Japan Enters Space

After launching its first moon orbiter, Japan has plans to launch two more that will make landings on the surface. Japan has high hopes for international cooperation toward building a space station. The explorer named Kaguya and costing 478-million-dollars is going to collect readings on chemical elements and minerals. Japan also has future plans to explore more outer space including a cooperative mission to Mars.
http://www.moondaily.com/reports/Japan_plans_two_more_moon_missions_999.html

Seventh European Mars Convention

From October 19-21 the seventh European Mars Convention will be held at the Facultyof Aerospace Engineering ofDelft University of Technology. Both genres of fiction and fact will be present at the meeting. Fiction writers and readers will be present with science experts too. The reason for the convention is to find out the next cycle of inspiration. The EMC7 is welcoming anybody to show up with interest to Mars and sending the first human to Mars.

http://www.marssociety.org/portal/Members/jlagarde/emc7/

Man on Mars by 2037

NASA announced on September 24, 2007 that it hopes to put man on Mars by 2037. The current hope is that "with manned mission to moon from 2020 onwards and Mars a decade later, we want to build a space civilization for tomorrow and beyond."

The idea of putting a man on Mars in the next 30 years is obviously a lofty goal. What makes this particular story interesting is that many among NASA claim that if this is going to happen it will be due to economics and private business and not necessarily international cooperation. 

NASA is hoping to increase its space tourism program to help fund this effort. The belief is that the government will not be able to fully fund the Mars venture. It will take the effort of businesses to find a way to make this financially viable. 

Who knows, maybe they should just start selling off the real estate preemptively. Wouldn't that raise funds? 

Huge Space Conference Brings Countries Together This Week

A space summit in Hyderabad, India brought scientists and astronauts together from all over the world this week. The biggest news was that India, China, and Japan are all planning to send orbiters, landers, and even people to the moon over the next several years. Japan already launched an orbiter to the moon a couple of weeks ago, and countries are even talking of establishing a base/research facility on the moon.

But the conference didn't stop with the moon. There was quite a bit of discussion on Mars, and there seemed to be a consensus that India, Japan, China, and the US would all like to explore Mars in the coming decades. This could signal the coming of a widespread collaboration between the space-exploring nations, meaning that the financial burden would not be as great for any one country.

South Korean Overcomes Tremendous Odds

South Korea announced that it will soon send its first  astronaut into space. Next year, a South Korean citizen, will fly on a Russian Soyuz capsule to the international space station. At the space station Ko San will work on numerous scientific experiments with Russian astronauts. 

This is a very interesting and significant international event. Words cannot express the tremendous odds that Ko San was forced to overcome to become the first South Korean astronaut. Furthermore, who would have thought 20 years ago that Russia would be collaborating with South Korea on an international level. 

If society is going to set foot on Mars in the next 50 years it will take an international effort. Countries across the globe will need to collaborate and work together. This announcement shows that there is hope for continued international cooperation. 

2007 SEDS International Conference

According to NasaWatch September 22-23, 2008 in Tamil Nadu, India, the Vellore Insitute of Technology chapter of students for the Exploration and Development of Space (SEDS) will be hosting the annual international student space leaders conference. The conference will feature workshops, lectures, and hands on demonstrations that are specially targeted towards ambitious students. There will be a multitude of different engineers, scientists, and famous personalities in attendance, so make sure to register early.

In addition to what I am sure will be a lengthy discussion on Mars, students will take part in a lunar design competition. The aim of the competition is to develop a small lunar rover that could be carried abroad the proposed human mission to the moon. The winner of the contest receives a half-tuition scholarship to the International Space University. 

This is a great opportunity for international students to come together and collaborate on a number of different space related topics. For more information visit the SEDS website. 

Russians Preparing to Go to Mars Without Leaving Earth

Spectrum Online reported in an article today that Russian scientists are preparing to confine a team of volunteers to a simulated Mars-bound spacecraft for 520 days. The Institute of Medical and Biological Problems in Moscow have administered long-term isolation experiments in a high bay in Building 5 for the past 50 years. In 1967-68, three men spent a year inside testing space gardens. Russian experts are hoping to run into unpleasant surprises, because they feel it is better if it happens on Earth than 100 million kilometers away in interplanetary space.

Last June, the European Space Agency officially joined the project and two of the six crewmembers will be from the ESA. Various corporations have also signed up, furnishing supplies, food, and other essential items. With the foreign participation, the project is currently budgeted to cost $15 million.

Specialists will be monitoring the volunteers, but communication with them will be sparse. Voice communication will be subjected to time delays commensurate with the growing distance between the spacecraft and Earth. The crewmembers will be able to e-mail their family and friends, but there will be no internet access.

Before the end of this year, crewmembers will enter the chamber for a short amount of time. The scientists will focus on maintaining crew health conditions and make sure all hardware items are in good condition. After the short trial, there will be a 105-day isolation mission. After these tests have been administered, the program will be ready to launch the 520-day mission in late 2008. Scientists say that the mission could be extended to as long as 700 days, almost two full years of total isolation from the rest of the planet.

International Cooperation over Phoenix's Descent

The United States and Europe will be closely working together next spring as the Phoenix lander makes its descent to Mars. ESA will closely monitor the progress of the rover and will serve as a key communication back-up. According to this article which appears in Mars Today, ESA will "support the Phoenix mission by monitoring the lander during its Entry Descent and Landing." 

This is just another example of ESA and NASA coming together and collaborating over the Mars missions. The two agencies have been working together for the past several years on multiple Mars missions. From an international standpoint this should be seen as incredibly beneficial. The more that institutions around the world work together the more we will learn about the planet Mars. 

This article illustrates the United States continued effort to cooperate with the European community over the pursuit of scientific knowledge.