Forty-Seven years ago we went to the Moon and hopefully some day soon we'll go to Mars. I live a short distance away from Kennedy Space Center, I commonly see rocket launches and remember the former shuttle program. However, recently I was invited for a behind the scenes tour at Nasa's Swamp Works Laboratory where engineers are designing the technology that will allow us to set up shop on the Moon and Mars.
Before arriving at swamp works I took a short detour into Kennedy Space Centers Visitor Complex. Among their wide collection of space artifacts is a full-scale lunar lander module, exactly like the one used on the Appollo 11 mission. Oh, what I would do for a ride in that thing!
Then as I turned the corner I said "well...this sucks." Turns out that the Saturn 5 is so large that I could not manage to fit the whole thing into the picture frame. Probably should have put the extra money out for a wide angle lens. However, this photo shows the thrusters of largest rocket ever built and the only to send people to the Moon.
Now, one more stop before Swamp Works and I found the Atlantis exhibit. The workhorse of the Space Shuttles launched on 31 missions over a time span of 26 years. Originally for every part of Atlantis, there was a spare however after the tragic loss of Space Shuttle Challenger it was decided to take all of Atlantis's parts and build another shuttle. Leading to Space Shuttle Endeavour.
Last stop on my list. Swamp Works, which is currently involved nearly every aspect of space exploration including electrostatic dust, compacting Mars soil into habitats for astronauts and mining for Martian soil. However, the most interesting and visually appealing is their mining robots. They use a stimulant commonly know as Regolith or Black Point One (BP-1). The goal of their experimentation is to essentially build structures from the ground up completely without supplies. In turn, they would not have to bring supplies and would have more payload capacity for experiments or crew. If you have any questions or comments feel free to email me at [email protected]. Enjoy...
