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My question: Who do you think will lead the innovation in space travel and technology related to the space industry?

As it is, America's space exploration is taking a new direction while international space agencies are forging ahead with planned missions to Mars and other extraterrestrial activties.

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/g/a/2010/06/04/investopedia44621.DTL

If NASA's space program is the absolute last thing on your mind, it's not surprising. But while other government agencies are facing cutbacks, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration's budget is increasing, with an extra $6 billion being handed over to the development of new space initiatives over the next five years. NASA stands by the plan, claiming that new programs will take scientific research in space into the future. But some critics say that the President Barack Obama's allocation of the budget is unrealistic; others are wondering where - on Earth - those funds could be spent. (BABs are part of the recovery act created by the Obama administration. Find out how they work and whether they could work for you, in Build America Bonds: Should You Buy?)
In Pictures: 6 Hot Careers With Lots Of Jobs

$19 Billion
The amount President Obama requested to spend on the NASA space program for the 2011 fiscal year last February. Funds would be reallocated to focus on developing higher quality and more cost-effective technologies in space exploration, robotics missions, development of heavy-lift rocket systems that would make traveling to space faster and easier. The government made a spending request of $100 billion that would go to NASA over the next five years.


$2.5 Billion
The estimated cost of closing out the controversial Constellation program, which will be canceled by the Obama administration when approved by Congress. The program supports human flight into space, including sending a rocket called Ares I to the moon. The administration called it "over budget, behind schedule, and lacking in innovation due to a failure to invest in critical new technologies."

But Congress is waiting to be convinced that turning to private companies to construct spacecrafts will not be any more affordable or effective. Watchdog groups like Citizens Against Government Waste (CAGW), which are skeptical of the return on investment (ROI) in manned space exploration, applaud Obama's initiative. "As romantic and inspirational as space flight is, the brutal reality is that the Constellation program has become a symbol of the 'old NASA,'" said CAGW President Tom Schatz. (The President's political party is correlated to market performance. Find out which party tends to outperform, in For Higher Stock Returns, Vote Republican Or Democrat?)


10,000
The number of jobs, nationwide, that the President hopes to create by investing in the private sector and by upgrading the Kennedy Space Centre in Florida.


2004
The year former President George W. Bush announced the Vision for Space Exploration plan. The Constellation program made its debut in this report, which would replace the Space Shuttle exploration program once the International Space Station was completed in 2010. The report came in part as a response to the investigation of the deaths of seven astronauts on the Space Shuttle Columbia. The investigation said space exploration needed a clearer vision. "This cause of exploration and discovery is not an option we choose; it is a desire written in the human heart," Bush was quoted in the Vision for Space Exploration report.


50
The number of years NASA has been in the business of launching space shuttles. Now, there are just four launches left, each with a price tag at approximately $450 million. The International Space Station will be complete after these final materials are shuttled to the research centre that orbits Earth. (A president's campaign trail promises often come up against economic reality. Read more, in Talk Is Cheap: Campaign Promises And The Economy.)
The Bottom Line
If the cancellation of the Constellation program is approved, it will mark a new direction for the NASA space program - away from the days of moon landings and manned space flight, and into a new age of scientific research, with the completion of the International Space Station.

"We will blaze a new trail of discovery and development," assured NASA administrator Charlie Bolden. "We will facilitate the growth of new commercial industries. And we will expand our understanding of the Earth, our solar system, and the universe beyond." (For more, see Budget Like The Government.)

http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5i_Qr5jcsuFj9rPiNuDwHVFQLDf9wD9G431VO0

Scientists begin 520-day Mars mission simulation
By VLADIMIR ISACHENKOV (AP) – 22 hours ago

MOSCOW — An international team of researchers climbed into a set of windowless steel capsules Thursday to launch a 520-day simulation of a flight to Mars intended to help real space crews of the future cope with confinement, stress and fatigue of interplanetary travel.

The six-member, all-male crew of three Russians, a Frenchman, an Italian-Colombian and a Chinese will follow a tight regimen of experiments and exercise under video surveillance.

The Mars-500 experiment — conducted by the Moscow-based Institute for Medical and Biological Problems in cooperation with the European Space Agency and China's space training center — aims to reproduce the conditions of space travel, with exception of weightlessness.

"For me, it will be mainly my family, and the sun and fresh air," French participant Romain Charles said when asked by reporters what he will miss most during the nearly a year and a half of confinement.

The researchers will communicate with the outside world via the Internet — delayed and occasionally disrupted to imitate the effects of space travel. They will eat canned food similar to that currently offered on the International Space Station and shower only once a week or so. Crew members will have two days off a week, except when emergencies are simulated, though they will still be in the capsules.

"Certainly, the crew is largely on its own here, with very limited communications with the outside world," Martin Zell of the ESA's Directorate of Human Spaceflight told The Associated Press. "They have to cope internally with a lot of conditions and to organize themselves."

A real mission to Mars is decades away because of huge costs and massive technological challenges, particularly the task of creating a compact shield that will protect the crew from deadly space radiation. President Barack Obama said last month that he foresaw sending astronauts to orbit Mars by the mid-2030s.

The crew members said they were confident of success. Diego Urbina, the Italian-Colombian member, told a news conference that for him it would mean "accomplishing dreams about the future, doing something that no human has done before."

Psychologists said long confinement would put the team under stress as they grow increasingly tired of each other's company. Psychological conditions can be even more challenging on a mock mission than a real flight because the crew won't experience any of the euphoria or dangers of actual space travel.

French participant Romain Charles said he was bringing along a guitar to warm the atmosphere. Others said they would bring books, movies and pictures of their relatives.

The crew will split their days into eight hours of work, eight hours of sleep and eight hours of leisure.

"The routine is much more than on a real mission, there is a little bit less thrill," Zell said. "But I think their team spirit, and their motivation to go there and to accomplish the whole mission is enormous."

As part of efforts to keep the crew in good spirits, they will play an "interplanetary" match with former world chess champion Anatoly Karpov at some point during the experiment.

The facility for the experiment is in western Moscow and includes living compartments the size of a bus connected with several other modules for experiments and exercise. A separate built-in imitator of the Red Planet's surface is also attached for a mock landing.

The mission director, cosmonaut Boris Morukov, said the experiment could be disrupted for medical or technical reasons or if some of the participants categorically demand it be stopped.

"Each crew member has the right to end the experiment and walk out," he said at a news conference. "We have had such negative experience in the past, and I hope it won't happen during this experiment."

A similar experiment in 1999-2000 at the same Moscow institute went awry when a Canadian woman complained of being forcibly kissed by a Russian team captain. She also said two Russian crew members had a fist fight that left blood splattered on the walls. Russian officials downplayed the incidents, attributing them to cultural gaps and stress.

Morukov said the organizers had considered some female candidates for the current experiment, but they hadn't been chosen for various reasons. "Selecting an all-man crew wasn't our goal," he said.

Other crew members include Russians Alexey Sitev, 38, Sukhrob Kamolov, 37, Alexander Smoleyevsky, 33 and Wang Yue, 26, from China. The organizers said each crew member will be paid about $97,000 for taking part in the experiment.

For Sitev, the mission captain, the experiment means separation from his wife just a few weeks after the two tied the knot. "It's difficult for me to part with my family, just as it is for any other person," he told journalists just before stepping in.

We've gone capitalist. Any state owned governemnt can build a rocket-who cares?

http://www.space.com/missionlaunches/spacex-first-falcon-9-rocket-launch-wrap-100604.html

New Private Rocket Soars Into Space on First Flight
By Clara Moskowitz
SPACE.com Senior Writer
posted: 04 June 2010
02:46 pm ET


This story was updated at 4:48 p.m. EDT.

The brand new commercial Falcon 9 rocket soared into orbit from Florida on its maiden flight Friday, the first test for a new era of private vehicles that could one day send cargo – and possibly astronauts – into space.

The Falcon 9 rocket, built by private company Space Exploration Technologies (SpaceX), blasted off at 2:45 p.m. EDT (1845 GMT) from its seaside launch pad at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida.

Ads by GoogleWant to Leave the Matrix?Former Government Spy Shares Secrets on Bending Your Reality... www.OneUniversalMind.comSpace Saver TredmillEllipticals, Treadmills, Home Gyms Bikes, Apparel & Free Shipping! www.NordicTrack.caGet 1TB of Online StorageStore, Share & Backup Files Online 4 STARS by PC Magazine. Free Trial www.egnyte.com/Free-Trial"It's been a good day for SpaceX," said SpaceX launch commentator Robyn Ringuette.

The trip to orbit appeared to progress largely as expected, though a video camera attached to the Falcon 9 showed a slight roll on the ascent to space. It is unknown what effect this might have had on the vehicle's performance, but SpaceX officials said the rocket reached the intended orbit.

An earlier launch attempt today at 1:30 p.m. EDT (1730 GMT) was aborted when a last minute glitch caused SpaceX to halt just after ignition of the rocket's engines. The issue was an "out-of-limit startup parameter," according to Ringuette.

Before that, the launch was delayed past an initial 11 a.m. EDT (1500 GMT) target time a blocked signal from the rocket's telemetry system, which enables the launch team to track the vehicle from afar.

After that issue was resolved, a report came from the U.S. Air Force that a boat had strayed into the safety range on the Atlantic Ocean over which the Falcon 9 rocket would fly during its trip to space. The launch had to wait until the boat was cleared before proceeding.

Finally, SpaceX recycled the launch countdown and succeeded launching on its second try, when all systems appeared to function as designed for a smooth first blastoff of the untried rocket.

"It's a huge milestone achievement for SpaceX as a company, because they've invested a lot of time, a lot of money, a lot of engineering, and to get to an actual flight test is definitely an impressive achievement," said Brett Alexander, president of the Commercial Spaceflight Federation, a private industry group.

The Falcon 9 vehicle already has a $1.6 billion contract with NASA to haul cargo to the International Space Station, and may one day carry astronauts as well. Today's successful launch adds fuel to the hopes that the rocket will be the first non-government spaceship to carry people to orbit.

The 178-foot (54-meter) tall liquid-fueled booster flew a mockup of the Hawthorne, Calif.-based company's Dragon capsule, which is planned to carry cargo, and eventually crew, to space.

This SPACE.com graphic shows how the Falcon 9 rocket compares with NASA's shuttles and other spacecraft.

Falcon 9 traveled eastward off the pad to orbit about 155 miles (250 km) above Earth. SpaceX hopes to recover the first stage of the rocket, which fell into the Atlantic Ocean after launch and was buoyed by parachutes on its descent.

Today's successful test launch likely means that the next time the rocket blasts off, it will head straight to the space station to practice delivering supplies. An actual docking and cargo delivery would probably take place on the Falcon 9's third flight, SpaceX has said.

This successful trial flight will likely provide a boon to President Barack Obama's plan to shift responsibility for ferrying astronauts to the International Space Station to the commercial space sector after the space shuttles retire this year. The President proposed cancelling NASA's existing Constellation plan to build a shuttle replacement.

"If [the test launch] is successful I think it's symbolically the new age, because it's the first time to orbit by a vehicle being built entirely by a private corporation," space policy expert Roger Handberg, a political scientist at the University of Central Florida, said before the flight. "It is a game changer in that sense. It makes the commercial space stuff finally credible."

The launch could help ease doubts of some lawmakers that private space companies are up to the task.

"What people have been saying in Congress is the commercial sector can't do it," Handberg told SPACE.com. "I think in the larger congressional community there will be less willingness to say, 'Oh yeah, we need to keep the shuttle flying, keep Constellation going.' I think they'll be more willing to back the President."

But some doubt that skeptics will be persuaded by the successful launch.

"If it's a success I don't expect critics of the administration's plan to say anything positive," Alexander said on Thursday. "They'll just say, 'It's only a test.'"

While the achievement is significant for SpaceX, he said, the whole future of the commercial space industry is not riding on the success or failure of this one trial. SpaceX itself agreed.

"Tomorrow's launch should not be a verdict on the viability of commercial space," Musk said Thursday. "Commercial space is the only way forward," he said, because of the limited budget of governmental space programs.

Ultimately, SpaceX plans to reuse most elements of their spacecraft to cut down costs and make space affordable for more civilians to travel beyond Earth.

"Unless we can make dramatic improvements to the cost and reliability of space transport and make it closer to air transport, it will only ever be a small number of launches that take place every year at extreme expense," Musk said.

I am leaving this open as a general gauge for where people think space travel will go. I merely provided America and a conglomerate of international interests looking into space travel. Frazzled just added another train of thought to where it may go.

Meh. We're British.

You develop it, we'll pinch it, improve it, and see you in Alpha Centauri in time for Tiffin and six of the best.

I think the rest of the world will easily beat America.

We will have titans and bane blades in 15 years.

Mad Doc Grotsnik wrote:Meh. We're British.

You develop it, we'll pinch it, improve it, and see you in Alpha Centauri in time for Tiffin and six of the best.

remember that back in the day we had a choice:
Launch rockets into space or develop a supersonic airliner (albeit with the CESM's in bed with us).

Sputnik paved the way for Americas pursuit of space travel. I reckon that China and Indias individual programmes are spurring their developments forwards.
Europe will jump into bed with whomever can offer them space.

Japan is where it's at for sphess exploration.



http://www.space.com/missionlaunches/japan-venus-wrap-100520.html

http://hayabusa.jaxa.jp/e/index.html

http://www.jaxa.jp/projects/index_e.html

Iran also has a space program that is likely equal parts ballistic missile development, and satellite deployment.

Grambo wrote:We will have titans and bane blades in 15 years.

I already have those.


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in real life.

I think China is who to watch. Not only do they obviously have enormous population resources, but because of raw numbers of people, they have an enormous technologically savvy population. My understanding is China is only the third nation on this planet to independently develop a manned space program after the US and Russia/USSR, though I know I might be wrong and if the Europeans want to jump on me for that one thats fine. From what I've read it seems like the Chinese are absolutely determined to take a lead in manned space exploration and have an almost manifest destiny attitude about it. My understanding is that they're planning a moon shot.

Someone who has connections with NASA is welcome to argue with me, but I think the United States is just not going to be a future leader in *manned* space exploration. I remember going to the US Space and Rocket center in Huntsville with an ex of mine ( I don't remember why we were together at the time ) and feeling a profound sense of sadness and a feeling of inwardness. It seems like the past in this country was about reaching out into the unknown, and now we're about turning in and dealing with internal problems, like environmental issues and crumbling infrastructure. Part of it I'm sure was my personal issues going on at the time. I mean, we haven't had anyone out of LEO for almost 40 years now. By some definitions that means we haven't gone to space for almost 40 years. I mean, with all the technological advances in the past 40 years, why were they able and willing to send missions to the moon back then, and not now?

In one of Stephen Baxter's novels he has a character that reflects on similar things that I felt. I think its one of his books in the series that began with Coalescent.