Tag: mars

SpaceX Red Dragon Mars Mission Will Cost NASA Less than 10 Days Expenditure on Orion

SpaceX Red Dragon Mars Mission Will Cost NASA Less than 10 Days Expenditure on Orion

A few more details regarding SpaceX’s Red Dragon mission to Mars emerged during a quarterly meeting of the NASA Advisory Council, which was held in Cleveland on July 26th. As reported in SpaceNews, NASA estimates that it will spend roughly $32 million over four years supporting the mission, which SpaceX hopes to launch in 2018. SpaceX […]

Posted in: Mars, SpaceX
The Choices We Make: Thiel, the Moon and Mars

The Choices We Make: Thiel, the Moon and Mars

What a week in space. It began of course, with SpaceX launching a Dragon spacecraft to ISS for the 9th time, and landing a Falcon 9 first stage at Cape Canaveral for only the second time. It also featured a speech and curious non-endorsement by former astronaut and first female Shuttle Commander Eileen Collins at […]

Posted in: Mars, Moon, NASA, SpaceX, Uncategorized
Leting NASA’s Curiosity Rover “Follow the Water” on Mars

Leting NASA’s Curiosity Rover “Follow the Water” on Mars

  After four years of studiosly ignoring what might be the most interesting destinations on its path due to concerns over planetary protection, NASA is consideing letting its Curisoity Rover operating in Mars’ Gale Crater, have a bit more leash. “Pending approval of a mission extension, NASA’s Curiosity Mars rover will continue to climb to […]

Posted in: Mars
Affordable Science May Power Spacex’s Red Dragon to Mars; Again and Again, and Again

Affordable Science May Power Spacex’s Red Dragon to Mars; Again and Again, and Again

As much of the space community waits for September and the promised big reveal of SpaceX’s Mars colonization plans, company founder Elon Musk is finding it difficult to keep from spilling the beans about what is coming. In this interview in the Washington Post, an interesting venue considering the paper’s owner,  Musk shares a bit […]

Posted in: Mars, SpaceX
Elon Mars Colonization Takeaway: 2016 May Be the Last Year We Don’t Launch Commercial Missions to Mars

Elon Mars Colonization Takeaway: 2016 May Be the Last Year We Don’t Launch Commercial Missions to Mars

During the course of a wide ranging interview on stage at the Code Conference 2016 in Broomfield, Colorado,  SpaceX founder and CTO Elon Musk gave a bit of preview regarding his Mars colonization plans which will be revealed in September at the International Astronautical Congress in Monterrey, Mexico. While he was reluctant to give any […]

Posted in: Mars, SpaceX
Hubble Captures Glorious New Image of Mars

Hubble Captures Glorious New Image of Mars

NASA has released the above image of Mars, taken  by the Hubble Space Telescope. Although the complete story is included below, it really is worth following this link to see image in full screen. Bright, frosty polar caps, and clouds above a vivid, rust-colored landscape reveal Mars as a dynamic seasonal planet in this NASA […]

Posted in: Mars
Lockheed Martin Proposes 2028 Outpost in Mars Orbit

Lockheed Martin Proposes 2028 Outpost in Mars Orbit

  Lockheed Martin has put forward a proposal which answers one of the primary criticisms leveled at NASA’s “Journey to Mars,” namely that it doesn’t get there soon enough. The plan, which the company is calling Mars Base Camp, would see the agency forgo a good part of NASA’s lengthy foray into Cis-Lunar space, and […]

Posted in: Mars
SLS, Falcon Heavy and Rockets “Worthy of a Great Nation” : Time for an Independent Review

SLS, Falcon Heavy and Rockets “Worthy of a Great Nation” : Time for an Independent Review

There is an interesting division taking place in the media as it relates to how NASA and the Space Launch System are being covered.  On the one hand, NASA itself has done an excellent, if not overly enthusiastic job of promoting SLS/Orion and the “Journey to Mars” despite the fact that there is no such […]

Posted in: SLS / Orion, SpaceX
Facing Higher Odds, SpaceX Scores Second Successful Ocean Landing

Facing Higher Odds, SpaceX Scores Second Successful Ocean Landing

SpaceX achieved its second consecutive successful landing at sea overnight as a part of the JCSAT-14 satellite launch to Geostationary Transfer Orbit. Coming less than one month after the first successful drone ship landing which took place during the NASA CRS-8 resupply mission to ISS on April 8, last night’s achievement was even more challenging […]

Posted in: SpaceX
Read’em and Weep: New Falcon 9 Performance Numbers Are Bad News for ULA, Arianespace

Read’em and Weep: New Falcon 9 Performance Numbers Are Bad News for ULA, Arianespace

Over the weekend, SpaceX updated the maximum performance numbers for the Falcon 9 and Falcon Heavy boosters, helpfully including payload to Mars capability, (and Pluto) along with standard LEO and GTO numbers supplied by most launch vehicle providers. While the Falcon Heavy showed a somewhat surprisingly small increase, from 53,000 kg to 54,400 kg to […]

Posted in: SpaceX
π