One small step or one giant leap?
- Thread starter Ran Targas
- Start date
Cool...It fails to tell us the cost though (or the benifits)
We are hobbling back to where Armstrong lept.
Supposedly it can be done in NASA's normal budget, spread over a few years. We'll see.
We are re-inventing Apollo without the Saturn V. All the technology and infra structure we let rust away from 1975 will have to be rebuilt to give us a c1970 program on the cheap. I think it would make more sense to build the capability we should have had in 1980, but that would cost a little more. And maybe not all the bureaucrats who would have to admit their failure on the Space Shuttle have retired.
Certainly the idiots who f@*!@& up the X33 program are still around.
Supposedly it can be done in NASA's normal budget, spread over a few years. We'll see.
We are re-inventing Apollo without the Saturn V. All the technology and infra structure we let rust away from 1975 will have to be rebuilt to give us a c1970 program on the cheap. I think it would make more sense to build the capability we should have had in 1980, but that would cost a little more. And maybe not all the bureaucrats who would have to admit their failure on the Space Shuttle have retired.
Certainly the idiots who f@*!@& up the X33 program are still around.
It seems that the apparant Chinese competition (low-tech as it may be) is finally making someone in Washington do something about spacve exploration.
Yes, it definitely looks like a re-invention of Apollo-era spacecraft instead of stepping forward to nuclear propulsion and trans-atmospheric craft ("space-planes). Also I don't trust any NASA plan before it actually happens, these bureaucrats have a million of these plans and just keep modifying them instead of sticking to one and carrying it out. Over-bureaucratization and low budget don't help, either. You know, we were supposed to have a man on Mars in 1983, then in 2003, then in 2011; each was a full plan that was thrown to the rubbish can.
But still, good to see any attempt to revive the dead space programs.
Yes, it definitely looks like a re-invention of Apollo-era spacecraft instead of stepping forward to nuclear propulsion and trans-atmospheric craft ("space-planes). Also I don't trust any NASA plan before it actually happens, these bureaucrats have a million of these plans and just keep modifying them instead of sticking to one and carrying it out. Over-bureaucratization and low budget don't help, either. You know, we were supposed to have a man on Mars in 1983, then in 2003, then in 2011; each was a full plan that was thrown to the rubbish can.
But still, good to see any attempt to revive the dead space programs.
Oh, I wouldn't call the Chinese attempt low tech.
They have reverse engineered, so many space projects that I would even consider them ahead of the game. Add to that the diaspora working in the High Tech industries in the States. I would say that they have a better chance of beating the Americans to the moon or at least Mars.
For the Americans have already done the Moon, countless space engineers in the years since have wasted literally tons of paper napkins to make Apollo better since Kennedy uttered his challenge and many more since they left the Moon...
So whilst this is welcome news, the Moon is still no closer to the lunar base we all expected to see in 2001. Nor are we closer to meeting the Vilani in 95 years hence.
They have reverse engineered, so many space projects that I would even consider them ahead of the game. Add to that the diaspora working in the High Tech industries in the States. I would say that they have a better chance of beating the Americans to the moon or at least Mars.
For the Americans have already done the Moon, countless space engineers in the years since have wasted literally tons of paper napkins to make Apollo better since Kennedy uttered his challenge and many more since they left the Moon...
So whilst this is welcome news, the Moon is still no closer to the lunar base we all expected to see in 2001. Nor are we closer to meeting the Vilani in 95 years hence.
Madarin Dude
SOC-13
I am waiting for Shenzhou 6 this year a two man Chinese spacraft. I think it is going up in November. Saying the Chiese are low tech woudl be a misnimer. Look at the motherboard of your computer a lot of high tech stuff comming out of China. China does have a lto of tech disparity though. While it has a lot of high tech industry and use. There are a lot of sectors that are very dated.
I didn't say that the chinese, as a state, were low-tech. I just say that the current Shengzhou was. And, ofcourse, it will improve over time. The truth is that I see the Chinese as the first state to put a man on Mars. They have the will and the means to do so. The US has the means but currently not the will (yeah, NASA talks and talks and talks about Mars, but they can't just agree on a plan and get funding for it).
mike wightman
SOC-14 10K
And the Chinese and Russians are talking about greater cooperation in space...
This is indeed a giant leap,... unfortunately it is backwards. They are just rehashing the old ideas instead of looking more long term towards the future. So you send four people to the moon, so what? Build larger orbital stations first so we can use them as construction yards to get out into the solar system with more than manned probes. Spaceplanes, which would benefit the entire world and bolster the aviation industry no end as a knock on effect. Move forwards, don't just redo the deeds of the past.
M
Malenfant
Guest
Small step or giant leap? Nah, it's a big, unoriginal, uninnovative wet fart.
It's utterly pointless, and word on the ground is that it wouldn't survive the next election anyway.
It's utterly pointless, and word on the ground is that it wouldn't survive the next election anyway.
Exactly. Only the wide-scale industrialization of space, starting with LEO and proceeding to Luna, will open up the Solar System to humankind. This page has some ideas about how this should be done.
There is no technological barrier that prevents us from reaching out to the stars, there are many bureaucratic and political ones.
The stars await.
Jeff M. Hopper
SOC-14 1K
I'm wondering why they aren't going ahead with Zubrin's Mars Direct plan. Its an elegant method of not only getting man on Mars with built-in redundancy, but also of starting a colony on Mars.
far-trader
SOC-14 10K
Mars is too far for an effective High Guard Base.
But that's just the little cynic in me
The big cynic is not even sure they'll "go to the moon in this decade and do the other things" because it IS hard. Don't get me wrong, I'd be thrilled to see a peaceful return to space, done right.
But that's just the little cynic in me
The big cynic is not even sure they'll "go to the moon in this decade and do the other things" because it IS hard. Don't get me wrong, I'd be thrilled to see a peaceful return to space, done right.
Maladominus
SOC-14 1K
But the important question is:
Will we be ready to make war with the Vilani when 2113 arrives??!
{Unreality mode on} Clearly not, as the Treaty of New York, in this "incarnation of the Traveller Universe" (that we are living through) did not result in global disarmament or at least consolidation of nukes but rather an escalation but a foolish War without End. Making my scenario of merging Twilight, Illuminati and a Vilani First Contact plus parasitic vampire Vilani eking it out in South America - all the more real.
Note: this is not a political tract nor does it wish to turn into one...that is what the pulpit is for.
I do, believe that we will go to Mars, but it will be another boondogle like Apollo not real exploration like most of us on this board would like to see happen.
{Unreality mode off}
Note: this is not a political tract nor does it wish to turn into one...that is what the pulpit is for.
I do, believe that we will go to Mars, but it will be another boondogle like Apollo not real exploration like most of us on this board would like to see happen.
{Unreality mode off}
