We Are Not Alone...

That is, we are not alone in our efforts to study the solar system and dream as a nation. This is good news, and yet also a little troubling since we saw ourselves as the smartest kid on the block (though one could argue that was not even the case with Russia during the Cold War until the Apollo landing).  While the Orion mission is a bold step forward, it is not clear where that step is leading as Congress debates destinations such as asteroids, the Moon, and Mars.  And the White House seems to be taking a back seat rather than voicing a vision. 

If you look at the traffic in space, you can see the "space race" is turning into rush hour:  Here are a few examples:

- Europe:  The Rosetta mission was a great accomplishment.  Landing a probe on a comet is no small task, and the European Space Agency (ESA) should be elated with this accomplishment.  ESA is also working with Russia on a new mission to Mars, something that the U.S. backed out of earlier.  Hence, alliances are forming with the U.S. being sidelined.

- China:  China continues to work on its plans for a space station and took further steps last year in its efforts to return samples from the moon.  China already has a rover on the Moon's surface. 

- Japan:  Japan launched the Hayabusa 2 mission last month (pictured above) heading for a 3,000-foot-wide asteroid named 1999 JU3.  NASA and the Japanese Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) plan to share asteroid samples.

- Russia:  The Russians continue to build most of the rockets we depend upon, have discussed pulling out of the International Space Station so they can build their own station, and recently restated plans to put cosmonauts on the Moon.  Whether or not Russia will have the budget to do these things in coming years will depend upon economics as much as science and technology given the state of the Russian economy. 

- India:  India joined the big leagues last year with its successful Mars Orbiter Mission, which put a spacecraft in orbit around the Red Planet. India is also taking steps to build a new rocket and capsule for future manned missions.

- Private Sector:  In addition to the various national missions, the private sector has its own plans, including Planetary Resources mining asteroid, Mars One bringing humans to Mars, SpaceX hopefully allowing the U.S. to move away from Russian rockets, and Bigelow designing inflatable space stations (see photo) for both science and tourism. 

All of the activity is encouraging, and maybe it will give the NASA and the Congress a swift kick in the pants, letting them know that the world will not stand idle while Rome (or budgets) burn and committees fiddle.  Competition helped us get to the Moon, and it may do so again. 

Image Credits:  Hayabusa 2 from JAXA and inflatable space station from Bigelow.

NASA's 2015 Budget: What Does the Future Look Like?

Luckily, we did not experience a government shut down this year, which may be a sign that Congress understands the need for a functioning government regardless of its political differences.  Three cheers for common sense, which has never been very common in Washington, DC.  But now that we are left with a 1,600 page signed "Cromnibus" bill, what is in this document and how did NASA fare? It seems NASA will get $18.01 billion this year for its operations and programs, an increase from what the Agency proposed earlier this year in the White House's budget request.

And what programs will be funded?  Spaceflight Insider put together a list of winners:

•  Orion will be funded at $1.194 billion, roughly $150 million more than NASA requested.
• The Space Launch System, the rocket upon which Orion will be launched in coming years, received an additional $320 million over the White House’s budget submission for a total of $1.7 billion for the rocket and an additional $350 million for ground systems.
• Planetary sciences received a startling bump of $100 million specifically to begin developing a probe to land on Jupiter’s Europa moon. Europa’s hypothesized vast subterranean oceans have long caught the eye of astro-biologists as a favorable location for the development of life.
• An infrared telescope housed inside a Boeing 747, named SOFIA, was allocated a substantial $70 million to rescue it from a proposed grounding.
• The National Space Grant College and Fellowship Project and the Experimental Project to Stimulate Competitive Research were both fully funded to a combined total of $58 million.

It would seem the infrastructure for manned missions is well funded in the year to come, an encouraging sign.  However, it also appears Texas Republican Senator Ted Cruz could chair the Senate Commerce, Science and Technology subcommittee overseeing NASA's programs.  As a result, this may be the start of a rocky year at NASA.

You can find all of the FY 2015 NASA budget documents here. 

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

Orion: Mission Accomplished

The Orion mission has been a complete success.  NASA's press release said it all:

It was just the kind of mission NASA hoped for, all the while knowing that the first mission by any spacecraft often turns up significant glitches. That was not the case this time though. The cone-shaped Orion held up to all the pressures of launch and ascent into orbit, then made two passes through the high radiation of the Van Allen belts before facing the searing plunge into Earth's atmosphere and splashing down under three billowing parachutes.

Watching the spacecraft descend through the sky over the Pacific Ocean in real time via an unmanned aircraft system dispatched from NASA's Armstrong Flight Research Center in California, Orion managers and NASA's senior leadership seemed to hold their breath until the first drogue parachutes deployed from the nose of Orion. Gasps turned quickly to applause and hugs moments later when the huge main parachutes opened to slow the capsule to a gentle 20 mph splashdown 270 miles west of Baja California.

 Here is a NASA video showing the countdown, launch, and ascent. 

All Eyes Are Watching Orion

Is Orion the start of great things? The controversial and expensive spacecraft is NASA's best hope at the moment to get to Mars and beyond (and maybe an asteroid before that).  And the test tomorrow may bring us closer to those goals.

In its press release, http://www.nasa.gov/content/orion-poised-for-first-trip-to-space, NASA stated:

From the launch on a gigantic United Launch Alliance Delta IV Heavy on Dec. 4 from Florida to the expected splashdown under billowing parachutes, the mission will test many of the riskiest events Orion will see when it sends astronauts to an asteroid and onward toward Mars in the future.

"Orion is the exploration spacecraft for NASA, and paired with the Space Launch System, or SLS, rocket it will allow us to explore the solar system," said Mark Geyer, program manager of Orion, which is based at Johnson Space Center in Houston.

After the recent U.S. spacecraft mishaps, we need a success story. And while we might have been able to develop cheaper systems steered towards other destinations, this is what we have at the moment. All the government eggs for a manned space mission are now in one basket. 

Godspeed, Orion.

Update:  Weather issues have delayed the launch by a day.   If the weather cooperates, the launch should occur Friday morning at 7:05am ET.

Second Update:  The Friday launch was successful (as shown below). At the time of this posting the mission was still ongoing.

NASA's FY 2015 Budget Request: Good Ideas with Limited Resources

The White House released its budget request for NASA earlier in the week.  The good news is that NASA has a lot of good projects on the drawing board.  The bad news is that this country does not have the money or will power to adequately fund future space projects.  The White House asked for $17.5 billion for NASA in FY 2015, a drop from $17.6.  And while this does not sound like much, it is a much larger cut if you assume any level of inflation since the space agency again has to do more (or at least the same work) with less money. 

But let's look at the proposed projects listed in NASA's budget:

•  Supports the 2018 launch of the James Webb Space Telescope;
•  Continues formulation and development of Mars Rover 2020 and MOMA/ExoMars missions to Mars;
• Continues development of the robotic OSIRIS-REx mission to retrieve and return samples from an asteroid;
• Continues pre-formulation work for a potential mission to Jupiter’s moon, Europa. 
• Extends operation of the International Space Station (ISS) to at least 2024, and sustains delivery of cargo to the ISSwith U.S. developed, commercially procured space transportation elements;
• Maintains development of Space Launch System/Orion on track to send astronauts on deep space exploration missions; and
• Funds 7 launches over 24 months: Deep Space Atomic Clock (precise navigation); Green Propellant (higher-performing alternative to toxic hydrazine); Sunjammer Solar Sail (propellant-free propulsion); and four small spacecraft demos.

NASA also made a video explaining this budget, which is an interesting approach to the dry workings of budget policy. 

This is a promising list of projects.  Exploration of Europa is exciting, and one can argue that a lot of this work can still contribute to a manned space mission to Mars at some point in the future.  In fact, the budget PowerPoint notes that this budget "Aligns NASA’s activities to send humans to an asteroid by 2025 and Mars in the 2030s."

NASA's Administrator Charles Bolden expanded on this in his press release, stating:

In the coming year, we'll build on our nation's record of breathtaking and compelling scientific discoveries and achievements in space, with science missions that will reach far into our solar system, reveal unknown aspects of our universe and provide critical knowledge about our home planet.  It includes funding for missions to Mars and the formulation for a mission to Jupiter's moon, Europa. It also funds science missions already heading toward destinations such as Jupiter and Pluto and operating throughout the solar system, a mission to study our planet's magnetic system, and steady progress on the James Webb Space Telescope.

Could NASA use more funds for more extensive exploration?  Absolutely, but that is not in the cards with this Congress and in this economy.  And combined projects with other nations, such as China and now Russia, may be difficult to establish given the political situation.  That said, maybe now is a time to out-Putin Putin with a bold new mission in space?  This budget came too late for such vision, but I am hopeful. 

Bottom Image Credit:  The Washington Post.