Orion Spaceship Goes Long During First Test on the Road to Mars

[1979Shocker]

http://www.nbcnews.com/science/space/orion-spaceship-goes-long-during-first-test-road-mars-n262146

[BenWSU]

Watched the PBS special on going to the moon this week then watched the Orion coverage Thursday and Friday. Feels like the Apollo days.

[60Shock]

Glad to see we are finally doing something, but don't hold your breath, The first crewed Orion flight isn't even scheduled for another 7 years (2021) and the very earliest we 'might' go to Mars isn't until sometime now projected to be in the 2030's.

Seems to me we really need to get together with the leading European countries and fund a united space program jointly if we ever want to get this thing off the ground. Otherwise, China will there a decade or two ahead of us.

[1979Shocker]

Maybe by the 2030's they'll have improved their propulsion technology enough that it will no longer take six months to get there. So the crew would spend six months inside the spaceship. That would be like if you took out a six month lease on an apartment and you weren't able to go outside until the lease was up.

The round trip to Mars and back would be around 2 1/2 years. The extra year and a half would be the time they would have to stay on Mars just for the Earth and Mars to line up again.

[1979Shocker]

The Path to Mars

[SubGod22]

Machine Just Turned Martian Atmosphere Into Pure Oxygen Just Like a Little Tree

A small device brought recently to Mars just created breathable oxygen out of the Red Planet’s carbon dioxide-rich atmosphere.

While the Perseverance Rover’s search for life has capitalized most of the headlines, additional equipment brought along like “Moxie” (Mars oxygen in-situ resource utilization experiment) and the Ingenuity Mars Helicopter, have both been totally successful.

Sustaining a human presence on Mars would require breathable oxygen, which is obviously too much of a burden to transport in cylinders aboard the limited cargo of a spacecraft. Fortunately, scaled up versions of the newly-tested Moxie, which is currently about the size of a school lunchbox, could do the oxygen-emitting work of over 100 trees, and be hooked up directly to a habitation.

“This is the first demonstration of actually using resources on the surface of another planetary body, and transforming them chemically into something that would be useful for a human mission,” said Moxie deputy principal investigator Jeffrey Hoffman.

By the end of 2021, Moxie had been able to continue producing oxygen at consistent rates of 6 grams per hour through day and night, and through a variety of weather conditions. This is about the same as a single grown-up tree.

This is a cool little aspect I haven't heard about until today. I always enjoy seeing what kind of advancements we develop in regards to space travel, or in this case, establishing settlements of some sort on Mars.

[SubGod22]

Cool development that could help our first explorers to Mars, as well as potentially save some money.

Astrocauts Could 3D-Print Tools on Mars Made From Martian Dust, Says Exciting New Study

It’s a significant discovery because researchers say they can’t carry everything out to space, and if they forget a tool on a mission they can’t come back to get it.

Taking materials out there is also hugely expensive, noted the study’s authors: it costs $54,000 to put just one kilogram (2.2 lb) of material into the Earth’s orbit.

As a result, researchers at Washington State University in the US believe 3D-printing is the burgeoning field that could be the answer to make space travel cheaper and easier.

The team discovered small amounts of simulated crushed Martian rock, mixed with titanium alloy, made a strong, high-performance material that could be used to make tools and rocket parts on the red planet.

They made tools using between 5% and 100% Martian regolith, a black powdery substance intended to imitate the rocky, inorganic material on Mars’ surface that could be collected by a robotic arm or rover.

When it came to adding just 5% of Martian dust in the mix, there were no cracks or bubbles and it was far better than just titanium alloys.

Space has always intrigued me and I look forward to seeing the day that we send people to Mars. Even going back to the Moon can be a big deal, especially if we establish some sort of research base there.