I Walked On Your Face

So hey, it’s the 41st anniversary of the first moon landing, so I thought I’d take a few minutes to jot some of my thoughts about the current space exploration quandary that the US has found itself in.

On February 1st of this year, President Obama announced the cancellation of NASA’s Constellation program. For those not in the know, the Constellation Program, an initiative started by Former President Bush, was created with the ultimate goal of landing a man on Mars. Ares, the rocket platform designed for Constellation and the base for other planned missions, although not cancelled, has found itself in a dire situation because without Constellation, there is really no point to it’s existence.

Unfortunately, the plan that is being implemented by Obama in place of Constellation is completely and utterly nonsensical. Contrary to common sense, over the next five years the NASA budget is being expanded by over 2 billion dollars for the creation of a NEW heavy lift platform that will be ready for construction by 2015 (Of which 6 billion dollars of additional capital was promised beyond the NASA budget increase) and to explore more commercial private launch solutions. In addition to scraping the Constellation program, Obama also denied an extension of Shuttle service beyond the final scheduled missions to complete the International Space Station, subsequently leaving the United States no way to get into low earth orbit.


The Ares I-X Rocket Inaugural Test Flight - 10/28/2009
When will a space shuttle replacement be ready?

Why does NASA still exist?

Why kill a project only to then throw more money to start over again?

The goal of starting construction on a new heavy lift platform by 2015 and having a manned mission to Mars by 2030 is probably the most ludicrous thing I have ever heard. Even with an unlimited budget, there is no way that a platform could be designed and tested for production over a 4-5 year period. The Ares V, which yes was over budget and behind schedule (Mainly due to the fact that the program was under funded to begin with) wouldn’t have been ready for realistic use for another 10 years, and that uses much of our existing technology.


Space X's Falcon 9 Payload Launch Platform
The focus on private enterprise seems like a great idea in theory, but it creates the same problems with little benefit besides a relative decrease in costs. The current front runner for Heavy lift is Space X, who’s Falcon 9 Heavy Lift design could theoretically lift 59,000 pounds to LEO (In comparison to the 350,000 pounds of Ares V). The potential of using existing Orion (The manned space capsule designed for Constellation to sit on top of the Ares I rocket) designs are being explored, but are years from testing and practical use. I don't quite think Obama knows the amount of work that goes into the design of a launch system, it's not a toaster for gods sake, it isn't an automobile that you can recall if there is a detrimental design flaw.

Space exploration is no joke; if something goes wrong, people die.

I could talk about this subject ad nauseum but the ultimate point that I wanted to get across on this historic anniversary is that I used to dream of the day that I would see a human step foot on Mars, and sadly I think it’ll remain a dream for many decades to come.