Last nights on Earth

Just a reminder to everyone that STS-116’s first launch window opens up in ~three days and two hours. The mission will take Astronaut Sunita Williams up to the International Space Station where she will live and work for at least 6 months. You can watch the launch live on the internet at NASA TV (or on CNN). The best blogs to follow along at (besides us) are the official NASA blog and The Flame Trench. You can read about the whole crew here.

For those of you who are feeling a bit inspired by Williams’ impending flight, particularly if you are under ~30-years-old, you should also note that NASA is smack in the middle of an aggressive plan to return the United States to the Moon (in competition with both China and India) and just today announced plans for a permanently-manned international base by 2024 near the lunar south pole (close to Aiken Basin). If you are an undeclared undergrad then take note that engineering and science (besides just the life sciences) are about to become sexy once again.

NASA may be going to the same old moon with a ship that looks a lot like a 1960s Apollo capsule, but the space agency said Monday that it’s going to do something dramatically different this time: Stay there.

Unveiling the agency’s bold plan for a return to the moon, NASA said it will establish an international base camp on one of the moon’s poles, permanently staffing it by 2024, four years after astronauts land there.

It is a sweeping departure from the Apollo moon missions of the 1960s and represents a new phase of space exploration after space shuttles are retired in 2010.

NASA chose a “lunar outpost” over the short expeditions of the ’60s. Apollo flights were all around the middle area of the moon, but NASA decided to go to the moon’s poles because they are best for longer-term settlements. And this time NASA is welcoming other nations on its journey. [Link]

39 thoughts on “Last nights on Earth

  1. Damn. I don’t think I realized that besides being an Astronaut, she’s also a Naval Commander/Helicopter combat pilot AND Diving officer. That’s pretty badass.

  2. are they beefing up NASA’s budget and stuff?

    Only nominally. Most of the money is being re-directed from other programs and a lot will be freed up once the shuttle fleet is retired and the station is done (a few more years for both). NASA’s annual budget is abou ~16 billion a year or ~0.5% of the U.S. annual budget.

  3. i’m rather skeptical of the manned program. am i science nerd? 🙂 i know that manned flight is important for the “god shaped hole,” but i worry how much glitter and glam is being funded.

    p.s. though on second though, if the images of hubble were only possible because of manned repair, than manned flight was OK by me

    p.p.s. but doesn’t keck produce just as nice photos?

  4. That is a BEAUTIFUL picture of Sunita. May the power be with her – wish her all the good luck in the ‘universe’ 🙂 OM!

  5. Is this part of Bush’s Vision for Space Exploration , which (if I remember right) was a significant change in direction for NASA? Can the plan be changed again, say if the democrats come to power in 2008 ?

    Yes, but NASA is a very bi-partisanly supported agency. Besides, if democrats deviate from Bush’s plan then they might be characterized as weak on science/technology (and defense). In my personal opinion it is unconscionable to ever allow the Chinese or Indians to have a more advanced space capability than us (which is a possibility). Even though none of NASA’s work is military/defense related it does secondarily serve to project strength in those areas.

  6. Black Bush (Dave Chappelle): Our next project…the moon! Yes I said it the moon!

    Dave Chappelle: Write this down. M.A.R.S. That’s right! Mars, bitches!

    Who knew Dave Chappelle was a prophet

  7. are they beefing up NASA’s budget and stuff? Yes, they are, and also choping off earth-related missions.

    Abhi can correct me here if I am wrong, but I think the major cuts have been in pure science areas such as life sciences and astrophysics, and also totally ‘out there’ areas such as exobiology.

  8. In my personal opinion it is unconscionable to ever allow the Chinese or Indians to have a more advanced space capability than us (which is a possibility).”

    If this is not jingoism, I don’t know what is?

    What would be so terrible about India having a more advanced capability?

  9. Abhi,

    It is unlikely that China and India will ever overtake USA in space technology and related science.

    I am a big fan of pure science. Apollo mission did great things to Amreeka in cold war days, and with incredible spin-offs, like big scientific computing computers, teflon, etc.

    However,

    What good does a manned mission to moon does in 21st century, when it is done at the expense of earth-related science that have/ will be cut to move funds around.

    Which satellite has more “mojo”, the one which does something SAR (Satellite Aperture Radar) or some ceremonial flag waving?

    Europeans are pretty smart about that, so are Japanese. They are putting some killer-science satellites up with great missions.

  10. I meant SAR = Synthetic Aperture Radar

    Right now, most (not all) of the major “cutting-edge” earth or solar system observing satellites are European or Japanese.

  11. Which satellite has more “mojo”, the one which does something SAR (Satellite Aperture Radar) or some ceremonial flag waving?

    Which one do you think appeals more to Bush? 😉

  12. Some delibrations from House Science Committe via NYT

    The cuts have alarmed and outraged many scientists, who have long feared that NASA will have to cannibalize its science program to carry out the president’s vision of human spaceflight. The new cuts, they say, will drive young people from the field, ending American domination of space science and perhaps ceding future discoveries to Europe. “The bottom line: science at NASA is disappearing — fast,” said Donald Lamb, an astrophysicist at the University of Chicago and chairman of a committee on space science for the Association of American Universities. Representative Sherwood Boehlert, the New York Republican who is chairman of the Science Committee, called the new budget “bad for space science, worse for earth science,” adding, “It basically cuts or de-emphasizes every forward-looking, truly futuristic program of the agency to fund operational and development programs to enable us to do what we are already doing or have done before.”

    If I were you, I would be blogging about this.

  13. The new cuts, they say, will drive young people from the field, ending American domination of space science and perhaps ceding future discoveries to Europe. “The bottom line: science at NASA is disappearing — fast,”

    this is also the impression i have gotten from a couple of new aerospace engineer graduates from UofT… they are seriously exploring job options outside NASA even though NASA was an option for them…

  14. NASA isn’t the only option for engineers or scientists to participate in furthering American space ambitions. Companies like LM and Boeing will/have always been intergral to space exploration. The issue, at least to me, has been about setting goals, vision, and leadership. Men who make a difference. Guys that can sell an agenda then drive it. For the aerospace indusrty, some have been with private companies like Kelly Johnson, while others have been with government.

    This isn’t a NASA only effort, though they will set the tone. NASA, Airforce (they have the largest budget of all services for a reason), private contractors, colleges – all are part of the structure that props up American space science.

    India and China have a ways to go. Americans and Russians have a shit ton more experience. There is so much history, knowledge, and an understanding of what not to do that India and China will have to bear the brunt of mistakes where the margin of error is small. Very small. And they will make mistakes, everyone has.

    Although when it comes to cost-benefits, humans in space don’t add much value. But people in space is much more than that. It’s about newer frontiers, pushing the envelope, and doing things that haven’t been done. I’m all for a base on the moon. As Stephen Hawking recently said, we need to move out beyond our planet. One asteroid and we’re all toast. Reptiles ruled, mammals do now, with an asteriod it’ll be the ascent of the insects. Or something else.

    The United States is in a unique position to do such things. Japan and the European Union are not. We have an excellent blend of public and private infrastructure. We can do it. Others can’t, and when it’s all said and done, all the money spent will still be less than what we, the people, waste in budgetary pork over the years.

  15. I voted for Bush in ’04 to have permanent bases in Iraq not on the Moon. There is no oil on the Moon. This is preposterous.

  16. Ok. I’m 28, an engineer, and in great physical shape (plan to stay that way). And I’d like to eventually have the moon/mars as part of my travels (I can dream, can’t I?). Any ideas how I could go about it????

    Like-minded future lunanauts are welcome to chime in 🙂

  17. Oh well, to answer my own question, you’d have to be a citizen of the US or of an affiliated international space agency country to be on a NASA mission. India and China are not among those. I doubt India will have a space program capable of independent moon missions in the next 20 years. There goes my astronaut dream 🙁

  18. Kritic:

    That’s not jingoism…it’s a simple declaration of the national interest. I might be reading this wrong, but I assume Abhi was talking about the need to maintain space superiority for reasons of national defense. That’s just common sense- so much of American military superiority rests on things like satellite communications and GPS that it really would be “unconscionable” to let another country achieve space superiority. It’s not that India or China would necessarily attack the U.S., it’s that national defenseis a fundamentally competitive- maybe even zero sum- game. And as someone once pointed out (Heinlein, maybe?) there’s no bigger waste of money than the world’s second best military.

    Speedy

  19. Abhi: I agree with Sharanya it’s a beautiful picture. Much preetier than what you would look in say eight or nine years from now, which is how she is older than you. Take a clue from Saheli‘s observation regards to Sunita Williams-Pandya’s achievement, and start some other related activities – Not that there is anything wrong with BLOGGING – to get in the line for say, 2015 liftoff to Moon for you?… Godspeed and goodluck at NASA again!…Dad

  20. The Houston office is simply the launching pad for the Sea of Tranquility. “Sepia Lunacy,” anyone?

  21. This is all good and great but does anyone know if there have been any improvements in propulsion systems lately? Not to knock on the current mission but its basically like the old one except for the establishments of the base. Which is pretty badass I must admit. But even so, I find new types of spacecraft to be an even more exciting aspect of NASA’s research. Nuclear propulsion is in the works I hear.

  22. If this is not jingoism, I don’t know what is? What would be so terrible about India having a more advanced capability?

    From a purely prosaic perspective, this would definitely represent a world in which the US was emphatically NOT the sole superpower anymore. As a citizen of the United States, I’m not particularly excited about that prospect. Even aside from military concerns, I don’t think it’s unreasonable to expect the United States to maintain a more robust presence in space than its competitors. If nothing else, there’s money to be made up there!

  23. This is all good and great but does anyone know if there have been any improvements in propulsion systems lately?…..Nuclear propulsion is in the works I hear.

    New Scientist article about revolutionary hyperdrive concept here.

    Ongoing debates about a proposed “relativity drive” here.

    PDF paper about microwave propulsion here.

  24. Great story to post! I enjoyed reading the bios of all the astronauts. More than Sunita’s story, Joan Higgenbottam’s story is more inspiring in that she never considered herself astronaut material and laughed off the suggestion. Yet she was obviously was.

  25. That’s one cool photo – it’s informative and artistic. As a somewhat new reader/glancer at this site, which I think is great, I have noticed that there seem to be a lot more photos of glam desi women than just about anything else. I certainly prefer this one of Sunita Williams to some of the others I’ve seen.

  26. As a somewhat new reader/glancer at this site, which I think is great, I have noticed that there seem to be a lot more photos of glam desi women than just about anything else.

    Right now, on the front page, there is only one photo of a desi woman with few clothes on but many more photos of desi men in a similar state.

  27. This is all good and great but does anyone know if there have been any improvements in propulsion systems lately? Not to knock on the current mission but its basically like the old one except for the establishments of the base. Which is pretty badass I must admit. But even so, I find new types of spacecraft to be an even more exciting aspect of NASA’s research. Nuclear propulsion is in the works I hear.

    There have been many advancements in propulsions systems, from aerospike engines (which were slated to be put on the HSST, which got cancelled some time ago) to ram- and scramjet systems that would (hypothetically) allow a vehicle to take off and land horizontally, under powered flight, much like a regular airplane, yet attain hypersonic speeds (although probably not escape velocity).

    “Nuclear propulsion” is a fairly ambiguous term. That would cover everything from the old Project Orion type stuff from the 1970’s (basically a big steel plate with a freakin’ battleship on top, and you set off nukes underneath it. Not very efficient, or very comfortable, but it’s pretty fast) to the it-ain’t-never-gonna-happen fission-pile powered rockets some random scientist came up with, to Bussard ramjets that are also just a really long way off.

    Are you maybe talking about this? This shows some promise, and who knows? It could open up the solar system to serious exploration.

    I have to admit, I’m very happy at the prospect of the space shuttle finally getting shelved. I’d written an article for a campus political mag back in college (that’s 1992 to you kids) about how the shuttle needed to be retired. I never thought it would limp along for another 15-20 years! If that frees up funds for the development of a true reusable vehicle, then I’m all for it.