What’s next for space travel? Maybe a road trip

by Chris Owen on

While the space shuttle era officially ended early Thursday morning as Atlantis landed for the last time at Kennedy Space Center, the next chapter in American space flight has yet to be written. One vision of what’s next for space travel over the next 20 to 30 years includes an efficient network of refueling stations, communication points and satellites throughout the solar system.

“We’re closing a chapter in the history of our nation,” said astronaut Ronald Garan, a flight engineer stationed on the International Space Station. “In the future when another spacecraft docks to that hatch. . . we are going to be opening a new era and raising the flag on a new era of exploration” reported the Miami Herald.

At Purdue University, one of the most NASA-connected campuses in America, researchers are developing ways to design a galactic gas pump that can move fuel from one tank to another in zero gravity and create a network or “exploration infrastructure” across the solar system.

“The post-shuttle era is not the end of NASA space exploration, it’s just the end of shuttle missions. This is just a transition,” Purdue professor Steven Collicott told JCOnline. Collicott’s research on zero-gravity physics could play a major role in the design of futuristic refueling stations.

In this vision, 30 years from now, astronauts will routinely work throughout the solar system,
stopping at an efficient network of refueling stations, communication points and satellites while gathering samples, running robots on planets, moons and asteroids, and reporting back to Houston.

Developing a system that works for both robotic and manned missions, the “exploration infrastructure” would include outposts dedicated to communications, logistics, repair and resupply.

It does sound a bit like getting ready for a road trip though. “Play your route wisely”, “Prepare your vehicle” and “Pack the right stuff” are recommendations on Gadling’s 20 tips for surviving a summer road trip, courtesy of touring musicians.

One not on our list that NASA could add: Get a guarantee on that funding.

Flickr photo by ksgr

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Space race brings trip around the Moon by 2015

by Chris Owen on
We’ve heard of suborbital flights being booked by Richard Branson’s Virgin Galactic, those have been in the works for quite some time. So have various plans for a replacement vehicle for the retiring space shuttles. Now, the news about space travel brings us to the Moon with a flight around the moon available coming up as soon as 2015 says one company already in the business.

Space Adventures based in Virginia is the only company to have booked and offered commercial space travel, delivering astronauts to the International Space Station.

“The moon holds a special place in all of our hearts. It’s a symbol of the space future that humanity wishes for, a symbol of our curiosity, and something that we see every night. When the private moon mission launches, the eyes of the world will truly be upon those people, and it will truly be an extraordinary event,” Eric Anderson of Space Adventures told International Business News.

The price tag?

A round-trip for two looks to be right at $150 million.

Back in 2009, Gadling reported on a NASA focused on commercial space travel with a plan to spend $50 million of economic stimulus cash from the feds into putting the average traveler into space. Then, commercial space travel was not much more than a dream or something for a “weird news” column.

Now, as plans develop on several fronts, space travel may very well be within reach for everyday people…who have $150 million to spare.

Flickr photo by *L*u*z*A

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Forgotten space pioneer: 50th anniversary Alan Shepard’s historic flight

by Sean McLachlan on

Fifty years ago today Alan B. Shepard Jr., became the first American in space when he flew in the Freedom 7 mission. He got 116.5 miles up and his flight lasted 15 minutes, 28 seconds. He made history, but has been generally forgotten.

Why? Because he was the second man in space. Yuri Gagarin made it into space 23 days earlier and won the second round of the US-Soviet space race. The Soviets won the first round too, when they got the first satellite into orbit in 1957.

Neither man achieved full orbit, but they did prove you could survive the trip and they paved the way for future space missions. Both deserve to be remembered.

NASA has an excellent interactive webpage about the mission and the capsule he flew in is on display at the Armel-Leftwich Visitor Center at the U.S. Naval Academy in Annapolis, Maryland. Shepard was an alum (Class of 1945) so needless to say they’re pretty proud of him over there.

Shepard later landed on the Moon in the Apollo 14 mission and drew laughs and criticism when he played golf in low gravity. You can see the Apollo 14 command module at the John F. Kennedy Space Center.

[Photo courtesy NASA]

Space shuttle workers may have short trip to new jobs

by Chris Owen on

When the U.S. space shuttle program finally shuts down and the final launch is complete, space workers are going to need a job and they may not have to travel far to find one. Some may end up working in a related field, maybe building the next generation of flight vehicles with a private contractor. But for many workers at Florida‘s Kennedy Space Center, the future had been uncertain at best until now. Now workers are seeing at least one possible option from an unlikely source.

Carnival Cruise Lines recently announced they were moving 2,052-passenger Carnival Ecstasy from Galveston, Texas to Port Canaveral, just down the street from where space workers have been making a living for decades.

Along with Carnival Ecstasy comes hundreds if not thousands of jobs building a new $30 million cruise terminal, dock and more.

No, we’re probably not going to see one of the astronauts or flight directors in the construction process, but for 8,000 space workers who will lose their jobs, this adds one choice to a very short list of options.

Another possible job for space shuttle workers, ironically tech-related is in the health information technology field. As doctors and hospitals make the transition from paper to electronic records jobs there are plentiful but that sure doesn’t sound as exciting as being a part of space travel.

Look for displaced space workers to find other jobs in aerospace too as aviation companies are drawn to the area. Aviation companies soon to break ground at new facilities in Florida include AAR Corp and MidairUSA who noted that the skilled work force was a big advantage over other communities they were considering.

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Orion spacecraft key to future space travel

by Chris Owen on

Lockheed Martin’s Orion space craft, designed to take astronauts to the moon, may first be used as an emergency escape vehicle for the international space station. By 2016, NASA wants to run multiple, deep-space missions to the moon and much farther destinations, making the Orion spacecraft key to future space travel.

“Orion was designed from inception to fly multiple, deep-space missions,” John Karas, vice president and general manager for Lockheed Martin’s Human Space Flight programs told Computerworld.com.

The Orion spacecraft was first part of NASA’s Constellation program, slated to bring humans back to the moon by 2020 but budget cuts and behind-schedule, over-budget construction caused a refocus of the program. Now, the goal is sending astronauts to Mars and further into the solar system.

“The spacecraft is an incredibly robust, technically advanced vehicle capable of safely transporting humans to asteroids, Lagrange Points and other deep space destinations that will put us on an affordable and sustainable path to Mars” said Karas.

When the Space shuttle fleet is fully retired at the end of the year, Orion may be used as a means to evacuate astronauts from the International space station. The Orion spacecraft includes a crew module, a cargo transport, a service module for propulsion, electric power, fluids storage and a spacecraft adapter for securing it to the launch vehicle.

In 2009, Gadling reported on a NASA focused on commercial space travel with a plan to spend $50 million of economic stimulus cash from the feds into putting the average traveler into space. While the topic comes up from time to time, commercial space travel seems to be not much more than a dream. But if the Commercial Spaceflight Federation has anything to say about it, that dream will be a reality soon.

In a letter sent to Congress earlier this month, the federation notes:

“We are writing to urge you to fully fund NASA’s plan to use commercial companies to carry crew to the Space Station because it is critical to the health of the Nation’s human spaceflight efforts.”

They may just get their wish. With the space shuttle program coming to an end shortly, there are few alternatives to take man or supplies into space and an International Space Station up there that will need both.

Flickr photo by Bernt Rostad