Category Archives: Space Exploration

Last week, I had the opportunity to speak to scientists like Neil deGrasse Tyson on National Geographics yellow carpet for their FURTHER Frontpresentation about upcoming specials and series.Considering it was just days before the March for Science, it felt right to talk about why the average person should care about things like space exploration, oceanography, and the work of the scientific community.

Tyson, who is every bit as energetic and delightful as youd expect, told me he had a slightly unorthodox outlook on that question. I think its important, he told me, but I will not require that of you. Instead, what I will say is, here is the cost of you not exploring and the benefits of you exploring. Essentially,youre within your rights to not care, but dont pretend that the consequencesarent real. The astrophysicist has been very outspoken about the dangers of science denial, something hes actively working against as a science personality.

One argument against space exploration, the StarTalkhost points out, is the question of Why explore in space when we have problems here on Earth? In response, Tyson paints for us an image that we jokingly referred to as his Allegory of the Cave.

Lets imagine were all back in the cave, so go back into the cave. Were sitting around the fire and somebodys injured or has problems and someone says, I want to go across the meadow to that mountain. Other people in the cave say, No leaving the cave until we solve the cave problems first. We have to solve these first before anybody leaves the cave.

Tyson pauses for a second, and says, That is clearly an embarrassingly short-sighted view for any community to have. He points out that as we are clamoring for resources on this speck we call Earth or fighting over a line in the sand where the buried energy sources are or access to resources that are dwindling, people overlook how space can be a solution.

I look out in space with its limitless energy. And everything thats rare on Earthcommon in space, says Tyson. You know rare earth elements, you mightve heard of them? There are asteroids where they are not rare. Theyre common.

Space science and exploration can feel like something very removed or distant from the regular lives a lot of us live, but thats truly not the case.Addressing the stay in the cave crowd, Tyson concludes, If our conduct on earth is driven by access to resources that are unlimited in space, for you to say, Lets not explore means you have not thought about the problem as broadly as you can and should.

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Neil deGrasse Tyson on Importance of Space Exploration | The Mary ... - The Mary Sue

The 33rd annual Space Symposium wrapped up recently in Colorado and New Atlas was on hand to check out some of the exhibits and talks. Amidst the rocket models, jet engines and satellites, we found a quiet corner to sit down with Scott Fouse, the vice president of Lockheed Martin's Advanced Technology Center. For our One Big Question series, we wanted to get his thoughts on what reaching for the stars will look like in the future, so we asked him: What will space exploration look like in 2040?

Oh, and, he was so rich with information that we broke our regular format of asking only one question this time and threw in a few follow-ups. We didn't think you would mind.

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Here's an edited version of our interview.

One of the things we're we're doing right now is starting a collaboration with Breakthrough Initiatives, led by former head of the NASA Ames Research Center, Pete Worden. They do these kind of far-out projects one they're doing is called Breakthrough Starshot. The idea is they want to visit the closest star, Alpha Centauri.

To do that they're developing a single-chip spacecraft attached to a light sail. The concept is that there will be a satellite in orbit that will pop out one of these light sails, they'll turn on the laser, hit it for two minutes and that will accelerate it to .8 the speed of light. At that point it just goes. And there's lots of very interesting cool technology about how you build that single-chip spacecraft, and the light sail itself is very interesting. It can be more than just a sail, it can be an imaging sensor, it could be the aperture for communicating. So that's a pretty far-off concept. In talking with the guys, they're thinking that's a kind of 20 to 30-year vision. So it's it's definitely in the ballpark of 2040 I think.

A little closer to home, you watch what's happening in our daily lives and it's quite interesting how traditional computers are disappearing and they're becoming embedded in our fabric. Everything is a computer, so the times we sit with a computer in front of us are diminishing they're just always around. So in a very similar way you can think today about what a traditional satellite would look like tomorrow. Right now, we build the structure and you put all these boxes inside, but for us we're thinking at one point that all those boxes will become embedded in the structure itself.

So a few years ago we did a concept project called PrintSat where we we actually developed a robotic cluster of additive manufacturing tools and demonstrated this concept of printing the satellite, where you've got embedded electronics and other things right in the structure. It was a very early concept, and there are lots of challenges right now because we don't yet have systems-engineering tools that would allow us to reliably do that. But I I have no doubt by 2040 those will be there.

Part of it is that they'd be significantly lighter, because with space it's all about the weight. Plus, think about the cost savings in how we manufacture. Today it takes us two to three years to build a fairly capable satellite. I might be able to print a satellite maybe somewhere in the order of a couple weeks or a month. And that would also be a significant benefit, because you wouldn't actually have to have people assembling it. Whenever you have this kind of touch labor, you have the potential for mistakes to happen.

One of the SPIDER sensors from Lockheed Martin (Credit: Michael Franco/New Atlas)

One of the things we've been working on in our lab is a concept we call SPIDER (Segmented Planar Imaging Detector for Electro-optical Reconnaissance). You think about the satellites for which we're doing optical systems and optical sensors, and in order to do that you've got to have some kind of lens or mirror to form the image. And the quality of the image is going to be directly linked to the quality of that mirror, which is also kind of a long-lead item. So I want to not use a lens, but build it as a true flat optical sensor. So for the whole image-formation process, we're going to do that using integrated photonics that sit behind that image. We've actually done a prototype of one of those right now funded by DARPA, but it's very early. But I honestly believe by 2040 that will be there.

You can go back to this concept that it's all printed in the structure. And you basically get a sensor with all of the computation behind it. We do Earth sites at Lockheed where we're staring at the Earth, but we also do heliophysics where we're staring at the sun. Such an optical sensor would be a perfect thing for that. And with 360-degree viewing possible, you could also be looking around and making sure there aren't satellites or other things around and assume a kind of defensive posture.

It's actually fairly interesting because it uses some of the same principles that go all the way back to early radio astronomy where you had multiple radio telescopes and images were made by combining their signals. And that's what this is doing for interferometric imaging. And so it's just using tried-and-true principles of image formation but now doing it a very interesting scale.

One of the other things I fully expect to happen are very low-cost, highly capable lasers. I think we'll see more of that. Not only will it allow satellites to communicate with each other, but maybe more importantly, we can get to where we have very precise relative location between satellites. In terms of the optical sensors, that would allow us to create a much larger aperture by having multiple telescopes so we can get a very high-fidelity image.

Right now if I have a satellite with a one-meter aperture, and I have a number of those, I could probably get to being able to form an image where it will be as if I have a 100-meter telescope. But in order to do that, you've got to have really precise relative location. And that's another concept we're starting to work on.

One of the other things we think is going to be happening by 2040, and again, you're starting to see the earliest examples of it now, is satellite servicing. Over the last few years Lockheed has been exploring the notion of just being able to go up there and refuel satellites. But we think realistically with the robotics technology that will be there, you'll have systems that will actually be able to service and repair satellites.

And the other thing we've talked about is that we may start making the satellites inside out, so that literally, this robotic servicer can go in there and replace boards, which means I could fly a satellite and then three or four years later upgrade it in terms of its computational power or storage power.

This is where (Lockheed executive vice president) Rick Ambrose likes to talk about the notion of a software-defined satellite. You see it on fighter aircraft right now. Probably 80 percent of the capability of the F-35 is being driven by the software, so it's a software-defined fighter, right? Well, we can do that with satellites.

You see it with Tesla too. Tesla does these software updates and all of a sudden you've got a half dozen new capabilities in your car. So that that will be a big part of it. It'll be interesting to watch this space and see if it will eventually be better to repair the satellites up there or launch new ones.

A big area that's for me a little bit more of a passion is this whole human/machine teaming. Just how do we leverage all of the capabilities of automation, AI, big data analytics, deep learning, and other technologies, and couple that with the human to make a more powerful human/machine pairing?

We have a guy named Bill Casebeer and he's building a team called "human performance augmentation." His work involves the area where the machine understands your state and based on that state, will do things to enhance the overall human/machine performance. And Bill is actually a neuroscientist so he's really trying to understand how people think and trying to drive the research to where you get peak performance.

A good friend of mine is a DARPA program manager he's the guy actually whose project spun out Siri and he just went back to DARPA again and he's doing a project on explainable AI.

When you think about how we do collaboration, you ask the question and I give you an answer, but then I'll explain more. If all you ever have is the answer, there's no way for us to develop trust; we need to understand how you're thinking about the world. So he's trying to now build that in. They are just now kicking off a whole new program on explainable AI. So to me that's a key part of it.

One of the things that's very interesting is that both the computational power and also the kind of software technologies are currently developed to where we can start to do this kind of stuff. I was part of a small AI company 30 years ago and we were talking about these things then, but the computational horsepower just wasn't there. But when you look at what the human brain is like and you look at what kind of computing power we have today, we're approaching that.

And so I fully expect that this is going to be an aspect of how we see what plays out in space clearly in the 2040 timeframe. We're already seeing it a lot in the military space.

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One Big Question: What will space exploration look like in 2040? - New Atlas

Plans by private space explorers to launch "mega constellations" of thousands of communications satellites to allow for global wireless services could lead to a rise in collisions and buildup of dangerous space junk in Earth's orbit, a study has warned, suggesting corporate interest in space is perhaps somewhat sky high.

A variety of companies, including Google, SpaceX, Boeing and Samsung, are vying to launch global broadband networks via the deployment of thousands of micro satellites into low orbit. The first launches are planned for 2018.

However, a team of Southampton University researchers, led by Dr. Hugh Lewis, senior lecturer in aerospace engineering, have concluded the results could well be calamitous. The group ran a 200-year simulation to assess possible consequences of such a rise in orbital traffic, concluding it could create a 50 percent increase in the number of catastrophic satellite collisions.

Such crashes would likely produce a further increase in the amount of space junk orbiting the Earth, raising the prospect of further collisions and potential damage to the services the satellites were intended to provide.

"The constellations that are due to be deployed from next year contain an unprecedented number of satellites, and a constellation launched without much thought will see a significant impact on the space environment because of the increased rate of collisions that might occur," Dr. Lewis said.

With approximately 750,000 objects larger than one centimeter orbiting Earth, junk surrounding the planet is already a major obstacle to attempts to explore space. At average speeds of 40,000 kilometers per hour, impacts on space hardware would deliver roughly the energy equivalent to the explosion of a hand grenade, with potentially dramatic consequences for operational satellites.

The team's research was funded by the European Space Agency, which is now calling for all satellites planned for orbital mega-constellations to be able to move to low altitudes once their missions are over, so they burn up in Earth's atmosphere. The ESA state they should also be able discharge all batteries, fuel tanks and pressure tanks to prevent explosions that would scatter debris.

Dr. Holger Krag, head of the Agency's space debris office, said many companies proposing to launch services provided by such mega constellations lacked experience of the difficulties of working in Earth's orbit.

Moreover, Dr. Krag expressed concern at ambitions to manufacture satellites at a fraction of the cost and many times the rate of traditional taxpayer-funded spacecraft, while still meeting exacting guidelines for their post-mission disposal.

"Right now, under all the taxpayer-funded space flight we are doing today is only able to achieve 60 percent of success rate for that maneuver. How can they be better under commercial pressure and with cheaper satellites? That's the worry we have," he said.

Dr. Lewis is to present his research at the ESA center in Darmsadt, Germany, where some of the aspirant private space explorers will also be in attendance.

"Even with good intentions it remains an extremely high technological challenge to manage to [meet ESA proposals]. Let them achieve a success rate of 90 percent, which would be extremely good compared with what we do now, and it still means a few hundred satellites will be lost and at that altitude it's not good. It's as simple as that," Dr. Krag concluded.

Exacerbating the situation, Dr. Lewis believes, is a lack of a dedicated international body dealing with the issue of space junk.

"Junk is dangerous. While some will de-orbit naturally after 5-10 years, some will drift indefinitely. Disposal isn't easy either - even to get a ship into orbit is very costly, and then there's the issue of securing the junk in space before you can even consider getting rid of it," Dr. Lewis told Sputnik.

However, he adds that research into these issues is significant and ongoing - the end result could be spacecraft equipped with retrieval solutions similar to those seen in science fiction movies. Another option is "in-orbit" servicing, which would mean satellites could be upgraded and repaired in space - meaning few if any satellites will be reduced to junk status.

"In-orbit servicing is the next big thing. However, there are a number of challenges to achieving that goal - and another issue is upgrading old satellites that aren't equipped for updates. It's difficult to interact with an object that is not prepared for it. We need to ensure in our quest to clean up the junk that we don't add more and make the problem worse."

Source: Sputnik News

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Waste Cadets: space plans mean more space junk, harder space exploration - Space Daily

In their own way, Musk and Glenn each represent the hopes and dreams of those who delight in the idea of mankind leaving the bounds of Earth and exploring the solar system and, ultimately, the stars.

Over the past 50 years, we've seen men first orbit the globe and then walk on the moon. We were gripped b the fictional journeys of the Starship Enterprise, which explored the galaxy, encountering new life and new civilizations. Popcorn in hand, we watched Matt Damon struggle to survive in "The Martian."

We have dreamed of a time when humans can travel through space as readily as when early mariners unfurled their sails and headed west in search of new lands. But we might not have stopped and asked an important question.

Now, I am not asking whether we should explore the universe. I also dream of the day that we become galactic citizens. The question is whether the initial exploration of space should be done by humans or by robots. I would argue that, for the moment, robotic exploration should have the upper hand.

Proponents of the astronaut-preferred camp point, quite rightfully, at the versatility and independence of humans. Fans of human spaceflight are certainly correct when they remind us that humans are highly versatile. People observe the conditions around them and can react to circumstances as needed.

However, people are also fragile. They need food, water, and air. They can exist in only a narrow range of temperatures and find inhospitable both vacuums and a radioactive environment. While some adventurers might prefer to remain in space forever, many of them expect to land gently back on Earth. All of these considerations are extremely challenging and not important for robotic missions.

Possible manned missions to Mars are imagined to cost about $1 trillion, with the outcome being limited exploration of the Red Planet by about 2030 (with some estimates saying 2050). And a mission with that price tag would hamstring the rest of the space program.

In contrast, robotic exploration of the solar system is far less costly. The Cassini mission to Saturn cost about $3.2 billion. The Mars Curiosity Rover cost about $2.5 billion. These and other missions have been wildly successful in teaching us about places where literally no one has gone before. Mars missions have explored ancient streams where knee-deep water once flowed and have found organic carbon embedded in surface rocks.

In addition, there are methods for exploring the cosmos that don't require actually going to the place under study. The Hubble telescope, has perhaps revealed more about the universe than any other scientific instrument, cost about $14 billion, including imaging the first galaxies formed and played a key role in the discovery that the expansion of the universe is accelerating. And the wildly successful planet-hunting Kepler satellite weighs in at under $1 billion.

Manned programs can cost tens or hundreds of times more than the robotic missions.

But it's not just about the money. There are three important goals we need to achieve from our space program. The first is monitoring our own world, resulting in storm warnings and help in understanding our complex planet, which can best be done by tireless satellites orbiting the Earth. The second is to learn more about our solar system and the more distant universe. On this, the case is also clear: robotic exploration, through either space probes or telescopes, provides a much better yield for much lower money.

The final goal is that of making humanity a multiplanetary species. By definition, this includes manned spaceflight, but the question is really how we should achieve that objective.

Developing human space-faring technology is crucial, but first we need to decide where to go. The moon is a dead planet and Mars is not nearly as welcoming as the New World was to the Spanish explorers. In fact, there is no place in our solar system where pioneers can simply drop seeds in the soil and wait for food to pop out of the ground. For that, we need to look at distant stars.

And interstellar exploration is also something in which robots will lead the way. Following the identification of a possibly habitable planet by the Kepler satellite or perhaps PLATO, a European Space Agency planet-hunting telescope scheduled to be launched in 2024, the next step would be a survey of the planetary system by an unmanned probe.

And if we chose to explore the nearest sun-like star, the signal transit time is more like 24 years. With a multiyear time lag between messages, the interstellar probe will have to be able to execute independent judgment.

Only once a habitable planet is identified by these robotic approaches, will it be the time for a manned mission. With a welcoming destination beckoning to them, a team of intrepid men and women will leave the solar system and strike out for a new home. And, at that moment, homo interstellaris will come of age.

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Machines, not people, should be exploring the stars for now - CNN

The future of space exploration and technology is a hot topic these days, fueling blockbuster movies and heightening attention about travel to Mars and other planets one day.

On Friday and Saturday, the University of Massachusetts Lowell is convening scientists, former astronauts, and industry leaders for two days of talks on the topic. The symposium Space Exploration in the Upcoming Decade: The Domestication of Space is presented by the colleges Center for Space, Science, and Technology.

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Much has changed since the center held an event 10 years ago to mark the 50-year anniversary of the start of the Space Age, a period begun by the famous 1957 launch of the Soviet satellite Sputnik, said the centers director, Supriya Chakrabarti.

When we first met 10 years ago, we didnt predict how accessible space would become, Chakrabarti said. The rise of private companies like SpaceX, Blue Origin, and others operating in space and taking people up into space, its a big change.

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These talks and panels are going to touch on the way space has changed and the new areas that have opened up, he said.

Speakers include: James Abrahamson, former designated astronaut and former associate director of NASA; Robert Cabana, former astronaut and current director of the Kennedy Space Center; and John Connolly, leader of NASAs Mars Study Capability Team.

The subject of sending humans to Mars is topical, as nations and private companies explore the possibility of missions, Chakrabarti said. The United Arab Emirates is planning to launch a satellite in 2020 and SpaceX founder and CEO Elon Musk is asking for volunteers for a potential one-way trip.

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Getting someone to Mars is feasible, Chakrabarti said. Its the getting them back that poses much of the problem.

To get to Mars, there are two main things to keep in mind the launching and the landing. To get someone back, you need to do even more planning and pack the required fuel, he said.

In spite of all the challenges that face humanity in space, Chakrabarti said, he remains hopeful that a bright future awaits.

Were doing things that we couldnt have even imagined 10 years ago, he said. The tools are so much more sophisticated and my students are so good at using them. Theyre so passionate.

I was 4 when Sputnik launched and now Ive built instruments that are now on the International Space Station, he added. Its great fun.

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UMass Lowell looks ahead to our future in space - The Boston Globe

Kathleen Haughney, FSU - Special to the Democrat 11:50 p.m. ET April 15, 2017

NASAs Space Launch System mission includes Mars as a destination someday.(Photo: NASA)

Florida State Universitys High-Performance Materials Institute and the Florida A&M UniversityFlorida State University College of Engineering are joining a major multiuniversity project funded by NASA that will focus on developing technologies crucial to human exploration in deep space.

We are really happy to participate in a project that supports NASA and its future work, HPMI Director Richard Liang said.

Added Vice President for Research Gary K. Ostrander: This is a wonderful opportunity for our faculty researchers and students to participate in a project that pushes the boundaries of science and will have a major impact on space travel and exploration. FSUs High-Performance Materials Institute was designed to explore the possibilities and uses of next-generation materials, and this project will allow them to apply their expertise in an exciting way.

The work is part of an overall initiative from NASA to create the first-ever Space Technology Research Institutes (STRI), one on biological engineering in space and one on next-generational materials. Each institute will receive $15 million over a five-year period that will be distributed among the partner universities.

HPMI is a multidisciplinary research institute at Florida State University largely staffed by faculty from the FAMU-FSU College of Engineering. Because of HPMIs leadership, both FSU and FAMU will receive funding from the STRI focusing on next-generation materials and manufacturing. The money will help fund multiple graduate students at the FAMU-FSU College of Engineering and one postdoctoral researcher.

The High-Performance Materials Institute is a leader in developing advanced nanocomposites and additive manufacturing that will be critical for mans extended presence in deep space, FAMU-FSU College of Engineering Dean J. Murray Gibson said. Because of this grant, our students will have unique opportunities to participate in an exciting future major space program.

Liang, who is also a professor at the FAMU-FSU College of Engineering, will serve as principal investigator at the college and an area leader for the STRI. Six faculty from the FAMU-FSU College of Engineering will participate in the project. The STRI will be led by Professor Gregory Odegard at Michigan Technological University.

At HPMI and the FAMU-FSU College of Engineering, scientists will specifically work on the development of carbon nanotube-based structural materials that can help create next-generation space vehicles, power systems and potentially even habitats.

Its exciting to know that I could have a student who could get experience here on this project and then potentially work on the mission to Mars in the future, said Tarik Dickens, an assistant professor at the FAMU-FSU College of Engineering who is also working on the project.

HPMIs mission is to develop next-generation materials that can be used in a variety of technologies and industries. Its been designated as an Industry/University Cooperative Research Center by the National Science Foundation and as a Center of Excellence by Floridas public university governing body, the Florida Board of Governors.

The other universities participating in the project are University of Utah, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Johns Hopkins University, Georgia Institute of Technology, University of Minnesota, Pennsylvania State University, University of Colorado and Virginia Commonwealth University. Industrial partners include Nanocomp Technologies and Solvay, with the U.S. Air Force Research Lab as a collaborator.

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FSU institute to play major role in deep space exploration - Tallahassee.com

Members of Carnegie Mellon Student Pugwash attended the Student Pugwash Conference 2017 at Purdue University. The conference focused on space exploration and policy, ranging from topics like Repeat Mars Missions to the Future of International Space Exploration. Each of these talks had interesting angles on how the world could approach space exploration. This article focuses on the talk on international progress on space ight given by Dr. Daniel Dumbacher.

Dumbacher framed the entire presentation in the form of the past, present, and future. For the past, he focused on the progress of the United States in space exploration, starting with the last lunar mission and ending with the closing of the space shuttle program. He also noted that, at the moment, space exploration has ventured to every planet in the solar system. Dumbacher drew parallels between space exploration and the Lewis and Clark expeditions, suggesting that expeditions in unknown territory result in the eventual expansion.

He moved on to the current state of space exploration. At the moment, the International Space Station (ISS) remains one of the few international projects still in operation. There are also robotic exploration missions on Mars. Currently, the biggest movement in space exploration is commercial space ight. Companies are driving new and innovative technologies like reusable spacecraft.

The current plan for space exploration follows ve phases. Phase zero, the current phase, focuses on continued experimentation on the challenges of space- ight on the International Space Station. Phase one will include missions in cislunar space with emphasis on deep space transportation. After this, we must face phase twos emphasis on deep space transport, which includes continued missions to the moon. Phase three will start testing the viability of manned Mars missions. From there, in two more phases, humanity could potentially accomplish the goal of manned missions to Mars.

First, we must tackle the question, How can this all be done? The solution to this would be a focus on a space- centered economy. Such focus would spur the development of technologies that bene t terrestrial and space society. At the moment, one example of a block to such international cooperation is the status of China in space. China was blocked from access to the ISS, so it produced its own space program and station.

Another issue is time. Dumbacher suggested that space exploration may follow the rise of commercial aircraft. Aircraft arose through many years of development and growth, with gradual growth in adoption. Similar development processes occurred with the prevalence of computers and cell phones. Dumbacher suggested that, although space exploration and travel is pricey, with time it may become some- thing attainable to the public. Maybe, even space tourism could be on the table.

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Space exploration has an innovative future ahead of it - CMU The Tartan Online

Space exploration is not a topic that strikes most of us with the same immediacy as tax reform or health care. Its not as urgent. But it is a topic with long-term implications for our nation that we would be wise to heed.

That message was bolstered when Captain Jim Lovell visited Morehead Planetarium at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill campus on April 13 for a press conference and lecture. (He trained in celestial navigation at the planetarium some 40 years ago.)

Lovell, an astronaut who orbited the moon twice, is best known for commanding the crew of the ill-fated Apollo 13 in April 1970. Malfunctions and the threat of death in space led to his famous phrase, Houston, we have a problem, and a 1995 film, Apollo 13, starring Tom Hanks.

But instead of that cold fate, Lovell, his fellow astronauts, and the scientists and engineers working for NASA used their ingenuity to bring the Apollo craft and its passengers safely home.

This is a case where good leadership, including teamwork, are really what turned this into a successful recovery, Lovell said at a press conference in Chapel Hill.

Lovell, still sharp-minded at 89, supports space exploration, suggesting we return to the moon we barely examined the moon, he said in Chapel Hill before going on to Mars.

Volumes have been written about the technological advancements and leaps in knowledge made through space exploration. Our solar system beckons us with its wonders miles-high volcanoes, underground oceans just days ago, the ocean of Enceladus, a moon of Saturn, was revealed to possess conditions that could support microbiologic life colorful, icy landscapes, whole worlds waiting to be explored. Scientists like Neil deGrasse Tyson discuss colonizing Mars with entrepreneurs like Elon Musk, who is eager to send humans there.

The U.S. is not the leader in space exploration that it once was. Despite popular support, the NASA budget, miniscule in comparison to other programs, is often chipped at by a Congress looking for easy cuts. Its proposed 2018 budget is $19.1 billion, less than one percent of the total federal budget, and a 0.8 percent decrease from 2017. Missions to Mars and the Jovian moon Europa, which may harbor life under its icy crust, have been trimmed and postponed.

Other nations are stepping up to fill the gap and perhaps take the leadership role. India launched a successful Mars orbiter in 2014 and plans a lander next year. China expects to bring rock samples back from Mars in the 2020s. Russia is collaborating with the European Space Agency on several projects.

On Earth, we often find ourselves in conflict with one another. But space exploration more often than not calls to the best in us, harkening to a sense of optimism, of hope in the future, that can bolster us in dark times.

During his lecture, Lovell encouraged the next generation of scientists and engineers to jump in feet first, learn all that they can and follow their dreams. They could lead to the stars.

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Our view: Keep looking to the stars - Winston-Salem Journal

Responding to mounting criticism over inadequate funding and technical planning for sending astronauts to Mars, NASA leaders say they are counting on commercial participation as one means toward a sustainable strategy to explore the solar system over the next two decades.

The reference to long-term reliance on commercial partners for cargo rockets came in response to a report released Thursday by the National Aeronautics and Space Administrations inspector general, who expressed criticism of agency timelines and cost estimates foreventually putting humans on Mars.

NASAs statement is the most direct agency indication so far that projected U.S. government funding may need to leverage private-sector investments and commercial expertise in order for crews to fulfill the agencys target of reaching Mars by the late 2030s and establishing settlements there by the 2040s. NASA said it also expected to persuade some foreign governments to participate in crewed voyages to Mars.

William Gerstenmaier, the head of NASAs human-exploration office, wrote to the inspector general that efforts to use private cargo rockets as part of the overall drive to send crews to Mars are continual and will also be reflected in the exploration road map slated for delivery to Congress at the end of 2017.

This story originally appeared in The Wall Street Journal.

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NASA to rely on commercial partners for deep-space exploration - Fox News

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NASA to Rely on Commercial Partners for Deep-Space Exploration Wall Street Journal (subscription) Responding to mounting criticism over inadequate funding and technical planning for sending astronauts to Mars, NASA leaders say they are counting on commercial participation as one means toward a sustainable strategy to explore the solar system over ... NASA OIG: NASA's Plans for Human Exploration Beyond Low Earth ...Space Ref (press release) Orion EFT-1 flown spacecraft joins display in 'NASA Now' exhibit ...collectSPACE.com NASA inspector general foresees additional SLS/Orion delaysSpaceNews Florida Today all 8 news articles »

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NASA to Rely on Commercial Partners for Deep-Space Exploration - Wall Street Journal (subscription)