Today at the space conference in Canada: the fleet of robotic spacecraft to Mars 2004-2014. Senior officials from the space field working on launching robotic missions to Mars are participating in a conference that will discuss flights to Mars in the next decade.
Tal Amber, Canada
Today at the space conference in Canada: the fleet of robotic spacecraft to Mars 2004-2014. Senior officials from the space field working on launching robotic missions to Mars are participating in a conference that will discuss flights to Mars in the next decade.
Among these experts are Dr. Charles Elachi - director of NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL), Daniel Sacotte, director of research flights at the European Space Agency, and Dr. Chris Scolese Senior Assistant to the Administrator of NASA.
At the meeting, the experts will discuss advanced designs of robots, beginning 2005, which will help provide answers about the history of Mars.
Another interesting event that has already taken place is regarding the use of nuclear reactors in future spaceships. It is clear that no spacecraft powered by chemical fuel will be sufficient for a long stay on long distance flights.
Experts from NASA, the European Space Agency, Russia and other countries talked about the future of nuclear reactors as a way to power spacecraft like JIMO and other proposed missions.
At the meeting, several interesting ideas for flights were also brought up, such as for example a netphone capsule, a spacecraft for a journey into interstellar space, a nuclear lander on the moon that will fill the batteries of lunar vehicles (in preparation for a similar flight to Mars) as well as the return of cryogenic samples from comets.
An important aspect of sample return missions in spacecraft carrying nuclear reactors is the environmental concern of a nuclear spacecraft landing on Earth. (Remember the crash landing of Genesis), and one of the options is to transfer the samples to a spacecraft with normal chemical fuel that will be launched and wait at point L1 - one of the equilibrium points between the orbits of the Earth and the Moon.
