The New Space Race?
I personally would love to see NASA reignited with proper funding and in a race with China for a manned base on the moon and possibly a landing on mars.
NASA made unbelievable progress 30 years ago.....and yet it doesn't seem we have advanced nearly as much in those last 30 years as NASA did in a decade.
http://www.cnn.com/2003/TECH/space/1...oon/index.html
NASA made unbelievable progress 30 years ago.....and yet it doesn't seem we have advanced nearly as much in those last 30 years as NASA did in a decade.
http://www.cnn.com/2003/TECH/space/1...oon/index.html
Comments
Originally posted by ShawnJ
I'm all for international cooperation. Let's race with, not against, China and finally find out what those damn black monoliths mean.
i think competition results in the most efficient and cuthroat pace and work though.
Originally posted by applenut
i think competition results in the most efficient and cuthroat pace and work though.
Er... Yeah. The last 'competition' of that sort resulted in a half-centruy long global standoff that could have seen the obliteration of the human race.
But if its for a space station, that's ok then.
Ideally, they will employ an artificial gravity mechanism in the form of a rotating ship with an outstretched crew module (the centrifugal spin will tend to push everything outward, in this case against the inside of the module facing the center, creating a false sense of gravity). The voyage to Mars will take many months and our own tests in space show how zero gravity affects the human body. Muscles and bones just waste away. Vital organs start to weaken and the re adaptation on earth is long and painful for the most extreme cases of long term zero gravity.
There are other ideas of the propulsion that will be used to get to the farther reaches of the solar system like nuclear propulsion and even antimatter propulsion, all within technological reach, but there are engineering and monetary roadblocks that are still limiting how we can incorporate these technologies. A few years back it was estimated the cost of producing one gram of antimatter in present colliders would cost several billion dollars. But with dedicated antimatter manufacturing plants the cost should come down to about $1million per gram.
http://livefromcern.web.cern.ch/live...factory00.html
How many presidents have said they want us to go to Mars? Yet NASA's budget is now about one-fifth what is was in the mid-sixties (as a % of GDP). The recent $80B Iraq war finance bill could have funded NASA for six years. NASA is a rounding error in the DoD's budget. Without a LOT of new money, this is all just a bunch of hot air.
I, too, am excited about a moon base
a space elevator would be a good idea though. build it up then sell time slots on it for people to put things up in space. then you could build your giant telescope too, and not only see other planets but spy on people back on earth, w/o all the crap crashes into them.
Originally posted by jimmac
The problem is that a lot of people are apathetic about this now days. It's a real shame. With the new technology we have today we could be doing great things. However our leaders are more interested in spending money on things that will garner votes for them like phoney wars and military spending.
So true. With all the money being spent in Iraq right now...we could easily fund a manned mission to Mars. It's not impossible at this point. It just is really sad that the military, who's existance almost always results in death and destruction, gets a HUGE chunk of the United States budget, but an organization like NASA gets almost nothing. If it were the other way around, we would be launching Mars missions from manned moon bases. THAT'S how we get to Mars most efficiently too...you launch from the moon. Less gravity=less resistance=greater initial speed toward Mars. Anyway...I just wish our Presidents had their priorities straight.
2) Build moon base
3) Bring choices to the billions that have none (in large parts of africa and asia)
Which one would you choose?
Originally posted by Anders
1) Blow up a few select countries
2) Build moon base
3) Bring choices to the billions that have none (in large parts of africa and asia)
Which one would you choose?
Well if option 3 were a consideration of presidents, most certainly it would be ideal...but most seem to select option 1.
1) Blow up a few select countries
2) Build moon base
3) Bring choices to the billions that have none (in large parts of africa and asia)
Which one would you choose?
Anders...its so obvious I can't believe you missed it:
Blow up a few select countries..from a newly built moon base.
Thus giving choice to the billions of suffering in Asia and Africa....
You're either with us or against us!
"Jimo" won't launch until at least 2011. The unmanned ship will use uranium-fueled fission reactors to generate huge amounts electricity. It'll be 60 to 100 feet in length and the reactor section will be far from the instrument section to keep radiation to a minimum. I assume the thrusters are ion based but the article is scarce on details. Even if it's a concept drawing, the artist would have to take into account the huge tanks of fuel if it were to use chemical rockets and why else would they need such a powerful power plant? They must be working on some pretty radical ion engine designs. Can't wait for the details.
Originally posted by Anders
Lets get the space elevator. THATS a challenge.
That was one of the most impracticle and impossible inventions that I've ever seen. And it was given a lot of attention in Popular Science, which makes it even less credible.
Here's my idea: colonize the Sahara desert. Everyone talks about colonizing the Moon and Mars, but if you're doing it for more places to live and more places to sprawl, why not use the Sahara? The Sahara is a helluva lot more habitable than Mars or the Moon, that's for sure.
Originally posted by Placebo
That was one of the most impracticle and impossible inventions that I've ever seen. And it was given a lot of attention in Popular Science, which makes it even less credible.
Yeah, the Highlift space elevator was so impractical NASA donated several million dollars to help fund additional R&D...even though they fully well know it?s a pipe dream.