Nasa has released a photo of the bottom of the aeroshell that will soon be roving all over Mars. It’s the largest aeroshell in the history of space exploration, which isn’t saying much considering the runner up is about the size of a breadbox. This one, though, whoa nelly. It measures in at over fifteen feet and is designed to literally float in the middle of the red planet’s atmosphere.

According to Steve Jolly, from Lockheed Martin, "the biggest challenge for the MSL aeroshell is its gigantic size. It’s almost double the size of our Mars Exploration Rovers’ [Spirit and Opportunity] aeroshells.When you are building a structure that big, there are many considerations we had to take into account, including the fact that this is a lifting capsule that is steerable."

It’ll fit right in on Mars, being as how it already looks like it’s from there. No word on if Val Kilmer will be piloting it.

MIT’s Dava Newman has designed a space suit. The suit is called the Biosuit. This space was designed for Paris’ adventure into space. It’s like so hot… The suit is designed for optimum maneuvering and is fully functional…

In the 40 years that humans have been traveling into space, the suits they wear have changed very little. The bulky, gas-pressurized outfits give astronauts a bubble of protection, but their significant mass and the pressure itself severely limit mobility.

Traditional bulky spacesuits "do not afford the mobility and locomotion capability that astronauts need for partial gravity exploration missions. We really must design for greater mobility and enhanced human and robotic capability," Newman says.

"Newman, her colleague Jeff Hoffman, her students and a local design firm, Trotti and Associates, have been working on the project for about seven years. Their prototypes are not yet ready for space travel, but demonstrate what they’re trying to achieve–a lightweight, skintight suit that will allow astronauts to become truly mobile lunar and Mars explorers. Newman anticipates that the BioSuit could be ready by the time humans are ready to launch an expedition to Mars, possibly in about 10 years. Current spacesuits could not handle the challenges of such an exploratory mission, Newman says."

http://web.mit.edu/newsoffice/2007/biosuit-0716.html

The suit is still in design and it is suppose to be ready for the Mars missions. Paris still wants one for the next Academy Awards.

If being an innovator is your thing, then consider this BioSuit. Straight from MIT, this suit affords greater mobility and any punctures can be patched quickly. You won’t have to worry about atmosphere for a while, as it just might make it on a mission to Mars. In the meantime, it is still here on Earth.

Space.com is reporting a potentially dangerous dust storm which right now, covers the entire southern hemisphere of Mars. It is reducing direct sunlight to Mars’ surface by nearly 99 percent, and the Rovers are solar-powered. Even though they are battery-powered, being without sunlight for a long time could drain the batteries and then they would not be able to recharge at all.

"This thing has been breaking records the past few days. The sun is 100 times fainter than normal. We’re hoping for a big break in the storm soon, but that’s just a hope."

NASA is considering commercializing the transport of passengers and cargo to the International Space Station so it can devote its resources to outer space exploration.

NASA Administrator Michael Griffin said that NASA does not have the resources to run continuous manned space missions and meet all of its goals set by the NASA Authorization Act of 2005.

"By stimulating the growth of commercial space enterprise, NASA plans to free itself to focus on long-range exploration to the moon and Mars," NASA said in Tuesday’s announcement.

NASA is looking in the private sector to take over the Earth-orbit duites activities and has signed three new agreements with private companies to share information regarding its technology.

Constellation Services International (CSI) of Laguna Woods CA,
SpaceDev in Poway, CA and Houston’s Spacehab are three companies which already have former NASA employees and staff. Two more companies are being contacted as well.