JacksMars

Since I was a young child Mars held a special fascination for me. It was so close and yet so faraway. I have never doubted that it once had advanced life and still has remnants of that life now. I am a dedicated member of the Mars Society,Norcal Mars Society National Space Society, Planetary Society, And the SETI Institute. I am a supporter of Explore Mars, Inc. I'm a great admirer of Elon Musk and SpaceX. I have a strong feeling that Space X will send a human to Mars first.

Thursday, October 30, 2014

Asteroids could be used as ‘stepping stones’ to Mars - Telegraph

Asteroids could be used as ‘stepping stones’ to Mars - Telegraph:

'via Blog this'

Wednesday, October 29, 2014

NASA Expresses Confidence In Orbital Sciences

Last updated: October 29, 2014 12:06 pm

Rocket explosion: Nasa expresses confidence in Orbital Sciences

Robert Wright in New YorkAuthor alerts

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There was no immediate explanation on the cause of the failure of what would have been Orbital’s third flight to the station. Shortly after lift-off, the vehicle suffered a “catastrophic failure”, Orbital said in a statement.

The ISS’s Twitter feed said there had been an “accident” six seconds after lift-off.

No one was hurt in the crash but Nasa warned local residents not to touch any unusual debris that washed up on local beaches.

Frank Culbertson, Orbital’s executive vice-president, expressed his “disappointment” that the company had not been able to fulfil its obligations to the ISS.

“This is a tough evening for the entire Orbital team,” he said. He promised to investigate the incident thoroughly, and to return quickly to flight with the Antares rocket.

William Gerstenmaier, Nasa’s associate administrator of human exploration and operations, said the space agency was “disappointed” with the mission failure but that the crew of the ISS were in “no danger.” He said they had enough food and other supplies onboard for four to six months.

He also said he had confidence in the private contractor. “Orbital has demonstrated extraordinary capabilities in its first two missions to the station earlier this year, and we know they can replicate that success. Launching rockets is an incredibly difficult undertaking, and we learn from each success and each setback,” he said.

But the incident is bound to raise new concerns about the risks of entrusting government cargoes to private companies operating relatively new rocket systems.

The explosion follows a separate incident involving a test flight of a rocket by SpaceX, another start-up launch operator, in August. The SpaceX vehicle automatically blew itself up after malfunctioning.

Spectators walk away after an unmanned Antares rocket they were watching crashed shortly after lift-off from Virginia
©AFP
The rocket, operated by Orbital Sciences, exploded shortly after clearing the launch tower
©EPA
The 14-storey rocket plunges back to the ground in a huge fireball
©EPA
There was no immediate explanation on the cause of the explosion
©AP
Antares is Orbital’s largest rocket, intended to carry large payloads
©Getty
Orbital had reported preparations for the launch as proceeding normally
©Getty
The rocket was carrying 5,000 pounds of supplies to the International Space Station
©Getty
The Orb-3 mission’s payload is installed on the Antares rocket
©Getty

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Loren Thompson, an analyst at the Virginia-based Lexington Institute, called it a “severe blow” to both Orbital and the Obama administration’s policy of relying on commercial launch providers to sustain the ISS.

“Coming on the heels of a SpaceX launch failure in August, it raises basic questions about the viability of the Nasa’s resupply strategy for the space station,” Mr Thompson said.

Both Orbital and SpaceX, founded by Elon Musk, have operated some resupply flights to the ISS. The competition is meant to bring down the cost of launching cargo into space compared with the traditional route of having Nasa, the US government’s space agency, undertake the flights itself.

SpaceX has been particularly aggressive about entering the private launch market and would like to take some of the business of launching sensitive national security satellites that is presently a monopoly of United Launch Alliance, a joint venture of Lockheed Martin and Boeing.

SpaceX criticises the cost of ULA’s launches – which it puts as high as $400m each. But ULA points out that in has never lost any of the 85 satellites it has launched.

Orbital had reported preparations for the launch as proceeding normally. However, the flight had to be postponed from Monday evening after a small boat strayed into the maritime exclusion area meant to keep the public safe in the event the rocket crashes into the sea.

Antares is Orbital’s largest rocket, intended to carry large payloads into the low-earth orbit.

Among the items lost as a result of the explosion are a number of experiments, including one meant to study meteors’ entry into the earth’s atmosphere from space for the first time.

Additional reporting by Mark Odell in London