Features

Space Settlement, Habitation, Development or Colonization? Independence Day 2005 USA. Human activity on the Moon, Mars, preparing for the Stars, is the dazzling future impacting us today. As humanity takes up the 21st century space challenge embodied in the EMMB / VSE, there is an important dimension that needs to be addressed. To develop space resources of the high frontier as completely and beneficially as possible requires that human behavior, principles and ethics are as advanced as the newest technologies. A generation ago, in buoyant post-Apollo expectation, the ethics and semantics of space 'settlement' over 'colony' were preferred by those most informed. The lessons of 18th century USA national history, when colony and colonial status were rejected decisively in favor of American independence and equality on 4 July 1776, and of 19th and 20th century freedom-independence / anti-colonial movements in Asia, Africa, and Latin America point to successful 21st century human space expansions advancing with traditional values of "liberty and justice for all." Colony and colonialism are inappropriate structures for humanity in the Space Age as they deny human freedom and equality, to the detriment of both colonizer and colonized.

Andrews Space Helping Human Return to Moon. For a small company only six-years-old, Andrews Space, Inc., a Seattle WA-based space solutions provider, is already very involved in lunar exploration. Andrews won a US$3M contract from NASA in September 2004 to develop concepts for the Crew Exploration Vehicle needed to fulfill the Earth, Moon, Mars and Beyond / Vision for Space Exploration. The contract also charged Andrews with defining an overall architecture for human exploration of the Moon and Mars. Andrews was one of only eight firms to receive the two-part contract. Six months later, Andrews was awarded a $2M extension. The contract apparently led Andrews to recommend utilization of lunar Lagrange points to deliver goods to the Moon and back with maximum efficiency and affordability. "N-body orbital trajectories" minimize fuel use, thereby maximizing mission lifetimes. The SmallTug spacecraft Andrews is building for NASA's Human and Robotic Technology Program will demonstrate these trajectories. Andrews' website shows a video of SmallTug taking a payload toward the Moon. The $2M SmallTug contract's $16.7M second phase (to be awarded in April 2006) will involve cislunar transportation demonstrations through 2009. Andrews' experience so far has established it as a key potential partner in small lunar missions like the SpaceDev / SPC International Lunar Observatory.

American Astronauts to Visit China. NASA astronauts Charles Bolden and Mae Jemison will join Apollo 16 Moonwalker Charlie Duke from 19 July to 3 August in a non-government trip to the 'Middle Country,' Chinese Society of Astronautics (logo pictured above) Deputy Director Yang Junhua announced Thursday. The three astronauts will visit China's space research and development institutes, including those that develop the nation's spaceships, satellites and carrier rockets. In Beijing, the astronauts will take part in an international youth meeting of astronauts and address the country's major astronautics universities, possibly meeting with their China counterparts. They will also tour the Three Gorges on the Yangtze River, the world's third longest river. The trip is sponsored by DuPont, which has contributed to space exploration for the past half-century, including materials on Apollo spacesuits and electronics for the Mars Spirit and Opportunity rovers. Corporate Vice President Thomas Powell says sponsorship of the visit is a natural fit with the company, which operates in 70 countries worldwide. The visit should help to advance China-American international space / lunar cooperation. Info http://english.peopledaily.com.cn.