Ad Luna! Ad Ares! Ad Astra!

by James W. Barnard

November 21, 2012 | 0 comments

As my motto above suggests, our next human exploration target should be the Moon! I am a founding member of the Mars Society, as well as a member of the National Space Society AND the Planetary Society. First, I DO believe we should continue robotic probes of Mars, and the asteroids. But we do not know enough about the minimum long-duration gravity requirements for the health and safety of humans traveling to asteroids or Mars. The proposed Earth/Moon L2 station will NOT satisfy this requirement. The Moon IS a place where we can gain significant data points on this and ... more »

The Path through out Space Exploration

by Larry B. Keese

November 21, 2012 | 0 comments

I started my own personal experience first with the Development, Test, Launch, and Jupiter, and Saturn Encounters of the Voyager Programs Science Instrument Pointing Systems. I went from there to several constellations of NRO Systems. (BOLD Text)The best exploration plan is taking small steps(BOLD Text). We need the (BOLD Text)Sentinel System(BOLD Text)as well as the (BOLD Text)DARPA Space Junk (BOLD Text)identification program in conjunction with Amateur Astronomers Space Junk Search along with the JPL NEO system. (BOLD Text)Planetary Protection is Highest and foremost(BOLD Text). Before Mars, a (BOLD Text)Sentinel(BOLD Text) System should be expanded to include Mars. We need to ... more »

Promote the vision of the U.S. Space Command

by Gregory Christiano

November 21, 2012 | 0 comments

There is a trend developing today which will require our resources to be directed toward reasearch and development of space systems, both commercial and military. This is proliferating throughout the world. Space commerce will become increasingly important to the globaleconomy. And it follows the importance of space capabilities to military operations is being widely embraced by many nations. We don't want to be left behind. It is very important that U.S. interests in space be protected especially these space systems to military operations. We must take the high ground because our endeavors in space will become targets for our rivals. ... more »

Occupy Mars!

by Samuel Pellman

November 21, 2012 | 0 comments

To date, just over 500 people have been to space--that is, approximately one out of every 14,000,000 people. In the next few years we should hope to see travel become much more accessible, at least to LEO, so that perhaps every town might have at least one astronaut, cosmonaut, or taikonaut. Then we will truly be living in the Age of Space. Within a few hundred years I can envision this leading to permanent habitation of Mars, something I have dreamed of since I was in grade school. Alas, I am unlikely to be one of these first settlers of ... more »

To Boldly Go

by Bob Ware

November 21, 2012 | 0 comments

A Mars Astronauted landing to start colonization. My second favorite objective would be to put an automated observatory and computer camera system to image with overlapping fields of view across 360 degrees on an asteroid for a full revolution. While in comm range we can due data dumps and later dumps when the planet comes back into comm range on the next orbit. Lets just see what other things we discover by accident. We'll do the science after the data is recovered. Maybe a collaborative public effort like SETI@HOME pioneered could be done.

"The Shadow of Olympus"

by Emmett M. Smith

November 20, 2012 | 2 comments

Read the scifi novel "The Shadow of Olympus" if you want to know what humans should be doing- exploring and coloniozing Mars. Humanity has all of its eggs in one basket now. A large asteroid impact or a nuclear war could destroy civilization on this planet. Also, without a new frontier, technological, economic and social progress on Earth will stagnate. Look what the exploration and colonization of the western hemisphere did for European civilization from 1492 to 1882.

Return to Uranus and Neptune

by Christopher Drew

November 20, 2012 | 0 comments

Technical Writer

For unmanned missions, I would love to see a return to Uranus and Neptune with long-term orbiter projects. A rover built to explore the super cold surface of Pluto would've been neat too, although I don't know how practical the science would be to justify the expense of a project like that. For manned missions, I'd strongly support a permanent moon base and the eventual human mission to Mars. But just getting a newer space shuttle program up and running would be great.

Unmanned Spacecraft to Europa

by James Martin

November 20, 2012 | 1 comments

Elec. engr., retired

Let's urge Congress to rethink an unmanned spacecraft to Europa (ref. "Unmasking Europa", Richard Greenberg). It might not have to drill through a thick layer of ice, provided it landed in one of the "cracks" in the ice. The best chance of finding existing unicellular, if not multicellular life, should be on that moon, and not on Mars. Wish are efforts luck, during the next four years! Sincerely, jim martin

Moon Base by the year 2025

by Gavin Faught

November 20, 2012 | 0 comments

I'd like to see a moon base by the year 2025.

New Worlds

by steven lavalle

November 20, 2012 | 0 comments

I would like to see us do more about finding new planets that mankind can move to in the future. There needs to be a sense of urgency because this world is being destroyed by man. the answer of where we came from is out there someplace we need to find it.

From curiosity to Curiosity

by Paolo Marelli

December 10, 2012 | 0 comments

I was eight in July 1975. My black and white television was talking about “two spacecrafts from different countries” that were orbiting linked together. I remember flickering images showing two men floating into the spacecraft shaking their hands. I was really impressed and an uncontrollable curiosity pushed me to know more: so I learnt that the two spacecrafts came from United States and Soviet Union and their names were Apollo and Soyuz. This is the beginning of my passion for space. Many years have passed. My child curiosity forced me to study every aspect of the race to the Moon ... more »

Franklin Institute

by Robert MAtcovich

December 3, 2012 | 0 comments

My earliest 'cool' memories are of sitting in the Franklin Institute Planetarium in Philadelphia, PA. With encouragement from my dad, I would look at the night sky in wonderment and imagine the possibilities. The Space Race was in full swing and we were going to put a man on the moon! There was one problem, looking from the backyard, there were never as many stars in the sky as in my space books. That's were the Planetarium came into play. In the Planetarium, not only could you see ALL the stars but, you could see the stars from the Southern ... more »

For me it was Viking on Mars

by John Whitehead

December 10, 2012 | 0 comments

I was only ten when Apollo 11 landed. The whole family was crowded around my Grandfather's TV late at night. The image was blurry, and I was tired (plus being allergic to Grandfather's dog and tobacco smoke). But in July 1976, I was 17 and understood what was going on when the two Vikings landed on Mars. I remember being fascinated by the hydrazine engines, that one simple molecule released enough energy for a rocket, rather than fuel and oxidizer having to mix. All the above helped steer me to be a student at Caltech, which runs the Jet Propulsion ... more »

Fifty Years on the Space Frontier

by Robert W. Farquhar

December 18, 2012 | 0 comments

I recently published my memoir entitled, "Fifty Years on the Space Frontier". This memoir was commissioned by the National Air and Space Museum. The 460-page book is available on Amazon.com. It tells the story about how I embarked on my career in space exploration.

Fascination with Space and Retaining the Child in Us

by Keith Jackson

January 15, 2013 | 0 comments

My fascination (I hesitate to call it passion) with space began decades ago as a child. I have always been fascinated by the natural and the physical world and have maintained my childhood curiosity about both right up to my 60s (my 60th birthday arrives this year). I was born into a religious family (at the time, fundamental Christian) but the things I read in books about the solar system, geology, and living things brought with them dissatisfaction with the inadequate cosmology of my religious background.

My fascination with space has come from the books I read as a child. But ... more »

Family

by J. Erik Hendrickson

November 28, 2012 | 0 comments

My father encouraged me from the very beginning to ask questions, to observe the world around me, to be curious, to try to figure things out. Here's a picture of me in a bassinet soon after my parents adopted me. Obviously, Mitsy was faithfully guarding me, but notice the leather binocular box and the telescope with a wooden tripod in the corner. Parents must encourage an interest in science with their kids, even if they are not experts. No one in my family had ever gone to college, but the inquisitiveness that they instilled in me led me to college ... more »

Encyclopedia Galactica

by Almir Germano

December 3, 2012 | 0 comments

Born in 1961, in Brazil, not from a particularly rich or poor family, I remember myself as a book lover since I learn to read, fought by an uncle of mine. At the time there were a norm in Brazil, children can only start on public education from the age of seven. Well, I fought to start before, at 6, for the amusement of various members of the family. I fell as if I would be better fit in the school, than playing football, which I hatted. As one can imagine, at the time, reading material were not abundant and ... more »

Echo 1 and Telstar

by John R. Tenopir

December 2, 2012 | 0 comments

I vaguely remember Sputnik and Explorer, but I do remember Echo 1 and Telstar. With Echo 1, we went outside to see this balloon in orbit in SE Nebraska, and with Telstar, it was "Live via Satellite." Then, being able to see, hear, and read about Mercury, Gemini, and Apollo missions. And the really big treat, was to go adult space camp in '87. The only thing that could beat that, would be to go to space on a mission.

Earliest memories

by Stephen Vandivere

December 10, 2012 | 0 comments

It probably started when I was 13 and a friend introduced me to IF magazine. Fortunately, it was one of the better magazines of that sort, and I have been hooked ever since. The stories, of course, made the mere idea of traveling in space almost normal. At about the same time (perhaps as a reaction?) my father introduced me to the books of George Gamow. I can specifically remember reading "One, Two, Three, Infinity" and "The Birth and Death of the Sun". These books started my interest in cosmology.

But perhaps the one event that most made the idea real ... more »

Dragons in the Sky

by Cheryle Hughes

December 2, 2012 | 0 comments

As a child my bedroom window looked South and I would kneel by it and look at the sky, There ws a huge dragon in the Southern horizon, and as my June astronomical sign was a dragon, I assumed this one was mine. (I don't know what my dragon really is) Soon the whole night sky was mine. I dreamed of the Universe for years. Isaac Azimov's books thrilled me. Then I discovered A. C. Clarke. The movie "2001 a Space Odyssey" made me yearn for space, but I was a female and felt left out of everything great. The ... more »