NASA Finds Its Future in Project Constellation

The current NASA space shuttle fleet is nearing 30yrs of operation. Increased maintenance and upgrade costs, as well as the loss of two craft in flight, has prompted NASA to design a new, modern program that will result in a more cost effective and safer fleet of space vehicles, and will replace the current shuttles which are to be decommissioned in 2010. A short video by NASA that explains some of the new ideas can be viewed here. Named Project Constellation, the new NASA program was placed into development as early as 2006 when Lockheed Martin Corp. was awarded a contract to design part of the system. NASA hopes that Project Constellation will be completed and operational by 2014.

Designed around the old Apollo spacecraft designs, Project Constellation will focus on safety and efficiency and the ability to be adapted for use in other future NASA space programs. Broad in scope, Project Constellation has been designed to include new moon landings as early as 2020, followed by visits to near-Earth asteroids, and NASA also hopes to incorporate it into future manned missions to Mars.

NASA currently plans Project Constellation, designed around a Moon landing mission, to have two rockets launch simultaneously from Earth. One of the NASA Project Constellation rockets, the Ares I, will transport the crew in the Orion spacecraft, which can be read about on the Nasa.gov website here. A second, larger Project Constellation rocket, the Ares IV or the Ares V, will carry cargo and the Altair moon module. After leaving the Earth's atmosphere, NASA intends for the two Project Constellation Ares rockets to disconnect from the mission modules, which will then connect together and continue on to the Moon. You can read many more details about the NASA Ares rockets on Wikipedia.com here.

Taking cues from the Apollo moon modules, planners of Project Constellation has designed the Altair with an ascent stage and a descent stage. The ascent stage in the Project Constellation design will hold the crew and the descent stage will hold most of the scientific instruments and the crew's consumables. In Project Constellation, the Moon's Polar Regions are the intended landing sites for NASA. Project Constellation also currently includes a loose plan for a future manned Mars mission that will require multiple vessels and at least a crew of six. The overall Mars mission will be a three year endeavor including three months in route, two years on planet, and another three month space flight that includes a pass around Venus upon the return to Earth. This phase of Project Constellation was initially planned to be completed in 1985 as part of the Apollo Applications Program which was halted by the transfer of Federal funding deferred to international issues of the time.