Science Abuse Posted January 5, 2009 Report Share Posted January 5, 2009 Hmmm: http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601101&sid=aOvrNO0OJ41g&refer=japan Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dr. Apex Posted January 5, 2009 Report Share Posted January 5, 2009 Interesting. Eventually going into space will be a daily and normal thing and we need to keep progressing the technology and funding to do so imo. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Aesthetic_Influx Posted January 5, 2009 Report Share Posted January 5, 2009 It's nice to see serious focus on this area. Saving the planet and its resources won't save us from substantial population growth. Time to start getting our collective asses in gear. Moon colonization FTW. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Science Abuse Posted January 5, 2009 Author Report Share Posted January 5, 2009 Last month also saw NASA awarding contracts to two private firms to build/launch/manage the shipping of goods to the ISP. Space Truckers, fo real. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tractor Posted January 5, 2009 Report Share Posted January 5, 2009 Last month also saw NASA awarding contracts to two private firms to build/launch/manage the shipping of goods to the ISP. Space Truckers, fo real. Nice lets get a crew together and do it. Ima have "truck nuts" hang'n between my boosters. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tractor Posted January 5, 2009 Report Share Posted January 5, 2009 I've thought about NASA working with the DoD and I'm thinking it would be a good thing. NASA's always been about doing the job and using as little energy as possible. The ION engine is a good example. Deep Space 1 is currently headed to the outer planets using one and its supplied a whole 14kv and takes months/years to reach a cruising speed. COME ON copiers that I work on run 5 times more powerful grids and they are just putting toner on paper. The engine on DS1 could potientally reach a good percentage of the speed of light if you wait around long enough (We'd probably be dead by then.) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TheHaze Posted January 5, 2009 Report Share Posted January 5, 2009 I've thought about NASA working with the DoD and I'm thinking it would be a good thing. NASA's always been about doing the job and using as little energy as possible. The ION engine is a good example. Deep Space 1 is currently headed to the outer planets using one and its supplied a whole 14kv and takes months/years to reach a cruising speed. COME ON copiers that I work on run 5 times more powerful grids and they are just putting toner on paper. The engine on DS1 could potientally reach a good percentage of the speed of light if you wait around long enough (We'd probably be dead by then.) I'm pretty sure Deep Space 1 was abandoned. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tractor Posted January 5, 2009 Report Share Posted January 5, 2009 I'm pretty sure Deep Space 1 was abandoned. I haven't heard any more beyond the tech involved and that it had some trouble starting once it got to space, then worked eventually. Wouldn't surprise me if it was abandoned. Shit takes so long new tech will pass it in space:-) One of the other key parts that I didn't really touch on was that the tech has been around for over 100 years. Might be closer to 120years now. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TheHaze Posted January 6, 2009 Report Share Posted January 6, 2009 I haven't heard any more beyond the tech involved and that it had some trouble starting once it got to space, then worked eventually. Wouldn't surprise me if it was abandoned. Shit takes so long new tech will pass it in space:-) One of the other key parts that I didn't really touch on was that the tech has been around for over 100 years. Might be closer to 120years now. It did work eventually; they even got a picture of a comet. I think it was 5+ years ago, though, that they turned it off. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GonneVille Posted January 6, 2009 Report Share Posted January 6, 2009 It's nice to see serious focus on this area. Saving the planet and its resources won't save us from substantial population growth. Time to start getting our collective asses in gear. Moon colonization FTW. The Moon and Mars don't matter one bit. They won't help us at all. The real Big Game is the Asteroid Belt. One large nickel/iron asteroid can yield as much refined metals as the entire output of the worldwide mining industry here on Earth. That's a high-pollution industry moved OFF of Earth. Not to mention that the asteroid belt will supply enough water, soil, and other assorted resources to completely fill the needs of space-born activity for millenia. The really astonishing part is that we can do it CHEAP. All you need to get a decent sized asteroid from THERE to HERE is a couple small rockets, and a guidance computer. The entire package could be made smaller than a U-Haul truck. As far as processing, we have the best blast furnace in the Universe sitting one A.U. away. A mylar reflector a few miles wide can reflect enough light onto one point to melt nickel/iron ore toot-sweet. All we have to do is figure out how to make a zero-gravity crucible, and spin it to separate metal from slag. Form the processed metal into hollow spheres, and de-orbit the bastards where you can recover them. And if we DO end up colonizing the Moon and Mars, the asteroid belt will still be the ultimate gold mine, because we'll HAVE to have those resources to supply those colonies. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SPLN SUX Posted January 6, 2009 Report Share Posted January 6, 2009 Here's my issues with current day space flight: 1. Why does it take so long to book a mission? Back in the 1960's Nasa was booking an Apollo mission roughly every 6 WEEKS. Now we see one every what... 9 months? Year? This was the final blitz play to make it to the moon first... we did, multiple times, and then suddenly decided to just orbit the earth. What happened there? 2. Dollar value. Lets try to imagine the amount of money spent on these rockets that take 5-8 people to low earth orbit... we cant... its an UNREAL amount of money. So lets think about what it has cost for the only privateer to actually make a craft capable of going to low earth orbit while using rockets only after climbing to 50 or so thousand feet... roughly $100M... peanuts compared to the shuttle. So now lets think... how difficult would it really be, to modify an existing product, to fly only from earth, to the space station carrying ONLY people and their gear, and immediately back to earth.... 10% of the shuttle cost? If that? So then lets also think about how easy and simple it would be to using "simple" rockets from the 60's to take up a cargo bay of only parts and gear to create a craft in space... still pennies right? Everything has been made so complicated that it costs ridiculous money now. 3. No one dreams. As little kids now days, do we really dream about going into space? Do we even know what an astronaut is anymore? 50 years ago, little kids dreamed of walking on the moon. What do we dream about now? Being rap artists? Sports icons? Nascar greats? The country today is only united by one thing... complaining. We complain about everything. How much gas costs, why electric is so expensive, laws we don't agree with, taxes, the cable going out, the guy in the turn lane that just wont turn, anything and EVERYTHING! 50 years ago, a whole nation got everyone excited about one common goal. And as a nation, we achieved it. Now, the only thing we achieve is a top spot on the worlds fattest countries list. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TheHaze Posted January 6, 2009 Report Share Posted January 6, 2009 The Moon and Mars don't matter one bit. They won't help us at all. The real Big Game is the Asteroid Belt. One large nickel/iron asteroid can yield as much refined metals as the entire output of the worldwide mining industry here on Earth. That's a high-pollution industry moved OFF of Earth. Not to mention that the asteroid belt will supply enough water, soil, and other assorted resources to completely fill the needs of space-born activity for millenia. The really astonishing part is that we can do it CHEAP. All you need to get a decent sized asteroid from THERE to HERE is a couple small rockets, and a guidance computer. The entire package could be made smaller than a U-Haul truck. As far as processing, we have the best blast furnace in the Universe sitting one A.U. away. A mylar reflector a few miles wide can reflect enough light onto one point to melt nickel/iron ore toot-sweet. All we have to do is figure out how to make a zero-gravity crucible, and spin it to separate metal from slag. Form the processed metal into hollow spheres, and de-orbit the bastards where you can recover them. And if we DO end up colonizing the Moon and Mars, the asteroid belt will still be the ultimate gold mine, because we'll HAVE to have those resources to supply those colonies. +1 on the asteroid belt. The moon and mars are equally as important, though. Earth species need more then one celestial body to really expect long-term survival. All that frozen water under Mars' surface would make great rocket fuel. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Aesthetic_Influx Posted January 8, 2009 Report Share Posted January 8, 2009 (edited) Funny, I actually had my mind set on joining the Air Force or Navy after high school and working my way to NASA. I got a little distracted on the way though... Lots of good thoughts here. The mining opportunities never occurred to me, but that is an extremely good point. That is the kind of goal that will ultimately fund the operations - knowing there are more natural resources of that amount out there opens up the doors to funding from many places. I wonder how much of this is actually on the drawing board, and how much we will sadly never see the beginning of. I would give anything to see space before I die. EDIT: Thought this was interesting considering the topic here: http://io9.com/5125705/building-blocks-for-the-first-permanent-moon-base Edited January 8, 2009 by Aesthetic_Influx Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
smokinHawk1647545499 Posted January 8, 2009 Report Share Posted January 8, 2009 All that frozen water under Mars' surface would make great rocket fuel. mars has water? is this confirmed? anyway the real race is the satellites control, who ever can control the satellites would win WW3 all our intelligence is now satellite based, so when china starts shooting down our satellites destroying are ability to communicate we would be a sitting duck. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TheHaze Posted January 8, 2009 Report Share Posted January 8, 2009 mars has water? is this confirmed? http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/phoenix/news/phoenix-20080620.html anyway the real race is the satellites control, who ever can control the satellites would win WW3 all our intelligence is now satellite based, so when china starts shooting down our satellites destroying are ability to communicate we would be a sitting duck. You can thank Billy Clinton for that one. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tractor Posted January 8, 2009 Report Share Posted January 8, 2009 Military communications does rely on satellites a great deal, but it is not the only way they send information. In that case a single solar mass ejection would render us unable to send data/info and those can happen pretty often. Not sure what aircraft they use now, but it used to be the AWACS(sp?) for information transfer for regional work. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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