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accessible to humans. NASA’s target for
its first mission is the end of 2017.
Continuing Education and
Technology Programs
NASA continues to send astronauts to
the ISS (via the Soyuz) to run experiments
while stepping up its efforts to
get the younger generation interested.
NASA recently announced a contest
where students can submit two-minute
videos of experiments they want to see,
with a public vote scheduled for January
3, 2012.
NASA is also continuing work on
developing technology with applications
in orbit and on the earth. One of their
most recent announcements is the effort
to study ways to make “tractor beams” a
reality. More specifically, NASA is looking
at ways to trap particles in laser light
and transport them to a container (they
use the analogy of a vacuum moving dirt
from your carpet to a bag). The ideal
implementation would be to equip rovers
with tractor beams that would allow
them to gather samples easily.
Tractor beams aren’t the only
technology NASA is developing that
sounds oddly close to science fiction:
unmanned missions are becoming more
popular with NASA as well. NASA had
incredible success with its two Mars
rovers, Spirit and Opportunity, both
working far longer than NASA ever
expected. Spirit became trapped in 2010,
six years after its landing, and NASA is
no longer attempting communication
with the robot. Opportunity worked so
well that NASA was able to push the
rover 13 miles from its original “final”
destination, and it continues to collect
invaluable information in the Endeavour
crater. NASA has plenty to be proud
of—these robots exceeded anything
NASA could ever have hoped to get out
of them—and NASA followed up on
this success by launching a new rover,
Curiosity, November 25, 2011. They’re
certainly hoping to get as much from
Curiosity as they did from its predecessors.
The Mars rovers have a surprising
popularity with the public (they have
over 140,000 followers on Twitter alone),
and NASA is continuing to send robots
into space more frequently than people.
The Cassini-Huygens Mission, the
fourth space probe to visit Saturn but
the first to orbit it, has returned information
to NASA not just about Saturn,
but also about Jupiter and other solar
system phenomena. Cassini and its probe
are constantly sending back information
on Saturn’s moons, from Enceladus to
Titan, and helping scientists learn more
about Saturn’s natural satellites. All of
NASA’s planned missions with concrete
dates (as concrete as NASA dates can be,
at least) are slated for robots, along with
ambiguous “future” manned missions.
For now it seems that when NASA
thinks deep space, it thinks robots. They
certainly have advantages: robots are
cheaper, and there are fewer health concern
for robots in long-term space exposure.
Robots can certainly go to harsher
environments than humans, and there is
something to be said for the fact robots
don’t care how long they’re in space. But
current robots still lack the ingenuity
and instinct humans have, as well as the
level of inspiration humans can achieve
(we name our schools after humans, not
Curiosity - The Next
Mars Rover
This artist concept
features NASA’s Mars
Science Laboratory
Curiosity rover, a
mobile robot for
investigating Mars’ past
or present ability to
sustain microbial life.
NASA Photo.
Want more information? NASA
answers ‘big’ and detailed
questions about their projects
(including extensive mission details)
at http://science.nasa/gov.
robots). It’s clear that NASA is going to
be participating in the vigorous robots vs
human debate for years to come.
What else does the future hold?
NASA is eager to engage the public in
conversations. The best way for people
to get involved, according to Trent
Perrotto at NASA Headquarters, is “by
going through nasa.gov/connect through
Twitter and Facebook. There are a lot of
ways to join the conversation about technology,
science, exploration, and where
NASA’s going next.”
NASA is right when it says that the
end of the space shuttle isn’t the end of
NASA, but NASA’s place as the dominant
American force in space travel is
shifting. As more private companies vie
to travel to low Earth orbit (and dock
with the ISS), even NASA’s leftovers are
being picked over. Boeing is planning to
use an old NASA shuttle hangar to build
its own spacecraft. NASA’s willingness
to rent out its space is unprecedented,
and may be the beginning of NASA as
an umbrella organization that would
oversee private companies’ space endeavors.
It will certainly be worth watching
how NASA grows and how it navigates
the murky waters of funding, exploration,
privatization, and public opinion
that lie ahead. r
Bibliography
The James Webb Space Telescope.
Landsat Data Continuity Mission: Extending the
Legacy of Global Land Observation.
NASA: ICESat & ICESat-2: Cryospheric Sciences
Branch.
NASA Science: Exploring Near…and Far.
NPOESS Preparatory Project: NPP.
Precipitation Measurement Missions: An International
Partnership to Understand Precipitation and
Its Impact on Humankind.
[1][2] “How Is the Global Earth System Changing?”
NASA Science.
28 Radiations Fall 2011