Author Archives: FriendlyHelper

Mars Sample Return Concepts and References

(It may be important to note: sample return is not a necessary precursor to human exploration,
and, some robust sample return missions are proposed as follow-ups of on-going
human settlement.)

Gorgeous 2020 MSR Concept by Corby Waste for NASA JPL


Earlier MSR Concepts also by Corby Waste for NASA JPL

Even Earlier Concepts by Corby Waste for NASA JPL

Character Reference: SpaceX’s Molly Soule

Cumberland County, Pennsylvania newspaper:

“SpaceX, a rocket and spacecraft design company based in Los Angeles, hired Liverpool native Molly Soule to help weld together vehicles capable of inter-planetary travel — enabling future generations the opportunity to live on Mars.

“I’ve always been really fascinated with aerospace,” Soule said. “And SpaceX’s main mission is to occupy Mars and to make it affordable to have regular people live there.”

But it wasn’t space travel that encouraged Soule, 20, to pursue welding. It was motorcycles.

“My fascination with motorcycles and cars really got me pumped on working with my hands,” Soule said. “I thought welding would be great a way to get involved with stuff like that.”

That passion, she says, led her into Keith Hammond’s welding shop at Cumberland Perry Area Vocational Tech School three years ago.

Hammond says Soule, one of two women in the class, not only impressed, but she also dominated.

“It’s a male-dominated field, but she excelled,” he said. “She just rose above everybody else with her grades and work ethic.”

Soule mastered tungsten inert-gas welding (TIG) during her three years under Hammond’s instruction.

“What was extraordinary about Molly was her TIG welding skills,” Hammond said. “TIG welding is very hard, and you have to have good hand-eye coordination.”

TIG welding uses an arc of electricity that jumps from a tungsten metal electrode to the intended weld surface, which is often comprised of aluminum or steel. The process proves ideal for welding round or curvy objects, such as motorcycle frames.

When compared to traditional stick welding, TIG welding creates cleaner, more precise seams between objects because no filler metal is applied to fuse objects together.

Soule says she prefers the complexity of TIG welding and its usefulness when constructing motorcycle chassis (frames).

“I really grew in the weld shop at vo-tech,” she said. “Mr.Hammond allowed me to demonstrate my skills and really encouraged me.”

Soule graduated in June and took a job TIG welding at Henchcraft Racing Products in Newport.

“She turned down a higher-paying job because she wanted to focus on her TIG welding,” Hammond said.

The decision, he says, ultimately landed her the position at SpaceX.”

NASA Johnson Style

(Good work but it needs a lot more slutty women…depth of field and color boosting wouldn’t 
hurt either, but definitely: add women of questionable character. ; )

NASA Johnson Style is a volunteer outreach video project created by the students of NASA’s Johnson Space Center. It was created as an educational parody of Psy’s Gangnam Style. The lyrics and scenes in the video have been re-imagined in order to inform the public about the amazing work going on at NASA and the Johnson Space Center.
Special thanks to astronauts Tracy Caldwell Dyson, Mike Massimino and Clay Anderson 
Special thanks to Mr. Mike Coats, Dr. Ellen Ochoa, and all supporting senior staff members
“NASA Johnson Style” Lyrics: 
NASA Johnson Style
Johnson Style
Welcome to NASA’s Johnson Space Center
We are coming in hot so don’t burn up as we enter
We do science everyday that affects your daily life
Throw them up for manned space flight
Science everywhere
As we engineer the marvels
That fly though the air 
And take us way beyond earth’s levels
Science everywhere 
Because we engineer the marvels
That fly though the air 
Flys us through the air
Control the mission out of Johnson
This is ground, hey!
And this is space, hey!
Tell me Houston what’s the problem 
It’s okay!
It’s okay!
Because there’s flight controllers on the job today 
NASA Johnson STYLE!
Johnson STYLE!
NA, NA, NA, NA NASA Johnson STYLE!
Johnson STYLE!
NA, NA, NA, NA NASA Johnson STYLE!
EYYYYYY science daily!
NA, NA, NA, NA, NASA STYLE!
EYYYYYY it’s amazing!
NA, NA, NA, NA ey ey ey ey ey ey!!
Orbiting earth, international space station
Where we work and live in space with a crew from several nations
Got Japanese, and Russians, that European charm 
Throw them up, like the Canada Arm
Kicking out research
29k cubic feet, revolves around the earth
Science microgravity, revolves around the earth
Columbus, JEM, and Destiny
Kicking out research
Kicking out research
Train the astronauts at Johnson
To go to space, hey!
To go to space, hey! 
Cause the missions of tomorrow 
Start today, hey!
Start today, hey!
As we engineer the future day by day
NASA Johnson STYLE!
Johnson STYLE!
NA, NA, NA, NA NASA Johnson STYLE!
Johnson STYLE!
NA, NA, NA, NA NASA Johnson STYLE!
EYYYYYY science daily!
NA, NA, NA, NA, NASA STYLE!
EYYYYYY it’s amazing!
NA, NA, NA, NA ey ey ey ey ey ey!!
Orion or SLS, MPCV 
We cannot feel the floor, cause the lack gravity
The destinations are an asteroid, mars, or moon 
We are blasting off start the countdown soon
[Sound clip: launch countdown]
EYYYYYY science daily!
NA, NA, NA, NA, NASA STYLE!
EYYYYYY it’s amazing!
NA, NA, NA, NA ey ey ey ey ey ey!!
NASA Johnson Style
The original:

Zubrin Advancing ‘Humans to Mars’ as Questioner at Mars Concepts 2012

Zubrin (as questioner in audience at about 1:22): “The purpose of the human, exploration program, inasmuch as it is cooperating with the robotics, exploration program, should be to prepare for human exploration not to prevent human exploration…and so…you really don’t want to get into this thing of “you can’t do your program, until we do my program”. And so that, for example, while the Mars Sample Return has a great deal of scientific merit – I’m not going to argue against the mission – ah…to say you cannot do a human mission, until you’ve done a sample return mission, to certify that the target site is lifeless, ah…doesn’t make any sense. In fact, if you did do a sample return mission and you found biological material at that site, that’s exactly where you’d want to send human explorations. You want to send human explorers to the most interesting sites, not to the least interesting sites. And, other things here…we clearly don’t need to do a Phobos mission before we do humans missions. You might want to do a Phobos mission, but to claim you have to do a Phobos mission before you do humans missions, its not relevant. To say you have to do a humans to Mars orbit before you do human mission to the Mars surface, makes no sense, because actually, a human mission to Mars orbit, unless you have very advanced propulsion systems which can take on very large delta Vs, will involve over twice the radiation dose of a human mission to the Mars surface, because you’re left in Mars orbit for a year taking in-space radiation doses. So, I think what you want to do, is – for instance: Mars missions that provide reconnaissance for the most interesting sites to target human exploration to? Great! Okay…the, the Mars missions which do reconnaissance to assure us of no landing hazards, great. Mars missions that find resources that would be useful to human missions, great. Okay, and we should do the maximum number of them – but, the idea of doing, of, of, of setting an infinite series of precursors and saying “you can’t do that until you do all these things” – many of which are clearly irrelevant and are just being stuck in there because somebody’s interested in them, that’s not the way to go.”