NASA? Didn't they shut down a few years ago?

Despite my persistent (annoying?) posting and sharing efforts, I've been getting the impression that the general public is still in the dark regarding the ongoing efforts of my most favorite US-based, government-operated aeronautical and spaceflight focused agency. I speak, of course, about NASA! Yes, the space shuttle people. The people who, after retiring the shuttles, didn't just pack up and go home. They have moved on to some amazing and exciting developments. Sadly though, when I recently surveyed the people around me to find out what they knew about NASA’s current mission, the results were a bit disappointing. In fact, the results can be summarized as, “No idea!” *Sigh* Well there's only one thing to do. It's back to square one.

Below is the "big picture," which will be the basis for all my upcoming entries. If you learn and understand this, you're already ahead of most people. As the days go on, I'll be putting up entries that will detail each of these projects and show you what the heck they're good for because, sadly, some people think we're wasting our time, effort, and money with this crazy spaceflight business. (Those people should learn that every dollar invested in NASA yields approx. $10 in US economic benefit!)
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NASA’s current vision can be split into two primary categories: manned and unmanned missions. 

·         Unmanned missions: space telescopes, rovers, landers, or orbiting probes that are studying the planets, comets, asteroids, stars and galaxies in very specialized ways with very specialized instruments. These studies will give us a better understanding of how our entire universe came to exist and our place within it.

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     The manned missions can be further split into two categories:

o   Low Earth orbit: within a few hundred miles of Earth. This means our orbiting science laboratory, the International Space Station. Here we perform lots of science that can only be accomplished in orbit where there is nearly no effect of gravity. The bulk of this research is in materials science and human biology under long-term effects of microgravity.
   In days of old, this was serviced primarily by the Space Shuttle. The shuttles were retired in 2011 and now NASA contracts commercial companies (SpaceX and Orbital Sciences) to send resupply spaceships to the ISS. Within the next few years they will also begin commercially operated transportation of astronauts to the station. (Boeing CST-100 and SpaceX Dragon v2)

These operations are much more economical than the shuttle, allowing NASA to focus more of their budget developing spacecraft for…

o   Beyond Earth orbit. NASA is developing a new capsule (Orion) and new rocket (SLS) that will allow us to travel for months, possibly even years, away from our safe and comfortable home world. Plans are most likely to ignore the moon (for now), and initially try to intercept asteroids, allowing us to develop new techniques for living and operating on long-term missions as well as studying those big stone solar system left-overs. Ultimately, the goal is humans on Mars. A trip to the Red Planet will be a minimum of 9 months. Each way. So the goal is to develop self-sustaining systems that will allow us to travel safely, live comfortably and in good health, and begin inhabiting a second planet in our solar system.

 So that's the BIG picture. In the coming days I'll add detail to each segment of NASA's space operations and hopefully give everyone a better understanding of what's in store for the future. Got questions? Feel free to leave 'em in the comments section below.