Space Commercialization

NASA and PlanetSpace Inc. of Chicago and the Transformational Space Corp. of Reston, Va have signed a space commercialization contract.
This contract is meant to facilitate the expansion of low earth orbit commercialization, especially as it gets easier to transport goods and people into space. I believe this is one of the first steps to bring tourism to space. Basically this allows PlanetSpace and TSC to have access to and explanations of NASA project requirements for space stations and space travel. I think this will eventually be really profitable for these companies.

Money and Mars

Money and Mars- Officials at the Kennedy Space Center announced Tuesday that they have set Aug. 6 as the date for launching $700 million from the Denarius IV spacecraft, the largest and most expensive mission to date in NASA's unmanned monetary-ejection program.

NASA extends Spacehab contract

NASA extends Spacehab contract

NASA has exercised an approximately $1 million option with Spacehab Inc. to extend a contract that calls for the Houston company to support human lunar exploration.
The space agency's contract with Spacehab (NASDAQ: SPAB) also might apply to support of Mars missions and other destinations.

Dig Deeper to find Martian Life

http://www.marstoday.com/news/viewpr.html?pid=21775


The probes that have been designed for Mars exploration do not drill deep enough to find living cells on the planet. The drills reach a certain point where the radiation levels are still to high for cellular life to survive. These levels of radiation are a result of solar energy in conjunction with the planets thin atmosphere. In order to dig deep enough to reach cellular life, new probes will have to be created which will be a costly but worthwhile endeavor.

Lockheed Martin Building Next Spacecraft To Mars

NASA's next mission to Mars this summer has roots in Colorado. The Phoenix Mars Mission spacecraft is being built by Lockheed Martin in Jefferson County.

Is it real? Life on Mars

I found there to be some interesting facts presented in the National Geographic video Is it real? Life on Mars. Such as: there is no liquid H2O on the surface, it's a cold world -135 F, home to the largest volcano in the solar system, and rock 84001 came from mars.

However, this video also introduced me to a couple of crazy dudes. Zubrin and Hoagland were both coming off as being from another planet when I heard them speak. I reviewed their respective websites The Mars Society and The Enterprise Mission after being introduced to their theories in the video. I found Zubrin's website to be informative, he seems like a mad scientist; however, he is clearly very intelligent. His theories don't seem as far fetched as Hoagland's to me.

Hoagland on the other hand is ridiculous. This idea of ancient ruins/ monument part of which appears to be a face is lunacy. I think Hoagland is not all there, but sometimes people like that are very entertaining. National Geographic did a good job getting Hoagland into the video because it definitly sparked my interest to listen to this guy.

NASA's Mars budget now stable but tight, official say

NASA's Mars budget now stable but tight, official say


Since I worked at Boeing this past summer, I have seen how predicted values of a 'project' are never quite accurate. They underestimate the cost of any project, along with underestimating the about of time it will take (much like Airbus with their A380). So, this article discusses how NASA believes that they will not spend a penny more for their Mars Exploration (but I guess you do have to take into account that they have requested $700 million)!!