NASA Announces Giant Inflatable Extension to ISS

Wired.co.uk Update: We’ve heard back from Bigelow Aerospace’s Mike Gold, who has confirmed for us that — contrary to earlier reports — the inflatable extension to the ISS will not be on the scale of the BA-330 module. The Bigelow Expandable Activity Module (Beam) will weigh 1,360kg, with a length of four metres and diameter of three metres. It will be based on the Genesis II prototype that is currently in orbit around the Earth (mentioned in the article below), and will be launched in 2015 aboard a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket as part of a general ISS resupply mission.

The Beam will be the first inflatable module that will be occupied by humans, with astronauts taking measurements over a period of two years as they test its ability to handle the environment of space. By late 2016 Bigelow also plans to have placed two BA-330 modules into orbit, to form what they call their Alpha Station — a private space station that customers will be able to rent out at the price of $25 million (£15.6 million) for two months’ use of 110m3 of space. Taxiing astronauts on a SpaceX rocket will be at least $26 million per journey and 60-day stay, while naming rights for the Alpha Station will also be going for (you guessed it) $25 million per year.

Gold said: “Expandable habitats are an enabling technology that will make the dream of robust beyond lower-earth-orbit human space exploration a reality. Our habitats not only represent a better choice in terms of enhanced capability and safety, but by dramatically lowering costs, a system like the BA-330 holds the key to making beyond lower-Earth orbit human space exploration physically and financially possible. The BA 330 and expandable habitats will not just offer enhanced protection from radiation and micrometeorites, but protect future astronauts from a much more dangerous threat, lack of funding.”

Original Article: The International Space Station is set to triple in size with an inflatable extension module, according to Nasa. While the exact details of the new module haven’t been revealed yet — a press conference is scheduled for 16 January for that — the contract is known to be worth $17.8 million (£11 million) to Bigelow Aerospace, who specialise in building inflatable spacecraft.

The Bigelow Expandable Activity Module will be based on the the company’s BA-330 habitat modules, two prototypes of which are currently orbiting Earth after being launched in 2006 and 2007. The BA-330’s advantage over the current ISS living module is that it’s much wider and larger — it’s 330m3 by itself, which is almost half the 837m3 in the ISS so far. It’s also spread out in a much larger central room rather than along thin corridors like in the ISS, which would allow for greater flexibility for conducting experiments. If the new module is based on Bigelow’s BA-2100 prototype, though, that could mean an extra 2100m3, effectively adding triple the current size of the ISS with just one new module.

It might seem madness to make a spaceship out of something inflatable, but Bigelow claim that in tests their vectran skins are actually more resistant to being pierced than Nasa’s solid aluminium casings, with projectiles which pierced through metal of similar thickness to that found on the ISS only getting halfway through the inflatable skin. Inflatable skins made of vectran have another advantage, too, in that they reduce the amount of radiation astronauts receive. When metal gets hits by solar radiation it can get excited and also emit radiation, but non-metallic spaceship walls made of materials like vectran don’t, which is good news for astronauts. That’s partly the reasoning behind the idea of using inflatable buildings to house supercomputer complexes on the moon, as proposed by Ouliang Chang.

Nasa does have its own inflatable technology — Wired.co.uk reported last year on some inflatable kevlar heat shields that the space agency has been testing for future space missions. Inflatable technology makes a lot of sense for space travel as it could lead to much lighter payloads, and experiments have been conducted with the technology since the 1950s.

It’s only recently that inflatable tech has become strong enough to be a realistic option, though, and the claims being made about it are certainly eye-catching — Bigelow’s largest module, the BA-2100, may be six times larger than the BA-330 but is apparently weighs only 63.5 tonnes, which is within the capacity of the next generations of rockets currently under development. The ability to deploy entire space stations using a single rocket could create a market for them in the same way that companies like SpaceX have begun finding it economical to develop and launch their own rockets.

Bigelow and SpaceX announced in May 2012 that they would aim to launch their own independent Bigelow Commercial Space Station by 2015, with the intention of using it as a destination for space tourists. The ISS module will be specifically for further experiments on the ISS, though, according to Nasa’s Lori Garver, who said: “This partnership agreement for the use of expandable habitats represents a step forward in cutting-edge technology that can allow humans to thrive in space safely and affordably, and heralds important progress in US commercial space innovation.”

The ISS is currently budgeted to run until 2020, and while it will probably run for longer than that the next generation of space stations will begin to appear in orbit and supplant its role as the one permanent human settlement outside of the atmosphere — including Russia’s Opsek and China’s as-yet unnamed successor to the Tiangong project.

NASA Chief Urges Congress to Fund Private Astronaut Taxis

American astronauts could be forced to fly on Russian spacecraft beyond 2017 if Congress continues to cut funding for private crewed vehicles, NASA chief Charles Bolden says.

On Tuesday (April 30), NASA announced that it will pay $70.7 million each for six more seats aboard Russian Soyuz space capsules. The $424 million deal keeps Americans launching to the International Space Station aboard the Soyuz through 2016, with return and rescue services extending until June 2017.

Funding cuts to NASA’s Commercial Crew Program have delayed the development of private American space taxis, making this latest deal with the Russians necessary, Bolden said. And future cuts could bring about the purchase of even more Soyuz seats, he added. [The Top 10 Private Spaceships]

“Even this delayed availability will be in question if Congress does not fully support the President’s fiscal year 2014 request for our Commercial Crew Program, forcing us once again to extend our contract with the Russians,” Bolden wrote in a blog post Tuesday.

Filling the shuttle’s shoes
NASA is encouraging the development of private American spaceships to fill the cargo- and crew-carrying void left by the 2011 retirement of the agency’s iconic space shuttle fleet.

NASA signed billion-dollar deals with two companies — California-based SpaceX and Orbital Sciences Corp., which is headquarted in Virginia — to fly unmanned supply missions to the space station.

SpaceX has already completed two of its contracted 12 missions using its Dragon capsule and Falcon 9 rocket. Orbital successfully test-flew its Antares rocket for the first time last month and aims to launch a demonstration mission to the orbiting lab with Antares and its Cygnus spacecraft in the next few months.

But things are progressing more slowly on the crew-carrying side. NASA had hoped that at least one homegrown private spaceship would be ready to carry astronauts by 2015, but the timeline has slipped because Congress failed to fund commercial crew at the level President Barack Obama requested, Bolden said.

The Obama Administration asked for $850 million and $830 million for the program in its fiscal year 2012 and 2013 federal budget requests, respectively. But Congress eventually approved just $406 million and $489 million.

“If NASA had received the President’s requested funding for this plan, we would not have been forced to recently sign a new contract with Roscosmos [the Russian Federal Space Agency] for Soyuz transportation flights,” Bolden wrote.

Watch: What it’s Like To Ride Russia’s Soyuz Spaceship

Meeting the deadline
Bolden isn’t alone in prodding Congress to approve the full $821 million for commercial crew in President Obama’s fiscal year 2014 budget request, which was released last month.

“We strongly urge Congress to provide the necessary appropriations to keep the program on schedule,” Commercial Spaceflight Federation president Michael Lopez-Alegria, a former NASA astronaut, said in a statement. “In difficult economic times, extending the offshoring of American jobs to Russian rocket companies is not a practice the American taxpayers should support.”

If NASA does have to buy more Soyuz seats in the future, the price may well be higher than it is today. After all, the per-seat price went up $8 million in the last two years. (NASA paid $62.7 million per astronaut in its previous Soyuz deal, which was announced in March 2011.)

The three leading private contenders to fly NASA astronauts to and from the space station are SpaceX, aerospace giant Boeing and Colorado-based Sierra Nevada Corp.

SpaceX is developing a manned version of its Dragon capsule. Boeing is working on a capsule of its own, called the CST-100, while Sierra Nevada is building a space plane called Dream Chaser.

Watch: American Space Program Revitalized By Private Firms?

Elon Musk Portrait - SpaceX by ~Lewis3222

(Source: universalnomad)

elonenthusiast:

Elon Musk chosen for TIME’s 100 Most Influential People in the World. 2013 is Musk’s second time to achieve this honor, his first was in 2010. Super cool the article about him was written by Richard Branson. Another sign of the different breed of CEO found in tech industry. 

Dig these photos of Musk by Mark Seliger.

NASA Deep-Space Missions Take Aim at Mars

The announcement today of an ambitious new project to launch the first private manned mission to Mars in 2018 may suggest to some that NASA has lost a step in the pursuit of deep-space exploration. But the U.S. space agency is forging ahead with plans for a flexible new spaceship and rocket to send astronauts deeper into space than ever before.

The nonprofit Inspiration Mars Foundation unveiled plans for a private Mars flyby mission on Feb. 27) that calls for a January 2018 launch of a two-person crew — a man and woman, possibly a married couple — on a 501-day trip to the Red Planet and back. The mission would not land on Mars but bring a capsule and inflatable module within 100 miles (160 kilometers) of the Martian surface before zooming away back to Earth.

Just one hour after the Inspiration Mars Foundation announcement in Washington, D.C., NASA officials here at the Kennedy Space Center briefed reporters about the agency’s own plans for deep-space missions, including an eventual Mars trek.

“We know we’re eventually going to Mars, and there are multiple destinations between here and Mars,” Dan Dumbacher, NASA’s deputy associate administrator for exploration systems, said in a briefing that did not address the private Mars project.

To do that, NASA is developing the new Orion deep-space capsule, the agency’s first manned spacecraft since the space shuttle program ended in 2011. Orion is expected to launch on a new mega-rocket, the Space Launch System (SLS).

Project Orion
Orion and the SLS form the core of NASA’s deep-space exploration program. In 2010, President Barack Obama set a lofty goal for NASA’s future — send astronauts to an asteroid by 2025, then take aim at a manned Mars mission in the 2030s.

The aerospace company Lockheed Martin is building the four-person Orion capsule for NASA, with the European Space Agency providing the service module for the spacecraft. Orion’s first test flight, called Exploration Flight Test 1, is slated to launch in 2014, and parts of the space capsule are being assembled at the Kennedy Space Center now.

Once the computers are in place sometime this summer, NASA scientists will power on the test capsule for the first time and check its systems on the ground, Orion project manager Mark Geyer said.

The NASA team plans to launch the capsule atop a Delta 4 rocket, sending it 3,000 miles (4,828 km) above Earth’s surface. The main goal is to test the heat shields tasked with protecting crewmembers during Orion’s manned missions, the first of which is slated to launch toward lunar space in 2021.

Giant rocket test
NASA’s first SLS flight — the unmanned Exploration Mission 1 — is due to launch in 2017, officials said.

Currently, various components of the rocket are being built around the country. Starting in 2016, hardware is expected to begin arriving at the Kennedy Space Center for testing and assembly.

Orion and the Space Launch System won’t launch together at first, but data from both flight tests will be used to help NASA scientists learn what improvements may be needed for each of the vehicles to boost safety and efficiency, project officials said.

“You want to make sure you’ve flown in that environment before you put anyone on board,” Geyer said.

Scientists will also test Orion’s launch abort system during a separate test after the 2014 launch. Like NASA’s Mercury, Gemini and Apollo capsules, the Orion spacecraft features an abort system designed to separate the capsule from its rocket during an emergency to carry its crew to safety. The agency’s space shuttles had no such system.

During the launch abort test, NASA plans to stress the Orion capsule to its limits to replicate the conditions astronauts might experience in the case of a malfunction. The spacecraft will be ripped free of its booster and propelled 1 mile (1.6 km) away to safety through a series of intricate maneuvers performed by its abort system.

NASA is also preparing the ground facilities at Kennedy Space Center for the future missions. The Orion test flight will be run from a new firing room at the Launch Control Center, and NASA officials will be awarding a contract to a company that will reconfigure some of the structural models on the ground for the new rocket, explained Pepper Phillips, NASA’s ground systems project manager.

Watch: Lockheed Martin/NASA present the Orion Crew Capsule and NASA’s Deep Space Ambitions

Private Rocket Moves to Virginia Launch Pad for Test Flight

A new private rocket rolled out onto its Virginia coast launch pad Saturday (April 6) in anticipation of its first test launch next week.

The Antares rocket — developed by aerospace firm Orbital Sciences Corp. and launching from NASA’s Wallops Flight Facility on Wallops Island, Va. — is expected to eventually deliver cargo to the International Space Station as part of a $1.9 billion deal with the space agency. Liftoff is set for Wednesday, April 17.

“With the completion of the Antares roll out today, we are on a clear path to a launch date of April 17, provided there are no significant weather disruptions or major vehicle check-out delays between now and then,” Orbital’s Antares program manager Michael Pinkston said in a statement.

During the test flight (dubbed A-ONE), Antares is expected to carry a mockup of Orbital’s unmanned Cygnus spacecraft to an altitude of 155 miles to 185 miles (250 to 300 kilometers) above the Earth’s surface. The Cygnus mockup is a mass simulator of the spacecraft designed to mimic the weight of an actual Orbital Cygnus vehicle, which the company plans to use for unmanned cargo delivers to the International Space Station.

Antares will also carry more than its simulated payload. The rocket is scheduled to deliver four small satellites into orbit. Three PhoneSats (two PhoneSat 1.0s plus one PhoneSat 2.0) and a nanosatellite called the Dove-1 will fly aboard the rocket.

If all goes according to plan during this test launch, the private spaceflight company will launch a demonstration mission to the space station using the company’s first flightworthty Cygnus capsule sometime later this year.

Orbital is expected to make eight unmanned supply runs with Cygnus and Antares to the space station under a $1.9 billion contract with NASA. Another private spaceflight firm — the Hawthorne, Calif.-based SpaceX — has already flown two of at least 12 station cargo delivery missions using its Dragon capsule and Falcon 9 rocket as part of a $1.6 billion deal with NASA.

SpaceX’s latest Dragon capsule flight visited the space station last month and returned to Earth on March 26, successfully splashing down in the Pacific Ocean after a three-week mission.

NASA plans to rely on private spaceships to ferry American astronauts to and from the International Space Station by 2017. Since the end of the agency’s space shuttle program in 2011, NASA has been dependent upon Russian Soyuz spacecraft to ferry astronauts to the station and back home again.

SpaceX is currently developing a manned version of Dragon, and is one of several companies developing crewed spacecraft in hopes of serving NASA’s human spaceflight needs.

Aerospace veteran Boeing is developing a crew capsule called CST-100 to launch on an Atlas 5 rocket, while billionaire Jeff Bezo’s Blue Origin firm is designing its own rocket to launch its biconic Space Vehicle. Sierra Nevada Space Systems in Colorado, meanwhile, is developing a new reusable space plane, called Dream Chaser, to ferry astronauts to and from low-Earth orbit.

 —Elon Musk

This quote is at the top of every job listing on the SpaceX careers page. An über Elonism and sums up the reason everyone on the planet wants to work at SpaceX. 

How It Works: The Most Powerful Space Rocket
When the firm SpaceX launches its Falcon Heavy rocket into space late this year, the craft will become the mightiest rocket in the world. Only NASA’s Saturn V, which sent Americans to the moon, has ever generated more power. In rockets, the most important measure of power is thrust. Falcon Heavy’s 27 individual booster engines together generate 3.8 million pounds of thrust—enough to lift the 3.1-million-pound rocket and its 117,000-pound payload toward low-Earth orbit. The rocket’s success is critical for both SpaceX and the U.S. space program: The Air Force has already hired SpaceX and its Falcon Heavy to send two satellites into orbit sometime in 2015.

1) ENGINE CLUSTER
Nine SpaceX Merlin 1D engines sit at the bottom of each of the craft’s three cores, or boosters. The engines are identical to those on SpaceX’s Falcon 9 rocket.

2) FIRST STAGE: THREE ROCKET CORES
Falcon Heavy’s first stage consists of three cores. All three cores operate together at liftoff. About T+2:45 minutes into flight, the center core throttles down while the two side cores continue at full thrust until their fuel is nearly spent. At that point, pneumatic separators release the side cores, which plummet into the ocean, and the center core throttles up.

3) CENTER CORE
For payloads heavier than 100,000 pounds, Falcon Heavy uses a cross-feed system to run fuel from the side cores to the center core, leaving the center core almost fully fueled after the side boosters separate. What’s left is the equivalent of a complete Falcon 9 rocket already high in space.

4) FUEL TANKS
A liquid-oxygen tank at the top of each core feeds the engines through a center tube; the lower portion of the tank contains rocket-grade kerosene. The propellants are turbo-pumped into each Merlin engine’s injector, where they are mixed and fed into the combustion chamber.

5) SECOND STAGE
Powered by a single Merlin 1D engine modified to operate in the vacuum of space, the second stage delivers the final push that gets the payload into orbit. The engine can shut down and reignite as needed, enabling Falcon Heavy to deliver multiple payloads to different orbits.

6) FAIRING
Falcon Heavy can carry either a Dragon capsule—SpaceX’s free-flying spacecraft, currently used to resupply the International Space Station—or up to 117,000 pounds of payload (think multiple military and commercial satellites) enclosed in a shell 45 feet long and 17 feet in diameter. The fairing consists of two clamshell-style halves made of an aluminum honeycomb core and carbon-fiber face sheets. When the second stage nears the desired orbit, pneumatic pushers split the halves apart, exposing the payload.

7) MERLIN 1D ENGINE
A single Merlin 1D generates 147,000 pounds of thrust at sea level, burning rocket-grade kerosene and liquid oxygen fed by a turbo-pump into the combustion chamber. Falcon Heavy’s liquid propellant has an advantage over solid fuel: Liquid-fueled engines can stop and restart in flight, whereas solid-fuel engines burn until they are spent. Through proprietary adjustments that SpaceX won’t disclose, engineers recently lightened the engine to increase its efficiency, making it the most efficient rocket booster engine ever built.

TIMELINE OF A LAUNCH
T – 3:00:00
Falcon Heavy is ready on the launch­pad at Cape Canaveral. Engineers time liftoff to achieve the optimal flight path and desired orbit.

T – 0:10:30
The countdown begins. All actions from here forward are pre-programmed, although Mission Control can abort the mission at any time.

T – 0:02:30
The launch director issues the final launch command.

T – 0:00:40
Propellant tanks are pressurized.

T – 0:00:03 
First-stage engines ignite.

0:00:00
The onboard rocket computer commands the launch mount to release. Liftoff.

T + 0:01:25
The rocket reaches maximum aerodynamic pressure; mechanical stress peaks.

T + 0:02:45
The rocket has now burned enough fuel (thus decreasing its mass) that the center core engines can throttle down.

T + 0:03:00
The side cores separate and fall into the ocean, while the center core’s nine Merlin engines continue to burn for approximately 30 seconds.

T + 0:03:30
The second stage separates from the remaining first-stage core. The second-stage engine ignites and continues toward orbit.

T + 10–20 MINUTES
When the rocket nears the desired orbit, the two halves of the clamshell fairing open and fall away. When in position, the payload separates from the second stage. Both the fairing and second stage eventually fall back to Earth.

STATS
Total Thrust: 3.8 million pounds
Maximum Payload: 117,000 pounds
Number of Engines: 28
Size of the Fairing: 45 feet by 17 feet in diameter

NOTE: The SpaceX Falcon Heavy will be the world’s most powerful rocket when it launches later this year. It can carry a payload of up to 117,000 pounds in its clamshell fairing. The fairing is shown here (image 2) open with the payload exposed, but on a mission it would remain closed until the first stage has separated and the second stage has nearly reached orbit. credit: Nick Kaloterakis

SpaceX | First 11 Years

Martian Dreaming

Commercial space-flight mogul Elon Musk has quipped that he would like to die on Mars – just not on impact. The quote highlights his desire to build reliable, affordable spacecraft that could one day carry the first people to land on the Red Planet.

Musk may have the technological prowess to make it happen. Last week his company SpaceX of Hawthorne, California, lofted its Grasshopper rocket a record 80 metres into the air, where it hovered for a few seconds before gently landing on hydraulic legs.

It’s not high compared with the distance to space but the ability to take off, land and then take off again, like the vehicles of science fiction, brings a reusable rocket a step closer. That could be one part of making interplanetary travel affordable, not to mention less polluting. Today, all rockets are single-use and discarded once their payload reaches orbit.

Musk isn’t the only one dreaming of interplanetary travel. Two weeks ago, multimillionaire Dennis Tito announced Inspiration Mars, a plan to send a married couple on a round-trip fly-by past Mars by 2018 using SpaceX technology. However, the crew would stay in their craft for all 501 days.

To be the first to set foot on Mars may mean becoming a reality TV star. The Mars One project is in the running to send astronauts to the Red Planet in 2023, with the $6 billion mission paid for by selling global TV rights to their adventures, says Bas Lansdorp, the Dutch entrepreneur behind the plan.

It sounds wackier even than Inspiration Mars, but Lansdorp is serious. This week, he announced that Paragon Space Development of Tucson, Arizona, would design Mars One’s space suits and life-support systems. Paragon is also on the Inspiration team, and the firm has completed life-support projects for NASA and some of its major suppliers.

Mars One doesn’t have a contract with SpaceX, but, like Tito, its plans rely on the firm’s vehicles. The team want to use a raft of SpaceX’s Dragon capsules. These have so far only made it to the International Space station, uncrewed, but a version is being designed for a planetary landing. They would be expanded from the current 3.6-metre width to a more livable 5 metres. “SpaceX says this modification is probably possible,” says Lansdorp.

According to the proposed timeline, Mars One will send a lone cargo-filled Dragon capsule to Mars in 2016, to test its ability to land safely using rockets in its sidewalls. Rovers launched in 2018 and 2021 will corral five more uncrewed capsules, placing all six in a row that the first four astronauts can connect into a habitat when they arrive. All being well, four more crew members will join the colony in 2025.

This trip is one way, as getting back to Earth is too difficult, and it means displaying your life on primetime TV. Crew selection begins this year. “We want people who have a fulfilling life on Earth but who want to explore a new planet,” says Lansdorp.

Just one person will get to make the first bootprint on Mars – the TV audience will decide who. “The people must decide, because in 1000 years people will still know who the Neil Armstrong of Mars was,” says Lansdorp. If Musk wants the title, he had better start campaigning.

Space X’s Reusable Grasshopper Rocket Makes Fiery Leap (for Mankind)
The rocket made its highest leap to date, 262.8 feet/80.1 meters, and landed safely on March 7th, 2013. Set to ‘Ring of Fire’ by Johnny Cash.

Video courtesy of SpaceX

kqedscience:

Watch SpaceX’s Reusable Grasshopper Rocket Blast Off And Safely Land On Its Feet

Elon Musk called it the “Johnny Cash hover slam.”

abcstarstuff:

This week’s show…..

Bubbles could solve the Dark Matter mystery
Monster outflows of charged particles stretching far above and below the centre of the Milky Way, could contain tantalising evidence of mysterious dark matter. Although it constitutes 84 per cent of all matter in the cosmos, dark matter has never been seen, only inferred from its effects on the visible universe.

Scientists spot birth of giant planet
Astronomers have captured the first direct image of a brand new planet being born in a distant solar system. The embryonic new world, which will eventually become a gas giant like Jupiter, is orbiting a young star 335 light years away.

Two comets streak across southern skies
The second of three comets bright enough to see with the naked eye this year, has just made its closest approach to Earth. Comet Pan-STARRS together with Comet Lemmon can both be seen at the same time in the western sky just after sunset.

Catching a Dragon by the tail
Mission managers breathe a sigh of relief as SpaceX’s Dragon capsule successfully docks with the International Space Station after a potentially fatal glitch almost ended the flight. SpaceX is the first private company to fly supplies to the orbiting outpost.

Space Station crash
A main computer crash aboard the International Space Station puts the orbiting outpost in a communications blackout with Earth for three hours.

Progress launch
The Rapid Rendezvous flight profile brings Russian Progress cargo ship to the space station only six hours after liftoff.

Arianespace Soyuz launch
Europe and Russia team up to launch a fleet of new communications satellites.

New Ariane 5 heavy lift record
The European Space Agency’s Ariane 5 heavy lift launcher sets a new record for carrying a payload to geostationary orbit.

Mars rover crashes
NASA’s Mars rover Curiosity has suffered a computer glitch, forcing mission control to switch to a backup system.

Humans to Mars by 2018
A private company wants to send humans to Mars in just five years time. The world’s first space tourist Dennis Tito is behind the project which would see a couple preferably married undertake the 501 day mission .

StarStuff is broadcast weekly on the best ABC Radio stations in Australia,
On the National Science Foundation’s Science 360 Radio across the United States.
As audio on demand and as a free podcast at….
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Neil Tyson Pounds The Table, Demanding A Future, Now!

Neil deGrasse Tyson is stepping up his game, roaring, cajoling, stomping his big, considerable, eloquent self to say we have got to, got to, GOT TO, step off this planet and go places, back to the moon, on to Mars, that we can’t afford not to, that if we don’t, if we don’t support a manned space program, we are robbing ourselves, we are stepping on “the foundations of tomorrow’s economies,” without which, “we might as well slide back to the cave, because that’s where we’re headed now, broke!”

He’s serious. Crazy (as usual), passionate (always), smart (no doubt). Just listen to him in this montage, taken from his speeches, TV appearances, assembled by Evan Shurr, apparently to support more funding for NASA.

I remember those days, when you could grow up in the “Skyview” apartments (as Neil did in the Bronx) and dream of being up there with Glenn and Aldrin and Armstrong, feel like you were living in an explorer’s age, that you could ride with your heroes and cheer from the bleachers (your living room in front of the TV) as your nation tumbled into space. It was amazing. And like Neil, I want those days back.

The Question
But here’s my question: Do we need NASA (or the Chinese, Russian, Japanese, European, Indian space agencies) to get there anymore? Neil seems to think we do. NASA’s greatest, astronauts Neil Armstrong and Gene Cernan, went to Congress early in the Obama Administration to say that the new president is wrong to support (and direct NASA to support) private commercial efforts. Business folks won’t do it safely, said Cernan. But businesses are doing it anyway. Just last week a commercially-built rocket (from Elon Musk’s California company, SpaceX) traveled to the space station, docked, and delivered cargo — so NASA no longer has to rely on Russian rockets to make deliveries. It was a thrilling, entrepreneurial, bootstrap performance (with, yes, a $1.6 billion contract from NASA), but where were the cheers?

Hooray?
The geeks cheered. But the rest of us — not so much. OK, the ship was delivering clothes, food and equipment. There was no pilot, no crew, nothing to see, really, nobody up there to cheer for. And if SpaceX gets its way, it will soon become a tourist bus, carrying thousands, then tens of thousands of paying customers into orbit, so what they’d like to do is make the extraordinary a little more ordinary for average Earthlings.

The Challenge
But that’s not my question for Neil. My question is: Who’s going to lead us back to the Extraordinary? Back to uncharted dangerous, expensive places we’ve never been, places we dream of? Should that be the President, the Congress, should it be all of us pledging to do it together, or should it be self-nominated, can-do, sometimes obnoxious business people who can inspire a team, who live for the gamble, who think they can do it better?

I don’t know. I’m not sure how Neil feels. Clearly he thinks we should be exploring. Clearly he thinks America should lead. But which America? All of us or some of us? That, I think, is going to become a very crucial question.

For a taste of the entrepreneurial, CBS correspondent Scott Pelley and “60 Minutes” just rebroadcast a profile of Elon Musk, founder of SpaceX. It’s a gentle look at this man who, after making money on the Internet, formed an electric car company, a solar energy company, and now builds rocket ships to carry people and cargo into space. Scott’s profile doesn’t dwell on Elon’s spats, his rough side, but there’s a scene where Scott asks Elon about Neil Armstrong and Gene Cernan, asks him what he thinks about their critique of private space exploration, and Elon goes very quiet. He tries to speak, stops, swallows. Pelley says, those guys are your heroes, right? And Elon says they are. So how do you feel when “they cast stones in your direction?” “It’s … ” Elon’s eyes get a little moist, and then, under his breath, he says one word … “difficult.” I watched this, and I thought, hmmm, apparently, even a hard-driving entrepreneur likes the thrill of a national effort, the blessing of a national hero, the sound of “we” instead of “me.”

electricspacekoolaid:

Dragon Spacecraft Berthed at International Space Station