Post-shuttle US to focus on Mars
Source: Agencies |
July 24, 2011, Sunday
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NASA moved on to a new chapter in space exploration on Friday, a day after the end of its shuttle program, by announcing details of plans to determine if Mars has or ever had the ingredients for life.
Managers at the US space agency said a robotic science laboratory, being prepared for a November 25 launch, will land in August 2012 near a mountain in a crater on the planet most like Earth in the solar system. The announcement came after the final curtain fell on NASA's 30-year-old space shuttle program with Thursday's landing of shuttle Atlantis at the Kennedy Space Center.
A detailed blueprint of NASA's follow-on space exploration strategy is still pending and many Americans fear the demise of the shuttle program means the United States is relinquishing its leadership in space.
But President Barack Obama has said the objective is to build new spaceships that can travel beyond the shuttle's near-Earth orbit and eventually send astronauts to asteroids, Mars and other destinations in deep space.
At a Cape Canaveral briefing next Wednesday, NASA officials will discuss preparations for the agency's upcoming Juno mission to Jupiter. The unmanned spacecraft, set for launch in August, is expected to reach Jupiter's orbit in July 2016 and should further understanding of the solar system's beginnings by revealing the origin and evolution of its largest planet.
"A lot of attention has been given to the event that concluded yesterday with the landing of the space shuttle, marking really the turning of the page to a new chapter in human exploration of space," NASA chief scientist Waleed Abdalati said at Washington, DC's National Air and Space Museum, where the landing site for the Mars Science Laboratory was announced.
NASA will pass on its three space shuttles to museums.
Managers at the US space agency said a robotic science laboratory, being prepared for a November 25 launch, will land in August 2012 near a mountain in a crater on the planet most like Earth in the solar system. The announcement came after the final curtain fell on NASA's 30-year-old space shuttle program with Thursday's landing of shuttle Atlantis at the Kennedy Space Center.
A detailed blueprint of NASA's follow-on space exploration strategy is still pending and many Americans fear the demise of the shuttle program means the United States is relinquishing its leadership in space.
But President Barack Obama has said the objective is to build new spaceships that can travel beyond the shuttle's near-Earth orbit and eventually send astronauts to asteroids, Mars and other destinations in deep space.
At a Cape Canaveral briefing next Wednesday, NASA officials will discuss preparations for the agency's upcoming Juno mission to Jupiter. The unmanned spacecraft, set for launch in August, is expected to reach Jupiter's orbit in July 2016 and should further understanding of the solar system's beginnings by revealing the origin and evolution of its largest planet.
"A lot of attention has been given to the event that concluded yesterday with the landing of the space shuttle, marking really the turning of the page to a new chapter in human exploration of space," NASA chief scientist Waleed Abdalati said at Washington, DC's National Air and Space Museum, where the landing site for the Mars Science Laboratory was announced.
NASA will pass on its three space shuttles to museums.
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