wow so many interesting reads
will find about about the European Aurora project for Mars
http://planetary.org/news/2004/nasa-internatl-workshop_1122.html
NASA Concludes First International Workshop
in Support of U.S. 'Vision'
by A.J.S. Rayl
22 November 2004
NASA officials held an international workshop last week in Washington D.C., with representatives from China, the European Union, and 17 other countries to consider opportunities and possible collaborations in forthcoming missions that are a part of the U.S. Vision for Space Exploration.
Future Moon Base? NASA has considered many concepts for Moon habitats. This art concept shows a 16-meter diameter inflatable habitat that could accommodate the needs of a dozen astronauts living and working on the surface of the Moon. Depicted are astronauts exercising, a base operations center, a pressurized lunar rover, a small clean room, a fully equipped life sciences lab, a lunar lander, selenological work, hydroponic gardens, a wardroom, private crew quarters, dust-removing devices for lunar surface work and an airlock.
Image: NASA
The space agency convened the workshop to provide a forum for an "exchange of information" and "to find those agencies and countries that have the capability, the interest and the resources to participate in various projects of U.S. space exploration," Rear Admiral Craig Steidle, USN Ret., Associate Administrator for the Office of Exploration Systems, told a telephonic assemblage of reporters last Thursday.
The three-day gathering -- which also drew participation from 19 international organizations -- is the first of a series of NASA-sponsored workshops "to see where the areas of collaborations exist." President George W. Bush announced the 'Vision' in January as he charged NASA with charting a journey that will take humans back to the Moon, and eventually to Mars and beyond. The plan calls for a "building block" strategy of human and robotic missions to achieve new exploration goals. The first objective is to return the space shuttle safely to flight and complete construction of the International Space Station (ISS). Following that, the space shuttle will be retired.
The next phase calls for robotic missions to begin visiting the Moon in 2008, with an extended human expedition to follow as early as 2015. These lunar missions are to lay the groundwork for future human exploration of Mars. To support these journeys, the government has already approved the development of a new manned spacecraft -- the Crew Exploration Vehicle (CRV). This new ship will be the first spacecraft to explore beyond Earth since the Apollo days and is to be capable of ferrying astronauts to and from the ISS once the shuttle is retired. Plans currently call for demonstration and testing the CRV by the end of this decade.
The first day of the NASA workshop was devoted to "briefing one another on our plans to explore space," informed Michael F. O'Brien, Assistant Administrator for External Relations. Basically, representatives from the Canadian Space Agency, the Chinese National Space Agency, the European Space Agency, the French National Space Agency, the German Aerospace Center, the Indian Space Research Organization, the Italian Space Agency, the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency, and the Russian Federal Space Agency, as well as NASA, presented roadmaps and strategies for future space explorations.
Rear Admiral Craig Steidle, USN Ret., Associate Administrator for the Office of Exploration Systems, NASA HDQ
Image: NASA
The participants then broke into five workshops which ran simultaneously throughout the second day: Human Exploration Strategies and Objectives; Robotic Exploration Objectives to Support Human Missions; Human Missions and Systems beyond Low Earth Orbit; Exploration Systems, Research and Technology Development Programs (everything from hardware to software to life sciences); and Approaches for International Cooperation.
From these exchanges and discussions, the accomplishments, capabilities, and strategies of the participating agencies and countries were pulled together by the NASA representatives into a presentation of "Action Items," or "homework assignments," as O'Brien put it. These assignments are "not to participate in any particular project," but to continue "to exchange information" at a variety of international gatherings next year, he explained.
"The action items are to compare roadmaps to see what fits into what -- not to produce subcontractors but partners, and to see where there are areas where we can collaborate for risk reductions to their programs as well as ours," said Steidle The Human Exploration Strategies and Objectives Group, for example, will develop and populate "a core competency matrix" to share with everyone at the next international gathering of space scientists in January. "By March, they'll have an initial evaluation of all the areas of synergism and then put together the final development of all these roadmaps by August," he offered.
No surprise missions or projects emerged in the presentations, but both Steidle and O'Brien were struck by the openness they saw in virtually all of the participants. "I thought we would have a difficult time in pulling out the sharing of information and roadmaps," said Steidle. "We did not have that. It was an open atmosphere and everyone was very aggressively sharing their particular roadmaps and plans and programs -- and the problems they have with some of them."
The detail of the presentations was "very gratifying," added O'Brien. "Each of the agencies [representatives who] came obviously put a lot of work and thought into laying out their [roadmaps] -- not only with their ongoing programs, but what their aspirations for exploration for the future were. It was first time I was able to sit at one place in one day and get all that information in one 8-hour period."
Mars lander? This artist's concept shows astronauts using an unpressurized rover to unload cargo and supplies needed for their stay on the Red Planet.
Image: NASA/ John Frassanito & Associates
A number of obvious duplications, however, did emerge during the forum, said Steidle and "a desire to explore [those duplicated efforts] to see where it makes sense [to cooperate] economically for each one of us. We saw a lot of robotic missions with the same objectives and the same timeline, We saw a lot of interest in sample return. We saw a lot of interest in Mars [with missions scheduled] along the same timeframe, so those are the areas that we focused on as areas of possible collaboration." ESA's planned Aurora program to Mars, for example, was compared "in detail" with NASA's Mars objectives to see "where the milestones are, where the problems are, and where the plans are, both funding wise and political wise and technically," said Steidle.
"This [Vision] is a journey, not a specific event," Steidle continued. "We've got a lot of systems to develop. So it's a great opportunity to have partners, not subcontractors. And by that, I mean there are several missions that can be done and handled by others that can help lower the risk that's for sure, but I think the return on the investment is going to be well worth it. Resources are always an issue. I don't recall anybody coming in and saying, 'We just got an increase in our budget and so we can participate in your exploration Vision.' That being said, where we find efficiencies amongst and between the various exploration programs of the various countries -- it seems to me you could make the argument that part of the reason you work together is to be more efficient and not duplicate efforts, and get some savings in the process."
Interestingly, in a paper for presentation at the International Lunar Conference being held this week in India, The Planetary Society noted the similarity in lunar missions planned by India, Japan, China, Europe and, now the U.S., and in that paper called for cooperation and coordination among them to eliminate duplication and create new opportunities, such as the creation of an International Lunar Way Station.
As optimistic as Steidle and O'Brien were about last week's workshop, given the Bush Administration's previous attitudes about international cooperation in other matters, including the war in Iraq, some reporters questioned how genuine this kind of desire for cooperation could be. "The signal from reasonably high in the U.S. government that we are following is that of the President of the United States who told us to embark on and pursue international cooperation in implementation of the Vision," O'Brien stated. "Right now we're at a fairly high level of general discussions and we haven't agreed to conduct any particular international cooperation on a particular project."
Michael F. O'Brien,
Assistant Administrator for External Relations, NASA HDQ
Image: NASA
The inclusion of China drew questions about whether the U.S. would ever really collaborate on a space exploration project with a Communist country. "It is somewhat precedent setting for this particular meeting to have the Chinese there in attendance," O'Brien admitted. "We were very careful in having discussions and consultations within the U.S. Government -- specifically the State Department. Given that this was nothing more than an exchange of information and views, the view of our State Department colleagues was that this would be acceptable. Therefore, we thought that given the other big change that has occurred -- which is the announcement of the Vision for exploration in the future and the direction of the President to pursue international cooperation -- that it would make sense to try and be inconclusive at least in the initial stages of this exchange of information and views and so that's how we proceeded."
And what if China were to step up to the plate and suggest a partnership with NASA on a specific upcoming mission? "I'll do the appropriate thing and defer to the State Dept for the government to government issues that sometimes separate the two of us," Steidle responded. "We are a technical agency that implements the foreign policy of the United States, we do not make it." "China does raise some issues, that's for sure," added O'Brien. "This was just an initial meeting to exchange ideas and thoughts about our own exploration plans and to look to see where they might intersect and where we might consider future cooperation. There are barriers and challenges that we need to overcome . . . but we feel that we have -- with men and women of good will around the world working toward these common objectives and the betterment of humankind -- that we will be able to overcome these particular barriers that exist not only in U.S., but in other countries as they look at following their own political processes as they try to cooperate on these complex projects. There was lots of discussion about guidelines we might use for international cooperation, as well as about the challenges that lay ahead to bringing these types of very complex activities to fruition," offered O'Brien.
In fact, O'Brien added, there was even discussion of the formation of a space federation. "We did discuss that and we determined that needed to further review," he said, chuckling at the inevitable comparison any space enthusiast would make to Star Trek's Federation. "If we decide to agree on some multi-national, multi-lateral group, we want to make sure we get it right and we bound it correctly." The Vision, meanwhile, is gaining momentum. "We have 11 major large contracts for us that go from Scaled Composites [the Mojave, CA company that built SpaceShipOne and took the $10 million Ansari X-Prize] up to Boeing and Lockheed. We have these 70 contracts with 200 subcontractors," Steidle pointed out. "It's a big effort. We have had tremendous support from the Administrator, Office of Management and Budget (OMB), and the White House in going forward with the program. We have had tremendous turnout from the centers participating in this and from industry. There's a lot of good support for this."
In addition to Administration support, the U.S. Congress passed the NASA budget this past weekend, with full funding and support for the new Vision. Although many of the workshop participants will meet again at upcoming international conferences on exploration and science and trade "homework" notes, they are basically all committed to attending the second workshop next August, said Steidle. "That's when we will we finish all of the comparison of the roadmaps and determine collaborations of technology programs."
"The international workshop is an excellent beginning, and all of the space agencies should be commended for their participation," said Louis D. Friedman, Executive Director of The Planetary Society. "Exploration of other worlds is the best, if not only, rationale for human space flight -- international cooperation is necessary for both technical and popular support of this great venture."
