NASA Mars: Mars habitable to Humans by 2035

Conceptual image of people working on Mars. 

Credit: NASA.

At the European Lunar Symposium 2014 held at the Natural History Museum earlier this month, NASA officials revealed that the Moon could be used as a practice ground for sending humans to Mars within 20 years.

Ellen Stofan

NASA's chief scientist Dr Ellen Stofan and deputy chief technologist Jim Adams told the assembled scientists that putting humans on Mars is NASA's 'primary mission'.

While there have been many robotic missions to Mars in search of water and signs of life, including Curiosity's current assignment, Dr Stofan believes it's now essential to send human scientists.

'To unambiguously settle the questions of whether there was life on Mars it will take scientists down on the surface,' Dr Stofan said.

However, she admitted there is still a long way to go to ready the technologies for such a mission.

With the exception of those who went to the Moon, the majority of people sent into space so far have been in 'low Earth orbit', relying on systems on Earth to keep them alive.

A journey to Mars would take months.

Bagging an asteroid
Before taking the plunge and attempting to send people to Mars, and the associated dangers of deep space, NASA plans to use the Moon as an intermediate proving ground, because it is close enough to return astronauts home within a couple of days.

Conceptual image of an astronaut retrieving a sample from a captured asteroid. 

Credit: NASA.

But rather than landing on the lunar surface, the plan is to pull an asteroid close enough to the Moon to allow astronauts to take samples from it.

The Asteroid Redirect Mission aims to find a small asteroid travelling between the Moon and Earth and to 'snag it, bag it and drag it' into orbit around the Moon where it can be reached by astronauts.

Hazardous journey
Robots would perform the capture portion, testing ion propulsion systems - the heavy-duty thrusters that would be needed to get humans and their equipment all the way to Mars.

The budget for seeking out near-Earth objects such as asteroids has already been doubled to find a suitable candidate for the mission.

The human phase would then test new suits designed to protect astronauts from health hazards such as bursts of solar wind. It would also train astronauts in protocols for working in deep space, far from home.

'We're working to reduce the risks so that people can arrive on Mars happy and healthy and ready to work.' Dr Stofan said.

Fly by
To the disappointment of many of the scientists in the audience, who want to see more lunar exploration, Dr Stofan and Adams said that NASA does not intend to use the Moon's surface as part of its journey to Mars.

They did acknowledge, however, the general importance of research on the surface, both for science and exploration, and said they will work with partners in other space agencies.

Research on the Moon could help work out how to gather resources from the surface of an alien world, such as how to extract water.

Beyond Mars
Adams finished the talk with tantalising inspiration. 'Where NASA is headed is to the Martian surface in the 2030s,' he said.

'It is my dream that once we've put boots on Mars and we've established that pioneering presence on the surface, we would have already been thinking about where to go next. I hope that you guys will be along for the ride.'

Russian Retrieves Soyuz Bion-M Capsule; 45 Mice, 15 Newts Space Experiment

A Soyuz-2.1b carrier rocket, carrying an Bion-M capsule is seen on the launch pad a Russia's Baikonur cosmodrome on April 18, 2013. 

The Russian capsule filled with 45 mice and 15 newts along with other small animals has returned from a month's mission in orbit with data scientists hope will pave the way for a manned flight to Mars.

A Russian capsule filled with 45 mice and 15 newts along with other small animals returned from a month's mission in orbit on Sunday with data scientists hope will pave the way for a manned flight to Mars.

Russian Mission Control said the Bion-M craft landed softly with the help of a special parachute system in the Orenburg Region about 1,200 kilometres (750 miles) southeast of Moscow.

The capsule was also carrying snails and gerbils as well as some plants and microflora. There was no immediate information about how many of the animals survived.

The TsSKB-Progress space research centre's department head Valery Abrashkin said on the day the mission took off in April that the study was aimed at determining how bodies adapt to weightlessness "so that our organisms survive extended flights."

A field research lab has been deployed near where the capsule landed to quickly test the animals' response to their journey and return to Earth.

Scientists said the animals were needed because they were subject to the kinds of experiments that are impossible to be conducted on humans who are currently operating the International Space Station (ISS).

They added that the small menagerie would have posed a health risk if simply placed on board the ISS for a month.

The experiment's designers said the tests primarily focused on how microgravity impacts the skeletal and nervous systems as well organisms' muscles and hearts. The capsule spun 575 kilometres (357 miles) above Earth.

Russia has long set its sights on Mars and is now targeting 2030 as the year in which it could begin creating a base on the Moon for flights to the Red Planet.

But recent problems with its once-vaunted space programme—including the embarrassing failure of a research satellite that Moscow tried sending up to one of Mars's moons last year—have threatened Russia's future exploration efforts.

Yuri Gagarin: Anniversary of First Man in Orbit

A municipal worker washes the face of the 70-metre high monument to Yuri Gagarin, the first man in space, at Gagarin Square in Moscow

Picture: ANDREY SMIRNOV/AFP/Getty Images

Yuri Gagarin's First Orbit of Earth - Video film

The real time recreation of humanity's first human space flight by Russia's Yuri Gagarin in a Soyuz rocket, on 12 April 1961.

This film was created to celebrate our first footsteps into the cosmos.

Click on the Image to visit the First Orbit site and play the whole film.

Roscosmos: Russia to launch new ISS module in 2013 as scheduled

Russia's federal space agency Roscosmos denied reports Friday of a delay to the launch of the new multi-purpose Nauka lab for the International Space Station (ISS).

"The launch has been planned for the second half of 2013. No decisions about a delay have been made," said Alexei Krasnov, head of Roscosmos' department for manned flights.

Earlier Friday, a source in the Russian space rocket industry reported the launch had been pushed back until at least spring 2014 but gave no reason.

Initially, the 20-ton Nauka lab was scheduled to launch in 2007 but it has been postponed several times due to underfinancing and re-design works.

The module will enable the Russian-manned Soyuz and Progress cargo ships to dock with the ISS, transfer fuel, control the station's orientation and store cargo. It is to replace the Pirs module, which will be decommissioned after undocking from the ISS.

Russia to postpone next manned space launches

Russia is set to pospone the next two manned launches for the International Space Station (ISS) for several weeks due to technical problems with the Soyuz spaceship, an industry source told Interfax Friday.

The source told Interfax that the Soyuz TMA-04M vessel had not withstood tests to its pressure chamber ahead of the planned mission on March 30 and the first flight would be postponed to mid-April or the first half of May.

"This re-entry capsule now cannot be used for manned spaceflight," the source said.

That mission would fly with the re-entry capsule that was due to go up on the next mission on May 30 and as a result that mission would also likely be postponed to the middle or end of June.

The re-entry capsule goes inside the spacecraft and is the portion that eventually returns the astronauts to Earth when the mission is over.

Russia now has sole reponsibility for taking US and other international astronauts to the ISS following the withdrawal of the US space shuttle but its own space programme has been hit by a string of problems in the last months.

CANADA Lego Man in Space - YouTube

A video posted on YouTube shows the amazing voyage of a Lego man sent into space on a homemade spacecraft by two Toronto students.

Mathew Ho and Asad Muhammad, both 17, used a weather balloon ordered online and a makeshift Styrofoam spacecraft to send the plastic astronaut 15 miles into the stratosphere, reports said.

Their high school principal Lecourgos Papathanasakis confirmed the "amazing voyage" but neither of the teens was immediately available for comment.

The accelerated video clip shows highlights of the Lego man during his 97-minute odyssey.

Ultimately, he is seen holding a Canadian flag with the curvature of the Earth and the blackness of space in the background.

Canadian media said the pair had fitted a box tethered to the balloon with four cameras and a cellphone enabled with a GPS (global positioning system) device to capture the journey.

They then added a home-made nylon parachute, using Asad's mother's sewing machine, so the Lego man would return to Earth safely.

The balloon was filled with helium purchased from a party supply store.

The whole enterprise cost less than £320.

The duo then consulted a website to calculate the estimated landing spot of the weather balloon based on launch coordinates, prevailing winds and other data before launching it from a soccer pitch in nearby Newmarket, Ontario.

At four miles in altitude, the balloon travelled out of cell phone range and the GPS signal also cut out, so they went home and waited until Ho's iPad beeped.

The Lego man had called home. It had re-entered the atmosphere, picked up the cell signal again and touched down in a field 75 miles from the launch point.

Michael Reid, an astrophysicist at the University of Toronto, said what Ho and Muhammad were able to achieve is extraordinary.

"There are people that are doing it, but I haven't seen many examples of 17-year-old kids doing it," Reid said. "It's a pretty impressive accomplishment."

Jet Man Flies Over Swiss Alps - YouTube

A self-styled "jet man" has performed another death defying stunt - flying alongside two Albatross aircraft above the Swiss Alps.

Adventurer Yves Rossy flew in a custom-built jet suit over the mountain range in formation with the aircraft.

Rossy, 51, launched himself from the side of a helicopter before taking his place alongside the two jets high above the Alps.

Manned version of X-37 space plane

When the Space Shuttle Atlantis touched down for the final time on July 21, 2011, it looked as if the notion of a manned spacecraft capable of going into orbit and then landing like a conventional airplane had been abandoned.

The US government appears to be in favour of returning to Apollo-style space capsules with anything like the Shuttles being relegated to the private sector.

Arthur Grantz, chief engineer of Space and Intelligence Systems' Experimental Systems Group at Boeing, delivered a paper at American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics' (AIAA) Space 2011 conference indicating that the U.S. Air Force and Boeing are already on the way toward developing a manned Shuttle replacement based on the X-37B robot space plane.

X-37B
The X-37B is one of the US Air Force's most highly visible yet most secret projects of recent years.

A robot spacecraft that looks like a miniature space shuttle without a flight deck was bound to attract public attention, but its mission has remained hidden under the blanket word "classified."

The government has released some information about the X-37B. In part, it's an experimental test bed based on the Boeing X-40 lifting body.

With an overall length of a little under 30 ft (9 m) and a wing span just under 15 ft (4.5 m), it's small enough to fit easily into the Shuttle's cargo bay, but it's still capable of acting like a robot version of the larger, older spacecraft.

Launched on top of an Atlas booster at Vandenberg Air Force Base, it can carry payloads into space, return them to earth and then land like a conventional aircraft. The difference is that it doesn't require a pilot or ground control because it can land by itself.

It also has much more endurance than the old Shuttle. While the Shuttle never remained in orbit for as long as three weeks, the X-37B has already broken the record for a reusable spacecraft in orbit: 244 days.

It's rated to remain on station for 270 days if needed.

NASA & Soyuz Astronauts head to ISS on spaceship Gagarin

Three astronauts on Tuesday blasted off for the International Space Station in a spaceship named after the first man in space Yuri Gagarin in honour of his historic flight 50 years ago.

The two Russians and one American left on a Soyuz rocket from the main launchpad at Russia's Baikonur cosmodrome in Kazakhstan, the same location where Gagarin went on his historic space mission on April 12, 1961.

The flight in the early hours of the morning left a bright beam of light against the background of the clear starry sky over the vast Kazakh steppe, an AFP correspondent reported.

Their mission has been dedicated to Yuri Gagarin's flight, which gave the Soviet Union its greatest Cold War victory over the United States and their Soyuz capsule is named after and inscribed with the name of the cosmonaut.

"The flight is normal," mission control told the crew, who waved and gave the thumbs-up sign to a camera relaying images from the capsule back to earth.

Cosmonauts Alexander Samokutyaev and Andrei Borisenko are making their first space flight while US astronaut Ronald Garan is making his second mission, having already flown on US shuttle Discovery in 2008.

"We are feeling good," said the voice of one of the crew, apparently flight commander Samokutyaev. "I wish you success and a good flight," said the head of Russia's space agency, Anatoly Perminov.

The Soyuz capsule successfully went into Earth orbit and is due to dock with the ISS at 2318 GMT on Wednesday, after a two-day journey.

Watch Out Virgin Galactic and Space Adventures Here Comes The Lynx

Mitchell J. Schultz, space tourism specialist and managing director of Xtraordinary Adventures, recently published several articles about the possiblities of a mishap in early private space flight.

He also issued a list of 1,000 of the most successful athletes, businesspeople, models, comedians, authors, movie, TV and music personalities that should become more aware now of taking a suborbital space flight.

"All these super personalities have a following and peers who will go wild when they hear that their STAR is going on a space trip," Schultz said. "With Dr Hsu's risk assessment of all vehicles and companies available for suborbital space flight, Xtraordinary Adventures can make this available for all who wish to know more.

Regardless of which vehicle they wish to fly in, this is their opportunity to be listed and forever recognized as one of the earliest civilian space pioneers."

Within the last five years, more than 500 worldwide adventures have already pre-registered for a suborbital space flight. SpaceShipTwo and Lynx are scheduled to be test flown this summer in Mojave, California.

Costs remain between $95,000 and $200,000 and all future participants must be qualified and pre-instructed on flight expectations.

It has been almost 50 years since man's first space flight, that of Yuri Gagarin on April 12, 1961, and with the success in 2004 of SpaceShipOne, several private space companies are vying capture of the major market for this once-in-a-lifetime adventure.

Due to the timeliness of expanded space travel opportunities, it is important to carefully assess both the risks and benefits this new experience offers. The challenge is here for those who dare to take it on. In the words of Dr. Wernher Von Braun, father of human space flight, "I reach for the stars."

Dr. Feng Hsu is a U.S. expert with several decades of experience in the field of Risk Analysis, Safety and Mission Assurance (SMA) assessment for complex engineering systems.

Formerly a staff research engineer at world renowned Brookhaven National Laboratory, Dr. Hsu has worked extensively on reliability, probabilistic risk assessment (PRA) and management theory and methodology research for nuclear reactor safety since the 1980s.

He became senior staff engineer/scientist and joined NASA's SAIC team in the Shuttle and Exploration Analysis Department at Johnson Space Center in Houston in 2000.
Watch Out Virgin Galactic and Space Adventures Here Comes The Lynx

NASA: Shuttle Replacement takes shape, the X-37

It's been a long wait—in some ways, more than 50 years—but in April 2010, the U.S. Air Force is scheduled to launch an Atlas V booster from Cape Canaveral, Florida, carrying the newest U.S. spacecraft, the unmanned X-37, to orbit.


The X-37 embodies the Air Force's desire for an operational spaceplane, a wish that dates to the 1950s, the era of the rocket-powered X-15 and X-20.


In other ways, though, the X-37 will be picking up where another U.S. spaceplane, NASA's space shuttle, leaves off.

With a wingspan of 15 feet and a length of 27.5 feet, the X-37 looks like a tiny space shuttle. It has a blunt (though windowless) nose, and one rocket engine bell instead of the shuttle's three.

Two cargo doors open just as the shuttle's do, revealing a four- by seven-foot bay. Like the shuttle, the X-37 was designed for low Earth orbits—in the latter's case, altitudes of 125 to 575 miles. And the craft will fly like a shuttle, reentering the atmosphere with the orbiter's 40-degree nose-high attitude.

After reentry, it will change to a 20-degree nose-down glide and, flying at up to 220 mph, land at Vandenberg Air Force Base in California, with Edwards Air Force Base as an alternate.

But as for the period between launch and landing, no one, save for a select few in the Department of Defense, knows exactly what the little Boeing-built spaceplane will do, or for how long.

The Air Force Rapid Capabilities Office, which is running the program, says only that the orbital test version, the X-37B, will take a suite of next-generation technologies to orbit and will break new ground in the realm of launch, recovery, and reuse, all with an unmanned twist that the shuttle never offered.

At a 2008 Space Foundation breakfast in Washington, D.C., Gary Payton, deputy under secretary of the Air Force for space programs, recalled the X-37's origins. Payton started the program while at NASA.

"Then, the X-37 was intended to be a testbed for new technologies that could retrofit into the shuttle: predominantly guidance, navigation, and control, and [thermal protection system] technologies," he said. In that era, planners imagined the shuttle carrying the X-37 to space in its cargo bay and releasing it.

Now, with the shuttle's retirement looming, it appears the X-37 will have an independent, post-shuttle life. Payton envisioned such a role for the X-37, saying: "It would be really advantageous in my mind if we had a system you could launch, recover, change out the payload bay quickly, and put into a different orbit, and do all that measured in weeks instead of decades."

David Hamilton, director of the Rapid Capabilities Office, says in an e-mail: "Eventually, I see the unique possibility to operate X-37B more like an aircraft and explore the needs of responsive, reusable spacecraft."

Unlike a satellite, he points out, the spaceplane returns, enabling "detailed inspection and significantly better learning than can be achieved with [a satellite's] remote telemetry alone. Experiments can be modified and reflown, with the objective of shortening the technology maturation timeline."

"The space shuttle was designed to be a very heavy payload lifter, and it has performed that job extremely well," says Mark Lewis, a University of Maryland hypersonics expert who recently completed a four-year appointment as chief scientist for the Air Force. "But you don't need to send a Mack truck into space when a Toyota Celica will do."

The question is: Will do what? Lewis, whose enthusiastic speech barely keeps pace with his mind, is happy to talk about the skin-deep similarities between the shuttle and the X-37. ("A lot of the basic reentry physics is treated the same way," he says. "Blunt configurations. The shuttle has very blunt leading edges.") But when he's asked about anything more than the X-37's aerodynamics, he clams up.

So does everyone else. "While some aspects of the…program have been designated as unclassified and been released to the public; information regarding specific technical and performance capabilities will not be released at this time," writes David Hamilton.

"Hide it in plain view," says one observer of the Air Force's practice of letting out just a little about the X-37, enough to make it seem like it will never be more than a research tool. Read More....

Laser Propulsion: Wild Idea May Finally Shine

New laser propulsion experiments are throwing light on how to build future hypersonic aircraft and beam spacecraft into Earth orbit.

Indeed, a "Lightcraft revolution" could replace today's commercial jet travel. Passengers would be whisked from one side of the planet to the other in less than an hour - just enough time to get those impenetrable bags of peanuts open.

Furthermore, beamed energy propulsion can make flight to orbit easy, instead of tenuous and dangerous.

That's the belief of Leik Myrabo an aerospace engineering professor at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in Troy, NY. He's an expert in directed energy applications, aerospace systems, space prime power, and advanced propulsion.

For the past three decades, Myrabo's burning desire has been to create and demonstrate viable concepts for non-chemical propulsion of future flight vehicles through his research and company Lightcraft Technologies, Inc., of Bennington, Vt.

"Typically, a new propulsion technology takes 25 years to mature...to the point where you can actually field it. Well, that time is now," Myrabo told SPACE.com.

Real hardware...real physics

NASA plans manned Spaceflights to Venus

Astronauts could travel to an asteroid inside the Orion crew capsule that NASA is developing for moon missions, according to a previous NASA study (Illustration: NASA/JAXA)

Venus Fly-by
A committee reviewing NASA's goals has outlined a scheme to send astronauts on progressively longer space trips – including dockings with asteroids and flybys of Venus – to prepare for an eventual landing on Mars.

The Moon by 2020

The White House set up the committee, chaired by former Lockheed Martin CEO Norman Augustine, to review NASA's plans for human spaceflight, which are currently focused on returning astronauts to the moon by 2020.

It is examining NASA's current plans and exploring alternative destinations and hardware that NASA could pursue.

The Flexible Path

Committee member Edward Crawley of MIT presented a short list of possible destinations for future human missions at a public meeting on Thursday in Cocoa Beach, Florida. He is the head of a subcommittee that is investigating options for exploration beyond low-Earth orbit.

One of the options the team proposed is called the "flexible path", which Crawley also described as a "deep space" or "in space" option.

It would see astronauts sent on a series of progressively longer missions beyond low-Earth orbit. The first would fly by the moon. Later missions would include rendezvousing with one or more of the many asteroids on orbits that take them close to Earth. Asteroid missions would take several months each.

Later, astronauts could fly by Mars and Venus, and touch down on Mars's 27-kilometre-wide moon Phobos. Each of these missions would take more than a year.