"Generation Mars" - New 30 year proposal from NASA reported

Just found this from Reuters.

CAPE CANAVERAL, Florida (Reuters) - A NASA strategy proposal shifts the U.S. human space program away from returning to the moon in favor of a stepping-stone approach aimed at reaching Mars, including using commercial space launch services, according to a document seen by Reuters.

The proposal, while not yet official policy, is a response by the U.S. space agency to one of five options contained in review ordered by President Barack Obama of NASA's post-shuttle program that plans to put astronauts on the moon again by 2020.

The review panel's executive summary was to be delivered to the White House and the NASA administrator on Tuesday, according to a notice on the panel's website.

NASA already has spent $7.7 billion of a planned $40 billion to develop a new rocket and capsule for crew transport to the station and the moon, said Jeff Hanley, manager of the post-shuttle program known as Constellation.

There's more at the link, it's actually a 3 page story so well worth a read.

I know this is just a "proposal" and not yet "official policy", however I hope this does go the distance.

But what about the current plan to go the moon and LCROSS? I thought it was supposed to check possible landing sites on the Lunar surface?

maybe they use the developments and technologies from that effort to go further, ie Mars!

As I said worth a read, kiwifoot


[edit on 8-9-2009 by kiwifoot]

good idea i mean we have already been to the moon, why spend the money to back track. Mars seems like a reachable goal.

or

we dont actually have technology capable of landing on the moon that is public knowledge and we are "going" to mars instead...cough...cough.....studio

[edit on 8-9-2009 by phi1618]

reply to post by phi1618


Are you serious? You think we could go all the way to Mars and then land there but we couldn't go just down the road to the Moon?

I for one think that going back to the moon is the most logical next step. Mars isn't a few days away and the Moon will give us a good place to perfect the equipment that we will need to go onto Mars. If there is a problem with a space suit or a robot or a rover or anything else it will take around 6 months to a year to get back from Mars. That could mean death to the crew or at the very least a waisted mission and about a year of the crew not getting any work done and instead just waiting to go back home. The moon is a great place to test this stuff and figure out ways to repair things when they break down.

The Moon also has other things that are worth going back for. Astronomers have long since wanted a telescope array on the far side of the moon. Helium 3 is the reason most talked about and is so rare on earth that it would actually be cost effective to mine it on the moon. Some may think it's a dirty word and some current treatys may need to be renegotiated but nuclear testing is another reason. The moon would be the perfect place to test new ways of producing energey and propulsion systems that use nuclear fuel.

Soon China, Russia, and others will be landing on the Moon and starting outposts. I can't imagine that the US would let that happen without being there as well. Plus you have private enterprise nocking on the Moons door. I can't imagine the US would just let people do what they want. Sooner or later we will have to set up some sort of government and law enforcement / security inspectors on Luna. May sound a little silly right now but it's really not that far off.

Anyway, I read an article a few weeks ago on space.com that says that same pannel said "we don't have enough money to do anything interesting in space" . I hope that's not true and I'm anxiously awaiting to see what direction Obama will take us in, but according to the pannel that is making suggestions to him it looks like for the next 8 years or so we 'prolly won't be doing much of anything.

They've been paying attention to what Buzz has to say about it. Let other countries colonize the Moon while we work our way toward Mars. We can use the technology they develop to establish permanent colonies on Mars when we get there. Mars is much easier to live on than the Moon.
www.popularmechanics.com...

I like it!

But it isn't just about living somewhere else.

there are still a lot of things to be done on the moon and it would be foolish in my opinion to overlook these things. You wouldn't want to go all the way to mars for nuclear research. You wouldn't want to go all the way to Mars to set up a telescope. You would want to go to the Moon to get elements like Helium 3 not Mars.

I'd love to see people go to Mars and I hope it happens in my lifetime, but to just go straight to Mars just to do it and figure out the details later just seems foolish. We did that once with the Moon I'd hate to see us waist 50 more years doing it again only this time with the red planet. I think we should take one step at a time and not try and leap too far. Otherwise we just end up spinning our wheels and getting nowhere

Plus the idea that the US would let any other country do anything on the Moon without being there to look over their shoulders is just not going to happen.

$40 billion to go to mars! What a waste of money!No wonder america is going broke!

[edit on 8-9-2009 by MOTT the HOOPLE]

reply to post by fieryjaguarpaw

We have space telescopes. They work great.

The existence of He3 on the Moon is theoretical. Even if it is there in usable quantities we do not have the ability to use it productively and and its likely to be a very long time before we do.

The plan is not to go "straight to Mars". It is to make Man on Mars a long term goal. Long term goals usually end up getting more done than short ones. There is much to be learned in the process of getting there.

NASA has drafted a concept proposal called "Generation Mars" which envisions a 30-year blueprint for developing technologies, staging precursor missions to asteroids and other destinations, and building grassroots support for eventual human expeditions to Mars.

uk.reuters.com...

(psst...He3 and other good stuff is probably on the asteroids)




[edit on 9/8/2009 by Phage]