I started this blog with a series of articles about the ambitions of China in space exploration and exploitation. They are currently working on an Earth orbit space station and returning men to the Moon to staff a permanent lunar base. One part of their preparations is having people live in a simulated Moon base on Earth.
There is a big debate in the U.S. and across the globe in other space-faring nations and organizations. The question being debated is whether the focus for the next phase of the exploration of space should be the Moon or Mars. At the moment, NASA is planning to stage a manned mission to Mars by the early 2030s while other groups are calling for a return to the Moon.
Recently I blogged about six companies who were awarded grants by NASA for research on space habitats under the NASA NextSTEP program. Today I am going to write about the NASA Innovative Advanced Concepts (NAIC) program.
Certain regions on Earth have had an outsized impact on trade in important commodities. For instance, the Middle East has been important because of the amount of oil some in the countries there. Without those huge oil reserves, much less global attention would have been paid to conflicts in that region.
The international treaty that governs the exploration and exploitation of space by the members of the United Nations forbids the placing of weapons in Earth orbit or on other astronomical bodies. One of the great fears is that a space faring nation could place nuclear weapons in orbit which would give it an advantage in a possible exchange of nuclear warheads with another country.
Currently, the main habitat space in Earth orbit is the International Space Station. Its future is in doubt with the U.S. only allocating funds until 2024. Many of the nations and private companies involved in space exploration and exploitation support the continued presence of human beings in orbital habitats.
I have been blogging a lot lately establishing a manned base on the Moon.
The International Space Station is a habitable man-made satellite in a low orbit above the Earth. It is the largest man-made body in orbit and can be seen with the naked eye. It is made of pressurized modules, external trusses, solar arrays and other components. The first components were launched in 1998 aboard Russian Proton and Soyuz rockets and United States Space Shuttles.
On March 2, 2017, China carried out the first launch of a new rocket called the Kaituozhe-2 (KT-2) from the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center (JSLC). The JSLC was established in 1958 and was China's first launch complex. It is located in the Gobi Desert and is about one thousand miles from Beijing.
My last three posts were about plans for setting up a permanent base on the Moon. I mentioned that NASA is more focused on a major mission to Mars than going back to the Moon. Before he left office, President Obama made the declaration that the Moon is not a "planned" destination for U.S. astronauts.
