Artist concept of NASA's new rocket, called the Space Launch System. Credit: NASA

Today NASA unveiled the design of a new rocket to help the agency meet a challenge from President Obama: send astronauts to an asteroid by 2025 and to Mars by the mid-2030s. Called the Space Launch System (SLS), the new heavy-lift launch vehicle will cost $18 billion, with its first test flight planned for 2017. It will be designed to carry the Orion Multi-Purpose Crew Vehicle for transport of crew and cargo.

The much anticipated announcement comes on the heels of the July retirement of the space shuttles, and is part of a plan laid out by the White House--the NASA Authorization Act of 2010--developed after Congress canceled a moon program, called Constellation, for the agency to focus on a vehicle to take astronauts to places like the moon and Mars while commercial companies focus on a rocket to transport crew to low Earth orbit.

The new rocket will include technology from the Space Shuttles and the Constellation program, which was building two rockets, Ares I and Ares V, and it will share a resemblance to the Saturn V, the first rocket to travel to the moon. "But it is difficult to compare rockets from one generation to the other" because of constant upgrades in technology and manufacturing techniques, said William Gerstenmaier, associate administrator for NASA's Human Exploration and Operations Mission Directorate, at today's press conference in Washington.

The SLS will use a liquid hydrogen and liquid oxygen propulsion system, which will allow NASA to reduce costs and leverage experience and existing technology, said NASA administrator Charles Bolden. The rocket will use five solid rocket boosters attached on either side of its core for the initial development flights, but NASA will hold a competition to replace these side-strapped boosters for more advanced designs. Gerstenmaier estimated the SLS thrust to be between 10 percent and 20 percent greater than that of the Saturn V.

Credit: NASA

The future of human and robotic exploration will mean trips to deep space destinations like the moon, Mars, or asteroids. But getting there and returning home on one tank of gas while carrying a sizable payload is almost impossible. The solution? In-space refueling technology, which enables spacecrafts to tank up in low Earth orbit.

Last year, the Augustine Commission, a blue-ribbon panel charged with reviewing America's human spaceflight program, emphasized the need for NASA to purse this technology in their final report to the White House. Now NASA has put out a call for a $200 million mission to show how to store and transfer rocket propellants in space.

In-space refueling technology would allow smaller and cheaper rockets to be used for missions that would otherwise be outside their weight class. It will also considerably enhance the capabilities of larger rockets. "Instead of sending the rockets fully fueled to asteroids or to Mars we would launch them partially fueled to get more payload into orbit," Chris Moore, deputy director of advanced capabilities for NASA told Foxnews.com. "Then we'd top off the propellant by docking with depots in lower Earth orbit."

NASA wants to focus on liquid oxygen and liquid hydrogen, the fuels that power the main engines of the space shuttles and commercial rockets. The challenge is finding ways to store and maintain the propellant, which requires extremely cold temperatures. Heat from solar flares or a rocket engine's exhaust could evaporate the fuel or cause the tanks to expand and even explode. So any demonstration must also successfully transfer the fuel to a docked spacecraft in a zero-gravity environment.

The technology could also provide a boost to the commercial space industry. NASA could purchase fuel in orbit from commercial companies which would operate refueling tankers or possibly even permanent depots. "We could create a small space economy in propellants and refueling," Moore said.

SpaceX engineering model of its Dragon capsule. Credit: Misha Gravenor

In a much anticipated announcement, the U.S. space agency finally awarded four commercial companies funds to develop spacecraft that can carry astronauts to space. The awards are part of NASA's commercial crew development program, initiated to utilize the private sector to reduce the gap in American human spaceflight capabilities as the space shuttles are scheduled to retire this year, and the Obama administration has canceled the agency's Constellation program.

"The next American-flagged vehicle to carry our astronauts into space is going to be a U.S. commercial provider," said Ed Mango, NASA's Commercial Crew Program manager, in a press release.

The four companies selected: Space Exploration Technologies (SpaceX), which currently has a contract to carry cargo to the International Space Station, will receive $75 million to make its Falcon 9 rocket and Dragon space capsule ready for humans; Sierra Nevada Corporation will receive $80 million for its space plane design; Boeing will receive $92.3 million for a capsule design; and Blue Origin will receive $22 million to develop its capsule design.

"We're committed to safely transporting U.S. astronauts on American-made spacecraft and ending the outsourcing of this work to foreign governments," said NASA Administrator Charles Bolden, in the press release. Until commercial spacecraft are ready the U.S. will have to rely on the Russians to carry astronauts to space at a cost of more than $50 million per seat. SpaceX's vice president of astronaut safety, Ken Bowersox, told me that the company estimates its seats at $20 million each with a crew of seven, or $140 million per mission.

"These agreements are significant milestones in NASA's plans to take advantage of American ingenuity to get to low-Earth orbit, so we can concentrate our resources on deep space exploration," said Bolden.