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Man on Mars: Introduction | Problems of a Manned Mission | NASA's Budget
During the cold war, Washington and Moscow fought bitterly in an attempt to plant their footprints in space exploration. The Soviet Union managed to score a major victory by launching the first satellite (Sputnik) into orbit and another when Yuri Gagarin became the first man on space in April 1961. Eight years later, the Americans hit back when Neil Armstrong became the first man to step foot on the moon. Ever since then both the Americans and the Russians cut back on the funds pumped into space research and there have yet to be another manned mission except for the recent manned mission by China in October 13 2003, whereby a single crewman vaulted into space inside a capsule for one-day flight.
However on January 15, 2004, George W. Bush (the present president of United States of America) unveiled plans to revive manned missions. Addressing an audience of jump-suited astronauts and scientists at the Washington headquarters of National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), President Bush sketched visions for manned missions that goes far beyond the near-Earth orbits which NASA has confined itself to since the 1970s.
"In the past 30 years, no human being has set foot on another world. It is time for America to take the next steps."
"Today we set a new course for America's space program," Bush said. "We will give NASA a new focus and vision for future exploration. We will build new ships to carry man forward into the universe, to gain a new foothold on the moon, and to prepare for new journeys to worlds beyond our own."
According to President Bush, the first goal was to complete the assembly of the International Space Station (ISS) by 2010. "We will focus our future research aboard the station on the long-term effects of space travel on human biology," the president said. "Research on board the station and here on Earth will help us better understand and overcome the obstacles that limit exploration. Through these efforts we will develop the skills and techniques necessary to sustain further space exploration.
The second goal was to develop a new spaceship, Crew Exploration Vehicle by 2008 and with manned missions beginning by 2014. The objective of this spacecraft is to ferry astronauts to and from the space station as well as "beyond our orbit to other worlds. This will be the first spacecraft of its kind since the Apollo command module."
The third goal by the Bush initiative is to return to the moon by 2020, using it as launching place for future space missions. "Beginning no later than 2008, we will send a series of robotic missions to the lunar surface to research and prepare for future human exploration. Using the Crew Exploration Vehicle, we will undertake extended human missions to the moon as early as 2015, with the goal of living and working there for increasingly extended periods."
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