nasa_astronaut_treks_000915 WASHINGTON --
NASA wants to put Earth in its rear view mirror.The space agency has scripted a step-by-step plan to send astronauts to locales between
Earth, the moon and the sun, to Mars and the asteroids, and even farther -- to the moons of several outer planets. A set of far-out space missions beyond Earth's orbit is part of a new strategic plan for the Human Exploration and Development of Space (HEDS).
Sending astronauts to longer sojourns into space is part of NASA's plan for the Human Exploration and Development of Space (HEDS).
The potential future targets are called "design reference points," beginning with the near-term and extending to the far-term and beyond.
"During the coming 25 years, we must achieve profound strategic goals in space," explained Joseph Rothenberg, chief of NASA's Office of Space Flight and Arnauld Nicogossian, who formerly headed the Office of Life and Microgravity Sciences and Applications in a joint letter issued with the plan.
"We also aspire to make possible U.S. leadership of international efforts to extend, permanently, human presence beyond the bounds of Earth, involving both machines and humans as partners in innovative approaches to exploration," Rothenberg and Nicogossian stated in the letter.
Outward bound
The HEDS strategic plan notes that space shuttle missions typically provide seven- to 14-day missions. Human stays in space will be lengthened to 30- to 90-day stints, thanks to the
International Space Station.But now NASA planners foresee longer sojourns.
Beyond Earth's orbit, 100-day class missions would send crews on missions to Earth-moon and Earth-sun "libration points." Also known as L-points, these locales are where gravitational forces balance.
According to the plan, at these outposts, humans could maintain revolutionary new
telescopes and build up the hardware to further explore the lunar surface."A lunar mission could also answer the questions of how we can use lunar resources commercially and how we can sustain operations in another planetary venue," the plan adds.
Mars and the asteroids
Extending the human experience even farther, 500 to 1,000-day missions would integrate human and robotic abilities to explore the Mars system, as well as asteroids.
This class of human exploration mission would be staged within 2 astronomical units (AU) of the sun. One AU is defined as the Earth's average distance from the sun -- about 93 million miles (150 million kilometers).
Travelling within this region, access to numbers of
asteroids become feasible."In the region of space between Earth and Jupiter, there are many tens of thousands of asteroids --
some composed of valuable minerals, others of materials that could be used to make propellants, in space construction or for commercial ventures," the plan explains.Lastly, missions of 2,000 days and longer are called for in the NASA plan.
Ganymede, a moon of Jupiter, and Titan, a moon of Saturn that has an atmosphere similar to that of ancient Earth, They "might become accessible to human missions later in this century," according to the HEDS document.
How soon can these projected missions move from the paper stage to plausible project?
For the midterm, 100-day mission duration flights are projected for the 2006 to 2011 time frame. Missions lasting 500 to 1,000 days are seen as the far-term, starting in 2012. For 2,000 days and longer voyages to outer-solar-system targets, those flights of fancy are simply labeled "beyond" the far-term.
The HEDS report underscores the need for government and U.S. industry partnerships. By working together, the plan emphasizes that the cost of access to space can be reduced, making long-duration human space treks doable and affordable, while nurturing the commercial development of space.
Dream on
While the HEDS crystal-ball look into the space future is welcomed, such NASA scheming still remains in the gravity-grip of today's reality, said Marcia Smith, a space analyst for the Congressional Research Service, a study arm of Congress.
"It does give
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