The Constellation mission could one day carry human explorers to Mars and beyond, but in the meantime NASA is generating headlines with the about-to-launch LCROSS mission to search for water ice.
At the time of writing, the satellite was spending its last night on Earth, the craft sitting on top of the Atlas V "launch vehicle", which is the equivalent of a building 19 stories high. The live data feed and launch pad video feed can be seen here.
While Earth-bound telescopes are providing new information about the lifecycle of stars the LCROSS mission is one of an altogether different nature. NASA says its mission to bombard the moon surface (with a separate module called Centaur) and analyse the debris in the search for "ancient ice" is key to future human exploration of the moon.
Among the many current and future space missions, NASA's constellation project stands out as one of the most ambitious to involve human explorers. Using the Orion spacecraft, NASA's vision is to send manned missions to the Moon by 2020 and at a later stage also to Mars.
Searching beyond Earth for liveable environments is also one of the primary goals of the Europa Jupiter System Mission, which will "determine whether the Jupiter System "Harbors Habitable Worlds".
 |
NASA conceptual image of the Orion spacecraft docking with the International Space Station. Orion is one of several future missions to find habitable worlds.
|