NASA MOVES FORWARD ON HUMAN MISSIONS TO MOON, MARS AND
ASTEROIDS
From Space.com, 26 September 2002
http://space.com/news/beyond_iss_020926-1.html
NASA Reveals
New Plan for the Moon, Mars & Outward
By Leonard David
To boldly
go, the timeless and optimistic Space Age theme, looks to have
been
reclaimed from a NASA lost-and-found drawer as long-range planners
prepare
to reveal next month a new roadmap for robotic and human missions to
deep
space, SPACE.com has learned.
The 21st Century, science-driven agenda
is designed to propel exploration
beyond the International Space Station
and involves a new habitation complex
that would be built between Earth and
the Moon, serving as a portal to Mars
and other solar system targets.
Somewhat secretive, this behind-the-scenes stratagem has been years in
the
making.
A NASA Exploration Team (NExT) is prepared to showcase
their springboard
vision for returning to the Moon, visiting asteroids, and
trekking on to
Mars and beyond. At the upcoming World Space Congress to be
held Oct. 10-19,
an expected throng of some 13,000 officials from various
nations will
descend on Houston, Texas. This once-a-decade gathering
provides a status
report on global space prowess.
Part of NASA's
message at the meeting will be portraying "what next" for
exploration
beyond low Earth orbit. In exclusive interviews with SPACE.com,
key members
of NExT detailed the plan.
Step 1: New space hotel
"We've been
putting together a multi-disciplinary, long-term strategy ... a
road map,
along with defining the necessary strategic investments in
key
technologies," said Gary Martin, leader of NExT and assistant
associate
administrator for the Office of Space Flight at NASA
Headquarters. "We're
looking at a stair-step of capability. Our first stair
step is Earth's
neighborhood."
This approach will be
discovery-driven and technology-enabled, with
exploration involving the
staging of future missions at the Earth-Moon
Lagrange point, L1 -- a
literal Gateway to the future of space exploration.
A Lagrangian point
-- also called a libration point in space -- is a spot at
which a small
body, under the gravitational influence of two large bodies,
will remain
somewhat at rest relative to them. In each system of two heavy
bodies --
say the Sun and Jupiter, or Earth and the Moon -- there exist
five
theoretical Lagrangian points.
The Earth-Moon L1 Lagrange
point is at a distance of some 200,000 miles
(323,110 kilometers) from the
Earth, or 84 percent of the way to the Moon.
NASA's Martin said the L1
Gateway, replete with a habitat for crew
occupancy, is a good spot to
support a locus of activity. Both humans and
their robotic partners can
transform this zone into a bustling hub for
testing hardware, supporting
science operations, and as astronaut training
ground to prep crews for
long-haul sojourns into deep space.
Beyond L1
Sites on the
Moon, for instance, can be easily accessed from an L1 Gateway.
The same
goes with travel to Mars or asteroid targets. Also, assembly,
repair, and
maintenance of a "telescope farm" of orbiting instruments can be
done on
site, then nudged over to the Earth-Sun L2 location.
"The L-points have
become unique locations where you can do a lot of
things," Martin said. "We
found the more we look at them, the more nice
things we
find."
Harley Thronson, director of technology and senior science lead
for NExT,
said the semi-stable L1 Gateway offers a number of attractive
capabilities.
For one, returning back to Earth in a hurry due to an
emergency is possible.
But it can also be the first step on the way to
putting people elsewhere and
sending them to even more distant places, he
said.
Many tasks would be automated.
"Science facilities could
be deployed, rescued, upgraded and checked out
there by humans and
telerobotic systems...or sent into deep space to other
libration points
throughout the solar system," Thronson said.
Thronson stressed that
NExT is not solely dedicated to dispatching human
crews outward. Their work
is geared to improve robotic capabilities, as well
as enhance human
attributes, particularly through improved space suits.
Studies are also
underway to investigate ways to bring human and machine
strengths
together.
Sights on Mars
NExT has a strong track record for
steering NASA to embrace several new
initiatives. An in-space propulsion
program is underway. A nuclear systems
initiative is being pursued.
Starting next year, a radiation program is
scheduled to begin, said Lisa
Guerra, Special Assistant to the Associate
Administrator in the Office of
Biological and Physical Research.
Some of this work is essential in
preparing for crewed missions to Mars.
"It would be a combination of
looking at radiation health issues with the
crew and a program tied to the
space station," Guerra said. "Ground research
will also assess potential
alternatives to active or passive shielding for
future missions."
Shoving off to places like Mars in speedier fashion -- through
nuclear
propulsion, as example -- can cut down crew exposure time to
radiation. In
addition, taking a fast route to the red planet also
minimizes prolonged
human exposure to the debilitating effects of
microgravity.
On the other hand, NExT is supporting research into
artificial gravity.
"A lot of the data we're getting on our space
station increments will help
determine performance of the crew in a
six-month microgravity environment.
If we could limit our missions to six
months, with fast transit, then maybe
you don't need artificial gravity,"
Guerra explained.
NExT is nonetheless looking at a vehicle design
using artificial gravity. As
medical information matures, whether or not an
artificial gravity initiative
is required is a future decision, she
said.
An illustration of the artificial gravity spacecraft and other
artist
renderings of the new space vision were provided to SPACE.com and
are
included in an image gallery.
ISS: Technological
teething
The International Space Station is a workhorse for furthering
NExT goals,
Martin said.
"It's a very necessary platform," he said.
"The station is going to lay the
groundwork not only on ways to protect
against radiation, but also bone
loss. We actually have a list of 55
critical roadmap items for humans to
work safely and productively in
orbit."
The ISS serves as a technological teething place, where
astronauts learn how
to construct and maintain large scientific platforms
with the help of
robots. How to evolve to advanced "closed life support"
systems becomes
feasible too, Martin said. "We can't go to the next steps
without the
station," he added.
What celestial port-of-call deserves
first billing, the Moon or Mars?
"NExT is science-driven. We will go
where the science says it makes sense
that we go," Martin said. "Mars is
one of the most important scientific
destinations where it looks like
humans and robots will actually be helpful
to the science research ... over
time. But this doesn't end with Mars."
NExT planning calls for
"sustainable space capabilities."
"We're not looking at planting flags,
not being able to go back for 100
years," Martin said. "The systems we see
would take humans to Mars, or to
the asteroids. They are reusable systems
that might be nuclear in nature,
lasting upwards of 10 years and maybe used
for three missions or more to
Mars or to the asteroids at this
point."
Can NASA do it?
The blueprint for the years and decades
to come is one of incremental
buildup.
There are decision points on
how fast, and how far, space exploration can
proceed. That enables testing
of technologies to achieve greater reliability
and understanding of costs
for the next steps in exploration.
Yet there is one omnipresent issue
that NASA must deal with: Does the space
agency even have the talent and
tools to pull off a grand plan to move
onward and outward?
Martin
admits the aging of NASA has taken a toll.
"As plans become crisper
and things become more near term, we're looking at
skills needed, the core
capabilities we need to protect, and what facilities
are required. It's a
part of the overall strategy that we're building,"
Martin
said.
"Probably the highest priority product of NExT has been the
identification
of technology priorities that we felt the agency had to
invest in," Thronson
said. "If we had one goal, it's delivering the tools
to understand the
technology and the options." That will permit managers
and politicians to
decide what NASA should do scientifically, robotically,
and with humans in
space.
"And when they are ready to make the
decision, we want to be there with the
capabilities, the hardware, the
understanding, the scientific goals ... so
they can make those decisions
with confidence," Thronson said.
Not your father's space
agency
But just how bold and strident should NASA become in scripting a
new master
plan for space exploration? After all, there have been fumbles
in past
years.
And given the turmoil that creeps through every
squeaky joint of the
International Space Station (ISS) project, well, this
isn't your father's
NASA anymore. Nor is it the Camelot space program
fielded by U.S. President
John F. Kennedy in the early 1960s.
Howard
McCurdy, space scholar and chair of American University's Department
of
Public Administration in Washington, D.C., suggests a reason behind
NASA
taking a step-by-step approach to deep-diving space
exploration.
Just as the space station was viewed as the "next logical
step" beyond the
space shuttle, McCurdy told SPACE.com, a return to deep
space activities is
also viewed as the next logical step beyond the ISS.
"This incremental, step-at-a-time approach was adopted by space
advocates
after President Richard Nixon in 1970 denied the request for a
comprehensive
long-range plan," McCurdy said. "NASA leaders have always
viewed their
mission as the extension of human presence into space. They
have chosen to
pursue this goal incrementally because they were told not to
divert their
attention beyond the space station until that project neared
completion. Not
only are they ready to undertake missions beyond, they have
been waiting to
do so since the agency was born."
Although the NExT
plan is far from being a done deal, the long-range look
has been okayed by
the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) -- a
tight-fisted handler of
money. OMB's primary mission is to assist the
President in overseeing the
preparation of the federal budget and to
supervise its administration in
Executive Branch agencies.
The NExT budget is $4 million a year,
Martin said.
Spending more money and taking the stepping stone
approach as identified by
NExT is contingent on approval by the U.S.
Congress.
NASA on the rebound
NASA is undergoing an important
change, said John Logsdon, director of the
Space Policy Institute at George
Washington University in Washington, D.C.
There is recent encouragement
from top NASA officials that the agency's
space planners should become
"open and explicit" about the wherewithal for
going beyond Earth orbit, he
said.
"NASA seems to me to be coming out of a low point, after the
months of
uncertainty about the future of the ISS and the shuttle," Logsdon
said.
Logsdon said the space agency's chief, Sean O'Keefe, has put in
place at
NASA Headquarters a combination of people new to NASA and veterans
of human
space flight. "They are painting a quite different and more
optimistic
future for humans in space than has been the case for the past
few years,"
Logsdon noted.
Some space veterans urge NASA to
wean itself off of the glory days of
Project Apollo -- the lunar landing
effort. Paul Spudis, a space scientist
formerly with the Lunar and
Planetary Institute, is one of them. Spudis will
soon start work at a
facility that contracts to build and manage NASA
missions, the Johns
Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory in
Laurel,
Maryland.
"NASA has a problem," Spudis says. "It's trying to
come up with some
rationale that will recreate Apollo ... and that's not
going to happen."
Apollo was not about exploring the Moon. In fact, it
was not about space at
all, Spudis said during a recent gathering of lunar
scientists.
"It was basically a battle in the Cold War," a
super-charged competition
between the former Soviet Union and the United
States, Spudis said.
NASA's current mantra -- to seek and understand
life in the universe and to
send life out there -- is not a mission, Spudis
contends. "That's a
catechism...a catechism of the true believer. The
problem with catechisms is
that they are not embraced by the
non-believers."
Spudis considers a human return to the Moon within 5
years a doable
proposition. Also, it's a politically viable time horizon.
Besides, such a
program builds up national economic infrastructure and
national security.
"A Mars mission doesn't do either of these things,
but a Moon mission does
both," Spudis said.
Utilizing existing
space-launch capability, the ISS, and the L1 Gateway as a
jumping off
point, reaching for the Moon can be within reach once again,
Spudis
figures. Once there, learning how to use the precious resources that
exist
on the Moon for civilian government, private sector, and military
purposes
is on top of the to-do list.
Meanwhile, one outcome of such a program
would be a cultivated region of
space between low Earth orbit and the
Moon.
Discipline and competence
Stirring up political will in
Congress to plow money into space and ease up
on entitlement spending will
be necessary if NASA is to sustain a more
vibrant program. So argues
Harrison Schmitt, an Apollo 17 moonwalker and
former U.S. Senator from New
Mexico.
Schmitt senses that NASA must revisit its roots. That is, mimic
its
predecessor, the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics (NACA).
Before
being turned into NASA in 1958, NACA spurred the aeronautical
industry into
existence, as well as created the tone for private sector
investment in air
transportation. That needs to happen for space, he
said.
Looking back at Apollo, Schmitt adds a cautionary note.
"Deep space is still a very difficult place to work. A highly
competent,
highly disciplined management structure is going to be
essential," the
former astronaut said. "That was what made Apollo work, in
addition to the
motivation and enthusiasm of people in their twenties,
those that were
actually carrying the spear," he said.
"We can work
in low Earth orbit now, with a less than competent management
structure,"
Schmitt says. "We're proving it every day." But deep space
exploration
requires the discipline and competence that drove the Apollo
successes, he
said.
"Some day we will extend beyond the Moon," Schmitt says. "But
it's not there
yet."
Copyright 2002,
Space.com
