As this book is being written, a U.S. presidential election is looming and some space leaders are working to offer the next U.S. president an alternative to President Bush’s “Vision for Space Exploration“ (VSE)/Constellation Program [4]. Rather than return to the Moon, this influential group of leaders propose moving towards manned missions to asteroids, arguing such a strategy would lead to earlier manned flights to Mars. Alternative strategies to Constellation include missions sending astronauts to Lagrangian points, 1.6 million kilometers from Earth, where the gravity of the Earth and Sun cancel each other out. The alternative vision planners, along with others in the scientific community and some of the general public, believe the VSE is a step backwards and will only serve to decelerate manned spaceflight operations beyond the Moon. It is important therefore to examine the reasons for returning astronauts to the lunar surface, just as it is essential to also address the issues raised by the alternative vision planners.
Alternative mission architectures
2009-01-01
25 pages
Aufsatz/Kapitel (Buch)
Elektronische Ressource
Englisch
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