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Title: Leading NASA official says the US is abandoning its post on the ISS for a very good reason
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URL Source: http://www.sciencealert.com/leading ... the-iss-for-a-very-good-reason
Published: Dec 11, 2015
Author: Jessica Orwig
Post Date: 2015-12-11 05:15:40 by Tatarewicz
Keywords: None
Views: 168
Comments: 1
ScienceAlert... During a meeting of NASA’s advisory council earlier this month, NASA’s chief of human spaceflight, William Gerstenmaier, said: "We’re going to get out of ISS as quickly as we can," Ars Technica reported. After leaving its post on board the ISS, NASA hopes to return to a destination that NASA astronauts haven’t visited since 1972: the Moon. It’s unclear whether astronauts will set foot on the Moon. What is clear, however, is that NASA’s looking to send manned missions in orbit around the Moon – to a region called cislunar space – by the late 2020s. Out there, astronauts will be days, instead of hours, from Earth. They will also be well outside of Earth’s protective geomagnetic shield, that blocks most of the dangerous high-energy radiation from the sun. For these reasons, astronauts will get a better taste – both psychologically and physiologically – for what it would be like on a trip to Mars. Long stays in cislunar space is the next step toward getting humans ready for Mars. For NASA, the ISS (International Space Station) is an expensive endeavour. In 2015, the space agency dedicated about $3 billion, or 1/6 of its total $18 billion budget, to the ISS, alone. And these costs are only projected to increase in the coming years. NASA can’t afford to both maintain its presence on the ISS and return its astronauts to deep space destinations, like the moon or Mars. The space agency must choose, and Gerstenmaier, who's a key voice in the future of NASA’s spaceflight missions, has made his decision very clear. Right now, NASA plans to continue its partnership on the ISS until 2024. This article was originally published by Business Insider. More from Business Insider: Scientists have performed the first full-scale genome analysis of the Ebola virus The BBC designed a fun quiz inspired by psychologists to test how dark your personality is — and you can take it now A NASA engineer explains how you would build a Death Star in real life IBM wants its Watson supercomputer to treat diabetes, fight cancer, and monitor pregnancy NYU scientists are transforming the way we understand how the brain processes language
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#1. To: Tatarewicz (#0)
It will be the end of American manned space flight. Already having no launch vehicle to get to the ISS without the Russians, there will be even less money on hand to go anywhere -- at least as long as the US hemorrhages its treasure on endless unwinnable war. Maybe its the new Cold War that is ending the joint cooperation of the ISS and providing the excuse for the US to claim the Moon as the "new" space goal. But there will be no *race* to the Moon. The Russians remember what that led to and need not bother. John Howard says: There are 4 schools of economics: How to End the Refugee Flood
Marxism: steal everything
Keynesianism: steal by counterfeiting whenever needed
Chicago school (Milton Friedman): steal by counterfeiting at a steady, predictable rate
Austrians: don't steal
'Wiped off the Map' – The Rumor of the Century
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