Boosterdude
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The Ares I-X roll out this morning was very impressive, not a bad looking rocket at all. It's on the pad now getting ready for the launch next week.
It even looks like there's room for two. Drag race?The behemoth crawler transporter just seems like overkill with that skinny little stick sitting on it...
"Presto!"It even looks like there's room for two. Drag race?
heheh...."Presto!"
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- George Gassaway
That's good, because the Soyuz works!heheh....
There's something vaquely "Soyuz" about that payload section....
Yeah, but it's 40 years old! Way to go, NASA, bringing us the latest in 1960s launch vehicle engineering.That's good, because the Soyuz works!
Better to be alive with 40 year old yet steadily improved technology than dead on the bleeding edge.Yeah, but it's 40 years old! Way to go, NASA, bringing us the latest in 1960s launch vehicle engineering.![]()
You know, it does kind of look like a bottle rocket! :cyclops:I've come to the conclusion it's just a firework.![]()
Agreed, and sometimes the bleeding edge keeps you in lower earth orbit for 30 years servicing the biggest waste...ISS.Better to be alive with 40 year old yet steadily improved technology than dead on the bleeding edge.![]()
Nah - we need to add a bit more to the ISS and turn it into an orbital drydock - then we can really get things going!!!Agreed, and sometimes the bleeding edge keeps you in lower earth orbit for 30 years servicing the biggest waste...ISS.
I say drop the ISS, and lets go back to the Moon/Mars. There will be more usable technology/science that comes from these missions then the ISS could ever help to produce.
And then move the whole thing to one of the LaGrange points between the earth and Sun.Nah - we need to add a bit more to the ISS and turn it into an orbital drydock - then we can really get things going!!!![]()
I'm still holding out for the wheel version like in Collier's magazine and the movie 2001 A Space Odyssey.Nah - we need to add a bit more to the ISS and turn it into an orbital drydock - then we can really get things going!!!![]()
" Home, home on LaGrange,And then move the whole thing to one of the LaGrange points between the earth and Sun.
Because eventually, people will want to live there, and other places as well. Its not for everyone but there are some people who like real frontiers.Why do we send men into space at all? It is very expensive payload of limited scientific value. We went to the moon to find out it smells like burnt gunpowder? Great! Probes and landers, please. Probes and landers.
Because at some point in time a big ball of ice and rock is going to smash into this planet and make it a complete and utter nightmare for anyone who hasn't left.Why do we send men into space at all? It is very expensive payload of limited scientific value. We went to the moon to find out it smells like burnt gunpowder? Great! Probes and landers, please. Probes and landers.
But why do we need to go anywhere on the moon? It's not like we're on a vacation or something. If the goal is to build a station on the moon to serve as a jump off point for further exploration then just pick a spot based on the data we currently have about the moon and send some probes there. See if the spot is suitable and and let's get the show on the road!!Bottom line there are things people do better. The distance traveled is just one easy to cite example.
I WAS THERE FOLKS!!!!The behemoth crawler transporter just seems like overkill with that skinny little stick sitting on it.
The shuttle (on the MLP) is still the heaviest object transported by the crawler, due to the mass of the solid fuel in the SRB’s.BTW- the Ares I-X weighs more than 3 times the weight of an unfueled Saturn V... the crawler had its work cut out for it.
Yeah, I'm with you rocketsmith...Why do we send men into space at all? It is very expensive payload of limited scientific value. We went to the moon to find out it smells like burnt gunpowder? Great! Probes and landers, please. Probes and landers.
Luke- you may want to seek out and read a book titled "Enterprise" by Jerry Grey (1979). It gives a VERY highly detailed account of the politics that killed Apollo, Skylab and gave us the Shuttle that we have today. The basic reason can be stated in a single word... Nixon. He was highly determined to terminate the entire space program until NASA top management managed to sell him on a greatly limited Space Shuttle. It ended up being the shuttle or nothing if you want human spaceflight. Remember- the shuttle was supposed to be a "system" that included a space tug and space station that could facilitate inter planitary travel- Nixon wanted no part of it- finally, the NASA top guys mentioned that the shuttle orbiter "could" go into orbit and nab Soviet satellites- Nixon "liked" that a lot. Everything else, he figured was useless.Remember, a shuttle flight costs more than a Saturn V flight did... it would have been cheaper to just keep using Saturn V's... if we had, we could have orbited a whole series of 'Skylab' stations in orbit, linked 4-5 together and had a WAY bigger station than ISS in only a couple years instead of the 20 years it's taken to do ISS, and for WAY less money than ISS cost... we could also have modded these stations for lunar orbit, L1/L2, and used them as a basis for Mars/deep space transit habs... We could have had a whole scientific program of lunar exploration, long duration stays, and a small lunar base by now... But all the money and the last 30 years have been wasted on shuttles in LEO piddling about... Shuttle is a 100 ton to orbit rocket that hauls 15 tons of payload... ISS SHOULD have been built using expendable rockets and shuttles ferrying only supplies and equipment and delivering the crews.
Supposedly Saturn V and the moon program got cancelled because it was too costly. Now we have Constellation which promises to make Apollo/Saturn's costs look like chickenfeed by comparison.... They've already gutted the budget for probes that would have produced FAR more scientific knowledge and exploration expansion, all to do a repeat of Apollo that they can't get right and we can't afford anyway...
It's rediculous... but then again, it's the GOVERNMENT!!! OL JR![]()