[Daemonwolf]

http://www.spacex.com/updates.php

here ya go Stormy. Also, SpaceX just a little bit ago, announced that they had been approved for a November(estimated) launch to be the first private party to resupply the ISS. '

Unless I'm completely misunderstanding your definition of private sector.

SpaceX also happens to be the only private sector Company to date to successfully launch, orbit, and retrieve their space launch vehicle....

[Adjutant Stormy~]

This is all well and good. But I hate Burt Rutan with a passion. So I'm a little biased.

Nobody's built an acceptable lift rocket for significant payloads (that I know of) - the Russians will be handling anything up to 6000 pounds.

[Gothos]

What I'm hoping for in my lifetime is an orbital shipyard, and something like a space elevator. Is the space elevator even taken seriously anymore? I honestly have no idea how viable that idea is nowdays.

[Adjutant Stormy~]

For mind-blowingness look up Space Fountain.

The ultimate problem is that tensile materials simply aren't good enough. Gonna need carbon nanotube fiber or equivalent of significantly larger size than we can produce now.

[Tapper]

Adjutant Stormy, on 29 July 2011 - 07:39 AM, said:

This is all well and good. But I hate Burt Rutan with a passion. So I'm a little biased.

Nobody's built an acceptable lift rocket for significant payloads (that I know of) - the Russians will be handling anything up to 6000 pounds.

But if that is all what is required, why go for more?
With the current space stations, massive expansion is not required. If you go for new stations, you also need transports for your space engineers and they'll want to come back to earth eventually, so a rocket won't do anyway.

Sure, on the long term, a lack of such a rocket means we're stagnant in our exploration of space. But I don't see the issue as being pressing, to be honest.

[Adjutant Stormy~]

Ah, well, I'm ambitious. If it's worth doing, it's worth doing all the way. I am somewhat dissatisfied with only launching instruments. To paraphrase a scientist whose name escapes me, there is simply no machine that can be built to replace a scientist.

I'm also impatient. So there's that.

[Gothos]

Adjutant Stormy, on 29 July 2011 - 08:26 AM, said:

To paraphrase a scientist whose name escapes me, there is simply no machine that can be built to replace a scientist.

Science has to disagree

[Adjutant Stormy~]

Gothos, on 29 July 2011 - 08:36 AM, said:

Adjutant Stormy, on 29 July 2011 - 08:26 AM, said:

To paraphrase a scientist whose name escapes me, there is simply no machine that can be built to replace a scientist.

Science has to disagree

I, for one, welcome our new robotic scientist overlords.

[Darkwatch]

Quote

Must Listen: Neil deGrasse Tyson’s inspirational rant on NASA cutbacks




Astronomer Neil deGrasse Tyson was on Bill Maher last Friday, and he said everything that needs to be said about plans to slash NASA's budget, including doing away with the James Webb Space Telescope. His phenomenal, astounding rant is one of the greatest pieces of truth-telling you'll hear today:

First of all, let's clarify what the NASA budget is. Do you realize that the $850 billion dollar bailout, that sum of money is greater than the entire 50-year running budget of NASA?

And so when someone says, "We don't have enough money for this space probe," I'm asking, no, it's not that you don't have enough money, it's that the distribution of money that you're spending is warped in some way that you are removing the only thing that gives people something to dream about tomorrow.

You remember the 60s and 70s. You didn't have to go more than a week before there's an article in Life magazine, "The Home of Tomorrow," "The City of Tomorrow," "Transportation of Tomorrow". All of that ended in the 1970s. After we stopped going to the Moon, it all ended. We stopped dreaming.

And so I worry that the decision that Congress makes doesn't factor in the consequences of those decisions on tomorrow. Tomorrow's gone. They're playing for the quarterly report, they're playing for the next election cycle, and that is mortgaging the actual future of this nation, and the rest of the world is going to pass us by.

The man is right.

[HiddenOne]

At least we'll all have Blackberrys to peruse while we stand in line at McDonalds

[Darkwatch]

Quote

(PhysOrg.com) -- Global and high resolution mapping of Enceladus confirms that the weather forecast for Saturn's unique icy moon is set for ongoing snow flurries. The superfine ice crystals that coat Enceladus's surface would make perfect powder for skiing, according to Dr Paul Schenk of the Lunar and Planetary Institute (Houston, Texas), who will present the results at the EPSC-DPS Joint Meeting 2011 in Nantes, France on Monday 3rd October.

Source: http://www.physorg.c...ies-powder.html

If we had continued space exploration at the same rate we had in through the late 50s to 70s I could be skiing on Enceladus right now.

[Silencer]

Gothos, on 29 July 2011 - 07:50 AM, said:

What I'm hoping for in my lifetime is an orbital shipyard, and something like a space elevator. Is the space elevator even taken seriously anymore? I honestly have no idea how viable that idea is nowdays.

They are, but as AS said, the materials just aren't there yet.

This being said, it's conceivable that we could use a railgun to launch stuff into space in the meantime, also - for much less cost per kg than a space shuttle, too. I'd find you the link, but I'm lazy. It's on Tropes somewhere. That, of course, would require someone to keep funding railgun research, and those funds are being cut back too.

[Adjutant Stormy~]

The problem is that you could only launch things that could withstand being shot out of a railgun at mach 5.

[rhulad]

it would have to be a long one rail so the acceleration didn't destroy everything.

[Adjutant Stormy~]

Now, that's not to say that it isn't headed that way.....

[Tsundoku]

Thread necro:

I think in Heinlein's "Friday" they shoot each other all over the world out of giant railguns but inside capsules full of some sort of impact-reducing gel ... ?

[Malankazooie]

Bezos' rocket looks like something used for intimate pleasure. Which I guess makes sense, as adult toys and aids are probably the most popular items ordered from Amazon. It's called the Blue Origin. I wonder if Watchmen's Doctor Manhattan is an inspiration?

His attempt starts tomorrow morning - Tuesday July 20 @ (9am EDT).

[Maark Abbott]

Malankazooie, on 20 July 2021 - 12:27 AM, said:

Bezos' rocket looks like something used for intimate pleasure. Which I guess makes sense, as adult toys and aids are probably the most popular items ordered from Amazon. It's called the Blue Origin. I wonder if Watchmen's Doctor Manhattan is an inspiration?

His attempt starts tomorrow morning - Tuesday July 20 @ (9am EDT).

The whole thing with billionaires launching into space reminds me very much of that one Spiderman panel where the guy has the tech to cure cancer, but doesn't want to, so he turns people into dinosaurs instead.

[Macros]

Elon wants to save the planet.
Does so by burning thousands of gallons of fuel for space tourists

[Maark Abbott]

Macros, on 20 July 2021 - 07:56 AM, said:

Elon wants to save the planet.
Does so by burning thousands of gallons of fuel for space tourists

Elon wants to save the planet in exactly the same way that Matias Torres wants to save ten million lives.