The "age of Aquarius " Re-visited
March 27th 2011 01:15
Category: Space Probes
Orion Module Test
Since the new millennium began the quest for human space flight has taken a back seat.
The once proud workhorse the space shuttle will be retired at the end of 2011 and ultimately moth balled. The only memory we will have is the video legacy it leaves behind.
It almost seems that we have come full circle and back to the early 1950s
The U.S . had got a huge kick in the backside when the Russians launched the first Sputnik.
A further setback when the Russians launched a human into space. The Americans got the message.
Its time to get in the game, it was the height of the cold war era. The age of Aquarius had begun the 1960s were here the. U.S. started to make inroads in developing a mission for Space flight.
(For those who don’t know what The age of Aquarius was all about look up the 1960s hippy movement)
After a few humiliating launch failures they developed more efficient rockets that could launch a decent payload, they became innovators in developing new radical technologies in computing, electronics and space engineering.
Where are we now?
Oh yes we now have the Orion project a space vehicle that looks very much like the 3 manned Apollo capsule of yesteryear, you would really think that NASA had gone retro.
Not so it seems, the Apollo capsule was a great piece of engineering so why change it?. The new Orion crew capsule will have quite a pedigree it will have some of the old Apollo design with new add-ons.
For starters the interior volume of the Orion will be 2.5 times larger than that of the old design. The Orion crew module has the capacity to carry 4 - 6 astronauts, compared to the Apollo’s 3 crew member limit. The Orion module will carry the astronauts and its own propulsion system.
Providing the funding lasts we will have developed a new space launch vehicle to replace the Space Shuttle. Perhaps by the year 2025 we will land a human crew on an asteroid.
Having a human landing on an asteroid makes perfect sense think of the information that would be obtained from such a pristine object like an asteroid. We would also have the advantage of studying the future enemy for way of diverting any future collisions with Earth.
While we may not have completely gone back to the early 1950s we must not remain complacent, if we are caught napping then we may get another wake up call just like Sputnik did in 1957.
image by NASA
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