NASA Looking Ahead  
    The Space Shuttle will be a critical element in the future of space exploration. The Space shuttles right now are helping the assembly
of  the International Space Station and will provide the human ingenuity and the tool for the station. If it is not installing a spare part or sending astronauts to go on space walks, the space shuttles help move towards the future and it is getting the job done right now. Everyone is looking towards the future of human exploration. What this means is that we might see another return to the Moon and more exploration of Mars. The space shuttle will help pave the way for the future in human exploration for the years to come.
 
 

NASA Working For the Future
    NASA is coming up with knew and exciting technology to replace the old and regular space craft. NASA wants to take these old shuttles and start to take them into the future. Right now NASA is working on having the space shuttles that take off like a plane. This would be propelled  by boosters rockets that fly back to earth. This space plane also will have automatic landing and a crew escape. NASA has 15 designs that may be used right now. Over the past years, NASA as closed down the list for ideas from thousands fort the future space shuttles. These ideas are represented by three industry teams: Lockheed Martin Corp. of Denver, Northrop Grumman of El Segundo in California, and Boeing of Seal Beach in California. Nasa plans to set on two of these by next year and then go for there. The  goal is set to have it fly by 2012. NASA mainly wants to improve the safety and reliability, reducing operating costs, enhancing the performance and taking the shuttles to new limits.
 

Robots Taking the Place of Human?
    NASA is also bringing up Questions about Robots taking the place of humans in space. Even though NASA uses robotics probes and little crafts to help explore space, NASA says there is no way that they can take the place of humans. Humans in the space program play an important role in space. They help repair and maintain on the Space Shuttles in space and provide more capably for the Hubble Space Telescope and Satellites. The humans value in space operations is showed everyday at NASA and will probably never be replaced by robots.
 
 

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