2002 - A Space Odyssey?

2001 may not have been all it was cracked up to be - but the future of space exploration is bright, indeed.

Posted by Tormod Guldvog
09 January, 2002 04:01:34

Although the International Space Station is nothing like the giant wheel in Stanley Kubrick's movie, the space station surely proved that there have been great advances in the exploration of space.

Numerous space probes are underway to perform great missions, and the exploration of Mars is set to be one of this year's great happenings.

But perhaps the most interesting thing is the work to find affordable ways to travel into space. If we can start building spaceships which will bring down the giant costs of space travel, perhaps the true space odysseys are not too far away?

Related Links

Current Space Missions
http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/missions/missions_index.html
This is a detailed list of current space missions operated by NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory.

Space Science Missions
http://www.gsfc.nasa.gov/indepth/space_ssm.html
A clickable list from the Goddard Space Flight Center about current and upcoming space flight missions.

Beyond The International Space Station
http://spaceflight.nasa.gov/mars/technology/index.html
This is a section of the Human Space Flight portal hosted by NASA. Here you will find details about propulsion methods, research projects, upcoming missions and more.

Constellation-X Mission
http://constellation.gsfc.nasa.gov/
this is a web site outlining the plans to build a great X-Ray telescope which might reveal some of the great mysteries of the Cosmos.

Upcoming Planetary Events And Missions
http://nssdc.gsfc.nasa.gov/planetary/upcoming.html
this is a clickable list with details on ongoing and planned exploration projects sponsored by NASA.

Space Shuttles Will Set Records In 2002
http://spaceflight.nasa.gov/shuttle/future/2002overview.html
A news report by NASA which outlines activitites to be performed by space shuttles in connection with the International Space Station in 2002.

5 Year Guide To Space Exploration
http://space.popsci.com/space/
A great web site by Popular Science which presents visions and data for space exploration projects in 2000-2005 (that's 6 years, but ok).

Into the Future
http://www1.msfc.nasa.gov/NEWMSFC/future.html
A brief presentation of some of the projects that are being developed at the Marshall Space Flight Center.

New Year Looking Bright For Odyssey
http://www.hypography.com/Article.cfm/32299
A press release about how the 2001 Mars Odyssey spacecraft is preparing to begin it's scientific tasks.

Affordable Space Flight
http://www.affordablespaceflight.com/home.html
This (rather messy) website outlines a strategy for making space flight affordable and available through step-by-step development. Click on the images to get detailed explanations.