Every day small asteroids hit the Earth’s atmosphere and burn up before they reach the surface. One of the great existential threats to the human race is the possibility that a big asteroid could hit the Earth and devastate the ecosystem of the entire planet. Thousands of asteroids regularly cross the orbit of the Earth and pose a serious threat.
I have blogged before about NASA’s use of nuclear isotopes for thermal batteries in space probes. Nuclear batteries provide the long term reliable and maintenance free power needed for long space missions. Now NASA is considering the use of nuclear fission reactors fueled with uranium for installations on Mars.
Last week I wrote a post about new legislation in the U.S. House of Representatives calling for the addition of a Space Corps to the U.S. military. The bill proposing the new Space Corps would have the Air Force host the new branch, much as the Navy hosts the Marine Corps.
U.S. Representative Mike Rodgers (R-AL) and U.S. Representative Jim Cooper (D-TN) are the top representatives on the Strategic Forces Subcommittee which oversees military space operations. They recently introduced legislation to the House Armed Services Committee (HASC) to require the U.S.
The human race has been obsessed with Mars for over a century. There has been a lot of talk lately about manned expeditions to Mars. From a private group in Europe to NASA, plans are being made to visit and, perhaps, even colonize Mars. Elon Musk, the entrepreneur who founded SpaceX to provide launch services, has been talking about colonizing Mars for years.
Elon Musk’s SpaceX company has been in the news recently for their ability to land a launch vehicle back at the launch site after a mission. They are working to make the reuse of launch vehicles routine which will lower the cost of launches substantially.
For the most part, I have used this blog to talk about practical matters such as space launch facilities and rocket engines. I have also talked about plans for near future developments of space technology. Today I thought I would go a little further out and talk about an interesting but radical proposal for space infrastructure.
There are major national players in space exploration and exploitation such as the U.S., Russia, China and the European Union. There are minor national players such as India, Japan, Israel and others. And there are new players who want to get into the game such as New Zealand.
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.
