The thread for space cadets!

[hobbsyoyo]

You're probably right.

 

[r16]

the colonization of Mars is a pest that won't go away . The Turkish pinnacle of yellow journalism had a two days affair on it . On how Mars is open to all races , how living there is just around the corner , how medical emergencies can be covered by a shuttle that will arrive every 26 months . Even hints of a good life with bets on the birth of the first Martian baby . ı thought ı was not ambigious at all ...

and yes only because ı love the thing so much or something .

and the guys even promise new deals in the UN that will guarantee the freedom of peoples of Mars with stuff that celestial objects do not belong to anyone . ı will level US , what makes people think that ı will let UN get away ?

 

[Gigaz]

Don't you worry, the Martian society will be governed by the billionaires who organize the transit and who completely control the access to water, food and oxygen. It will likely be a libertarian utopia, or something.

 

[red_elk]

Nah, it will be a communist utopia. In 2061

Spoiler :

Moderator Action: Placed image in spoiler tags. - Bootstoots

 

[warpus]

All powered by a single windmill

 

[Cutlass]

All powered by a single windmill

It's Russians. They do it all with less.

 

[PlutonianEmpire]

So Trump won. How screwed is America's space ambitions?

 

[hobbsyoyo]

So Trump won. How screwed is America's space ambitions?

Completely unknown. He did not have any space policy to speak of during the campaign. Some campaign surrogates have speculated on what his space policy would be but I don't think they have any solid connections to the actual campaign.

I do know at the very end Pence made some statements to the affect that a Trump presidency would seriously de-emphasize Earth science while increasing manned space flight missions and exploration of deep space. If that is true then we could expect future Earth observation missions to be cut, Boeing and SpaceX might receive additional funds for their commercial crew missions and for the SLS to gain a big boost for missions to lunar orbit and to send a probe or probes to Europa.

 

[r16]

am quite infraction worthy for some deleted image ? Unrelated to topic ? People laughing at me for it on the streets . It's exactly why Germany is ready to offer asylum and stuff if ı ever ask for it -in the name of other , more worthy people . Also offered by Norway as well . Nor it is in anyway related to the attack on the German Consulate in Mezar-ı Şerif ...

ı do not need anyone telling me how good life on Mars can be .

 

[warpus]

This is a pretty amazing photo of Pluto

Spoiler :

 

[hobbsyoyo]

That is beautiful. Thanks for sharing!

I just published another article. This one is entitled Exotic Propellants and it goes over some of the extreme hazards to life and limb caused by common rocket fuels. Read and like the article here.

EXOTIC PROPELLANTS

Spoiler :

 

[hobbsyoyo]

I've seen some articles on the Russian's newest lunar mission plans. They sound great but they're completely unrealistic and under-funded. They're even cutting their cosmonaut contributions to the ISS by 1/3. Worse, they only have two more guaranteed years of sole-sourcing astronaut rides to the ISS which is a major source of income for Roscosmos as I understand it. I don't think they make much in the way of cash payments for ISS upkeep (or even hardware additions at this point beyond repair equipment) but barter for access to the ISS through astronaut and supply launches*.

Surprisingly, the Russians announced that they would only be flying 2 cosmonauts + cargo/ballast at a time instead of 3-men crews in the future. I thought they would try and sell the seats but neither the Americans or Europeans have the money to pay what Roscomos charges per seat. I would have also expected them to sell those seats to tourists (and they may be working on that discreetly) but that probably wouldn't play well with the rest of the international space coalition. Of course all sides have allowed limited steps towards commercial operations at the ISS and the Americans have been actively passing laws, regulations and memorandum of understanding on ISS commercialization so maybe it wouldn't be a huge deal to them if the Russians stepped up in that sphere.

On the lunar plans themselves, well what really happened is that Russians tested the man-machine interface (read: control screens and chairs) for their planned new Federation capsule. When they brought the press in to cover one of these tests they bragged about their new Angara rocket (only two of which have flown test-flights in 24 years) and talked up always-delayed lunar and space station plans. That's fine and I'm all for any manned space exploration by anyone but to put their level of effort on this into perspective, SpaceX and Boeing were performing man-machine interfaces yeas ago on the Dragon 2 and CST-100 which have been in development for 6 years less than Federation.

They are cool rockets and spacecraft though and I look forward to their future flights!

*The Progress resupply vehicle is actually the least capable of the current stable of ISS service vehicles and even the past ones for that matter.

 

[hobbsyoyo]

I just read that the Federation man-machine tests took place back in May. In other words they are making yet more announcements of grand plans without big progress being made on any front.

The sad thing is that Russian circumlunar flights would actually be possible right now for comparatively little investment. The Proton and Soyuz were originally designed for exactly those missions. I know the designs have been updated over the years but surely they could modify them to work together at a much lower cost than a whole new set of machines. :-(

In the long run though switching to Angara to replace both Proton and most Soyuz variants will be a potential cost saver and provide more capabilities.

 

[Cutlass]

The Russians are pretty cash strapped right now. And don't expect that to end soon. OPEC isn't expected to get itself together to raise oil prices in the near future. It'll probably be at least 5 years out.

 

[Thorgalaeg]

I am starting to think none of us will see humans walking on mars in our lifetime.

 

[red_elk]

In next 50 years probably not. But there is a chance that lifetime will be extended

 

[hobbsyoyo]

I am starting to think none of us will see humans walking on mars in our lifetime.

Why is that?

The Russians are pretty cash strapped right now. And don't expect that to end soon. OPEC isn't expected to get itself together to raise oil prices in the near future. It'll probably be at least 5 years out.

Which is what makes their claims so ridiculous. Myself and many others like to make fun of the Senate Launch System but at least that program has been steadily funded over the years and flight hardware is being built.

 

[Thorgalaeg]

Do you really think it will happen before 40 or 50 years? I see too many troubles everywhere, economical, technical, political... and i dont see the will to achieve such huge projects anymore, there is always the fallacious and populist argument that such money could be better expent in more important things.

 

[hobbsyoyo]

Overall, landing humans on Mars is a much more difficult engineering challenge than the Moon landings but the challenge itself is lessened by pretty drastic leaps in technology since then. Everything from GPS networks to the Hubble Space Telescope are potentially useful assets for getting to Mars that didn't exist in the 60's and 70's. The rockets themselves are both more sophisticated and diversified on a global level and could easily handle the challenge of getting cargo to Mars if we were willing to spend the money on that. Landing is tricky but every single space fairing nation (and ones that were not space fairing until recently - India just pulled off their first successful Mars mission on a shoe string budget) has made great strides in spacecraft control systems. The Americans in particular have had a string of successes landing there with ongoing programs, both commercial and governmental, to develop landed space platforms on both the Moon and Mars.

In addition, almost in spite of the rocky international relations period we're going through, the space frontier is the one place where everyone makes a point to get along. Relations between the major government space programs is highly integrated, fertile and cordial. Hell, even though NASA is forbidden from collaborating with China, the administrators of both national programs have a dialogue and host joint conferences occasionally.

If there was any project that we as a species could handle in a united fashion, it would be a Mars landing and/or colonization effort. We'll have boot prints on Mars I think before we've gotten altogether to stop climate change.

 

[Cutlass]

My concern on any long term trip to another planet, even a Moon base, is that we really haven't solved the problem of very long term low gravity on the human body.