President Obama announced this week that he is shutting down NASA’s Constellation program, a $9 billion program that has planned to bring to man back to the moon’s surface by 2020. President Obama, however, is not cutting out all space exploration. A panel of “outside” experts came to the conclusion that NASA is unable to afford the continuation of Constellation, and instead NASA should continue low-Earth exploration and also continue to develop a heavy-lift rocket to eventually launch man to the moon or even Mars. This is considered a “more ambitious” strategy than Constellation because it allocates $2 billion to upgrading the Kennedy Space Center as well as $40 million to an economic development action plan to “help the local work force make the transition” (CBS News, April 14, 2010).
These eventual flights to Mars - using the heavy lift rocket so far being called “Orion Light”, after the Orion craft from the Constellation program- will cost $3 billion over the next five years. NASA will also spend $6 billion on development of technology and infrastructure which will result in an estimated 2500 more jobs according to the NASA administration.
Currently there are only three more missions to the space station planned and the shuttle program is slated to retire at the end of this year. The loss of the shuttle program is said to lay off 7,000 people at the Kennedy Space Center alone. According to Obama’s administration the new programs being implemented will not make up for the loss of jobs due to the shuttle program’s retirement, but additional spending will make up for the cancellation of Constellation.
According to NASA administrator Charles Bolden pursuing new technologies will create new jobs, products and industries. Included in these new industries are propulsion systems, habitats in deep space, and possible space fuel depots. According to Bolden NASA will be taking a “phased approach” to the new programs (Reuter’s, April 13, 2010).
Gigabit and PoE are two networking technologies moving ahead in tandem as industrial users power remote Ethernet devices such as IP security cameras at 1,000 Mbps over existing CAT5 cable.
New disc magnet motors fit into the design trend of stepping up to closed loop performance while maintaining the cost advantage of stepper motor technology.
At the Design News webinar on June 27, learn all about aluminum extrusion: designing the right shape so it costs the least, is simplest to manufacture, and best fits the application's structural requirements.
A new battery design, which replaces lithium with abundant and low-cost elemental sulfur, is still in its nascent stages but shows real promise for giving batteries more energy potential.
From Dell / Intel® New Paradigms in Design Work Scott Hamilton, vertical market strategist for Dell Precision workstations, 5/2/2013 5
Early in my career, I worked as a draftsman and remember the days of drawing on vellum with numbered pencils and Mylar with plastic lead. This was a fun experience in the sense that I ...
I've been using workstations for more than 10 years and love finding ways to get more performance from my system. With demanding professional applications that require more power each ...
A lasting memory from my first job as an engineer in an auto assembly plant is standing on hard concrete at six in the morning, vending-machine coffee clutched in hand, listening to ...
For industrial control applications, or even a simple assembly line, that machine can go almost 24/7 without a break. But what happens when the task is a little more complex? That’s where the “smart” machine would come in. The smart machine is one that has some simple (or complex in some cases) processing capability to be able to adapt to changing conditions. Such machines are suited for a host of applications, including automotive, aerospace, defense, medical, computers and electronics, telecommunications, consumer goods, and so on. This radio show will show what’s possible with smart machines, and what tradeoffs need to be made to implement such a solution.
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