It’s Not Over Yet

NASA recently announced that they are going to end the Space Shuttle mission this July. The agency received so many uproars and others think that US is ending its supremacy when it comes to Space Exploration.

So, I dig out some information about this, curious on why they are going to end this mission.

After reading an article on the response of NASA administrators on this news, I was relieved. NASA is not going to close down, or will end up as irrelevant agency. NASA will continue its missions, many more missions and will just end one mission… the space shuttle mission. Maybe the best reason is concentrating more on innovation and looking-forward missions or plans. They will leave the space shuttle nitty-gritty to the private sectors and divert more funds on technology innovation, planning and preparation for more ambitious goals.

Here are some points I found on what they will be going to do next, most particularly for the next 50 years (hopefully, I am still alive by that time).

Going to Mars.

So they are really serious in going to Mars. That’s good! I hope I can witness someday the first walk of man on the surface of Mars. If the baby-boomers witnessed the first walk of man on Moon, then I think, I may have the chance to belong to the generation who witnessed the first walk on Mars.

Currently, NASA is focusing all their energies on the development of Multi-Purpose Crew Vehicle. It is a module/capsule that will allow 4 astronauts to explore Mars for 21 days.

This is really ambitious. Once we conquered Mars, we are ready to go beyond it!

Science

NASA is still serious about ISS mission. It will still be there to staff the US module with 6 astronauts to conduct different scientific experiments in low/zero-gravity environment.

ISS is still there, it will always be there. This is the first space station of mankind, the initial start of Deep Space Nine station. Hopefully, someday, we can build a bigger, better station. Certain aspects of this operation will be outsourced to private companies such as SpaceX and Orbital.

Aside from ISS, NASA will still send different space probes and satellites. Such as the following:

Juno - The solar-powered Juno spacecraft is to orbit Jupiter's poles 33 times to find out more about the gas giant's origins, structure, atmosphere and magnetosphere.

GRAIL - The Gravity Recovery and Interior Laboratory mission's primary science objectives will be to determine the structure of the lunar interior from crust to core and to advance understanding of the thermal evolution of the moon.

Curiosity Rover - The Mars Science Laboratory is a rover that will assess whether Mars ever was, or is still today, an environment able to support microbial life and to determine the planet's habitability.

So NASA is not really gone. It is just redesigning, refocusing and redefining its purpose and goals.

I have great confidence that within my lifetime, we will go to Mars. NASA is not the only one who is serious about this, ESA as well. ESA is also preparing their AURORA program.