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Congress Shoots for Moon-then-Mars Plan

June 8, 2016 By Georgia Dawson Leave a Comment

Crescent moonSTATES CHRONICLE – After killing NASA’s asteroid redirect mission for being a waste of time and resources, Congress said that another mission to the moon would be more feasible and sustainable than a Mars mission.

In past hearings, congressmen from both parties had suggested that NASA should prepare to get back to the moon and even team up with Europe for that purpose. But last month, lawmakers refused to allocate any funding to a Mars mission and forced the space agency to focus on a lunar mission instead.

Nevertheless, Congress wants to turn the endeavor into something more than just a sample return mission. It wants rovers, habitation modules, and ascent vehicles on the Moon just like the Obama administration has planned them for a mission to the Red Planet.

President Obama bared NASA from planning any more missions to the moon six years ago. The White House wanted the space agency to land a craft on a moving asteroid by 2025, and reach Mars after 2030.

Obama’s argument to halt new lunar missions was: “We’ve been there before.” But that was not enough to convince Congress to stay away from our natural satellite.

Analysts believe that because Obama’s days in office are numbered Congress members take into account the possibility of a new president not very keen on spending so much money on a Mars mission.

Plus, there are three strong arguments to back a new mission to the Moon. First, nearly all of NASA’s foreign partners are for a Moon-then-Mars plan. Plus, while the U.S. will get busy with a Mars mission, China or Russia may have the opportunity to build a colony on the Moon.

Second, other missions to the moon may help the aerospace industry have access to new business opportunities. The industry is not very enthusiastic about a Mars mission because it is both resource-consuming and not fail-proof.

Additionally, space mining is a nascent industry. So, the best way to start would be the Moon since Mars is too distant, and it could take decades before a manned mission successfully reaches the it.

Moon could also be used as a refueling point as space miners could extract hydrogen and oxygen from its poles on their journey to Mars.

Still the fate of the Mars mission ultimately lies in the hands of who will be elected president. Republican presumptive nominee Donald Trump, however, is not in the mission to Mars camp, while Hillary Clinton hasn’t expressed an opinion on the issue yet.

Image Source: Pixabay

Filed Under: Science Tagged With: Asteroid Redirect Mission, congress, deep space exploration, mars mission, moon mission, space mining

Now snake robots on Mars mission

September 17, 2013 By Janet Vasquez Leave a Comment

Soon snake robots will be seen on a Mars mission as the European space agency (ESA) is mulling to send a detachable snake-like robot to the red planet, which could partner up with future rovers, allowing the scientists of greater access to nooks and crannies there.

According to the ESA researchers, snake-like robots may do a better job exploring Mars than the wheeled rovers humans have previously sent to the red planet.

Researchers at The Foundation for Scientific and Industrial Research (SINTEF) are looking into whether snake robots could be a successful endevour. ESA wants its operations on other planets to have greater mobility and manoeuvrability.

mars2_115916c
It is noteworthy, NASA has landed four rovers on Mars that are solar-powered with six wheels and robotic arms that can take soil samples and operate cameras. Sojourner landed in 1997, Spirit and Opportunity in 2003, while the more advanced Curiosity was landed last year.

“Manoeuvrability is a challenge. The Spirit rover was lost after it became stuck in the sand on Mars. The vehicles just cannot get to many of the places from which samples have to be taken,” said Pal Liljeback and Aksel Transeth.

The researchers hope that by combining a rover that can navigate over large distances with a snake robot that can crawl along the ground and can get into inaccessible places, so many more possibilities could be opened up.

At the moment, soil samples from Mars are analyzed on board the rover itself, and the results are communicated back to Earth. However, ESA also wants to examine options that could allow samples to be returned to Earth. Snake robots could assist with collecting such samples, since they enable access to tight spots that the rovers cannot reach.

Filed Under: Lifestyle Tagged With: ESA, European space agency, Mars, mars mission, robots, snake robots, snake robots on mars

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