicist Neil deGrasse Tyson believes would be best if humans were to live on Mars.

Elon Musk has a plan. Hes thinking of putting satellites in orbit that have big reflectors that focus sunlight that would otherwise miss the planet. Focus it down on the planet and just add more energy to the planet, heating it up, and if you do it right, you might be able to set sort of a chain reaction in place," deGrasse Tyson said in his podcast, "StarTalk."

"If everything is frozen and it gets warmer, youll evaporate more carbon dioxide, and thatll help trap more heat, and then thatll make it hotter to evaporate even more carbon dioxide," he said. "You get all of that out of the system and into the atmosphere. Then now its warm enough, now youre still mostly greenhouse gases, you still need oxygen to breathe. So now you put microorganisms that eat the CO2 and they release oxygen.

But terraforming Mars isn't going to happen anytime soon. Not only is the technology not available to do so, but the question also becomes, "How long would that take?"

Thats the big problem. Is it a thousand years, is it a million years? Or can you speed it up with some fast-acting microbes? This remains to be established, deGrasse Tyson said. But Im telling you that if were going to be a two-planet species, Im thinking you have to terraform Mars for that to happen.

Yet not everybody agrees with that tactic, especially because that would change the whole geology of Mars.

"Ive never been someone that has been a fan of terra-transforming a planet to make it more Earth-like. I think that the excitement of going to a different planet would be utilizing the in-situ resources that are there," NASA astronaut Christina Koch told deGrasse Tyson on his podcast.

"So, I would see something like a sustainable Mars establishment, to me, would always require some type of resupply, and even if thats just to make it livable and habitable in terms of what humans think of as habitable and livable, I think is the important thing. But using the in-situ resources as well, she said.

In other words, living in that dome-like structure.

Florida Tech professor and plant biochemist Andrew Palmer also believes using in-situ resources to live on Mars is the best plan.

He, along with other researchers at the universityare collaborating on how future Marssettlers can use the resources, namely the soil on Mars to grow their own food.

"So the whole premise of this project, it all falls under something that's called in-situ resource utilization, which is a simple way of just saying using what's already there. So what we want to do is establish how little do you need to bring from Earth in order to be self-sufficient," Palmer told Florida Today."Mars is about six months away. If something goes wrong on Mars and you're unable to get a rocket to Mars to rescue people, they need to have their own food."

By studying various simulated Martian soils, Palmer and his colleagues hope to determine what elseis neededto help grow crops on Mars, especially since the Martian soil may not be able to host plant life.

Florida Tech to find right Mars soil to grow plants on the red planet

Dr. Andrew Palmer , fellow professors and his grad students are working on growing plants in simulated Mars soil for sustainability on Mars.

Malcolm Denemark, FLORIDA TODAY

"IfI go take a sample of soil on Florida Tech campus and then I went out beachside and I took a soil sample there, those are not going to be the same, and the same is true on Mars," Palmer said.

That's problematic for future Mars settlers. What if they get to Mars and all of a sudden they can't grow anything there?

To avoid that, Palmer suggests sending a robotic greenhouse in advance.

"In our mind, one way to do this would be you land robots there six months in advance, and you inflate a tent and you start working on the soil, all remotely, and colonists get there and the soil is ready to grow," Palmer said.

When discussing what crops would be best to grow on Mars and what other nutrients settlers would need, Palmer recommends crops like potatoes, corn, radishes andkale. As for protein, Palmer says, insects are the way to go.

"Trying to grow a cow on Mars, that's a huge amount of resource investment,but growing insects, it's a very cheap investment, relatively speaking," Palmer said.

The other option could be to grow synthetic meats.

Besides just the different eating habits and living arrangements humans would have to get accustomed to if they lived on Mars, life would be very different from Earth, perhaps more environmentally friendly, becausenearly everything would have to be recycled.

But that might not be all that enticing to future colonists.

"In a Martian colony, (the settlers) willhave never not had water that was made fromprevious urine, andtheir entire world will be completely recycled and reused," Palmer said.

But even with a Mars establishment, others don't believe Mars should be the final destination or a "colony" at all.

"I think going to Mars is fineit's not a final place to go. I mean, you know, it's like just going to the moon but it's a little further out," the late Apollo 15 astronaut Al Worden told Florida Today in November 2019.

"When the sun burns out, Mars is going to go too, along with the Earth," Worden said. "We'd be better off solving all the problems we've got here (on Earth) than colonizing Mars. What we need is an Earth-like planet in another solar system somewhere."

But if humans haven't even been able to head back to the moon since 1972, the odds of trying to head to a planet in another solar system isnothingmore thanscience fiction at this point.

Apollo 15 astronaut Al Worden doesn't believe in colonizing Mars

At Florida Tech, Apollo 15 astronaut Al Worden explained why he doesn't believe in colonizing Mars & where we could eventually live (Alpha Centauri)

Rachael Joy, Florida Today

Technological challengesaside, will humans even live long enough to travel and settle on another planet?

"That's my greatest concern," Worden said. "We're not very good to each other here, and we don't seem to care about the things that will sustain this place to live in for a long time. …I think we're doing more damage to ourselves and the planet that it may be of such an extent that we don't have to wait till the sun burns outwe're going to do it ourselves."

He's not the only one who thinks so.

In a July 2019 Pew Research Center study, 63% of Americans said NASA's top priorities should be using space to monitor key parts of Earths climate system. Meanwhile, only 13% believe sending astronauts to the moon should be a top priority. That figure jumps to a mere 18% for a crewed mission to Mars.

Former NASA Deputy Administrator Lori Garver wrote an op-ed piece for The Washington Postin 2019stating NASA should focus its resources on saving our planet instead of heading to other celestial bodies.

"The public is right about this. Climate change not Russia, much less China is todays existential threat. Data from NASA satellites show that future generations here on Earth will suffer from food and water shortages, increased disease and conflict over diminished resources," Garver said.

Instead of focusing on sending humans to the moon or Mars, Garver said, NASA should create a Climate Corps"in which scientists and engineers spend two years in local communities understanding the unique challenges they face, training local populations and connecting them with the data and science needed to support smart, local decision-making."

"Apollos legacy should not be more meaningless new goals and arbitrary deadlines," Garver said. "Lets not repeat the past. Lets try to save our future. Besides, humanitys intrinsic need to explore is driven by our need to survive."

The coronavirus pandemicleads toanother important question about interplanetary travel:What if we got stuck with another pandemic, only this time while humans were in space?

It's hard enough to live on a planet where you can't breathe, let alone have a highly contagious virus spreading like wildfire.

A key thing we have come to understand from COVID-19 is those with weaker immune systems have a harder time recovering. For the future explorers venturing to live on Mars, they might all end up having weak immune systems.

A study published last yearby NASA scientists revealed astronauts who have endured long space voyages such as the shuttle missions and International Space Station flightswere more vulnerable to diseasessuch as herpes, chickenpox and shingles.

The cause? Pretty much what youd expect from any potentially treacherous space voyage: stress.

So far, 47 out of 89 (53%) astronauts from short-duration space shuttle flights, and 14 out of 23 (61%) from long-duration ISS spaceflight missions shed at least one or more herpes viruses in their saliva or urine samples, the study states.

When astronauts venture out into space, they are faced with several extraterrestrial hazards, including cosmic radiation, microgravity and gravitational forces like acceleration and deceleration.

But those aren't the only stress factors they're exposed to. Throughout an astronaut's space mission, they are forced to endure social separation, confinement, sleep deprivation, circadian rhythm disruption and increased anxiety.

All this exposure contributes to dysregulation in the astronauts immune and endocrine systems.

So what does this mean for potentially longer space exploration missions and the humans embarking on those quests?

Although NASA believes there is no clinical risk to astronauts during orbital spaceflight, there is concern that during deep-space exploration missions there may be clinical risks related to viral shedding, lead study author Satish Mehta at Johnson Space Center told Florida Today via email.

The girl who wants to go to Mars

Alyssa Carson, 18 year old FIT student, has known she wanted to be an astronaut from a very young age and has been working towards that goal since childhood.

Malcolm Denemark, FLORIDA TODAY

Ultimately, the information gleaned from these space studies will shape the way we prepare for and design exploration-class missions, beyond the moon and Mars, where reactivation of latent viruses could result in increased risk for wide-ranging adverse medical events, according to the study.

Aside from the physical ramifications that living in space or other planets like Mars would cause on the human body, there's also a psychological toll that will affect those living far from Earth and their loved ones.

Here is the original post:

On a planet where you cannot breathe, is living on Mars the best idea? - USA TODAY

Suzie Dills| Special to The Canton Repository

Although 2020 was a very difficult year for us, it gave us a chance to take time to observe astronomical highlights and night sky delights and view live broadcasts of historic launches. Many of us enjoyed the Great Conjunction of Jupiter and Saturn and the surprise visit of Comet NEOWISE. We watched the launch of the next Mars rover, Perseverance in July. History was made with the NASA SpaceX Crew Dragon flight, the first American rocket launch since 2011 and the NASAs Space X Crew 1 Mission.

2021 HIGHLIGHTS

Mars 2020 Perseverance rover is scheduled to land inside the 28-mile Jerezo Crater, on Feb. 18. Perseverance will search for signs of ancient life in Jerezo Crater which harbored a lake and river delta billions of years ago. The rover will collect and store samples for future return to Earth, along with demonstrating technology that could aid in future exploration. A tiny helicopter named, Ingenuity, hitched a ride on the belly of Perseverance. After the rover lands, it will find a place for Ingenuity to conduct test flights. Then Ingenuity will make a few short flights into the Martian skies. This will be the first ever flight by a rotorcraft on a planet beyond Earth.

In May, the NASA SpaceX Crew 1 astronauts will return to Earth. Soon after the NASA SpaceX Crew 2 Mission with four astronauts aboard will head to the International Space Station. The Crew 2 astronauts will spend six months at the ISS.

Boeing Orbital Flight Test2 targeted to launch on March 29. The first crewed mission for Boeings CST-100 Starliner, will be slated for June or later.

The first stage of the Artemis program for the return to the Moon, by humans, will begin with the launch of Artemis I, in November 2021. The mission is designed to test the crew spacecraft Orion and the Space Launch System. Crewed Artemis missions will follow.

The James Webb Telescope is still on track for launch on Oct. 31, 2021. The James Webb Telescope will be the largest and most powerful space telescope ever built and launched into space. With the Webb, we will be able see much closer to the beginning of time, when the first stars and galaxies started to form.

Highlights by date:

March 10 The thin crescent Moon joins Mercury, Jupiter and Saturn in the morning twilight.

April 25 Mercury and Venus will be about a degree apart, low in the western sky after sunset.

April 26 Supermoon. Closest Full Moon of the year.

May 12 Venus and the thin crescent Moon, less than 1 degree apart, low in the west-northwest at dusk.

May 26 Partial lunar eclipse, begins at 5:44 am with the Moon setting at 6:02 am.

June 10 Partial solar eclipse, will be underway with the sunrise at 5:52 am. Maximum at 5:55 am and eclipse will end at 6:35 am.

July 11 The thin crescent Moon will be 5 degrees from Venus and Mars, which will be separated by 1 degree low in the western sky at dusk.

Aug. 22 Seasonal Blue Moon, occurs when we have four Full Moons in one season. The third is called the Blue Moon. This is the original definition of a Blue Moon.

Nov. 19 Near-total lunar eclipse. Partial eclipse begins at 2:18 am, maximum at 4:02 am and eclipse ends at 5:47 am.

Dec. 5 Jupiter, Saturn, Venus and the Moon form a spectacular line in the western sky after sunset.

NIGHT SKY FOR JANUARY

Planets and the Moon:

Jupiter and Saturn start the month low in the southwestern sky, right after sunset. By mid-month, they drop from view, but will return to the morning sky next month. Mercury returns to the evening sky in January and creates a spectacular trio with Jupiter and Saturn, in the southwest, on the 10th, right after sunset. Mercury will continue to climb higher and remains visible through the end of the month. Mercury reaches greatest elongation on Jan. 23, 19 degrees east of the Sun. Mars shines brightly overhead all month but continues to move away from Earth. At the beginning of the month, Mars is 84.3 million miles from Earth, at months end it will be 111 million miles away. Brilliant Venus will be low in the predawn southeastern at the beginning of January but lost in the Suns glare at months end. Jan. 18-22 will be a great time to spot Uranus. Mars will pass north of Uranus, with Jan. 21 as the best night, when Uranus is 1.7-degree due south of Mars. On Jan. 1, Neptune will be 1 degree east of Phi Aquarii in eastern Aquarius. On Jan. 14, the Moon pairs with Mercury, 35 minutes after sunset. Then on Jan. 17 the Moon passes south of Neptune and on Jan. 21 passes south of Mars and Uranus. In the predawn sky, the Moon pairs with Venus on Jan. 11.

Constellations:

East: Great star hopping in this part of the sky! Start with the most magnificent picture in our stars, Orion, the Hunter. Look for the three stars in a line, which make up the belt of Orion. The bright red-orange star up and to the left of the belt is Betelgeuse. The bright blue-white star down and to the right of the belt is Rigel.Draw a line up from the belt to a red, orange star, Aldebaran, which is the eye of Taurus, the Bull. The sideways V shape is the face of Taurus. Above Taurus, the small cluster of stars is the Pleiades or Seven Sisters. Making a counterclockwise loop from the Pleiades, the next bright star is Capella. Continuing down, the two stars you see are Gemini, the Twins.

North: The Big Dipper is beginning to swing up on its handle. Following the two stars at the end of the cup to the next bright star, is Polaris, or the North Star. The constellation Cassiopeia is above and to the left of Polaris and resembles the letter M.

West: There you will see four stars that form the Great Square of Pegasus.

Binocular Highlights: When facing north, locate the M shape of Cassiopeia. From the left point of the M shape, scan slowly up to the left. You will see a fuzzy circular shape. That is the Andromeda Galaxy. It is 2.5 million light years away. From the right point of the M, scan up slightly. You will come upon the Double Cluster in Perseus. High overhead, you will see the small cluster of stars, the Pleiades or the Seven Sisters. The Pleiades is a beautiful open star cluster. Head to Orion, the Hunter. Scan below the three stars of Orions belt. You will see fuzzy area with bright stars. This is the Orion Nebula, a hydrogen gas cloud where new stars are forming.

The peak of the Quadrantid Meteor Shower is Jan.3.

For further night sky details, maps and audio, visit my website http://www.starrytrails.com.

VISIT THE HOOVER PRICE PLANETARIUM Visit http://www.mckinleymuseum.org, for limited show dates and times! Planetarium shows are free with Museum admission. Seating is limited and will be on a first come, first serve basis. The Planetarium is located inside the McKinley Presidential Library & Museum, 800 McKinley Monument Drive, NW, in Canton, Ohio. For more information, please call the museum at 330-455-7043.

Excerpt from:

Sky Shorts: Space exploration and night sky highlights for 2021 - Canton Repository

This illustration shows a concept of how the NASA Mars Ascent Vehicle, carrying tubes containing rock and soil samples, could be launched from the surface of Mars in one step of the Mars sample return mission. Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech

The National Strategy for Planetary Protection reflects the critical importance of planetary protection to the future of space science, exploration, and life on Earth. Planetary protection refers to the policy and practice of protecting future scientific investigations by limiting biological contamination of other planetary bodies through exploration activities and protecting the Earths biosphere by avoiding harmful biological contamination by returning spacecraft.

Mitigating the risk of harmful biological contamination of the Earth (termed backward contamination) and other planetary bodies (termed forward contamination) supports a safe, sustainable, and predictable Earth and space environment. New missions to the Moon, Mars, and other destinations are underway or under consideration by NASA, other national space programs from around the world, and the private sector. While samples from Earths Moon have been deemed non-hazardous and their return to Earth has been unrestricted since 1971, both public and private entities are considering missions that would collect and return samples from other planetary bodies that have not been as thoroughly studied.

By considering the emergence of new efforts to explore and use the solar system, this strategy provides guidance to address the diverse challenges and manage any potential risk of biological contamination associated with space exploration. Accordingly, this strategy balances United States interests in promoting scientific discovery, human exploration, and the growth of private sector space activities, all with due consideration for public safety and applicable obligations. The United States intends to remain a leader in the development of internationally accepted policies and practices addressing planetary protection.

The National Strategy for Planetary Protection is an important implementation step under the 2020 National Space Policy; specifically, the development of national and international planetary protection guidelines, working with scientific and commercial partners, for the appropriate protection of planetary bodies and Earth from harmful biological contamination.Continued implementation of this directive will require updating United States department and agency roles and responsibilities, providing authorization and continuing supervision of private space activities, maintaining international leadership, and encouraging the development of innovative technologies and processes that reduce the costs of planetary protection.

The strategy sets forth three overarching objectives corresponding to forward contamination, backward contamination, and private sector coordination:

Objective 1: Avoid harmful forward contamination by developing and implementing risk assessment and science-based guidelines and updating the interagency payload review process.

Objective 2: Avoid backward contamination by developing a Restricted Return Program to protect against adverse effects on the Earth environment due to the potential return of extraterrestrial life.

Objective 3: Incorporate the perspective and needs of the private sector by soliciting feedback and developing guidelines regarding private sector activities with potential planetary protection implications.

Efforts to meet these objectives and to develop the national planetary protection action plan will be coordinated by the Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP) and National Space Council (NSpC) staff, in close cooperation with appropriate Federal departments and agencies, to ensure continued United States leadership in safe and responsible scientific discovery, human exploration, and private sector space activities.

Reference: National Strategy for Planetary Protection by The White House National Space Council, December 2020.PDF

Original post:

The White House Releases National Strategy for Planetary Protection - SciTechDaily

The Union cabinet has approved a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) between India and Bhutan on peaceful uses of outer space.

The MoU, which was signed on November 19, shall enable India and Bhutan to pursue cooperation in areas such as remote sensing of the earth, satellite communication and satellite based navigation, space science and planetary exploration, use of spacecraft and space systems and ground system and application of space technology.

A joint working group would be set up, drawing members from the department of space and Indian Space Research Organization and the Bhutan ministry of information and communications, which will work out the plan of action including the time-frame and the means of implementation, the department of space said in a statement.

Also read:SSB jawans seize 290 kg of cannabis along Indo-Bhutan border in Arunachal Pradesh

Cooperation with Bhutan would lead to developing a joint activity in the field of application of space technologies for the benefit of humanity, thus benefitting all sections and regions of the country, it added.

India and Bhutan have been discussing on establishing formal space cooperation.

The Union cabinet has shared a template for inter-governmental MoU for space cooperation with the ministry of external affairs in November 2017 for discussion with Bhutan.

The two countries also discussed the draf along with other cooperative proposals during the bilateral meeting in February this year.

After a few iterations through diplomatic channels, both sides have arrived at a workable draft of the MoU and the same was processed for internal approvals.

After obtaining necessary approvals the two countries signed the MoU on November 19.

Link:

India and Bhutan to collaborate for outer space exploration - Northeast Now