To the moon and back - that was so 43 years ago

          Gru (from Despicable me) and I have something in common - we wanted to go the moon when we were little. Our goals did diverge after a few years though, as I decided to write about science and the moon and Gru decided to steal it. But I digress - this week's post is about the fact that NASA may be announcing new plans of manned missions to the moon and beyond!

            According to Space.com, NASA may be gearing up for an announcement of the US's new goal in space. Under President Kennedy it was get to the moon, and under President Obama apparently it will be to have an outpost by the moon, reach an asteroid, and travel to other deep space locations (such as Mars???). Now, this is not supposed to be accomplished in the next four years but rather in the next 15-20 years.

            First of all, to do any of this deep space exploration, the outpost by the moon would have to be built as a jumping off point. This outpost would need to be located in a lagrangian point - L₂ to be specific. A lagrangian point is one of the five areas in an orbital configuration where theoretically, due to the relative position of the sun and the Earth, a satellite could be held stable and in the same(ish) position to the Earth and sun. L₂ is just beyond the moon, on the far side from Earth, and would be the ideal spot for a moon outpost. L₂ is located about 38,000 miles from the moon.

 

            The next giant leap for mankind after the moon outpost would be landing on an asteroid that is relatively close to Earth (at least 5 million miles).  This asteroid mission and it's completion date - 2025 was presented to NASA in 2010 by President Obama. This would allow scientists to go into deep space and collect samples from extraterrestrial research, which could greatly improve our understanding of the universe.

            The last big step in these challenges would be landing humans on Mars. I think we all know how that turns out - Martian Chronicles anyone? This is the mission that is the least defined at the moment and, to me, it seems the most implausible.

            NASA has already been doing preparations and research toward deep space flight. They have developed a rocket called the Space Launch System and a crew capsule called Orion. It is projected that NASA could work toward these lofty goals with just their current proposed budget - $17.7 billion.

            Obviously, there is no way to know if NASA will in fact be announcing these new goals or if they even wish to move toward deep space flight - but I sure hope so. I have told you all before how much I adore space and I do think that there is a plethora of knowledge out there that we humans have barely scratched the surface of. I do hope that NASA makes an announcement soon and that these goals are included in that. I would love to see, and love for my future kids to see, what the human race can accomplish with time, money, and a whole lot of ingenuity.

Space.com article - here

Business Insider Science article - here

History of Manned Space Missions - here!!