Telstra has revealed the addition of almost one million new mobile services in the six months to December 2011, but Sensis revenues plummeted 24 percent in 12 months.
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David Heath
Sunday, 31 January 2010 11:22
The USA’s 2011 budget will abandon the Ares heavy-lift launcher and extend the life of the ISS; this means we won’t be back to the moon any time soon
Reports from a variety of sources suggest that President Obama’s new plans for NASA will direct more resources towards near-earth research and also open the possibility for commercial involvement in space exploration.
Under the new plan, commercial crew launches will be a possibility, however this will be somewhat problematic with the upcoming completion of the space shuttle program and the deferment of the Constellation program.
Russia will, of course, continue to operate its own manned launch missions to the ISS, but with no ability to bring large amounts of equipment - that will be handled by the un-manned cargo rockets that are already used to regularly re-supply the space station.
Constellation was to be the replacement for the Space Shuttle and Ares was the heavy-lift booster rocket intended to launch it into space. A presidential commission warned in October last year that the Constellation program was under-funded and would not be able to achieve its goals.
With the intention to increase the life of the International Space Station for a further 5 years (to 2020) there is clearly no ability to focus on a moon mission.
Amongst other suggestions, the Presidential Commission spoke of encouraging commercial space vehicle launches, although who they thought might do this, and even where these vehicles might go is difficult to understand. After-all right now the only remotely commercialised space vehicle is the Branson/Rutan tourist ship – and that doesn’t have remotely enough energy or speed to achieve Earth-orbit. The project is only intended to rise straight up to the edge of space and then drop straight back to Earth.
Interestingly, the existing shuttles are up for sale so perhaps some enterprising organisation might figure out how to refurbish them.
Don’t hold your breath.
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