Beyond earthThomas Abraham

Today’s lecture Commercialisation of near earth

activitiesThree scientific areas goals for space exploration: Search for new frontiers for human

habitation and exploitation Search for extra terrestrial life: planets

where forms of life might exist Search for understanding of the

universe, its origins and its structure

Today’s lecture China’s space plans Conflict and cooperation in space

The age of private space exploitation SpaceX- a company started by Elon

Musk, 41 year old entrepreneur who developed PayPal

http://www.spacex.com/index.php Richard Branson hopes to take the first

passengers into space by end 2013http://www.virgingalactic.com/ Mining asteroids

What does all this mean? Near space is slowly becoming part of

our world In the way that we expanded our world

by exploring new continents, now our world is being expanded by the conquest of near space

An important step for the human race

Endeavour Crater, Mars. March 9 2012

The scientific quest “We are in the middle of a major

revolution in the understanding of the origin and evolution of the solar system and if there is life beyond Earth” Jim Green, Director, Planetary Science Division NASA

http://www.ted.com/talks/lang/en/carolyn_porco_flies_us_to_saturn.html

The prime targets for exploration: Mars The Obama administration had declared

the ultimate destination for human exploration to be Mars

But budget cuts on Mars programmes-two planned Mars probes with the European Space Agency have been dropped

NASA still hopes a 2018 mission to collect samples from Mars will happen

2030s date for a manned mission

Curiosity- NASA’s latest Mars rover. Launched Nov 26 last year.Expected to land on Mars in August.

More on planetary exploration http://www.lpi.usra.edu/meetings/

lpsc2012/

China’s space programme Oct 15, 2003 China becomes the third

country after the US and USSR to put a man into space independently

Oct 12 2005, Shenzhou 6 takes two astronauts into space

Oct 1.2010- China’s launches moon exploration sattelite

2011- Tiangong 1, the first part of an orbiting space station was launched

Future plans June 2012- Shenzhou 9 will dock with

Tiangong 1? Unmanned moon landing 2013 Build an orbiting space station by

around 2015 Manned lunar missions by 2020/25

International cooperation The International Space station;

launched in 1998 – joint project between US, Russia, Japan, Europe and Canada

http://www.nasa.gov/multimedia/videogallery/index.html?collection_id=66521&media_id=97766082

Some sources to follow NASA- www.nasa.gov Science and Nature The private companies involved China National Space administrationhttp://www.cnsa.gov.cn/n615709/cindex.html