If you’ve ever dreamed of exploring Mars, but are worried about all that pesky radiation exposure and being cramped in a capsule for the two-year flight – or about never coming back – then your dream may be realized with NASA’s “Be a Martian” web site. In the spirit of other citizen scientist collaborations such as Galazy Zoo and Stardust@Home, NASA has created a site that allows you to view and categorize images to help map the Martian surface from the safety of your own home here on Earth.
The Be a Martian site is a collaboration between NASA and Microsoft that uses the tool of crowsourcing to sift through the hundreds of thousands of photos sent back by Mars rovers and orbiters. The format of the site is much like a game, where you complete tasks to earn points and badges.
There are two types of classifying activities to do on the site: count craters and match up images. Counting craters is just like it sounds: you are presented with an image, and place markers on any craters that you see. Counting craters in small regions on the Martian surface will help scientist determine the relative age of these regions – the more craters, the older an area is likely to be.
The image mapping is a bit trickier, though, because you have to match up 2-3 small, but high resolution images onto the background of a larger, much lower resolution image. The user starts in Vallis Marinaris, but can move onto other parts of Mars from there. By helping map the surface, better maps of the surface can be made to help scientists interpret the changing conditions of Mars.
Being a Martian citizen also has some civic responsibilities, too. There is a forum on the site where one can ask questions, vote on questions and make comments to earn “Curiousity Points”. NASA Mars experts will read the questions to see what the virtual Martian community is interested, and will host town hall-type meetings in the future where members can participate.
“We really need the next generation of explorers. And we’re also accomplishing something important for NASA. There’s so much data coming back from Mars. Having a wider crowd look at the data, classify it and help understand its meaning is very important,” Michelle Viotti, from the Jet Propulsion Laboratory told BBC News.
Extras are also available on the site, including wallpapers, mission overviews, and videos. You’ll need to have Microsoft’s Silverlight application for the games and videos on the site to work.
So, if you aren’t already completely addicted to Galaxy Zoo or any other citizen scientist site, now’s your chance! Oh, and if you want your Martian name to be Marvin, too bad – I tried, and it’s already been taken!
The United States and China have agreed to discuss expanded cooperation in space exploration and science. According to a joint statement released in Beijing on Tuesday, the two counties will start a “dialogue” on human space flight and exploration, and both nations looked forward to reciprocal visits by the NASA administrator and appropriate Chinese space leaders in 2010. NASA Administrator Charlie Bolden, currently in Japan, said cooperation on the high frontier could pay dividends for both countries.
“I am perfectly willing, if that’s the direction that comes to me, to engage the Chinese in trying to make them a partner in any space endeavor,” Bolden said, according to AFP. “I think they’re a very capable nation.
“They have demonstrated their capability to do something that only two other nations that have done, that is, to put humans in space. And I think that is an achievement you cannot ignore.”
He said China is a nation “that is trying to really lead” and that if the two space powers cooperate, “we would probably be better off than if we would not.”
From the joint statement:
The United States and China look forward to expanding discussions on space science cooperation and starting a dialogue on human space flight and space exploration, based on the principles of transparency, reciprocity and mutual benefit. Both sides welcome reciprocal visits of the NASA Administrator and the appropriate Chinese counterpart in 2010.
The statement also said the two countries applaud the rich achievements in scientific and technological cooperation and exchanges between the two countries over the past 30 years, and agreed to further upgrade the level of exchanges and cooperation in scientific and technological innovation through the U.S.-China Joint Commission on Science and Technology Cooperation.
Astronaut Bob Crippen, along with John Young, made history on April 12, 1981 when they launched on one of the riskiest test flights ever, STS-1 on space shuttle Columbia. Crippen also commanded three other space shuttle missions (STS-7, STS-41C, STS-41G), and was the former director of the Kennedy Space Center and former President of Thiokol Propulsion. Crippen has always been a straight shooter — telling it like it is — and a strong supporter of human spaceflight. Personally, I will never forget the moving speech he gave after the Columbia accident, eulogizing the spacecraft itself. I had the chance to talk with Crippen today following the launch of STS-129.
Universe Today: You had the good fortune to be there for the launch today. It looked great on my little computer screen; how did it look live and in-person?
Bob Crippen: It was a beautiful launch here as well, one of those picture perfect launches where the countdown went smooth, there were no technical problems and the winds cooperated, thank goodness.
UT: I don’t remember a countdown that proceeded so trouble-free.
Crippen: We like it that way!
UT: You were there for the beginning of the space shuttle program. What are your thoughts now as you see this program coming to an end? Bob Crippen on board Columbia for STS-1. Credit: NASA
Crippen: I’m feeling somewhat nostalgic. It’s been a part of the better part of my life. It’s been a great vehicle and it’s done some great things, but I would very much like to see us go back to the Moon and beyond and the space shuttle is not the vehicle for doing that. But truthfully, my preference would have been to keep flying it until we had another vehicle to bring people to orbit. I’m not fond of the hiatus we’re going to have between the shuttle and whatever is going to follow it.
UT: What are your thoughts on the Augustine Commission Report.
Crippen: First, I applaud them for saying there wasn’t enough money for NASA to do what is on its plate, because I’ve thought that myself for quite some time. Some of the other things they proposed I’m a little bit uncomfortable with. My thought is that the program that was laid out, the Constellation Program, was a good program. It’s been underway now for a few years and to switch over to anything else, I believe, is going to take longer and cost more money.
UT: Do you think anything could be done to close the gap for our human spaceflight capability?
Crippen: I believe that given some additional funds, NASA could come pretty close to their projected timetable of 2015, of having the Ares ready. The Augustine Committee said it probably wouldn’t be until 2017. I think they were allowing for the normal problems you run into in programs. I don’t believe extra money would pull it back any earlier than 2015 at this particular juncture, so I think we’re still going to see at least a five year gap.
UT: How about commercial spaceflight. Can they contribute to human spaceflight?
Crippen: Sure. I’m all for commercial spaceflight. I think NASA has been supporting them with the programs to be able to bring up cargo to the International Space Station. I think it would be premature to rely on commercial to get the crews up there. Maybe someday that is going to happen, but I believe it is a ways down the road. We need to see what happens with cargo before we step up to human crews on those commercial flights.
UT: You’re at the launch today with a group from Coalition for Space Exploration. What kinds of things do you do to support them?
Crippen: The Coalition for Space Exploration is a group of individuals like myself and companies that strongly belive we ought to have an exploration initiative. I support is as one of their advisors by doing interviews and I’ve written some op-ed pieces so try and keep the issue in front of the public, the government and the powers that be that we should continue on the road we are on. The STS-1 crew of John Young and Bob Crippen. Credit: NASA UT: What are some of your favorite memories from your flights on the space shuttle.
Crippen: I’ve got some great ones. I like to use my friend (astronaut) John Young’s answer to that one: the part between takeoff and landing is the best part. It’s all great. All my missions were different, but all of them had some great aspects to them and I’ll always have fond memories of them.
If you don’t quite have the right stuff, but always thought being an astronaut would be cool, here’s a way for you to contribute to the US space program. Go to bed. With NASA. “I would absolutely recommend it. It was one of the most amazing experiences of my life,” said Heather Archuletta, who has participated in three different studies for the Human Test Subject Facility (HTSF) at the Johnson Space Center. These ongoing studies use long-term bed rest to simulate the effects of micro-gravity an astronaut would experience during extended space flight. “This is a great opportunity for the general public to help NASA with their scientific research,” said John Foster, who works for Solitaire Creative Services, a company that promotes the studies.
“This is one of NASA’s biggest barriers for sending humans to Mars,” Archuletta told Universe Today. “If they can find a way around bone demineralization, wow, that would really boost the possibilities for human spaceflight.”
NASA is planning a series of studies that support the scientific needs of the space program. The studies will be conducted over the next ten years, and currently, NASA is looking to fill spots in 87-day bed rest studies and a lunar analog feasibility study. Participants in a NASA bed rest study. Credit: NASA
For the bed rest study, participants are placed in bed with the head of the bed tilted down at a minus-six-degree incline. The Lunar Analog Feasibility Study is a 21-day study to demonstrate if it is possible to simulate 1/6 G lunar gravity using bed rest.
“Participants are compensated for their time and expenses,” said Foster. “For example, a participant who completed a 60-day study was paid approximately $13,800.”
“I know they desperately need more healthy females,” Archuletta said. “It seems people think only guys can do these studies, so it seems harder to get women.”
Archuletta, who is also known as the “Pillow-naut” from her blog about her experiences, Pillow Astronaut, said amazingly, the studies simulate very well what astronauts experience in space. “You wouldn’t think that something as simple as tilting the body would mimic what astronauts experience, but it affects your vestibular system the same way and you get the same exact fluid shift where all the blood pools in your head. You get a little bit of muscle atrophy and some bone mineral loss, and they see the same exact lowering in plasma volume and lower heart rate. Almost everything that happens in space they can do with tilting the bed. That was major news for me.”
She said the first week of being in bed is the hardest part of the study. “When they put you in the head-down position, it kind of messes with the inner ear and your equilibrium,” Archuletta said. “They warned me about it, but I didn’t give it much credence, because I thought, ‘you’re lying down, how hard can it be?’ But you get a blood rush to the head, so my teeth were throbbing and I had a headache.” During the 90-day bed rest study, participants do everything in bed, from showering to eating to socializing with other participants. Image Credit: NASA
She also would get dizzy when she turned her head quickly, which again, mimics what many astronauts experience in space. “I have been able to talk with two different astronauts and they both said, yes, the first few days you are on orbit, the veteran astronauts tell them not to turn their head quickly because when you are weightless it messes with the vestibular system.”
Those symptoms passed in about a week, Archuletta said. “It is amazing what the body can adapt to. All of a sudden my body just said, ‘OK, this is our new reality and we’ll deal with it.’ Within a couple of weeks I felt normal and actually getting up was the hard part. You get used to lying down and it actually starts to feel normal.”
But the benefits of participating outweighed any discomforts she went through. “You have tons and tons of free time. I tore through about 30 books. You have your own room but there is a common room where we can play games and talk, but I worked a little while I was there,” said Archuletta, who works as a consultant for an IT company and also is a freelance writer. “But mostly it was nice just to catch up on a lot of things I’d wanted to do for a while.”
But don’t expect to be chosen to participate if you plan to just play video games for three months. “They are really looking for people who come in with goals,” Archuletta said, “such as one person there learned Spanish, I learned sign language, and another person brought their guitar and wrote songs. They want people who have ideas about how to keep themselves busy because they will be less likely to get restless.”
Archuletta said the question she gets asked most often is if she got bored. “Absolutely not,” she said. “It is a very busy testing schedule when you first come, so you go through a lot of physical exertion before the bed rest phase; they keep you very busy. Once you are in bed you do get a lot of free time, but you are being monitored. They take vitals a couple of times a day, and make sure you are doing OK. You stretch a couple times a day so you don’t get blood clots, but you can’t outright exercise. But you get a massage every other day – that’s definitely one of the good parts! I don’t think the astronauts get that in space!” Archuletta doing isokinetics exercises. Courtesy Heather Archuletta
The studies are done at the University of Texas Medical Branch in Galveston, Texas. Participants will live in a special research unit for the entire study and be fed a carefully controlled diet. The first 11-15 days of the 87-day study, participants undergo tests, but are not on bed rest. The next 60 days participants are constantly in bed, (except for limited times for specific tests) with their head tilted downward slightly. Then there are 14 days to recover, to allow the body to get back to normal.
Participants must be nonsmokers who are in good health with no history of cardiovascular, neurological, gastrointestinal, or musculoskeletal problems.
NASA and the European Space Agency (ESA) have officially agreed to combine their efforts in the exploration and study of Mars. The heads of both agencies, NASA administrator Charles Boden and ESA director-general Jean-Jacques Dordain signed an agreement that officially binds the two agencies together for upcoming orbiter and rover missions. Discussions of this cooperation began in December of 2008, and culminated in a meeting in June 2009, out of which came the official agreement signed last week.
The new “letter of intent” outlines the Mars Exploration Joint Initiative (MEJI), under which mission engineers will cooperate in the design and launch of rovers, orbiters and landers into the 2020s, with the ultimate goal of returning rocks from Mars to Earth for study. The first collaborative mission is a European-led orbiter that will also place a meteorological station on Mars planned for 2016. This will be followed by surface rovers to keep Spirit and Opportunity company (c’mon, you know they’ll still be ticking!) in 2018, and possibly a network of landers shortly after in 2018, one of which will include the ESA’s ExoMars Lander.
NASA will take care of the launching rockets for 2016 and 2018, and the ESA will cover the entry, descent and landing for the first mission in 2016.
The signing of this document makes official the talks held in Plymouth, UK this past June. Since the talks, most of the fine print has been worked out on the collaboration – this signing just seals the deal.
The ESA and NASA, both under financial constraints in their Mars exploration programs, envision this new union to allow both to to launch vehicles in the window that opens every 26 months for missions to Mars. NASA’s most recently planned mission to the Red Planet, the Mars Science Laboratory, missed the October 2009 window because of technical problems, so will have to be launched in 2011 instead. The same fate befell the ESA ExoMars lander, which has been postponed three times – until 2018 – from the initial launch date of 2009. This joint initiative aims at preventing such delays by sharing both engineering and financial responsibilities.
NASA’s associate administrator for science, Dr Ed Weiler, told the BBC back in July,”We have very similar scientific goals, maybe we ought to consider working together jointly on all our future Mars missions, so that we can do more than either one of us can do by ourselves.”
Hopefully, this collaboration will provide both administrations with the opportunity to get more science done for cheaper, and extend further the already amazing capabilities of proposed missions to the Red Planet.
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NASA Administrator Charles Bolden has restructured the NASA Advisory Council (NAC), adding several new committees in key areas of importance to the agency’s future, including Education and Public Outreach, led by former CNN anchor Miles O’Brien and a Commercial Space, Information Technology Infrastructure committee led by Brett Alexander, the executive director of the Commercial Spaceflight Federation. “I consider the NASA Advisory Council to be an extremely important external advisory group, one that is uniquely capable to advise me and the entire NASA senior leadership team on some of the important decisions our agency will face in the coming months and years,” Bolden said. “I am confident that this new structure will serve as an effective forum to stimulate meaningful advice to me and the rest of NASA’s leadership.”
Other new committees include a technology and innovation panel led by Esther Dyson, an information technology investor and space travel enthusiast and an information technology infrastructure committee led by retired U.S. Air Force Lt. Gen. Al Edmonds, to deal with cyber security issues.
The NAC held their first meeting with the restructured NASA Advisory Council last week at the
Ames Research Center at Moffett Field, Calif.
The council’s members provide advice and make recommendations to the NASA administrator about agency programs, policies, plans, financial controls and other matters pertinent to NASA’s responsibilities. The chairs for the council and its committees are:
NASA Advisory Council: Kenneth M. Ford
Aeronautics Committee: Marion Blakey
Audit, Finance and Analysis Committee: Robert M. Hanisee
Commercial Space Committee: Brett Alexander
Education and Public Outreach: Miles O’Brien
Exploration Committee: retired Air Force Gen. Lester L. Lyles
Science Committee: Wesley T. Huntress, Jr.
Space Operations Committee: former astronaut and retired Air Force
Col. Eileen M. Collins
Technology and Innovation Committee: Esther Dyson
An appointment is pending for the Information Technology and
Infrastructure Committee.
Raymond S. Colladay represents the National Academies’ Aeronautics and
Space Engineering Board, and Charles F. Kennel represents the
National Academies’ Space Studies Board as ex officio members.
When it comes to exploring the hostile environment of space, robots have done a lot (if not most) of the exploring. The only other planet besides Earth that humans have set foot on is the Moon. Robotic explorers, however, have set down on the Moon, Mars, Venus, Titan and Jupiter, as well as a few comets and asteroids. Robotic missions can travel further and faster, and can return more scientific data than missions that include humans. There is much debate on whether the future of space exploration should rely solely on robots, or whether humans should have a role.
As contentious as this issue is, there is no doubt that robots have and will continue to contribute to our understanding of the Universe. Here’s a short list of past, current, and future robotic missions that have done or will do much in the way of exploration of our cosmos.
The most famous robots in space have to be the series of orbiters, rovers and landers that have been sent to Mars. The first orbiter was Mariner 4, which flew past Mars on July 14, 1965 and took the first close up photos of another planet. The first landers were the Viking landers. Viking 1 landed July 20, 1976, and Viking 2 on September 3, 1976. Both landers were accompanied by orbiters that took photos and scientific data from above the planet. The landers included instruments to detect for life on the surface of Mars, but the data they returned is somewhat ambiguous, and the question of whether there is life on Mars still requires an answer. Currently, Spirit and Opportunity are roving away on the Martian surface, well past their expected mission lifetime, and the Phoenix lander returned a wealth of information about our neighbor. For more about the entire series of Mars missions, go to NASA’s Mars Exploration Program website. Of course, NASA isn’t the only space organization represented at Mars – the European Space Agency currently has Mars Express orbiting the planet, and has the first webcam of another planet available!
Mars isn’t the only place to go in the Solar System, though. Both the U.S. and the Russians sent numerous missions to Venus, with a lot of successes and failures. For a complete list of the many missions to Venus visit the Planetary Society. The most notable firsts are: Mariner 2 was the first successful Venus flyby on December 14, 1962, and the Russian lander Venera 7 was the first human-made vehicle to successfully land on another planet and transmit data back to Earth on December 14, 1962.
Sputnik 1, of course, was the first robot in space, and was launched October 4th, 1957 by the USSR.
The Voyager missions are notable for the milestone of having a robot leave the Solar System. Voyager 1 and 2 were launched in 1977 are still making their way out of the Solar System, and have entered the heliopause, where the solar wind starts to drop off, and the interstellar wind picks up. To keep up with their status, visit the weekly status page.
Dextre, a robotic arm developed by the Canadian Space Association, is a very cool robot aboard the International Space Station. Dexter allows for delicate manipulation of objects outside the station, reducing the number of space walks and increasing the ability of the ISS crew to maintain and upgrade the station.
This is by no means an exhaustive list of the enormous number of robotic space missions. To learn a lot, lot more check out the Astronomy Cast episode on Robots in Space, the ESA robotics page, NASA missions page, and the Planetary Society missions page.
NASA announced last week they had developed the first iPhone application geared specifically for keeping track of all things NASA. I don’t have an iPhone, so I didn’t look into it, but the iPhone users I know seem to be very excited about it. So here’s all the info you should need to hook up with NASA via your iPhone:
The NASA App collects, customizes and delivers an extensive selection of dynamically updated information, images and videos from various online NASA sources. Users can access NASA countdown clocks, the NASA Image of the Day, Astronomy Image of the Day, online videos, NASA’s many Twitter feeds and other information in a convenient mobile package. It delivers NASA content in a clear and intuitive way by making full use of the iPhone and iPod touch features, including the Multi-Touch user interface.
The NASA App also allows users to track the current positions of the International Space Station and other spacecraft currently orbiting Earth in three views: a map with borders and labels, visible satellite imagery, or satellite overlaid with country borders and labels.
Potential destinations for the U.S. human spaceflight program. Source: Review of U.S. Human Spaceflight Plans Committee
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The Augustine Commission released their final report today, and while they didn’t offer specific recommendations for NASA’s human space flight program, they laid out five possible options, highlighting a flexible plan that allows for several destinations out of low Earth orbit. The report also encouraged commercial space ventures to handle trips to the International Space Station. “The different options speak for themselves,” said head of the commission, Norman Augustine at a press briefing today following the release of the report. “We believe Mars is clear goal of the human spaceflight program, but for safety reason we ruled out going directly there. We’ve offered programs that are alternatives for building a heavy lift launch capability, as we believe that to be extremely important for the human space program, and we believe this is the time to create a commercial market to transport humans to Earth orbit.”
But the strongest point the committee made is that NASA needs additional funds of $3 billion a year in order to accomplish much of anything.
“The premier conclusion of the committee is that the human spaceflight program is on a unsustainable trajectory,” Augustine said. “We say that because of a mismatch of the scope of the program and the funds available.”
In the report, the committee said either additional funds need to be made available or a far more modest program involving little or no exploration needs to be adopted. NASA Appropriation History in Real Year and Constant Year 2009 Dollars. Source: OMB Historical Budget Tables
Meanwhile, the White House said today that President Obama is committed to human space explorations and wants the US to have a vigorous & sustainable program, but offered no specifics on how the administration might proceed following the release of the report. NASA administrator Charlie Bolden said he would be meeting with the president in November.
The consensus of the committee was that NASA should conduct a human space flight program somewhat different than the current path of returning to the Moon. The “flexible” plan would allow for reaching exciting and different destinations sooner than landing on the Moon.
“There are a lot of things we could do along the way to build up to a Mars program,” Augustine said, “such as a circumlunar program, circle Mars, land on an asteroid, land on Phobos or Deimos and do some exciting science from there. We could do those things rather than wait 15 years for the first major event.”
Another committee member Ed Crawley added, “What causes flexible path to make sense is that you can build some of the overall system, the booster and capsule and then you can start going places, like flying around the moon, then to a near Earth object. And it would be less energetically intensive to do a flyby of Mars than to land on the surface of the Moon. You could build the heavy booster and a capsule, and start exploring, and then later build the landers.”
Crawley compared the options to saving longer to buy a big camper or saving for a short period of time to buy a station wagon and then later purchasing a camper to hook onto the car.
When asked for a timetable, Crawley and Augustine said it was likely NASA could leave LEO in the early 2020’s. “Early- to mid- 2020’s without pinning down an exact year, which would be several years earlier than we would get to the moon,” Crawley said.
The report suggested extending the space shuttle program until 2011, instead of the current goal of retiring the program in 2010. “The flight rate to 2010 is roughly double that of what has been demonstrated since the loss of Columbia,” Augustine said. “We believe it would be prudent to put funds in 2011 to fly a better, realistic schedule. NASA has no money in the current budge to do that, we believe it should.”
As for the Ares program, the panel did not call it an engineering failure but rather a victim of smaller-than-expected budgets and changing circumstances. “With time and sufficient funds, NASA could develop, build and fly the Ares I successfully,” the report said. “The question is, should it?”
They said the Ares I-X test flight next week should go ahead as scheduled, because there still would be much to learn from the demonstration. But because of the slipping dates of when the spacecraft would be ready, it would likely be too late for one of its primary tasks, ferrying astronauts to and from the space station. The panel said a better option for low-Earth orbit transport would be private commercial space companies. Augustine said NASA should focus on going beyond low Earth orbit rather than having a trucking service to LEO.
The panel also discussed heavy-lift rocket based on rockets currently used by the Air Force to lift satellites or one based more closely on the space shuttle design. (See our previous article on that subject.)
The committee also urged extending the life of the ISS to 2020. “The Committee finds that the return on investment from the ISS to both the United States and the international partners would be significantly enhanced by an extension of its life to 2020. It seems unwise to de-orbit the Station after 25 years of planning and assembly and only five years of operational life. A decision not to extend its operation would significantly impair the U.S. ability to develop and lead future international spaceflight partnerships. Further, the return on investment from the ISS would be significantly increased if it were funded at a level allowing it to achieve its full potential.”
In a nutshell, here are the 5 alternatives the committee came up with
1. Maintain all programs as is, but extend the space shuttle program to 2011 and ISS to 2020. Without extra funding, the Ares rockets wouldn’t be ready until 2020 and there would never be enough money to go to the Moon.
2. Maintain current funding, scrap Ares I, develop an Ares V lite version (about 2/3 of Ares V heavy) and divert extra funds to ISS for extension to 2020. Buy commercial LEO human space flight. The Ares might be ready by 2025, and perhaps get to the Moon after 2030.
3. Add $3 billion per year and proceed with the Constellation program to return to the Moon. The ISS would have to be de-orbited in 2016 to allow a return to the Moon by about 2025.
4. Add $3 billion per year. Extend the ISS to 2020 and get to the Moon by about 2025. Use either Ares V Lite, or Shuttle-C for heavy lift.
5. Add $3 billion per year. Extend the shuttle program to 2011 and extend ISS to 2020. Instead of heading to land on the Moon, orbit the Moon, or go to Near Earth Objects and prepare to go to Mars. Use either Ares V Lite; a heavy Evolved Expendable Launch Vehicles (EELV) or, a shuttle-derivative.
A summary of the Integrated Options evaluated by the Committee. Source: Review of U.S. Human Spaceflight Plans Committee
Watch Norman Augustine’s opening remarks from the press conference today:
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NASA Administrator Charlie Bolden has asked for an evaluation of alternative heavy lift rockets, including DIRECT’s Jupiter launch vehicle. The evaluation is a “top priority,” according to NASASpaceflight.com, and a special team from the Marshall Space Flight Center has been commissioned to conduct the study, with the directive to have a report ready by the end of November. Looking at alternatives to the Constellation program is an apparent reaction to the final Augustine Commission report, which will be made public on Thursday.
Shuttle Derived Heavy lift concept. Credit: NASASpaceflight.com
The other heavy lift vehicle also to be looked at is the Shuttle Derived Heavy Lift Launch Vehicle, which is a shuttle-based concept with a cargo carrier side mounted to the current design of the external tank. The concept is capable of launching 80mt (metric tons) into Low Earth Orbit (LEO) and around 54mt to the moon.
However sources at NASASpaceflight.com note that the DIRECT team’s Jupiter launch system has dominated early discussions at the Special Team meetings.
Bolden also recently hinted that commercial space companies could play a crucial role in NASA’s future. “Some of the most exciting companies in America today go by the names of SpaceX, Blue Origin, Armadillo Aerospace, Virgin Galactic, Xcor, Bigelow Aerospace, Masten, Flag Suit, and Ad Astra,” Bolden said in a speech at the National Association of Investment Companies. “Today, we at NASA are devising ways to work with these companies and others who will come. I urge you, and all other investors, to take notice. Space may someday soon become the new thing in investing.”
Venus, with a lot of successes and failures. For a complete list of the many missions to Venus visit the 
