Global Issues in Astronautics Essay Example for Free

Global Issues in Astronautics Essay The Mars Exploration Rovers were two programs launched by NASA to Mars for the primary reason of finding water on the planet. Twin robots were launched on June 10 and July 7 for this purpose which landed on January 24 and 25. These robots were sent to the opposite poles where past records of liquid water were apparent. The robots contained Cameras, Spectrometers, Rock Abrasion Tools and Imagers and collected panoramic images of promising sites on the surface of Mars much like the way a human would through the arms, elbows and wrist. A total distance of more than 1 kilometer was travelled each day making the project a success from NASA’s point of view. (NASA, Mars Exploration Rover Mission: Summary, 2007) On the other hand, Mars Pathfinder Missions were a part of NASA’s Discovery Program to explore Mars. This was one of the first launches to Mars and its objectives were to analyze the atmosphere, climate and geological surroundings on the red planet. Even though its objective has been achieved, the Pathfinders Mission is used as a technology testing ground for future space programs like the Mars Exploration Rovers. The rover was launched on December 4, 1996 and contained experiment related tools including cameras and spectrometers. (NASA, Mars Pathfinder, 2007) One of the most important discoveries has been on finding the silica on the ground which means that water was indeed used to form the planet. The high-silica soil found surprisingly had led the scientists to believe that water was involved like it is on Earth. (Chandler, 2007) Q2: International Space station: What was the main incident that halted the construction of ISS? And as of today, when is NASA planning to complete the ISS? In your opinion, what problems NASA might be facing in doing that? The incident due to which the assembly of the International Space Station was halted was the disintegration of the NASA’s Columbia space program on February 1, 2003 during its reentry into Earth’s atmosphere. Being a combined project by America, Russia, Japan, Brazil etc. , there were many costs involved as well as agreements to be made. After the disaster, the ISS assembly was delayed by another 5 years. (Lindroos Wade, 2007) NASA along with other space companies of the world has set a target of completion of the assembly of the ISS by 2010 to 2011 if no further mishaps occur. In the completion of the project several problems have delayed the completion. High cost of maintenance, repairs and adding modules is one of the biggest factors as American Taxpayers money is involved along with funding from other companies of the world. Due to the multination agreement of the project, contracts have to be made, funding to be added thus causing further delays. Changing political structure make it additionally difficult to either carry this mission based on public demand or remove it in light of huge cost already spent on it. The last problem as discussed before was the inevitable space disasters taking place that have grounded space programs or to the least delayed the operations. (Lindroos Wade, 2007) Works Cited 1. Chandler, D. L. (2007). Mars rovers disability leads to major water discovery. Retrieved May 19, 2008, from NewScientist. com news service: http://space.newscientist. com/channel/space-tech/mars-rovers/dn11914-mars-rovers-disability-leads-to-major-water-discovery. html 2. Lindroos, M. , Wade, M. (2007). International Space Station. Retrieved May 19, 2008, from Astronautix: http://www. astronautix. com/craft/intation. htm 3. NASA. (2007). Mars Exploration Rover Mission: Summary. Retrieved May 19, 2008, from NASA: http://marsrovers. nasa. gov/overview/ 4. NASA. (2007). Mars Pathfinder. Retrieved May 19, 2008, from NASA: http://mars. jpl. nasa. gov/missions/past/pathfinder. html