The thread for space cadets!

[bhsup]

You guys have wasted a page on a movie. Get back to talking about things I enjoy reading about.

That said, Armageddon has Michael Clark Duncan singing "leaving on a jet plane" so it's not all bad.

 

[Winner]

You guys bleeping suck.

Some opinions I'm more sensitive to than other opinions, I guess.

All right, what did you like about Armageddon from the SCIENCE-fiction point of view? Name one thing that's not complete and utter nonsense

You guys have wasted a page on a movie. Get back to talking about things I enjoy reading about.

That said, Armageddon has Michael Clark Duncan singing "leaving on a jet plane" so it's not all bad.

It's kind of related. Films like this co-create the public's perception of space-related issues, so each really stupid addition to the world cinematography fund sabotages our cause.

And nobody tell me that hard sci-fi can't produce nail-biting tension. If you have enough propellant for just one attempt to land somewhere and any tiny mistake can screw things up, it's far more engaging than "oh look, I have a space shuttle with magic space drive that doesn't need actual fuel so I can fly anywhere I frakking want, woohoo".

I actually made a rough sketch some time ago of how I'd like a remake of 2010: Odyssey Two to be so that it would appeal to both hard sci-fi hardcore space cadet crowd and mainstream audiences. I firmly believe that blowing up Jupiter in the final sequence would blow everybody's mind out. But anyway, back to reality...

 

[hobbsyoyo]

America, F*** YEAH!

NASA is serious about sending astronauts back to the moon's neighborhood and will likely unveil its ambitious plans soon now that President Barack Obama has been re-elected, experts say.

The space agency has apparently been thinking about setting up a manned outpost beyond the moon's far side, both to establish a human presence in deep space and to build momentum toward a planned visit to an asteroid in 2025.

The new plans have probably already been cleared with the Obama Administration but have been kept under wraps in case Republican candidate Mitt Romney won Tuesday night's (Nov. 6) presidential election, said space policy expert John Logsdon, a professor emeritus at George Washington University.

 

[hobbsyoyo]

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/49765027/ns/technology_and_science-space/

So apparently we're back to cold war tit-for-tat:

Several China watchers in the U.S. have taken a stab at what the Shenlong (Mandarin for "Divine Dragon) might mean, with some experts conjecturing that the craft is simply a tit-for-tat response to the unmanned X-37B space plane.

BRING ON THE SPACE RACE.
USA #1
PUERTO RICO #51

But seriously, they airdropped this thing from an H-6, which IIRC, is like 50 year old tech. And not even good tech like a B-52, just old.

Plus:

It's so small!

And this is stupid:

The bottom line
Erickson and Collins also wrote that, depending on its precise nature, Shenlong’s reported test may turn out to be part of a larger trend: a shrinking time gap between when the U.S. discloses a prototype military system and when China publicly shows a system similar in type —if not equal in capabilities or immediately operational.

"For previous aerospace developments, China typically revealed its systems’ existence at least 15 years after the U.S. first showed its analogous platforms," Erickson and Collins observed.

Except they forgot we had the shuttle, and not just some rinky dink unmanned spaceship in '81 and lifting bodies similar to their tiny little dingie in the 60's.

 

[PlutonianEmpire]

All right, what did you like about Armageddon from the SCIENCE-fiction point of view? Name one thing that's not complete and utter nonsense

You guys have no respect for creativity.

Really, this just further cements my view that the highest-end intellectuals like you guys, and deGrasse Tyson of course, are snobs of the highest order.

My. Point.

. Stands.

 

[hobbsyoyo]

So I give you the Shenlong, aka 'Notlong' or 'Tinydong' spacecraft to talk about and all you got is Armageddon?

For shame PE, for shaame.

 

[PlutonianEmpire]

Try pronouncing my username's initials, and then look at your post again.

 

[hobbsyoyo]

.......I'm missing the joke

 

[PlutonianEmpire]

.......I'm missing the joke

Like a true, totally clueless nerd.

 

[Winner]

America, F*** YEAH!

I'll believe it when I see it. Rumoured power-point space stations don't excite me much these days.

My. Point.

. Stands.

What point? Start making some sense. I asked you to tell me what you liked about a film that pretends to be sci-fi, whereas in reality it's just a dumb action flick several orders of magnitude worse than Star Wars.

 

[hobbsyoyo]

I'll believe it when I see it. Rumoured power-point space stations don't excite me much these days.

Cuz it's way more fun to not discuss things that could happen.

 

[Winner]

Cuz it's way more fun to not discuss things that could happen.

I am sorry, but what reaction do you expect from someone who actually has some knowledge about the world's space programmes? You know just as well as I that 99.9% such proposals never get anywhere beyond the PowerPoint, conference room conceptual stage. Without knowing any real details concerning this one, my automatic reaction is extreme scepticism.

Moreover, I don't really see much utility in sending people near the Moon. I mean, yes, we can use such a station to study cosmic radiation mitigation techniques (using our astronauts as lab rats, yay), but we can do roughly the same closer to Earth. Beyond that, what exactly would be the point of such station?

I'd be much more interested if somebody said "let's get the hell back to the Moon, and while we're at it, let's pack some shovels and dig for water once we're there". Missions to L-points and near-Earth asteroids generate meh-level of interest in me, because they're so bloody useless (assuming they materialize, which I doubt).

 

[hobbsyoyo]

I'd be much more interested if somebody said "let's get the hell back to the Moon, and while we're at it, let's pack some shovels and dig for water once we're there". Missions to L-points and near-Earth asteroids generate meh-level of interest in me, because they're so bloody useless.

They actually said that. Reread the article. They talked about moon bases.

And yes, I understand perfectly well that things don't often pan out. But what else do we have to go off other than press releases until things start happening? It's still fun to speculate and talk about. Even everything you said dissing the possibility of this ever happening is infinitely more interesting than saying it won't happen in two sentences.

 

[Winner]

They actually said that. Reread the article. They talked about moon bases.

Have they talked the Fed into printing them the money as well?

(I reread the article. Where does it say NASA wants to go back to the surface?)

And yes, I understand perfectly well that things don't often pan out. But what else do we have to go off other than press releases until things start happening? It's still fun to speculate and talk about. Even everything you said dissing the possibility of this ever happening is infinitely more interesting than saying it won't happen in two sentences.

Yeah, I get it.

Look, here's an idea. NASA will focus on developing the Senate Launch System and Orion, while the development of a manned lunar lander will be outsourced to Europe (there currently is a project for an automated lander under way, we can build on that). Let's put the agreement on paper so that neither side can back out of it without suffering a major international embarrassment. Private companies will be subsidized in the meantime to prepare the hardware we'll need on the Moon to mine water, crack it into a LOx-LH2 propellant, produce construction materials from lunar regolith, etc. In ten years, let's go there.

 

[hobbsyoyo]

(I reread the article. Where does it say NASA wants to go back to the surface?)

Whoa they snipped out a lot of the article. Yesterday they had a few paragraphs talking about a manned base on the far side. I am not sure why they snipped it unless they later deemed it was wild speculation by Logsdon. Seriously it was in there.

Let's put the agreement on paper so that neither side can back out of it without suffering a major international embarrassment.

I vaguely recall an agreement where NASA was supposed to contribute to a lander of some sort and then pulled out due to cost overruns with Curiousity.

 

[Winner]

Whoa they snipped out a lot of the article. Yesterday they had a few paragraphs talking about a manned base on the far side. I am not sure why they snipped it unless they later deemed it was wild speculation by Logsdon. Seriously it was in there.

Yep. Space reporting hype:

Reality: China is sending a 30 kg miniprobe to the Moon.
Article title: "China to land people on the Moon in 10 years!"

I vaguely recall an agreement where NASA was supposed to contribute to a lander of some sort and then pulled out due to cost overruns with Curiousity.

That is ExoMars. ESA wants a rover on Mars and NASA was supposed to supply its tried and proven landing system for it. One would say it makes sense not to do the same thing twice, but alas...

 

[Winner]

Let's have nice pictures:

Spoiler :

 

[Crezth]

Pfeh! Image macros.

 

[hobbsyoyo]

Hmm I hadn't heard of the Evolved Lift Capability before this. So now we are going to have an Aries V lite to get the Orion up and an Aries V heavy to lift the rest. Yeah, this is totally gonna happen.

 

[PlutonianEmpire]

What point? Start making some sense. I asked you to tell me what you liked

The music and the story line made it a tearjerker for me, that's why I liked it. I like tearjerkers. Happy now?

about a film that pretends to be sci-fi, whereas in reality it's just a dumb action flick several orders of magnitude worse than Star Wars.

W/e. Opinions are opinions, snobs are snobs.

I've learned long ago that defending myself or any of the things I like is just not

worth it, as it is human nature for people to never, ever change their mind about anything, so people will be douches regardless of whether I defend myself or my interests or not.