Falling Down From Heaven

If you are not good enough to be in heaven, you get kicked out. A Russian space probe learned this the heard way.

On a serious not though, this space craft was heading to Mars but never made it past the Earth's atmosphere. A spokesman of the Russian Aerospace Defence Forces confrimed fragments crashed in the Pacific Ocean.

This mission had a price tag of $170,000,000.00. The space probe weighed 13.5 metric tons, of which 11 metric tons consisted of toxic fuel.

This must be great for the environment. Watch out, you never know what could be falling on your house.

I Can't Wait to go to Mars

Hi,

My name is Curiosity and I am a high tech Geologist.

Guess who's going on a 354 million miles journey? Ouch, that's a long trip. However its certainly worth it. I am going to Mars!

My mission has people saying things like: "the next best thing is having humans on mars". On Mars, I will cruise around with my laser vapourizing tiny segments of rocks. I will take lots of pictures out there, especially in the Gale crater.



Image Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech

Care to see me take off from Cape Canaveral? At 7:02 AM PST on Saturday November 26th, watch me here. If only the weather cooperates.

Engineering Watch

First Man On Mars ?

1957, Russia sends the spacecraft Sputnik to space. Sputnik was the first unmanned spacecraft from earth to space.

April 12, 1981 Russia sends the first man to space. America, caught by surprise in this race to space took the lead by sending Neil Alden Armstrong in Columbia to the moon in 1969. The landing on the moon marked the pinnacle of American investment in the space program. Ever since, investment in the space program both in the US and Russia has dropped significantly.
The Russian space program went bankrupt. Now it is coming up slowly especially as they're coming up with new initiatives like the space tourism program, offering people flights to space for monstrous amounts of money (about US $ 20 million or so).

Vladimir Putin rekindled the race to space when he announced last week, that Russia plans to send a man to the moon by 2025, and latter on to set up a permanent base on the moon. He also mentioned they will possibly send a man to Mars by 2035. Like I say, only time will tell.

Take note that space programs are not popular because they are very expensive and not profitable. For more click here

Engineering Watch