Posted on 04/10/2011 6:06:43 AM PDT by Salman
By the end of this year, NASA will no longer be able to send humans into space. According to Barack Obama's plan, responsibility will go to private companies, which are expected to come up with cheaper ways to ferry astronauts to low-Earth orbit.
"They know they have a big step to take if they are going to put humans into space... They have a lot of work to do," says NASA Astronaut Sunita Williams.
No one can say for sure when the private American companies will come up with a new spaceship.
For years to come, it will be the Russian Soyuz spacecraft, which is going to be the only means for people to reach the International Space Station, which is perfectly fine with the leaders of Russia and the US, but does not sit well with many Americans.
(Excerpt) Read more at space-travel.com ...
We already have hypervelocity weapons "Rods From God" which are probably intended for such asset rich but hardened targets as Hainan Island. That's what we rubes know about. Now what we actually have that we aren't being told about is probably a lot more advanced than that.
Or...the money was spent on booze and hookers. Got to keep an open mind.
So free market solutions work for putting humans into space but don't work in getting me between Tampa and Orlando ??? (forced high speed rail)
Why try if the FedGov won't allow you to profit from it? We caved in to the Commies and made space exploration a losing proposition for private enterprise.
Back out of that treaty, and space exploration/exploitation would take off.
NASA is good only with lower cost, investigative research. Beyond that, NASA becomes recursive. They have success inventing a wheel, so they reinvent the wheel. Always with an eye *just* to discovery, not to application.
For example, they send a successful pair of rovers to Mars. So their next step is to send a larger rover to Mars, to do much the same thing.
The Russians, and private industry, are far more practical. They realize that to go far, most of what you do will not result in scientific discovery, but will just pave the way for scientific discovery.
In just going to the Moon for a while, NASA would build a surface habitat that could be used once, but would soon become degraded because of cosmic and enhanced radiation, extremes of heat and cold, vacuum and extra abrasive Lunar dust. Doing so would limit how long people could stay on the Moon, as well as limit the supplies and equipment they could bring with them. Thus, they would never grow beyond a single mission.
The obvious solution is to tunnel underground, to mine horizontal caves in a cliff face, with a nuclear powered tunneling robot. It would not have to be fast, just thorough, and could mine, reinforce, micro-fissure seal, and even test the tunnel for air tightness and radiation ahead of time.
Since it is on a one-way trip, its lander could be cannibalized for pressure doors, tunnel ceiling, walls and flooring, all pre-made with electrical wiring and fixtures. And its nuclear reactor would provide both power and heat for the astronauts. Once water ice was found and mined, reactor electricity could be used for electrolysis, to obtain both oxygen and hydrogen.
NASA would not ever imagine such a thing.
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Do you know how many Falcon 9 flights it is going to take to get the rocket man rated? I’ve read a total of 17 so it is going to be a while before America can send up its own astronauts again.
Two Falcon 9 flights down with only 15 more to go!
Although all these advances were created by private companies, they were funded by the government. Perhaps it would have been better if the Air Force had maintained the mission of space exploration. However, space exploration is important, and the countries that explore space will own the future. Unfortunately, many in this country now simply want all funds to be given out to those who do not work, and do not wish to reach for the stars.
The "Orion" was just a dandified external solid rocket booster from the Shuttle with a capsule bolted on. More embarrassment than accomplishment.
I'm sure that NASA has paid for iteself MANY TIMES OVER through its history. Of course it has also become a bloated bureaucracy in need it trimming - but taking it out back and shooting it only works against America's best interests.
Maybe Obama's next campaign slogan should be "No we can't!"
Anyone remember when astronauts were the best of the best? Remember when everyone else came to the USA to get stuff into orbit? What happened?
O privatized space but did not shut down Nasa. Now we have no Orion and still get globull warming research.
The real question is “Privatize space but nationalize health care, GM, Banks, and everything else that is too complex for the Private Market. I mean it’s not like it is rocket science...ooops I guess it is.”
“The US should unilaterally allow US companies to own parts of the Moon. If you can get there, set up a factory, and extract resources, it’s yours. Use the profit motive. I believe there are international laws that say that you can’t own the Moon. We ought to tell them to sod off.”
Great idea — we could use a backup in case things fail here on Earth in a big way.
The SpaceX website states the following:
The Dragon spacecraft is scheduled to fly at least 11 more times and the Falcon 9 launch vehicle is scheduled to fly 17 times before the first Dragon crew flight.
I’ve been of the opinion for a number of years that Left does not desire for mankind to go to beyond the atmosphere of Earth because doing so would cause them to lose control of mankind.
Space travel will remain scarce and tightly controlled until the grip on it by the Left is released by Conservatives. SpaceX certainly is a beginning in the right direction but it won’t take much from the Feds to shut them down with the army of bureaucrats to regulate them out of business.
“NASA is providing $278 million to SpaceX for the development of the Falcon 9 and the Dragon as a resupply system for the International Space Station.” source - http://cosmiclog.msnbc.msn.com/_news/2011/04/04/6409132-spacex-shoots-for-next-big-thing
it may be a private company but it is still getting funding from NASA/fedgov
I am all for innovation from private companies, but let’s not think that they are doing it all by themselves.
Unless SpaceX starts producing Falcon 9s left and right, with payloads manifested and fees for payload integration and launch in to orbit paid, it’s going to be a little while before we see Americans going into space on their own rockets.
Exploration is difficult and dangerous, whether on this planet or elsewhere. People need to get over that and stop whining about it. Explorers who die go exactly how they wanted to.
Payoff to Pelosi? Or her husband?
That is true. It may be a few years, but that capability is clearly on the way. We will not be dependent on Russia or any other country to get payloads or people into space.
They should never have cancelled the SSC. To do what we really want to do in a manned space program will require fundamental breakthroughs, especially in physics. NASA should stick with the highly productive unmanned programs it has been so successful with and funnel the money spent on manned programs into basic research. When we figure out how to build a warp drive, then we can venture back into the manned space travel and do something REALLY impressive.
bump
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