The Space Shuttle

This morning at approximately 830 AM Summer and I decided that we were going to leave work an hour early and drive the 4-4.5 hours to Titusville, FL in order to see what is scheduled to be one of the last Shuttle Launches ever. In addition, it will probably be one of the last night launches as well, since NASA seems to launch at night far less regularly then during the day. I'm filled with quite a bit of excitement right now, which I'm pretty sure is doing more to keep me awake then the coffee is at this moment, but it also spurred me to do a little extra digging on what is going on with NASA. I mean, I already kinda know, but I decided I needed to know more and that I need to share that information with you. Oh, and also that it needed to be saddled with an appropriate number of beards.

To begin with, NASA is cutting it's Shuttle program because it is a bloated beast. At approximately $60,000,000 per launch, the Shuttle is no longer a viable vehicle for space travel. Unfortunately, at the moment it is really the best method the world has for delivering and/or returning large payloads and crews to from space and the Internation Space Station (ISS). The program is scheduled to end with a final flight by the Shuttle Endeavour on May 31, 2010.

The replacement for the Shuttle is actually kind of a step backwards, but since it's supposed to be part of our return to the moon as well as continued service to the ISS I guess it kind of makes sense. The replacement vehicles are part of the program called the Constellation Program. The program consists of the Ares V, which will be used for delivering large cargo payloads to the ISS as well as preliminary equipment to the moon. In addition, astronauts will now reach space via a combination of the Ares I booster rocket and the Orion crew module (which looks eerily like the return modules used during the Apollo missions, but lacks the distinct form of the attached moon lander).

There is a problem here, and that lies in the fact that the Ares and Orion launch systems are not slated to be ready until 2014 at the latest, and according to more pessimistic (and probably more realistic) opinions may not be ready for flight until 2015. This leaves NASA with a full 4-5 years in which they will have to rely on Russian Soyuz-rocket flights to get American Astronauts into space. The problem here is that after Russia's little skirmish with Georgia, Russo-American relations are a little strained and will probably need to be relaxed before Russia agrees to allow American astronauts on their flights again. On top of this, one must worry that Russia might revert in to the USSR again before we get our Ares system up and running.

All of this only serves to reinforce my belief in the need for either NASA to be partially, privatized or for private corporations to really start picking up the ball on economizing (relatively) space travel. One more reason I love Google is for their Lunar X Prize which offers a $20,000,000 prize to whoever manages to land a rover on the moon, have it travel a minimum of 500 meters, and transmit back high definition video and audio. The contest also includes a 2nd place prize of $5,000,000. In addition, bonus prizes totaling up to $5,000,000 will be awarded for such accomplishments as "roving long distances (greater than 5,000 meters), capturing images of man made objects on the moon, detecting ice on one of the Moon's craters, discovering the remains of Apollo program hardware, or surviving a lunar night." The Lunar X Prize is simply a continuation of the Ansari X Prize which awarded $10,000,000 to the first "non-government organization" to successfully launch a manned spacecraft into space twice within two weeks.

However, more needs to be done. Companies like Boeing, Lockheed-Martin, and their competitors both domestic and foreign need to start investing serious capital into research and development of travel to and habitation in space. Also, power companies need to seriously start considering, researching, and pursuing the amount of energy that can be produced by solar arrays that are placed in high orbit.

Alright, that's all I got. I mean, I love space and I want to see Mankind find a truly viable means for us to move beyond this planet before I die in a hundred years. 

The Space Shuttle gets 5 Beards because despite being really expensive it has allowed us to stay at the front of the Space game for over 20 years.

The Constellation Program gets 5 Beards because while I'm glad we're moving away from the Shuttle program, this program seems to lack any kind of innovation.

The X-Prize Foundation gets 7 Beards for facilitating research and development in the private space industry.

Non-government organizations get 1 Beard for not doing enough to get my ass into space.