Posted on 12/05/2014 3:46:31 PM PST by SMCC1
If the new space race was like the movies, this week would be The Empires Strikes Back.
On Friday, after a weather delay, Nasa launched a very cool space capsule, in what at first blush looked like another Apollo mission. It rose on a massive rocket spewing superheated exhaust like some creature from a Peter Jackson movie. All went well just now – and given the expertise of engineers performing what was essentially an update of a 1970s Apollo mission, that much was expected: a four-seat capsule called Orion will detach any minute now, and soar around the Earth twice, then descend into the atmosphere and finally splash down under some parachutes. There are no people onboard.
Orion is a long-shot demonstration mission that is aimed at no celestial body, nor the moon, Mars or even an asteroid. The United States government’s attempt is aimed at space startups that are trying to muscle their way into the spaceflight industry – and budge NASA out for good.
(Excerpt) Read more at theguardian.com ...
What a bunch of crap. Commercial space flight will take over LEO, but longer range stuff will stay NASA for a long, long time.
I realize that under Lord Foul the United States space program has been gutted but perhaps they can enlighten us on their view of Britain’s great space endeavors and successes.
empire.... what empire is that
Where is our “White Gold Wielder”? Anybody got pics of Ted Cruz’s ring finger?
This reads like a metaphoric analogy of the Boehner led Republican Party, sad to say.
White Gold Wielder... I seem to remember enjoying that book thoroughly. Not sure how it pertains to Cruz though.
You mentioned Lord Foul. The White Gold Wielder was “Lord Foul’s Bane”.
Very good fantasy series, but very depressing.
“Orion: a last-ditch effort by a fading empire that will never strike back”
This is rich coming from a newspaper, part of a dying industry with NO chance of revival. Enjoy your last few years of employment you commie hacks.
This mission is a test of the launch system mostly.
Since the first Apollo missions, the technology has been developed multifold. The USA defeated the USSR by demonstrating that RV (ICBM reentry vehicles) could hit their target within a few hundred meters.
The technology to put man into space has been developed, except for the reentry portion of the mission. The technology used is the same as what was was used for Apollo. That is AVCO technology, now Textron. It is basically a lightweight layer of cardboard and other materials, mechanically fixed on the surface of the heat shield that allows for ablation and provides thermal insulation.
Engineers and scientists were called back, some from nursing homes, to recreate the process of building heat shields.
One thing to learn from this......when a program is shut down the technology may be lost, and forever. It just so happens that several of the the 80-somethings now retired still had a desire to serve and give.
Obama and NASA, his desire is to destroy our ability to be a leader in space and technology.
This mission was a repeat of one launched in 1965. And nobody is going to spend 2+ years in a capsule.
True
It just so happens that several of the 80-somethings now retired still had a desire to serve and give.
I just thought of Space Cowboys when I read that.
Mars One is trying to beat them both.
Still think it will be NASA/Lockheed. Especially if the next Pres. reverses Obama’s gutting.
The Mars plan for 2030 or so wouldn’t just be the capsule but a full habitat center. Now SpaceX being able to do all that, I highly doubt.
That almost happened with the secrets of absinth distillation. However via reverse engineering and some discovered equipment, the secrets of distilling absinth have been rediscovered.
It is ridiculous to send humans to Mars. For one thing, you cannot bring them back.
It is much less costly to send robotic explorers, instead.
Now I have heard the arguments: only a human can collect the right samples, &c. But we had men on the moon, and just about the time they had the mechanics perfected, and were ready to get on with serious, scientific investigation, they discontinued the program! We got very little real information out of the moon missions, and could have accomplished the same thing with robots.
So here’s the deal: we send robots, but to appease the TV watchers at home, we have the rovers fitted with stereo digital cameras, so that back on earth, anyone with 3D goggles can watch with great realism, and really experience the solitude and waste of the Martian landscape. Millions of people can watch it, and none of them need die for lack of a return ticket.
The Guardian doesn’t seem to get that we aren’t going to launch humans on spacecraft without doing test shots of that spacecraft beforehand.
As we did with Mercury, Gemini and Apollo.
The shuttle was an aberation. NASA waived it’s own safety rules to have John Young and Bob Cripen fly the mission. At one time it was even planned to be an RTS Abort scenario (abort the mission following SRB separation and fly the orbiter back to Kennedy), but Young put his foot down and refused.
As it was, Young said in an interview I once read where there were four glitches/events during STS-1 where he thought he and Cripen were going to die.
Most likely, astronauts will be sent to Mars, and they will return. But NASA should certainly arrange for a space walk along the way to Mars, just in case the mission needs to lose some unfit, PC trash.
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