Mars Odyssey — A Press Release
AMarsOdyssey.com launches February 1st to track the first steps in humankind’s return to the exploration of space.
In a surprising speech on January 14th, 2004, President George W. Bush announced a bold new initiative to begin a long process of paving the way for the colonization of our Solar System. Bush said, “We do not know where this journey will end, yet we know this: Human beings are headed into the cosmos.”
Among the goals that arose from that address were:
- Sending new robotic missions to Mars and the Moon by 2008
- Completing the International Space Station (ISS) by 2010
- Creating a new Crew Exploration Vehicle that will bring humans back to the moon by 2014
- Landing on the moon in 2015 (the first time 43 years)
NASA remains on track with the Bush Administration’s timetable with the launch of the Phoenix Scout Class Probe to the Martian poles in late 2007 and the Lunar Crater Observation and Sensing Satellite (LCROSS) in 2008.
Given the stated mission to foster new technologies and harvest raw materials for rocket fuel or breathable air, clearly the long-term mission is to build habitable bases on those worlds.
For now, the proposal has become Project Constellation and will include many new ventures for the agency. Several now-aged technologies will be replaced. Among them include workhorses of the agency, such as the Saturn V rocket and the Space Shuttle.
The draft technologies to replace them have recently been approved. They include:
- The new Ares series rockets and dual use launch vehicles
- The economy-sized Orion crew module
The program, known collectively to the entire agency as Vision for Space Exploration is bringing together the talents of the entire agency for the first time in many years, as well as the talents of the United States’ leading Universities and private aerospace firms. With a fraction of the Apollo budgets, the teams will be reusing and revamping old designs to create the next generation of space exploration vehicles and programs.
Watch it all unfold here, with new content every day, at http://www.amarsodyssey.com/.
This entry was posted on Thursday, February 1st, 2007 at 1:01 am and is filed under Mission Objectives. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
