What do you want to see next in space exploration?
by Kirby Runyon, PhD student, planetary geology
November 19, 2012 | 0 comments
I want Uranus and Neptune orbiters with missions similar to Galileo and Cassini at Jupiter and Saturn. There’s fascinating geology on those outer moons. I want a lander/boat on a Titan lake similar to the cancelled TiME. I want a sample return mission from the Moon so we can obtain radioisotope ages for various terrains and further constrain the timing of the Late Heavy Bombardment. I want a lander or rover on Europa as a precursor to a Europa drill and submarine. I want a lander on Io to study extreme volcanology and tidal tectonics. ... more »
by Edward Mandity
November 19, 2012 | 1 comments
Three things in no particular order: First, I'd like to see a deep space observatory / science laboratory established on the moon. Second, sample and data telemetry of Europa and other satellites of the outer planets. Even the planning for robotic missions to the planets themselves. Third, peopled missions to land on asteroids/NEOs and the decision to send humans to Mars. I hope I live long enough to witness any of these. Needless to say, having the chance to leave Earth's orbit would a blast too. ... more »
by Charles L. de la Motte
November 19, 2012 | 0 comments
I'd like to see the solar sail project getting more coverage and resources. ... more »
by Gerald Conrad
November 19, 2012 | 0 comments
Step 1, Continue development of an American manned spacecraft and launch system. Step 2, Return to moon to learn how to handle issues in reduced gravity, and resolve medical issues, mine the moon for resources, conduct astronomical research, using all American equipment and personnel.Use the moon as our classroom to learn how to work and survive on another world. Step 3, Only after Step 2, attempt to land crew on Mars, learn possibilities of agriculture on Mars to explore and make use of what we learned on the moon. Establish basis for colonies, for mining and scientific research (medical, mineral, ... more »
by Doug Currie
November 19, 2012 | 0 comments
My vision for space exploration includes developing space ships or space stations with artifical gravity so we don't have to be as concerned about muscle or bone loss. I would also like to see human bases on the Moon and Mars to be self sustaining as possible and the carrying out of the Terrestrial Planet Finder. paragraph text ... more »
by Don Smith
November 19, 2012 | 0 comments
Space exploration needs to permanently remove its elitist status and become something which "the people" want and need. The level of scientific literacy needs to be raised everywhere. This will be VERY difficult but is necessary. What "I" want is the wrong question - it's what "we" need and want. Until we get there, what my personal "pet project" for space exploration is merely a whim. ... more »
by Robin Hess
November 19, 2012 | 0 comments
Junk the Defense Department and spend all that money on explorering all the planets and natural sattelites in the Solar System. Some would have to be robotic, but a lot could be with people. It'd take a while, but the sooner we start, the quicker we'll learn about them. ... more »
by David Lazarus
November 19, 2012 | 0 comments
A moon base would make it both easier and less expensive to launch space vehicles. I think we should have started building one twenty years ago. ... more »
by Dylan
November 19, 2012 | 0 comments
Lunar, then Martian, expansions of the human spirit's arm would revitalize America's interest in space. We would all once more feel connected with the future, in a big way. Any development for the purpose of long-term outer-Earthly living is a good development, but it's time for us to step it up! Get some people on the Moon building a colony, and then to Mars within a decade of that! It's possible! ... more »
by John Anthony (Tony) Finch
November 19, 2012 | 0 comments
First, I want to see a low cost way to get from ground to Low Earth Orbit (LEO). An air breathing first stage, lifting one or two rocket stages, might be a way to go. Or, maybe the British Skylon single stage air breather/rocket will work. Once in LEO, high thrust is not needed. Solar photovoltaic cell powered neutral particle beam rocket engines could provide extremely high specific impulses, allowing much shorter transit times via continual, albeit low, accelerations between LEO and points beyond. Alkali metals could be used as reaction mass, hauled from earth initially, but later, reaction masses ... more »
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What sparked your passion for space?
by Robin L Gallagher
December 12, 2012 | 0 comments
Growing up in the 60's, I followed John Glenn and all launches thereafter on our b&w TV. My first little girl crush was Astro Boy. My Aunt Mimi lived over an hour away in the Cattskill Mtns. Of NY next to the Esopus Stream. Lovely going to sleep after seeing stars so clear! Mimi showed me the Big and Little Dipper (yes, could see the wee one fully). I was hooked not only with space, but with the pure joy of looking up and wondering. All that sparked my passion for hard Sci-Fi, Clarke, Assimov, Heinlein and all that is ... more »
by Nick Smyyth
December 2, 2012 | 0 comments
As a child from the age of about 6 or 7, I used to lie on my back in the garden, even on a cold winter's night, with an ancient pair of binoculars that had been used in the Crimean War, to marvel at the moon and stars. I have been hooked ever since! ... more »
by Angela
December 2, 2012 | 0 comments
I spent my 9th birthday glued to the TV day and night, even though in those days we spent every summer day outside playing; watching the moon landing was worth staying inside for. In my youthful enthusiasm, I assumed "we" would be heading for Mars next. I am now 52 years old, and more than a bit disillusioned that "we" opted to fight a bunch of wars over oil rather than explore space, which would have made the military industrial complex just as rich, if not richer, and no one's country would have needed to have been sacrificed for it. ... more »
by Mae Kovacich
November 29, 2012 | 0 comments
I started reading when I was about 5 years old, and was bored by the children's books. I picked up one of Heinlein's science fiction books aimed at young people at the local library, and I was hooked. Read everything I could find in that genre that I could understand. Got up early and watched all the Mercury launches (and scrubs), and everything that followed. 60 years later I still read science fiction, but now I am equally interested in science fact. ... more »
by Terrance E Gilbert
December 3, 2012 | 0 comments
Growing up in northern New York, we had no television until I was 14 years old and very limited at that time. I found my passion for space in the writings of H.G. Wells, Jules Verne and Edgar Rice Burroughs, Ray Bradbury and others. I dreamed of being one of the Martians in the Martian Chronicles and read Burroughs' John Carter books twice. I would lay out on summer nights looking at the moon and stars dreaming of bring involved in the space program and amybe even being an early settler on the moon or Mars. When television came along ... more »
by Jay Albert
November 29, 2012 | 0 comments
Like Neil deGrasse Tyson, my love of astronomy and space started when I was in 3rd or 4th grade when my parents took me to the Hayden Planetarium in Manhattan. There was a "black light" mural depicting the surface of the moon that just mystified and excited me. I wanted to go there. The planetarium show (with the old Zeiss projector) just blew me away. The fascination never left me. Now I have a few telescopes of my own and belong to the local astronomy club as well as the Association of Lunar & Planetary Observers. ... more »
by Fairleigh Brooks
December 2, 2012 | 0 comments
I was in the first grade when Alan Shepard launched. I don't remember being aware of the Space Race before then, although my mother told me our family was in our yard one night, 3 1/2 years earlier, watching Sputnik orbit over. I do distinctly remember, on May 5th, 1961, a television being wheeled into our classroom so we could watch the launch. Whatever sub-conscious awareness I had had of events so far burst into full attention with that launch. From that day on I was hooked. Thankfully, I have never been cured of that infection. Eight years later I ... more »
by Alan Silverstein
December 2, 2012 | 0 comments
"We don't know who discovered water, but we're certain it wasn't a fish." I've been fascinated by The Larger Universe since I was as small as I can remember. So I don't know how this particular fish first got a glimpse above the pond. But having seen the stars, I've always been aware of and awed by what else is out there, beyond the local ripples. ... more »
by Bob NIcholas
December 2, 2012 | 0 comments
Robert Heinlein was my first experience in reading Science Fiction. All the authors out of the fifties sparked my interest in space and the potential for other civilizations out among the stars. ... more »
by John Robinson
December 5, 2012 | 0 comments
When I was a child in the early 1960s my grandmother gave me The Golden Book of Astronomy for my 8th birthday. I viewed that book over and over for years and since then have always felt very comfortable with, and interested in astronomy. She also brought me rock samples from her trips all over the world (including the grand canyon) and now I am a professional geologist (PG). Each year I give my pre-school son a Hubble Astronomy Calendar hoping the same might happen to him. ... more »
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What might the future be like without space exploration?
by Jim Bell
December 5, 2012
We are born explorers. As infants we first learn to use our senses -- vision, hearing, touch, taste -- to learn about the nature of the world around us. And then -- gloriously! -- as toddlers we add mobility and can finally rove around and explore not just what is within our vision, but also the unknown across the room, or around the corner. It turns out that that urge to explore never leaves us as we continue to grow, as individuals, and as a civilization. Nowadays our fascination with the unknown compels us to explore not just the world around us, but the limitless frontiers of distant planets, stars, and galaxies.
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