Universe Today

The rumors are flying fast and furious as to details of NASA's budget and future path that will be officially announced on February 1, 2010. The Orlando Sentinel says the Constellation program is dead: Obama and Congress are going to pull the plug on the Ares rocket and nix returning to the Moon. The Houston Chronicle says there is no way NASA will get a budget boost, especially not the $3 billion suggested by the Augustine Commission. New Scientists reports that Mars' moon Phobos will be the next destination of human explorers, as part of the undefined "flexible path" — again suggested by the Augustine panel. Most interesting among the mix is a blog post by NASA's Wayne Hale, who suggests NASA should get out of the human spaceflight business – and allow commercial space companies to handle hauling astronauts to space.

Some speculate this could be the end of America's space agency as we know it — we might as well take the "S" out of NASA.
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Will the Ares rocket stay or will it go? For now, no one knows, but NASA engineers have developed multiple options for "de-tuning" the Ares I rocket to prevent any problematic thrust oscillations that could potentially expose astronauts to dangerous levels of vibrations as the rocket climbs to orbit with the Orion crew vehicle atop. Even though the Ares I-X test flight showed no problematic thrust oscillation vibrations took place during the flight, engineers believe they have found a solution to preclude it from actually ever happening with any future Ares rocket. Read the details below; and enjoy this video round-up of everything that happened with the Constellation program in 2009.
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Whoa. As many people noted on Twitter: Didn't see this one coming. Time Magazine named NASA's Ares rocket as the 2009 Invention of the Year. Ares beat out the what has been billed as the world's best paper airplane, the bladeless fan, rubber made from dandelions, and, my favorite, teleportation. I don't know who Time had for their judges, but obviously Buzz Aldrin wasn't among them. Check out his Huffington Post article where he says although the Ares I-X launched looked spectacular, Ares I needs to be scrapped.

Filed under: Constellation | 5 Comments »

After Wednesday's picture perfect launch of the Ares I-X test rocket — which revealed no real showstoppers or issues as of yet for the vehicle — the obvious next question is: now what? Much of what comes next for the Ares program, and Constellation in general, hinges on any decisions the Obama administration and Congress make in regards to NASA's budget and the options put forth by the Augustine Commission. But if the Ares program is given the green light, here's an overview of the next steps, future test flights and milestones. First on the list? We won't hear the word "triboelectrification" ever again.
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Filed under: Constellation | 3 Comments »