NASA Missions One thing which really bothered me was the fact NASA put out a memo outlining why they should not have competitive contracts for additional Space Launch System rockets and equipment and Boeing-Northrop should get all the contracts. Remember this, their system is extremely more expensive than anything from SpaceX and not by a little bit, but by tremendous costs. The document is known as Justification for Other Than Full and Open Competition. I think this says it all. It is just another example of the ills in the government. Our society is based on competition in the manufacturing area and without it, not only would we be spending more money for projects, but they would be inferior many times to what we would get if there was competition. We are talking about a contract which would run through 2036 which is worth so many billions of dollars I can’t even calculate the cost at this time. The NASA Office of Inspector General last year estimated the cost of a single mission to be 4.1 billion at the time and we all know it seems the prices only get higher as time goes by even though NASA is saying they hope to get the cost down in the future. Don’t get me wrong, I love NASA, but they are an endless leaky bucket when it comes to contracts. It is not only NASA however; it seems to be government agencies. They seem to have their favorites and many times are guided by politics and not cost saving measures. Another example is the Defense Department and the services who routinely over spend and allow contractors to go over budget and behind time. They seem to have a hard time holding contractors to their contracts. There should be penalties for delays and cost overruns and the contracts should be written with that in mind. But back to NASA. NASA has quite a few projects on the burner and could have more if they would run their contracts better. I would love to see us going back to the moon. We should have a base there and industry could use factories on the moon for certain mining operations. Since the gravity is so much lower than earth it might be feasible to send products back by spacecraft to earth someday. These products would be made by elements we mine on the moon. As exciting as this would be, the top mission, as far as I am concerned, is sending astronauts to Mars. I am very interested in finding out if there is signs of intelligent life there or which was once there. The photos from NASA have really wet my appetite. The reason for this is some of the objects which appeared in NASA photos when they were examined closely. It seems there were objects which looked like they had been created by intelligent beings. The region of Cydonia on Mars where there seem to be some interesting ruins, looks to me like it was being avoided by NASA. I would at least put a rover into that area if I wanted to do serious exploration. Part of the mission known as CAPSTONE is a cubesat. A cubesat is a small satellite. In this case the satellite is part of the Gateway system which might place a space station orbiting the moon. The satellite is trying to find the best path to navigate to the moon with problems. There are a bunch of projects scheduled to do with the moon such as Lunar Flashlight and others. Lunar Flashlight will look for ice, especially in craters on the moon. NASA wants to establish swarm missions where small probes will act in unison to collect data. The data will come in from different points. This will be tested from earth orbit first. The first mission is named Starling and has been launched. The launch of the James Webb telescope has just proved NASA’s superiority again. The mission was said to be more complicated than the landing on the moon. Not only was the positioning of the scope critical, but the unfolding was incredibly complex and it was incredible it happened without a hitch. It was a bold move, especially knowing there could be no repair if things didn’t work, because it was too far away. NASA is very interested in meteors and asteroids as noticed by a few past missions. The DART mission where a rocket was fired at a meteor was so successful it even surprised the scientists. It proved we could alter the path of an incoming object which might hit the earth. There seems to be a race on to get orbiters and even rovers to the moon by other countries. I am not saying this is easy, but I am saying their efforts are based on what we have already accomplished which gives them a leg up since the technology is available. I look for the moon to get very busy in the next decade or so. There is a hope nations will not try to claim land for their countries. As the countries of earth get out into space, there is always the worry they will send weapons out there. Treaties have been violated in the past and who is to say for sure they will not be violated in the future when it comes to space weapons ? Countries like North Korea would probably be glad to get nukes up there. Let’s hope this doesn’t happen. Another NASA project which seems very interesting and is involved with the search for life will be the exploration of Europa, the icy moon of the planet Jupiter. It is believed under the thick ice are oceans, and in those oceans could be life. Robotic expeditions to the moon have been talked about where a robot submarine would be inserted into the ocean after a hole was melted through the ice layer. The submarine would be equipped with sensors and cameras, and maybe other devices. If fish are found, this would be the proof we need to know we are not alone. If intelligent life was found, that would be even better. NASA has a plan to launch a spacecraft to Titan, a moon of Saturn. The craft is said to contain a quadcopter which will explore the surface of the moon, looking at it closer than ever before. We just might find out something interesting. I am for exploration, eventually of the entire solar system and as we take our baby steps, we just might get lucky and find out something which will change our lives. We have no idea what is waiting for us. Will we land on some alien world and get a greeting, or might we be attacked?
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