Space Thread!

cannabineer

cannabineer

Ursus marijanus
The USA currently has no manned spacecraft capable of launching from/returning to the Earth's surface! Can you believe it?
What do you imagine it will take to return to at least a manned (crewed, if you're feeling extra pc) vehicle to orbit?
-technology
-funding
-impetus or purpose

I mean ... I am a hhuuggee space geek and would love to see the USA, either government or a private enterprise, build and operate an orbit-capable spacecraft. However it seems to be very expensive, and the technical challenge has not become noticably easier since the pioneer days of the 1960s. Is this something we can do? is this something we should do? How do you envision a practical, cost-effective orbital travel technology?
cn
 
darkdestruction420

darkdestruction420

Well-Known Member
really riight now i think its going to be a while. I love this stuff too but honestly i dont see much point in it in the short term as what point is there to send people (that can die, need to sleep and eat,) into space when robots can fill that role? manned space exploration is hard to justify cost wise politically imo. eventually we will need to leave the earth possibley much sooner than expected. (hopefully we have that technology, which IS a good reason to further our technology but its hard to convince people of that now)
 
Grumpy'

Grumpy'

Active Member
The last bit of info I read on this is that we chose to retire the shuttle program due to costs. It's said to be cheaper to "taxi" our way to ISS. I believe I also read that te funds that were going to the shuttle program were being diverted towards a better system geared to going further out, and. It just low to moderate orbit.
 
dam612

dam612

Well-Known Member
well once we stop giving billions in foreign aid to countries who dont need/deserve it then maybe we can fund somethings that could benefit mankind
 
cannabineer

cannabineer

Ursus marijanus
dam612 said:
well once we stop giving billions in foreign aid to countries who dont need/deserve it then maybe we can fund somethings that could benefit mankind
Click to expand...
Remember the "peace dividend" of the early 90s? The hundreds of billions supposedly freed up by the end of the cold war? They didn't change anything. There will NEVER be enough money for everything; it'll always be about priorities.
While the idea of finding money by saving it from some other expense makes sense to reasonable folk, reasonable folk do not run natioanl budgets. So funding something big like spaceflight will only happen where a large enough organization applies long-term will. Looking at USA space projects of the last 30 years, maintaining that will for more than one or two Presidential terms (whether or not the President deserved credit/blame) hasn't been workable.

The bigger question is: what sort of work in the manned spaceflight category/program WILL bring a benefit? Transferring people to and from orbit is fiendishly involved and expensive. Building another rocket to take people there is expensive and no longer has that pioneering feel about it. SpaceX, a USA corporation that is up front in the "race" to build a privately developed and operated orbital capacity, is testing its Falcon 9/Dragon spacecraft and booster, and that platform's differences from, oh, Mercury/Atlas are nothing much with the exception of avionics.
Take a technology whose benefit would be undeniable - controlled fusion for electrical power. We're not spending much on that at all, even as oil becomes steadily scarcer (more expensive). Unless coal manages to shed most of its political and climatic "bad idea" status, we'll be needing fusion quite soon, because although i love their fuzzy little hearts, the "conserve; use green power" crowd don't have the answer for an industrial, energy-intensive economy.
The mandate for manned spaceflight isn't as obvious as that for fusion.

Ideally we'll need a different, better, cheaper technology than the chemical rocket to get to orbit, and especially to support dreams/ambitions of practically traveling beyond Earth's neighborhood. But what that technology might be, I have no idea. cn
 
RyanTheRhino

RyanTheRhino

Well-Known Member
cannabineer said:
The USA currently has no manned spacecraft capable of launching from/returning to the Earth's surface! Can you believe it?
What do you imagine it will take to return to at least a manned (crewed, if you're feeling extra pc) vehicle to orbit?
-technology
-funding
-impetus or purpose


I mean ... I am a hhuuggee space geek and would love to see the USA, either government or a private enterprise, build and operate an orbit-capable spacecraft. However it seems to be very expensive, and the technical challenge has not become noticably easier since the pioneer days of the 1960s. Is this something we can do? is this something we should do? How do you envision a practical, cost-effective orbital travel technology?
cn
Click to expand...
they have these... just privately own.

The outside fuselages take off from earth and travel to the highest air density that can still be compressed by a jet engine. They then launch the central space ship that has a rocket that is able to reach space.

 
researchkitty

researchkitty

Well-Known Member
Ok, let me change the circumstances on you......... We have a space ship. Now what? Where do you *go*? Nowhere! Mars in 6 months? Another star in 400 years?
 
tyler.durden

tyler.durden

Well-Known Member
I think that the missions to repair the Hubble telescope (I think the last was 2009?) were very worthy endeavors so that we may better understand our universe. But that's the current question, what major benefit is there for consistently going into space at this point? We do need to keep working on a way to eventually leave this planet. What are the restrictions for the private sector to go into space? I bet it's a nightmare of regulations and restrictions, but I really don't know. I think that at this point it would be up to the private sector to offer orbit runs for entertainment, but so few would be able to afford such a thing. I think it's going to be a profit motive that drives further space exploration for the foreseeable future...
 
darkdestruction420

darkdestruction420

Well-Known Member
He spams nonsense theories about an imaginary force called neutron repulsion, their is a pulsar neutron star in the sun, black holes dont exist because of neutron repulsion, yet its also behind the expansion of the universe....which would make ANYTHING existing impossible. neutron repulsion would stop atoms from forming. He also goes on rants about big brother and al gore and all governments being in on a huge global warming conspiracy to prevent nuclear war. He's also got a very dark past. i am not personally attacking him by sharing this, as i am a mod and even though he deserves it ive got to hold myself to the highest standards.
http://mominer.mst.edu/2006/08/30/dr-oliver-manuel-arrested-for-multiple-counts-of-rape-and-sodomy-of-his-children/
http://www.mshp.dps.mo.gov/CJ38/OffenderDetails?page=0&column=name&id=1097755&lastName=Manuel&suffix=&firstName=Oliver&middleName=K

All but 1 charge of attempted sodomy was dropped due to statute of limitations. He was most certainly guilty of all of it and more.
 
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