To the Moon and beyond

[Human]

http://www.dailytech.com/article.aspx?newsid=4029

 

Lockheed Martin wins $4 billion USD contract

 

 

Last week it was announced that the name Orion had been selected for NASA's next generation crew exploration vehicle (CEV). Yesterday it was announced that Lockheed Martin would be responsible for building the vehicle that will be pivotal in once again landing Americans back on the moon. The Orion CEV contract is worth an estimated $4 billion USD.

 

The Orion CEV will not only be responsible for transporting astronauts to the moon, but in earlier missions it will serve as a Space Shuttle successor transporting up to six crew members to and from the International Space Station. Only a crew of four is possible for lunar missions.

 

“We are humbled and excited as we continue our legacy of five decades of partnership with NASA in every aspect of human and robotic space exploration. Work already is underway and we are fully focused on the vital tasks that lie ahead to meet NASA’s requirements for the program. We have a world-class team of highly dedicated, highly experienced women and men who are passionate about the success of NASA’s missions,” Joanne Maguire, executive vice president of Lockheed Martin Space Systems Company.

 

The Orion CEV is designed to be not only much safer than previous manned space vehicles, but it will also be more efficient, more reliable and more affordable as well. NASA hopes to have the new crew vehicle operational by 2014 with manned missions to the moon taking place before 2020.

[Luke_Wilbur]

The only bummer is that it will not launch until 2020. That's twice as long as it took the first time.

[Human]

. I thank god for the internet on this one, at least keep an eye as to what's going on in tech space.

 

Though russia is planning its first moon mission by 2012, not to mention that they are also planning to launch alot of satellites between that time.

 

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The only bummer is that it will not launch until 2020. That's twice as long as it took the first time.

[Guest human]

This is where we are going if we don't change directions, and under this administration it does not seem likely that we are going to change directions.

 

 

 

http://www.aia-aerospace.org/assets/aia_report_tipping_point.pdf

[Guest Luke]

From what I am reading. The Republican controlled Congress and the Clinton Administration fumbled the ball by putting ITAR export restrictions on satellites. On a good note, the report does mention that space system acquisition now done by the Joint Space Cost Council. This will make it more cost effective for taxpayers. The joint NRO and Space Protection Program are trying fight cyber warfare attacks.

 

The 2010 National Space Policy recommends that we continue to work cooperatively with our allies (Russia?). Then there is the Operationally Responsive Space (ORS) initiative, which most likely led us to use the robotic space shuttle and Tactical Satellite-3 now in orbit to defend our satellite array from hostile nations and help our soldiers on the ground.

 

From what I have read in the past the United States has lost the ability to recreate the solid rocket motors from the Apollo missions. This has caused us to use legacy ICBM technology and Russian made motors. (Is this correct?).

 

The worse part of the report confirms what I knew all along. Our Space Program workforce is getting very old and will soon not be able to train younger technicians. Our systems are becoming outdated and possibly inoperable in the near future.

 

I understand that we cannot live in isolation, but how can we secure fair trade of highly secured assets?

[Guest Going NO Where]

NASA is dead under Obama rule.

 

http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2011/oct/26/obama-readies-to-blast-nasa/