With President Obama cancelling Constellation and outsourcing space to the private sector, many politicians have been complaining that ditching the NASA rockets will leave America in the hands of the Russians.

Now it looks like SpaceX, a company who thus far has been able to launch one successful rocket into space is challenging Russia for the right to launch Americans into space.

(Earth Times) As lawmakers weigh the pros and cons of turning over US manned spaceflight to contractors, one commercial hopeful vowed Thursday that her firm could fly US astronauts to the orbiting space station for less than a trip on the Russian Soyuz spacecraft. Gwynne Shotwell, president of Space X, said she could guarantee her company would be able to provide at least three flights to the International Space Station (ISS) for less than 50 million dollars a seat. A ride on the Soyuz currently costs the US space agency NASA 51 million dollars per astronaut, and that price is likely to rise when current agreements expire. [...]

While other industry executives declined to offer such an exact price for their services, all said they would be ready to fly to orbit within three or four years.

SpaceX has designed the Dragon spacecraft (pictured above) to not only transport humans into space, but also cargo for the International Space Station.

Whether or not Congress will choose SpaceX over Russia has yet to be seen (note: it would be very foolish if they chose otherwise), but either way this could help the private space industry gain some much needed respect among the bureaucrats in Washington, DC.

Russia, a nation nation known for putting the first satellite, man, woman, dog, etc. into space (not to mention being the first to pioneer space tourism with Space Adventures) may embrace nuclear rockets to help them reach the stars (and perhaps even Mars as well).

While a nuclear rocket from a practical stand point makes sense (as they can lift heavier objects to orbit compared to their chemical cousins), it would probably also isolate Russia (since anything nuclear is often frowned upon–at least in the west).

It may also help Russia catch up to America (or rather the private sector) as well as maintain their lead against China, whose presence is motivating everyone to claim a piece of Luna for their own.

(via Spaceports)

It looks like the nation that pioneered the path the final frontier may help push humanity forward once again–plus or minus a “little” risk.

(Mars Daily) Since current rocket technologies are not sufficient for the future exploration of Mars and the whole Solar system, and since no alternative energy resources have been found as of now, the only possible way to implement those projects would be by using nuclear energy, [Vitaly] Lopota[, President and Chief Designer of Russia's Energia Aerospace Corporation] said at an academic conference on aerospace.

While nuclear rockets may be the most practical way to reach Mars, it may also set off a dangerous precedent as unstable nations (like Iran) may seek nuclear options as a way to transport their astronauts to Mars (and beyond).

Either way it may be the necessary step to help humanity embrace the heavens above, and it wouldn’t be surprising to see Russia choose this path (despite the controversy).

It looks as if the nation that helped bring us to the stars (via Sputnik) is now seeking to build a spaceship that can not only take them beyond our terrestrial sky, but towards the Moon as well.

(MSNBC) The Russian space agency on Tuesday ordered design work to start for a next-generation spaceship capable of flying missions to the moon, setting the ground for a potential new space race with the United States.

The space agency granted the state-controlled RKK Energiya company the $23 million contract for the initial work on a new, reusable craft to replace the 40-year-old Soyuz spacecraft.

With the world wide recession leaving none unscathed (even the NewSpace industry), it may be difficult for Russia to compete against NASA, although an alliance with China may help them close the gap.

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After establishing an alliance between each other, it looks as if the two major eastern space powers will be exploring “all things Mars” by sending a probe to analyze not only the Martian weather, but its asteroid moon as well.

(Mars Daily) The first joint Chinese-Russian mission to Mars is set to take off in October and reach the red planet in August 2010, an exploration project designer said.

A Russian Zenit rocket will launch a Chinese Yinghuo-1 satellite and a Russian Phobos-Grunt unmanned lander, Chen Changya, chief designer of the China-Russia Mars exploration project, told Hong Kong’s Wen Wei Po newspaper.

Phobos-Grunt is expected to study Mars from orbit, including its atmosphere and dust storms, plasma and radiation, before landing on Phobos, one of Mars’ two small moons.

Phobos is one of the prime locations in our solar system, and any nation (or group of nations) that is able to secure this tiny satellite will probably end up dominating the Martian planet as a future space power.

Political ambitions aside, the Phobos-Grunt should help provide more information regarding how much radiation impacts the red planet, as that could determine just how safe living on Mars may be.

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Violators (and hosts) can be prosecuted under national and international laws.

(Hat Tip: Space Travel, Image via EZ2Bsaved.com)

Often thought as the best way to keep radiation from “soaking the bones,” it looks as if portable magnetic fields may not only help keep us radiation free, but sane as well.

(RIA Novosti) The scientists constructed a special unit where the terrestrial magnetic field was reduced to a little as one-thousandth of its usual strength. Twelve rats were put into the “magnet-free chamber” for 25 days, and then for another 10 days, while another 12 rats remained in normal conditions.

Both groups were monitored 24 hours a day. Krivova said the first thing researchers observed was increased aggression among rats living under the reduced magnetic field. [...]

The rats were also observed to have memory failures. The group experiencing a small magnetic field forgot their surroundings and began inspecting the already known environment once again.

Even though humans may be able to “train themselves” to deal with lower levels of magnetism (or none at all), our animal friends may be unable to cope with the loss (not to mention the insanity).

Unless our species can find some way of creating global magnetic fields, our options of conquering the solar system en masse will be severely limited towards Mercury and Ganymede (not to mention a few “safe” regions of both Mars and the Moon).

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