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NASA is Building the Largest Rocket of All Time For a 2018 Launch
The Verge ^ | August 31, 2014 | Staff

Posted on 09/01/2014 1:34:40 PM PDT by lbryce

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To: colorado tanker

Back to the Future! :’)

Wernher von Braun’s 1950s plan to get humanity to Mars
http://www.dvice.com/archives/2012/08/wernher_von_bra.php

Wernher von Braun’s Martian Chronicles
http://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/wernher-von-brauns-martian-chronicles-9845747/?no-ist

Von Braun Mars Expedition - 1952
http://www.astronautix.com/craft/vonn1952.htm

Von Braun Mars Expedition - 1969
http://www.astronautix.com/craft/vonn1969.htm


21 posted on 09/01/2014 2:28:06 PM PDT by SunkenCiv (https://secure.freerepublic.com/donate/)
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To: iowacornman
Where do we get the billions in funds for this? We are totally broke.

Obama checked your couch cushions for change.

/johnny

22 posted on 09/01/2014 2:29:50 PM PDT by JRandomFreeper (Gone Galt)
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To: Texas Fossil

No, where did you see that it does?

The liquid fueling will be hydrogen and oxygen.

The SRBs don’t use liquid fuel.

http://www.nasa.gov/pdf/664158main_sls_fs_master.pdf


23 posted on 09/01/2014 2:39:10 PM PDT by SunkenCiv (https://secure.freerepublic.com/donate/)
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To: Darteaus94025

No, in fact, that is not correct. The successor to the STS was in development, but a bit underfunded, and a bit behind schedule, so the anti-American Party of the Single Party State led by Zero himself deep-sixed it.

http://www.spacelaunchreport.com/sls0.html


24 posted on 09/01/2014 2:45:39 PM PDT by SunkenCiv (https://secure.freerepublic.com/donate/)
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> With NASA’s limited funding spread over an array of programs, the requirement of sending hundreds of millions of NASA dollars to Roscosmos – to purchase seats on the Russian Soyuz, the only means of launching NASA astronauts to the International Space Station (ISS) – is less than ideal.

http://www.nasaspaceflight.com/2014/08/cctcapnasa-wont-abandon-commercial-crew-loser/

[of course, the $500 million launches/recycles of the Space Shuttle worked out to $71+ million per astronaut...]


25 posted on 09/01/2014 2:48:29 PM PDT by SunkenCiv (https://secure.freerepublic.com/donate/)
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NASA is building the largest rocket of all time for a 2018 launch
http://www.theverge.com/2014/9/1/6093189/nasa-is-building-the-largest-rocket-of-all-time-for-a-2018-launch


26 posted on 09/01/2014 2:49:37 PM PDT by SunkenCiv (https://secure.freerepublic.com/donate/)
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To: lbryce

Truthfully, an Earth ground to Mars ground and back mission is a lot harder in a single vehicle.

A better means is to first assemble a “planetary shuttle” in space, basically a large engine and fuel tank which is filled in orbit. Then, when the Mars destined spaceship gets into Earth orbit, it is refilled with fuel, but then attached to the shuttle which will take it to Mars orbit and back. The shuttle itself never lands.

It would take perhaps 8 missions to get the orbital setup arranged. Four or five of the missions would take large modular parts of the shuttle and its fuel into orbit, where they would be assembled. The last two would be to take a load of fuel up, and then the Mars ship.

Top off the Mars ship, attach it to the shuttle, and away it goes.

Importantly, the first Mars mission should not have humans, but robots on board. Specifically tunneling robots that would burrow into a cliff face to prepare a tunnel habitat for the eventual arrival of the astronauts.

Having a place to stay when they arrive would mean the astronauts could carry a lot more water, food, fuel and equipment. And when they left, they would have improved the site so that the mission after that can build on their success.


27 posted on 09/01/2014 2:54:35 PM PDT by yefragetuwrabrumuy ("Don't compare me to the almighty, compare me to the alternative." -Obama, 09-24-11)
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To: lbryce

If they are not conducting engine static firings and test launches, about oh, now... They probably are not going to make their launch target date.


28 posted on 09/01/2014 2:55:07 PM PDT by ThunderSleeps (Stop obarma now! Stop the hussein - insane agenda!)
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To: lbryce
This thing will never be a success (and may never fly at all):

http://spaceref.com/sls/using-jedi-mind-tricks-to-sell-nasas-next-big-rocket.html

29 posted on 09/01/2014 2:59:35 PM PDT by Doug Loss
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To: lbryce

Yawn

Rebaseline, rebudget, recompete...

See ya in a decade, won’t fly until then...if at all


30 posted on 09/01/2014 3:00:42 PM PDT by Regulator
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To: Oliviaforever

While I tacitly agree, who truly deserves the blame for us not having a space vehicle right now?

You could say Bill Clinton and most certainly George Bush.

Planning for something to have been ready to replace the Space Shuttle should have been planned and going strong by the end of the Bush administration.

Obama didn’t screw us on this one. Granted he dragged his feet too, but if there was every a thing to blame Bush for, perhaps Bill Clinton too, this was it.

Remember, Kennedy’s big push to the moon took place on May 25, 1961. It took eight years and two months for us to land on the moon.

Stay out of the Bushes! LOL


31 posted on 09/01/2014 3:04:32 PM PDT by DoughtyOne (We'll know when he's really hit bottom. They'll start referring to him as White.)
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To: Perdogg

Will SpaceX Super Rocket Kill NASA’s ‘Rocket to Nowhere’? (Op-Ed)
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/3124070/posts

Saturn V Launch Slow Motion
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_HcnmthntUo

Launch of Apollo 4 first Saturn V as seen LIVE on CBS w/ Walter Cronkite
[Cronkite later said the paneling fell off the walls, the windows appeared to be ready to shatter, etc; CBS built a concrete pillbox for subsequent launches]
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1uoVfZpx5dY

and for my fellow fringers:

In the Shadow of the Moon - extra footage
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qUu6LZXE-uc;t=2506


32 posted on 09/01/2014 3:04:50 PM PDT by SunkenCiv (https://secure.freerepublic.com/donate/)
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To: JRandomFreeper

Yes, I’ve read in the posts somewhere the rocket does in fact exist within the brainy folds of some NASA engineer’s imagination.


33 posted on 09/01/2014 3:07:34 PM PDT by lbryce (Barack Obama:Misbegotten, Bastard Offspring of Satan and Medusa.)
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To: lbryce
SpaceX (Elon Musk) and Blue Origin (Jeff Bezos) Compete for NASA Contract.

I'd prefer multiple private companies competing for the market, and for NASA to stay out.

34 posted on 09/01/2014 3:07:42 PM PDT by PapaBear3625 (You don't notice it's a police state until the police come for you.)
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To: DoodleDawg

Last I heard, the total R&D will be $11 billion.

For that we get a 20% improvement in thrust over the Saturn V, which was designed 50 years ago.

Maybe the new one can handle a flush toilet?


35 posted on 09/01/2014 3:08:36 PM PDT by zeestephen
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To: lbryce
Well, heck, that beats tested hardware any day.... Or not.

I was afraid of that.

I'm going to go find a version of 'Paper Moon' on Youtube.

/johnny

36 posted on 09/01/2014 3:09:01 PM PDT by JRandomFreeper (Gone Galt)
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To: lbryce
Ella Fitzgerald has a nice rendition.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gapCK5_rMuY

Toe tapping music...

/johnny

37 posted on 09/01/2014 3:11:44 PM PDT by JRandomFreeper (Gone Galt)
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To: SunkenCiv

Here’s what I’m looking at:

“[George H.]...asked his vice president, Dan Quayle, to prepare a major NEW space initiative. Bush announced what became known as the Space Exploration Initiative in a speech on July 20, 1989”

“There were SEVERAL unsuccessful initiatives during the Clinton administration to develop a replacement for the space shuttle as a way of carrying humans and cargo into space. Most notable was the X-33 single-stage-to-orbit program, which pushed the limits of technological readiness and ultimately was canceled without a test flight.” http://www.nasa.gov/50th/50th_magazine/10presidents.html

“When President Bush established his NEW space exploration policy to return humans to the moon” http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Constellation_program#President_Bush

I read those passages to mean that George H. Bush, Clinton and George W. Bush [and Obama as you’ve pointed out] all changed the goal/direction/focus of the Space Program.

A new goal/direction/focus will, at the minimum, require a reevaluation of the proposed hardware, or, more likely, require new hardware.

In my experience, engineering re-evaluation slows (stops?) current engineering efforts as management and senior engineers now have more on their plate.

And that, I think, is my point: Administrations changing the direction of the Space Program prevented the STS follow on.

Put another way: it took 5 years from approval to first flight of the STS. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Space_Shuttle_program]. If the follow on had been approved and funded during any of the previous Administrations, Obama couldn’t have cancelled it. A lifter follow on wasn’t developed because priorities kept changing.


38 posted on 09/01/2014 3:12:00 PM PDT by Darteaus94025 (Can't have a Liberal without a Lie)
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Senate Boosts NASA Budget, But at What Cost?
By Phil Plait
As I wrote earlier in June, the U.S. House of Representatives passed a bill for NASA’s funding, restoring quite a bit of money bizarrely taken out by the White House.
http://www.slate.com/blogs/bad_astronomy/2014/06/18/nasa_funding_new_senate_bill_will_keep_us_relying_on_russians_for_rides.html


39 posted on 09/01/2014 3:12:52 PM PDT by SunkenCiv (https://secure.freerepublic.com/donate/)
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> Under a $1.9 billion CRS contract with NASA, Orbital will use Antares and Cygnus to deliver up to 44,000 pounds (20,000 kilograms) of cargo to the ISS over eight missions, including the mission currently underway, through late 2016. For these missions, NASA will manifest a variety of essential items based on ISS program needs, including food, clothing, crew supplies, spare parts and equipment, and scientific experiments.

https://www.orbital.com/NewsInfo/MissionUpdates/Orb-2/


40 posted on 09/01/2014 3:13:26 PM PDT by SunkenCiv (https://secure.freerepublic.com/donate/)
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