Thursday, March 25, 2010
Among the issues that must be resolved before humans can travel beyond Earth orbit and the moon are shielding astronauts from prolong exposure to radiation and other medical issues like the loss of bone density on trips measured in years.
One solution is developing new propulsion and related space systems that would reduce a nine-month trip to Mars using current chemical rockets to several months.
NASA is beginning to tackle the issue by looking at new technologies that could be used to design "hypervelocity vehicles" that also could travel in the atmospheres of Earth and other planets.
The space agency said Wednesday (March 24) it has awarded a contract to ERC Inc. (Huntsville, Ala.) to support space technology R&D at the Ames Research Center (Moffett Field, Calif.).
ERC, which povides technical support for a range of NASA programs, including the space shuttle, International Space Station and the Constellation moon-rocket program, will support an Ames technology office that designs prototype hypervelocity vehicles.
NASA said the contract is worth as much as $45 million.
It is also among several new initiatives launched by NASA as it seeks to redirect manned spaceflight resources to new capabilities that could be used to take humans beyond Earth orbit.
Under terms of the contract, ERC will assist Ames researchers in: understanding the chemistry and physics of hypersonic as well as reacting and radiating heat flows; materials science, including thermal protection materials; analyzing the "aerothermodynamics" of vehicle entry systems and trajectories.
By: DocMemory
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