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Space Exploration: Should It Be Done?

Space Exploration: Should It Be Done? Nishith Patel Components of the Plan Creation of a new manned space vehicle will return humans to the moon within 16 years. Permanent presence on the moon

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Space Exploration: Should It Be Done?

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  1. Space Exploration: Should It Be Done? Nishith Patel

  2. Components of the Plan • Creation of a new manned space vehicle will return humans to the moon within 16 years. • Permanent presence on the moon • Spacecraft could assembled and launched from the moon. They could easily escape its far lower gravity using and use less energy, decreasing costs

  3. Components of the Plan: White House Release

  4. Initiation Of The New Plan • On January, 15 2004 George Bush • Bush proposed spending $12 billion over the next five years on the effort. About $1 billion of that will come from an increase in NASA's budget, while the other $11 billion would come from shifting funds from existing programs within NASA's current $86 billion budget. • “The desire to explore and understand is part of our character,"

  5. Return to the moon • Trip to occur between 2015 and 2020 • NASA has landed six manned missions on the moon since Apollo 11 in 1969. • The next mission appear to have the following make up Target date: 2018Length of trip: Three daysCost: $100 billion in today's dollarsStaying there: atomic reactors, space suits, shelters, lunar vehicles.

  6. Manned mission to Mars • Target date: As early as 2030 • Program length: 15 years • Trip time: 400 to 900 days round trip • Large Crew size 7-20 • (yet to be determined) • New spacecraft: • Lift rockets or a new propulsion method • Mother ship for crew • Robot ship for supplies • Landing craft • Crew habitat module for Martian surface • Rover for Martian surface • Return launch system

  7. Man on Mars: Background • NASA's twin robot geologists, the Mars Exploration Rovers, launched toward Mars on June 10 and July 7, 2003 • Solar powered machine, some limitations but ability to do many surface operations

  8. Man on Mars: How do we get there? • NASA has tested an ion rocket system • Nuclear Rocket a possibility (many risk involved) • Spacecraft assembled and provisioned on the moon could escape its far lower gravity using far less energy and thus far less cost • Minimum Trip would take about a year

  9. Man on Mars: A reality? • Estimation of Costs at 15 bil. but will escalate • Robotic exploration costs about 1 percent of the price of sending humans • But “the only way we're ever going to understand Mars and its history is to have people there doing the work” • Radiation and Environmental concerns • Health of the Crew

  10. Should we explore: Trip to Moon • Almost certain it will happen in our lifetime • The moon "contains raw materials that might be harvested and processed into rocket fuel or breathable air." • With the experience and knowledge gained on the moon, we will then be ready to take the next steps of space exploration -- human missions to Mars and to worlds beyond"

  11. Should we explore: Trip to Mars • More unlikely, talk and capabilities have been around for while…money has been key issue • Safety of crew is also a factor, many unknowns • Technology developed along the way could be vastly beneficial to human society. • Next step in Space Exploration

  12. Should We Explore: Yes • Bush touted the new space exploration effort as an investment that "will be repaid many times over" in technological advancements. • Private companies and other countries will play a role in financial issues • NASA will help with Safety issues. • 500 years ago similar argument for exploration of seas…

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