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Bethesda MD (SPX) Mar 16, 2010 America's space program needs to be bold. U.S. spacecraft must go where no spacecraft have gone before. It must be imaginative, innovative and almost beyond belief. Well, here it is! We are in search of new worlds where humans may someday migrate to expand and perpetuate our race. Humans must find places well beyond our sun where life will survive the eventual solar burnout. We still have millions of years before our sun dies, but the migration of the race will require that time to explore, develop needed new technologies and prepare for the day we all must leave Earth. The first step is to search for exoplanets, or extrasolar planets outside the Solar System. We know there are billions of stars in our galaxy and a significant percentage of these stars are likely to have planets orbiting them. In fact, we have already confirmed the existence of over 400 extrasolar planets. There are possibly hundreds, or thousands more in our galaxy. Over the coming decades we should explore these in order to find conditions suitable to sustain future human life. Thus, NASA should be focused on those technologies and engineering challenges that must be resolved to develop exploration missions that go beyond our solar system, well into interstellar space. The New Horizons spacecraft has been in transit to Pluto since 2006 and will not arrive until 2015. In comparison, missions to the nearest neighboring stars that possess planets of interest will likely require decades of travel time. We must develop new ways to navigate and communicate, high performance propulsion and power systems, spacecraft components that operate for much longer times than previously required and multi-generational management teams to follow and control these spacecraft. This is the kind of vision that NASA needs and this is the kind of challenge that America must pursue to continue leadership in science, technology and space exploration.
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The Free World Is Losing NASA's Space LeadershipBethesda MD (SPX) Mar 02, 2010 I carefully read your comments every week and think it's time to share with you an article prepared for Launchspace readers on the subject of U.S. manned space programs. Since I live abroad you may think it not appropriate for me to comment on these programs. Nevertheless, NASA is much more than an American tradition and patrimonial treasure; it is the world's hope for better space explora ... read more |
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