Boeing short film: The Path to Mars

Can the recently flown and tested, Orion spacecraft truly get us to Mars?

NASA has been portraying the mission as part of the roadmap to the Red Planet, but there are observers who say a human landing mission is an unrealistic goal given the budget just isn't there right now in Congress.

That doesn't stop Boeing from dreaming, though. In this new video, the prime contractor for the future Space Launch System rocket suggests that going to Mars will take six spacecraft elements.

Two are in the works right now, Orion and SLS, while a Mars lander and other bits are just ideas right now, but shown in the video.

According to Boeing, the missing elements include a deep-space tug, a habitat, a lander and a rocket designed to get up out of the Mars gravity well.

They also suggest it will take several SLS launches to assemble all the pieces to bring humans to the Red Planet.

"I think we'll be able to colonize Mars someday," said Mike Raftery, director of Boeing Space Exploration Systems, in the video. "It'll take time."

"It may take hundreds of years. But that's not unusual for humans. It's really about establishing a human foothold on the planet. It's a natural evolution of humanity to take this challenge on."

That said, the video does hold to the old joke that a Mars landing is always 20 years in the future; the opening sequence suggests that the landing would take place in the 2030s and that those first astronauts are between the ages of 10 to 20 right now.

NASA Orion: Interim Cryogenic Propulsion Stage (ICPS)

Artist concept of the NASA Orion spacecraft. 

The ICPS will boost the Orion to the correct altitude and trajectory needed to send the spacecraft around the moon in order to check out vital systems during the initial test flights. 

Image courtesy NASA. 

Some elements of a rocket can be familiar, like the boosters and engines, but there are several important parts on NASA's new rocket, the Space Launch System (SLS), that may be less widely known. The interim cryogenic propulsion stage (ICPS) pdf.

If the SLS was dissected, the ICPS lies just below the Orion capsule, at the top of the SLS.

The ICPS is a liquid oxygen/liquid hydrogen-based system.

On the first test mission of Orion and SLS together, called Exploration Mission-1, the ICPS will give Orion the big push needed to fly beyond the moon before the spacecraft returns to Earth.

For later long-duration missions in deep space, this interim stage will be replaced with a more powerful upper stage on SLS needed to carry crews and their spacecraft farther than ever before, including to an asteroid and ultimately Mars.

Orion will serve as the exploration vehicle that will carry the crew to space, provide emergency abort capability, sustain the crew during the space travel, and provide safe re-entry from deep space return velocities.

For the ICPS, The Boeing Co. will modify its existing Delta Cryogenic Second Stage (DCSS), used on United Launch Alliance's Delta IV family of launch vehicles.

It will be powered by an Aerojet Rocketdyne RL-10B2 engine, also currently used on the Delta Cryogenic Second Stage.

"Boeing's Delta Cryogenic Second Stage will need relatively minor modifications to be fully compliant with SLS requirements, which will keep us on schedule for the first two flights," said Chris Calfee, ICPS project manager at NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama. Marshall manages the SLS Program for the agency.

Those modifications include lengthening the liquid hydrogen tank, adding hydrazine bottles for attitude control and making some minor avionics changes to meet the design parameters and performance characteristics as needed by NASA to meet the flight objectives.

"Affordability is key when a rocket as big and powerful as the SLS is needed for sustainable deep space exploration," said Steve Creech, assistant SLS Program manager for strategy and partnerships at Marshall.

"By using existing hardware and technology, we aim to create a multipurpose vehicle that can demonstrate the capabilities of this flexible system on early mission objectives."

NASA's baseline plan is to use an ICPS for SLS on the uncrewed Exploration Mission-1, with an option for a second ICPS that may be used for a crewed Exploration Mission-2.

NASA continues to examine its timeline for integrating an upper stage and evolving SLS towards a 130-metric-ton (143 ton) version that will send humans to Mars.

NASA recently signed a contract agreement with Boeing for the ICPS, completing all definitisation contracts for the major SLS elements.

The interim cryogenic propulsion stage is managed under the SLS Program by the Spacecraft and Payload Integration and Evolution Office at Marshall.

The first flight test of the SLS will feature a configuration for a 70-metric-ton (77-ton) lift capacity and carry an uncrewed Orion spacecraft beyond low-Earth orbit to test the performance of the integrated system.

As the SLS evolves, it will provide an unprecedented lift capability of 130 metric tons (143 tons) to enable missions even farther into our solar system.

NASA Lunar Flashlight and RPM: How to Mine the Moon for Water

Lunar Flashlight mission will map the lunar south pole for volatiles.

Credit: Solar System Exploration Research Virtual Institute (SSERVI)

There's a lot of water on the moon, and NASA wants to learn how to mine it.

Space agency scientists are developing two separate mission concepts to assess, and learn how to exploit, stores of water ice on the moon  and other lunar resources.

The projects, called Lunar Flashlight and the Resource Prospector Mission (RPM), are notionally targeted to blast off in 2017 and 2018, respectively, and aim to help humanity extend its footprint out into the solar system.

"If you're going to have humans on the moon and you need water for drinking, breathing, rocket fuel, anything you want, it's much, much cheaper to live off the land than it is to bring everything with you," said Lunar Flashlight principal investigator Barbara Cohen, of NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama.

It's therefore important to "understand the inventory of volatiles across the whole moon and their purity, and their accessibility in particular,"

Cohen said in July during a presentation at the NASA Exploration Science Forum 2014, a conference organized by the Solar System Exploration Research Virtual Institute at the agency's Ames Research Center in Moffett Field, California.

Solar sailing to the moon

Lunar Flashlight is working toward a possible launch date in December 2017, when it would blast off on the first test flight of NASA's Space Launch System (SLS) megarocket, along with several other piggybacking payloads.

Lunar Flashlight is a CubeSat mission, meaning the body of the spacecraft is tiny, about the size of a cereal box, Cohen said, but after it's deployed in space, the probe would get much bigger by unfurling an 860-square-foot (80 square meters) solar sail.

The spacecraft would then cruise toward the moon on a circuitous route, propelled along by the photons streaming from the sun.

Lunar Flashlightwould start orbiting the moon about six months after its launch, then spend another year spiraling down to get about 12 miles (20 kilometers) from the lunar surface.

The probe would then make about 80 passes around the moon at this low altitude, measuring and mapping deposits of water ice in permanently shadowed craters near the lunar poles. It would do this science work with the aid of its solar sail.

"We're going to use it as a mirror," Cohen said. "We're going to take the sunlight, bounce it off the solar sail into the permanently shadowed regions, and we're going to use a passive infrared spectrometer to collect the light from the permanently shadowed regions in wavelengths that are indicative of water frost."

Lunar Flashlight aims to find water ice that would be accessible to future explorers, be they human or robotic.

"What we're looking for is water right at the surface," Cohen said. "Could humans or their vehicles go into a permanently shadowed region and just scoop up the regolith and use what's at the surface to be able to extract water ice?"

Such deposits could provide drinking water for potential manned lunar outposts, and moon water could also be split into its constituent hydrogen and oxygen, prime components of rocket fuel, which could then spur and support exploration even farther afield, advocates of moon mining say.

Space mining advocates envision lunar extraction of minerals and ice as near-term objectives.

Credit: NASA

A water-mapping rover

While Lunar Flashlight would eye the moon from above, the Resource Prospector Mission (RPM) plans to send a rover onto the lunar surface to get an up-close look.

This rover would land at a yet-to-be-determined polar site and map surface and subsurface concentrations of hydrogen at two different locations, which would ideally be separated by at least 0.6 miles (1 km).

RPM would use a neutron spectrometer to measure water concentrations up to 3.3 feet (1 m) underground and a near-infrared spectrometer to make its surface measurements.

The solar-powered rover would roll into permananently shadowed regions, relying on batteries to keep working in the dark. It would likely have an operational lifetime of about one week on the lunar surface, mission officials have said.

Like Lunar Flashlight, RPM is geared to help enable future exploitation of water ice on the moon.

"How is the water ice distributed in the soil?" RPM project scientist Tony Colaprete of NASA Ames said at the Exploration Science Forum event.

"That's really what Resource Prospector is fundamentally about, is identifying, locating the 'ore' and understanding how to excavate it, how to get at it, and what does that cost in terms of energy."

The rover would also be equipped with a drill, allowing it to take samples from up to 3.3 feet (1 m) deep, Colaprete said.

Collected samples would be heated up in an oven, and the volatile materials such as water liberated by this process would be identified and quantified.

RPM also plans to extract oxygen from lunar dirt in a demonstration of in-situ resource utilization (ISRU). (This oxygen can be combined with hydrogen carried onboard to create water.)

"We need to take the first steps in demonstrating off of this world utilization of material," Colaprete said.

"There's a lot of technology demonstration in here that's not just applicable to the moon; it's applicable to any mission, to any surface where you want to manipulate materials."

Mars is one such place. Indeed, NASA is also planning to conduct an ISRU experiment on the Red Planet in the coming years.

In July, agency officials announced that its next Mars rover, slated to blast off in 2020, will carry an instrument that will generate oxygen from the carbon-dioxide-rich Martian atmosphere.

NASA Orion (MPCV) spacecraft on the move

NASA's Orion spacecraft, preparing for it's first flight, departs the Neil Armstrong Operations and Checkout Building on its way to the Payload Hazardous Servicing Facility at the Kennedy Space Center, Thursday, Sept. 11, 2014, in Cape Canaveral, Fla. 

Orion is scheduled for a test flight in early December. 

Credit: AP Photo/John Raoux

NASA is one step closer to launching its newest spacecraft designed for humans.

Workers at Kennedy Space Center gathered to watch as the Orion capsule emerged from its assembly hangar Thursday, less than three months from its first test flight.

The capsule, sealed for protection, slowly made its way to its fueling depot atop a 36-wheel platform.

The capsule and its attached service module and adapter ring stretched 40 feet (12 meters) high.

"Isn't this awesome?" said Kennedy's director, Robert Cabana, a former space shuttle commander.

"This is our step to the future, the exploration of establishing a presence in the solar system."

Space center employees lined up along the rope barricade to snap pictures of Orion capsule, NASA's lofty follow-on to the now-retired space shuttle program.

During its Dec. 4 test flight, the unmanned capsule will shoot more than 3,600 miles (5,800 kilometers) into space and take two big laps around Earth before re-entering the atmosphere at 20,000 mph (32,000 kph) and parachuting into the Pacific off the San Diego coast. The entire mission will last 4½ hours.

The second Orion flight won't occur until around 2018 when another unmanned capsule soars atop NASA's new Space Launch System (SLS), still under development.

NASA intends to put astronauts aboard Orion in 2021 for deep space exploration; each capsule can accommodate up to four.

The plan is to use Orion for getting humans to asteroids and Mars, no space station ferry trips for Orion.

A handful of private U.S. companies are competing for these short taxi flights; NASA expects in the next week or so to pick one or two candidates for funding.

NASA's Orion spacecraft, preparing for it's first flight, departs the Neil Armstrong Operations and Checkout Building on its way to the Payload Hazardous Servicing Facility at the Kennedy Space Center, Thursday, Sept. 11, 2014, in Cape Canaveral, Fla. 

Orion is scheduled for a test flight in early December. 

Credit: AP Photo/John Raoux

While Orion may resemble an oversize Apollo capsule on the outside, everything inside and out is modern and top-of-the-line, officials noted Thursday.

"I'm as excited as can be," said NASA's Orion production operations manager, Scott Wilson.

For Orion's dry run, the Lockheed Martin Corp.-built capsule will have hunks of aluminum in place of seats for ballast, and simulators instead of actual cockpit displays. A United Launch Alliance Delta IV rocket will do the heavy lifting.

When asked by a reporter, Cabana said he wishes Orion's flight pace was quicker.

NASA's Orion spacecraft, preparing for it's first flight, arrives at the Payload Hazardous Servicing Facility at the Kennedy Space Center, Thursday, Sept. 11, 2014, in Cape Canaveral, Fla. Orion is scheduled for a test flight in early December. 

Credit: AP Photo/John Raoux

"But it is what it is," he said. "Given the budget that we have, I think we've got the best program that you could imagine."

Orion has its roots in the post-Columbia shuttle era; it originated a decade ago as a crew exploration vehicle to get astronauts beyond low Earth orbit and managed to survive the cancellation of the Constellation moon project.

NASA SLS Deep-space rocket to launch in 2018

Artist concept of NASA’s Space Launch System (SLS) 70-metric-ton configuration launching to space. Credit: NASA

The US space agency's powerful deep-space rocket, known as the Space Launch System (SLS), aims to blast off for the first time in 2018, NASA said Wednesday.

The SLS has been in development for three years already, and when finished it should propel spacecraft beyond Earth's orbit and eventually launch crew vehicles to Mars by the 2030s.

NASA has now completed a thorough review of the project, signifying formal space agency commitment to the 70 metric ton version of the SLS at a cost of $7.021 billion from 2014 to 2018.

"The program is making real, significant progress," said William Gerstenmaier, associate administrator for the Human Explorations and Operations Mission Directorate at NASA.

"We will keep the teams working toward a more ambitious readiness date, but will be ready no later than November 2018."

The Government Accountability Office (GAO), however issued a report last month that called into question the space's agency's current funding plan for SLS, saying it "may be $400 million short of what the program needs."

The GAO also raised concerns about the development schedule and how engineers will integrate hardware that was designed to fly on a cancelled NASA program known as Constellation that would have returned humans to the Moon.

Gerstenmaier said NASA was taking those concerns into account and is seeking to address the GAO's recommendations.

The SLS is NASA's first heavy-lift launch vehicle in over 40 years, and the space agency has estimated total costs in developing the first of three SLS variants at $12 billion.

Anti-Geyser Testing for SLS Liquid Oxygen Feed System Underway

A full-scale replica of the SLS liquid oxygen tank feed system is set up on one of the Marshall Center's test stands for anti-geyser testing.

Image Credit: NASA /MSFC /David Olive

Beginning Aug. 5, anti-geyser testing is underway at NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama, for the agency's Space Launch System (SLS); the rocket that will make deep space missions possible, including to an asteroid and ultimately to Mars.

A full-scale replica of the SLS liquid oxygen tank feed system, which will be housed in the rocket's core stage, is set up on one of Marshall's test stands to show that proven procedures will keep the tank's thousands of gallons of oxidizer from geysering.

Oxidizer is a type of chemical that fuels require to burn.

"Geysering occurs when heat enters the system and forms gas bubbles," said Chad Bryant, propulsion manager in the Stages Office at Marshall, where the SLS Program is managed for the agency.

"Those bubbles displace the liquid and allow it to come crashing down, which can cause hardware damage. In order to prevent geysering the first time the actual vehicle is loaded, we are going through different scenarios using the test article."

"We want to manage the quality of the liquid oxygen that’s in the system to prevent heat buildup, which would cause these gas bubbles to form."

As propellant is poured into the system from the bottom, helium is injected into different points along two feed lines that deliver the propellant all the way up to the tank.

"The helium really acts as a spoon, it induces circulation almost like stirring and keeps the propellant uniform and at the right temperature," said Jacob Parton, anti-geyser test conductor.

"This is the largest testing effort I've been a part of at Marshall. It took about 12 trailers carrying approximately 6,000 gallons of propellant each to fill the test article tank.

"The majority of the test hardware is geometrically comparable to actual flight hardware for the SLS and was built here at the center, except for the tank itself," Parton added.



The tank, about 40 feet tall, was provided by The Boeing Co., prime contractor for the SLS core stage and its avionics. Testing is scheduled to be completed in November.

The first flight test of the SLS will feature a configuration for a 70-metric-ton (77-ton) lift capacity and carry an uncrewed Orion spacecraft beyond low-Earth orbit to test the performance of the integrated system.

As the SLS evolves, it will provide an unprecedented lift capability of 130 metric tons (143 tons) to enable missions even farther into our solar system.

Audit report: NASA doesn't have the money for Space Launch System (SLS)

NASA does not have enough money to get its new, $12 billion SLS rocket system off the ground by the end of 2017 as planned, federal auditors say.

The US Government Accountability Office (GAO) issued a report Wednesday saying NASA's Space Launch System (SLS) is at "high risk of missing" its planned December 2017 initial test flight.

The post-space shuttle program would build the biggest rockets ever, larger than the Saturn V rockets which sent men to the moon, to send astronauts to asteroids and Mars.

"They can't meet the date with the money they have," report author Cristina Chaplain said. She said it wasn't because the space agency had technical problems with the congressionally-required program, but that NASA didn't get enough money to carry out the massive undertaking.

The GAO report put the current shortfall at $400 million, but did say NASA was "making solid progress" on the rocket program design.

NASA's launch system officials told the GAO that there was a 90 percent chance of not hitting the launch date at this time.

This usually means NASA has to delay its test launch date, get more money or be less ambitious about what it plans to do, said former NASA associate administrator Scott Pace, space policy director at George Washington University.

NASA is working on the problems GAO highlighted, but delaying launch or diverting money from other programs would harm taxpayers, NASA Associate Administrator William Gerstenmaier wrote in the agency's response.

"Welcome to aerospace," Pace said, pointing out that large space projects often end up as much as 50 percent over budget. He said that "is why you shouldn't believe initial cost estimates."

The space agency has been reluctant to put an overall price tag on the Space Launch System.

The GAO report says it will cost $12 billion to get to the first test launch and "potentially billions more to develop increasingly capable vehicles" that could be used for launches to asteroids and Mars.

More information: GAO audit: www.gao.gov/assets/670/664969.pdf

Space Launch System (SLS): NASA’s Next Generation Launchers

Image Credit: NASA

NASA’s Space Launch System, or SLS, will be the most powerful rocket in history.

The flexible, evolvable design of this advanced, heavy-lift launch vehicle will meet a variety of crew and cargo mission needs.

In addition to carrying the Orion spacecraft, SLS will transfer important cargo, equipment and science experiments to deep space, providing the nation with a safe, affordable and sustainable means to expand our reach in the solar system.

It will allow astronauts aboard Orion to explore multiple deep-space destinations including an asteroid and ultimately Mars.

The first configuration of the SLS launch vehicle will have a 70-metric-ton (77-ton) lift capacity and carry an uncrewed Orion spacecraft beyond low-Earth orbit to test the performance of the integrated system.

As the SLS is evolved, it will be the most powerful rocket ever built and provide an unprecedented lift capability of 130 metric tons (143 tons) to enable missions even farther into our solar system.

NASA's New Mega-Rocket (SLS), Orion Capsule on Track for Future Test Flights

Artist's rendering of NASA's Space Launch System (SLS) rocket being stacked inside the Vehicle Assembly Building (VAB).

Credit: NASA

A new era of space exploration, supported by a history-making new mega-rocket and a spacecraft designed to deliver humans into deep space, could be on the horizon for NASA.

The space agency is gearing up to build the largest and most powerful rocket in history.

The huge launcher, called the Space Launch System (SLS), will move a new spacecraft dubbed Orion, designed to send up to four astronauts farther into the solar system than ever before.

A short list of destinations includes the moon, nearby asteroids and, eventually, Mars.

Everyone is looking forward to 2021, the year when the first manned launch will occur but before that happens, the rocket and spacecraft will have to pass a number of tests.



Most powerful rocket ever
NASA's SLS rocket might remind some space fans of the mighty Saturn V rocket used to launch Apollo moon landing flights in the 1960s and 1970s; however, the new launcher will be more powerful.

NASA currently envisions the SLS in two configurations: one weighing 77 tons and able to lift more than 154,000 pounds, another weighing 143 tons and able to lift more than 286,000 pounds.

The smaller configuration, which is expected to carry a crew of astronauts, will create 8.4 million pounds of thrust, 10 percent more than the massive Saturn V rocket.

The larger configuration, which will carry cargo, will create 9.2 million pounds of thrust, 20 percent more than a Saturn V.

This version will be as tall as a 38-story building. The SLS will truly be a mountain of a machine.

For its power, the SLS will rely on two solid rocket boosters in addition to the huge, 200-foot-tall (61 meters) core stage, which will carry liquid hydrogen and oxygen to fuel four RS-25 rocket engine.

The RS-25 rocket engine is a workhorse: It powered the space shuttle and "operated with 100-percent mission success during 135 space shuttle missions," according to a NASA statement.

The power produced by the three engines is equal to that from 12 Hoover Dams.

NASA currently has a stockpile of 16 RS-25 rocket engines at the Stennis Space Center, in Mississippi.

The engines themselves had to be modified to put out more power than they did for the space shuttle missions, and therefore still require testing. Those tests will probably occur in mid-July, NASA has said.

NASA Engineers Prepare Game Changing Cryotank for Testing

Image Credit: NASA/MSFC/Fred Deaton

NASA and Boeing engineers are inspecting and preparing one of the largest composite rocket propellant tanks ever manufactured for testing.

The composite cryotank is part of NASA’s Game Changing Development Program and Space Technology Mission Directorate, which is innovating, developing, testing and flying hardware for use in NASA's future missions.

NASA focused on this technology because composite tanks promise a 30 percent weight reduction and a 25 percent cost savings over the best metal tanks used today.

The outer shell of the 18-foot-diameter (5.5-meter) cryotank is the same size as propellant tanks used on today’s full-size rockets.

The tank was manufactured at the Boeing Developmental Center in Tukwila, Wash., and like artists, the team demonstrated their passion and commitment by signing their work.

The silver signatures of the NASA and Boeing team members are visible on the black dome end of the tank. 

NASA’s Super Guppy delivered the tank in March 2014 to NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Ala., and the Kmag, a 96-wheeled cargo truck, transported the tank to a Marshall Center test area.

The 28,000-gallons (105.992- liter) tank will be insulated and placed in a test stand where it will be loaded with liquid hydrogen cooled to extremely cold, or cryogenic temperatures.

The orange ends of the tank are made of metal and will attach to the test stand so that structural loads can be applied similar to those the tank would experience during a rocket launch.

This artist rendering shows a wide-angle view of the liftoff of the 70-metric-ton (77-ton) crew vehicle configuration SLS from the launchpad. 

This advanced composite cryotank could benefit many of NASA’s deep space exploration spacecraft including NASA's Space Launch System (SLS), the largest most powerful rocket ever built.

Space Launch System Core Stage Model 'Sounds' Off for Testing

A 5-percent scale model of the Space Launch System (SLS) core stage fires up for another round of acoustic testing at NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Ala. 

SLS, NASA's new rocket, will be the largest, most powerful rocket ever built for deep space missions. 

The SLS core stage, towering more than 200 feet tall with a diameter of 27.6 feet, will store cryogenic liquid hydrogen and liquid oxygen that will feed the vehicle’s RS-25 engines. 

The acoustic tests, which began in January, will show how powerful noise from the engines and boosters can impact the rocket and crew, especially at liftoff. 

Data from the tests will help verify the rocket's design and help develop an effective suppression system to stifle the sound. 

The current test series, which began March 20, will be used to determine the noise reduction capabilities of the water suppression system at NASA's Stennis Space Center near Bay St. Louis, Miss. 

The system will be used for core stage "green run" testing. 

"Green run" testing ensures all stage and engine parts have been exposed to flight-like environments prior to use on a mission.

Image Credit: NASA /MSFC /David Olive

NASA Orion EFT-1: First Test Flight of Orion Space Capsule delayed until December

Artist's concept of a ULA Delta 4 Heavy rocket standing poised on the pad ready to launch NASA's Exploration Flight Test-1 (EFT-1).

The first flight of Orion is now slated for December 2014.

Credit: NASA

he countdown to the maiden launch of Orion, a NASA space capsule designed to take astronauts out into the solar system, is now three months longer than previously planned.

The space agency on Friday (March 14) announced that it was retargeting the first flight of its Orion spacecraft from autumn to just before winter this year.

"The Orion team continues to work toward completing the spacecraft to be ready for a launch in [the] September [to] October [period]," NASA stated on its website.

"However, the initial timeframe for the launch of the Exploration Flight Test-1 (EFT-1) has shifted ... to early December to support allowing more opportunities for launches this year."



The EFT-1 mission will fly the Orion capsule to an altitude of approximately 3,600 miles (5,800 kilometers) above the Earth's surface, more than 15 times farther out than where the International Space Station (ISS) orbits.

By flying out to those distances, NASA will be able to judge how Orion performs in, and returns from, deep-space journeys.

Flying atop a United Launch Alliance (ULA) Delta 4 Heavy rocket, EFT-1 precedes the first flight of the Orion capsule on its intended launch vehicle, NASA's new Space Launch System (SLS), targeted for 2017.

By 2021, NASA plans to send astronauts aboard the Orion spacecraft on a mission to the vicinity of the moon to rendezvous with a redirected asteroid, before ultimately launching a crew to Mars in the 2030s.

NASA's FY 2015 Budget Proposal - Video

NASA's budget supports our new Strategic Plan to drive advances in science, technology, aeronautics and space exploration to enhance knowledge, education, innovation, economic vitality and stewardship of Earth.

To send humans to an asteroid by 2025, NASA is formulating the first-ever mission to identify and redirect an asteroid.

The budget also supports the extension of the International Space Station (ISS) to at least 2024, which is essential to sending humans to deep space destinations and returning benefits to humanity through research and development.

The budget proposes an additional $886 million for NASA as part of the Opportunity, Growth, and Security Initiative, including additional funding for Science, Space Launch System (SLS), Orion, Technology, ISS, and Commercial Crew.

NASA's Kennedy Space Center: Crawler-Transporter CT-2 Passes Milestone Test

The crawler-transporter that will carry NASA’s Space Launch System (SLS) and Orion spacecraft to Launch Pad 39B for launch on Exploration Mission-1 in 2017 recently passed the first phase of an important milestone test at Kennedy Space Center in Florida.

The Ground Systems Development and Operations Program completed testing of new traction roller bearings on crawler-transporter 2 (CT-2), on two of the massive vehicle’s truck sections, A and C, in late January.

The new roller bearing assemblies that were installed on one side of the crawler are visible in this Jan. 31, 2014 image. 


CT-2 returned to the Vehicle Assembly Building (VAB) at Kennedy Space Center, where work continues to install new roller bearing assemblies on the B and D truck sections.

For more than 45 years the crawler-transporters were used to transport the mobile launcher platform and the Apollo-Saturn V rockets and, later, space shuttles to Launch Pads 39A and B.

Upgrades to CT-2 are necessary to increase the lifted-load capacity from 12 million to 18 million pounds to support the weight of the mobile launcher and future launch vehicles, including the SLS and Orion.

Photo credit: NASA/Kim Shiflett

NASA Shuttle launch pad 39A up for lease

Nearly two years after space shuttle Atlantis blasted off for the last time, NASA has put out a "For Lease" notice for one of its shuttle launch pads in Florida.

In a notice posted on its procurement website, the U.S. space agency said it was looking for one or more companies to take over operations and maintenance of Launch Complex 39A.

The facility is one of two launch pads at the Kennedy Space Center built in the 1960s to support the Apollo moon program. Both were later modified for the space shuttles, which began flying in 1981.

NASA intends to refurbish Complex 39B for its heavy-lift Space Launch System rocket and Orion deep-space crew capsule, designed to carry astronauts to destinations beyond the International Space Station, a $100 billion research complex that flies about 250 miles above Earth.

Pad 39A, however, is among the hundreds of shuttle-era facilities that NASA no longer needs.

Robert Cabana

"We're on track for significant commercial operations here at the Cape," Kennedy Space Center Director Robert Cabana said last week at a National Space Club Florida meeting in Cape Canaveral.

NASA's Florida spaceport has demolished or transferred to commercial users more than 150 shuttle facilities, reducing its footprint by 1 million square feet (93,000 square meters), Cabana said.

Among the companies that have expressed interest in the pad are privately owned Space Exploration Technologies, or SpaceX, which leases a launch pad at the adjacent Cape Canaveral Air Force Station for its Falcon 9 rockets.

SpaceX has a second launch site in California and is shopping for at least one more U.S. site to accommodate its burgeoning manifest.

NASA is looking to have a five-year or longer lease on the property by October 1.

Mars: Are Dreams of Human Habitation and exploration achievable?

NASA and private sector experts now agree that a man or woman could be sent on a mission to Mars over the next 20 years, despite huge challenges.

The biggest names in space exploration, among them top officials from the US space agency and Buzz Aldrin, the second man to walk on the moon, will discuss the latest projects at a three-day conference starting Monday in the US capital.

Renewed interest in the red planet has triggered the launch of several initiatives in recent months, including one proposing a simple one-way trip to cut costs.

The American public also favours sending astronauts to Mars, according to a survey by non-profit group Explore Mars and US aerospace giant, Boeing.

The poll in March of more than a thousand people published in March found that 71 percent of Americans expect that humans will land on Mars by 2033.

Seventy-five percent say NASA’s budget should be doubled to one percent of the federal budget to fund a mission to Mars and other initiatives.

Buzz Aldrin

NASA receives only 0.5 percent of the US federal budget, compared to four percent during the Apollo project to conquer the moon in the 1960s.

The US space agency’s chief, and ex-astronaut, Charles Bolden has stressed that ‘a human mission to Mars is a priority.’

But the US financial crisis is a major obstacle to such a project.

‘If we started today, it’s possible to land on Mars in 20 years,’ said G. Scott Hubbard of Stanford University.

‘It doesn’t require miracles, it requires money and a plan to address the technological engineering challenges,’ added Hubbard, who served as NASA’s first Mars program director and successfully restructured the entire Mars program in the wake of mission failures.

Scott Hubbard

Placing a mass of 30-40 tonnes — the amount estimated to be necessary to make a habitat on the red planet — would be one of the greatest challenges, along with the well-known problem of carrying or producing enough fuel to get back, Hubbard stressed.

The Curiosity rover took a nail-biting seven minutes in August to make its descent on Mars, but it only weighed one tonne.

The $2.5 billion Curiosity mission, which is set to last at least two years, aims to study the Martian environment and to hunt for evidence of water in preparation for a possible future manned mission.

Robotic missions will therefore be necessary to prove the system works before scientists can even contemplate sending humans aboard.

NASA is currently developing a Space Launch System (SLS) and the Orion Crew transport capsule for distant space exploration.

The Orion Transportation Capsule, shown below, will be powered by the European ATV power unit, part of a long-standing collaborative agreement with ESA.

NASA SLS Mega-Rocket Could Lead to Skylab 2 Deep Space Station

The original Skylab space station (left) launched atop a Saturn V moon rocket. Skylab II (right) would blast off atop NASA's Space Launch System.

CREDIT: NASA Images

NASA's first manned outpost in deep space may be a repurposed rocket part, just like the agency's first-ever astronaut abode in Earth orbit.

With a little tinkering, the upper-stage hydrogen propellant tank of NASA's huge Space Launch System (SLS) rocket would make a nice and relatively cheap deep-space habitat, some researchers say.

They call the proposed craft "Skylab II," an homage to the 1970s Skylab space station that was a modified third stage of a Saturn V moon rocket.

"This idea is not challenging technology," said Brand Griffin, an engineer with Gray Research, Inc., who works with the Advanced Concepts Office at NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Ala.

"It's just trying to say, 'Is this the time to be able to look at existing assets, planned assets and incorporate those into what we have as a destination of getting humans beyond LEO [low-Earth orbit]?'" Griffin said Wednesday (March 27) during a presentation with NASA's Future In-Space Operations working group.

Astronauts would reach the Skylab II deep-space habitat aboard NASA's Orion Multi-Purpose Crew Vehicle. CREDIT: NASA /MSFC artist concept, Brand Griffin, Advanced Concepts Office

A roomy home in deep space
NASA is developing the Space Launch System (SLS) to launch astronauts toward distant destinations such as near-Earth asteroids and Mars.

The rocket's first test flight is slated for 2017, and NASA wants it to start lofting crews by 2021.

The SLS will stand 384 feet tall (117 meters) in its biggest ("evolved") incarnation, which will be capable of blasting 130 metric tons of payload to orbit. Its upper-stage hydrogen tank is big, too, measuring 36.1 feet tall by 27.6 feet wide (11.15 m by 8.5 m).

The tank's dimensions yield an internal volume of 17,481 cubic feet (495 cubic m) — roughly equivalent to a two-story house.

That's much roomier than a potential deep-space habitat derived from modules of the International Space Station (ISS), which are just 14.8 feet (4.5 m) wide, Griffin said.

The tank-based Skylab II could accommodate a crew of four comfortably and carry enough gear and food to last for several years at a time without requiring a resupply, he added.

Skylab astronauts took this photograph as they approached the orbiting laboratory on the the third and final mission in November 1973. 

Credit: NASA

Further, it would launch aboard the SLS in a single piece, whereas ISS-derived habitats would need to link up multiple components in space.

Because of this, Skylab II would require relatively few launches to establish and maintain, Griffin said. That and the use of existing SLS-manufacturing infrastructure would translate into big cost savings — a key selling point in today's tough fiscal climate.

"We will have the facilities in place, the tooling, the personnel, all the supply chain and everything else," Griffin said.

He compared the overall concept with the original Skylab space station, which was built in a time of declining NASA budgets after the boom years of the Apollo program.

Skylab "was a project embedded under the Apollo program," Griffin said. "In many ways, this could follow that same pattern. It could be a project embedded under SLS and be able to, ideally, not incur some of the costs of program startup."

The Skylab II deep-space habitat would be made from the Space Launch System's upper-stage hydrogen tank. 

CREDIT: NASA/MSFC artist concept, Brand Griffin, Advanced Concepts Office

NASA Turns Up the Heat On Construction of the SLS

An adapter for the Orion spacecraft under construction at the Marshall Center.

Credit: NASA/MSFC

Welding engineers at NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Ala., have had an extremely busy winter assembling adapters that will connect the Orion spacecraft to a Delta IV rocket for the initial test flight of Orion in 2014.

The adapter later will attach Orion to NASA's Space Launch System (SLS), a new heavy-lift rocket managed and in development at the Marshall Center that will enable missions farther into space than ever before.

The 2014 Orion Exploration Flight Test-1 (EFT-1) will provide engineers with important data about the adapter's performance before it is flown on SLS beginning in 2017.

In a high bay of Marshall's Building 4755, expert welders using state-of-the-art friction stir welding machines worked on two separate adapters.

For each adapter, a vertical welding machine stitched panels together to form a conical cylinder, then a circumferential welding machine attached a thicker, structural support ring at the top and the bottom.

"While the adapters are identical and are considered flight articles, only one will actually be used for EFT-1," said Brent Gaddes, Spacecraft & Payload Integration Subsystem manager.

"The other will undergo strenuous structural testing to ensure quality, while its twin will make the trip to NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida for integration into the rest of the test vehicle for launch."

United Launch Alliance (ULA), which makes the Delta IV rocket in nearby Decatur, Ala., will deliver a full-size section of the rocket later this spring for engineers to test the fit of the adapter.

"You really don't have the tools and the resources in one place anywhere else in the world," said Justin Littell, a mechanical engineer with the welding group at the Marshall Center. "The work that we do here is exciting and I get to work with a great team. It's amazing."

See the friction stir welds in action in this video:

NASA Orion Spacecraft Image

Technicians prepare to fit a special fixture around an Orion capsule inside the high bay of the Operations & Checkout Building at NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida. 

The fixture is designed to enable precise pre-launch processing of the Orion spacecraft. Orion will be the most advanced spacecraft ever designed and carry astronauts farther into space than ever before. 

It will sustain astronauts during space travel and provide safe re-entry from deep space and emergency abort capability. 

Orion will be launched by NASA's Space Launch System (SLS), a heavy-lift rocket that will provide an entirely new capability for human exploration beyond low Earth orbit. 

Designed to be flexible for launching spacecraft for crew and cargo missions, SLS will enable new missions of exploration and expand human presence across the solar system. 

 Image Credit: NASA

NASA's Space Launch System: Langley Wind Tunnel Test

NASA's Space Launch System buffet model in NASA's Langley Researcher Center's Transonic Dynamics Tunnel. 

The SLS is America's next heavy-lift launch vehicle that will provide an entirely new capability for science and human exploration beyond Earth's orbit. 

Image credit: NASA/LaRC