The thread for space cadets!

hobbsyoyo said:
Okay, so this is Space.com's mission plan, not necessarily Inspiration Mars'. But it's so stupid why would Space.com even come up with it? Did they say that it couldn't happen for at least a decade? Because then it might make a bit more sense.

All in all though, I don't think Inspiration Mars has any more viable options at the moment - and certainly not with the launch date they have proposed.
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Actually, if I am reading this correctly, this seems to be Inspiration Mars' plan...

Press release
 
hobbsyoyo said:
Thanks. I just finished reading the article on spacenews myself. And yup, that is their plan. I am kind of speechless at the moment...
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Yep - so basically all the promotional pictures they had released before, showing the Dragon, an inflatable habitat, all launched on top of Falcon Heavy, were totally made up.

What we have now is more in line with how NASA would like to do it if it had the resources and authorization. Which it hasn't.

But as you said, if they want to go with this plan, then the 2018 launch window is OUT OF QUESTION. The is just no frakking way SLS in its Block II variant (or what's the designation of the variant with the strong upper stage) will be ready by 2018. I am doubtful it will be ready by 2028.

Well, whatever - it was a nice idea, let's move on.
 
Thorgalaeg said:
Sounds interesting. Was hard scifi style? Do you remember the title?
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Mmm, looks like it was a Larry Niven novel. Forgot which one, probably one of the later ones :)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pierson's_Puppeteers



Also, freaking sun :mad:
kGjmfty.gif
 
It would be references in multiple novels, but I'd guess Fleet of Worlds would probably go into the most detail.
 
The Puppeteers had a trillion people on one planet. They had to move it away from the star. Then they had to move it even more for other reasons.
 
Kaitzilla said:
Woo, apparently China is sending a rover to the moon tomorrow. :)

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/art...cations-lunar-base-day-used-mission-mars.html

Jade Rabbit
What's with the gold foil anyway?

Just has to go 238,900 miles to get there.
Mach 4 should get them there in 3 days.
Er, wait it's gonna take a 14 day trip. Slow!!!

http://www.universetoday.com/13562/

Still an impressive distance to travel.
That would be like circling the earth 10 times. :crazyeye:
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And India is trying to one up them by sending a mission to Mars. They are just going to orbit the planet, but this is still pretty cool.

http://news.yahoo.com/indias-mars-mission-enters-second-stage-outpaces-space-033933920--finance.html
 
I might as well drop this where it really belongs:
I have a lengthy design study that NASA put out in the 70's about building a massive space station that would be used to produce solar power satellites and place them in orbit about the Earth. The plan hinges on using material mined from the moon to put everything together as it's easier to get resources on/off the moon than on Earth. The study goes into a bit of detail of the potential impact that a massive mining operation would have on the moon - principally from the exhaust gas of the numerous rockets that would lift off/land on the moon.

A baseline estimate was that building the base would increase the mass of the total lunar atmosphere by two orders of magnitude, from 10^4kg to 10^6kg. However, this assumed a total gas release from all rockets and mining operations that maxed out at just .2kg/s over the course of a year during construction and then fell to .002kg/s during normal operations.

If that rate were increased to 10-100kg/s, the lunar atmosphere would transition to a long-lived state with a minimum mass of 10^8kg with losses principally due to the solar wind and ionizing radiation from the sun. What this means is that if you put the equivalent of just one Earth-factory on the moon that produces waste gas of any kind and leave it on for a year, you will have more or less permanently altered the moon and created a semi-permanent, albeit geologically short-lived, atmosphere.

Additionally, release rates of over 1000kg/s will create an atmosphere thick enough to exert drag forces on rockets. While 1000kg/s of outgassing may seem a lot - keep in mind this is the total you would have to produce on the entire moon in the course of a year and it will take centuries to dissipate. 1000kg/s is chump change compared to common industrial practices on the Earth.


And there's your space spam for the day kiddos. Enjoy :)
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This came up in the East Asia Thread in the chamberpot. They were talking about China's moon mission and I mentioned how NASA was worried there lander could adversely effect the science mission of their newest moon probe. Eventually I produced the above quote - not even really sure how I got to B from A with that one though.
 
peter grimes said:
What's the concern?

And were they likewise concerned with the Apollo missions?
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The newest mission that NASA has sent to the moon is actually to characterize the native lunar exosphere. The Chinese mission will arrive and put out potentially enough gas from their landing rockets and kick up enough dust to spoil the readings they want to take. While that may sound silly, remember, the moon only has the landmass of Africa and the exosphere is so thin that any addition to it from people can potentially show up.

I personally don't think that the concern is justified - I just can't see the Chinese landing causing that much disruption. I think at worst they will have to wait a bit to get good readings (especially over the landing site). However, there is also science to be gain in studying exactly how the lunar exosphere reacts to a sudden input of gas/dust, so there can actually be a benefit to the timing of the Chinese landing. All in all, I think this is mostly a case of NASA being pissy that they weren't consulted first about the Chinese mission when their own was underway. While the Chinese are extraordinarily secretive about this stuff, it's also not their fault that our government has more or less forbid NASA from talking to the Chinese, period. So the communication breakdown is a two-way street.


There were no concerns about this during Apollo because AFAIK they didn't do a lot of lunar exospheric characterization work. If they did, they would have had to have set up experiments on the surface that could operate long after the crew had departed as naturally, the crews landing would throw off any good background readings.
 
Sorry I don't have links but:

-SpaceX launched their first satellite to GTO

-Blue Origin released information on their new LOX/H2 engine, it's the first one developed in the US in a decade

-China launched their moon rover successfully but parts of the booster fell on a village and destroyed a home. The owners were given $1800 in compensation, I have no idea whether or not that's enough to rebuild a house in China. The article I saw also said this has happened about 20 times since the 90's. You would think they would have sorted that out by now...
 
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