Mars Mission and Shuttle History & Replacement - Jon Schiller - Bog

If we can send manned missions to the Moon then a manned mission to Mars is feasible. Preliminary work for missions has been undertaken since the 1950s, with planned missions typically taking place 10 to 30 years in the future. Your author learned about the details of the Mars Mission from the Curiosity Program Director's lecture at Caltech. The last Space Shuttle was launched and recovered in 2011. We need a replacement for the shuttle. NASA devised a program called ORION as a shuttle replacement. Your author had served as a technical advisor to the Space Shuttle and as a result he was invited to witness the first Space Shuttle launch at Kennedy Space Center on the east coast of Florida in 1970. The reason your author could help the Space Shuttle designers was because he had served as Chief Engineer of the F111 which used the same IBM airborne computers as were adapted for use on the Space Shuttle. Much of the Space Shuttle software was obtained by modifying the F111 software to fit the Shuttle requirements. The "Orion" Multi-Purpose Crew Vehicle (MPCV) is a planned beyond-low-earth-orbit manned spacecraft that is being built by Lockheed Martin for NASA based on designs and tests already completed as part of the now-cancelled Constellation program, development for which began in 2005 as the Crew Exploration Vehicle. The MPCV was announced by NASA on 24 May 2011.