http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/STS-132
Sad. She had a good life. Atlantis was always my favourite for some reason.
Sad. She had a good life. Atlantis was always my favourite for some reason.
Space Shuttle Atlantis launches for the final time...
- Thread starter Candlelight
- Start date
Yep. Just Endeavour and Discovery left to make their swansongs, and then it's all over for Project Space Shuttle, I believe.
Discovery was my favourite Shuttle. She had a good name and a great life.
Discovery was my favourite Shuttle. She had a good name and a great life.
Having been born in the 50s I was used to something new every four or five years, Mercury, Gemini, Apollo, Skylab and then the shuttle program. So for me, it seems like we've been running in place for 25 years. I never really thought about the shuttle being someone's only exposure to the space program.
Still, I'll take the shuttle over nothing, which is what we'll have left after the Endeavor and Discovery flights.
^yeah, I remember all that stuff too. sittin' in front of the TV with family and friends, with our eyes wide open in awe of what we were seein'.
damn our government for not gettin' a replacement program in place soon enough. it was bad enough that previous administrations were gonna leave us with a 5 year void in manned spaceflight, and now the current administration killed the Constellation program.
farkin' arseholes. everyone of 'em.
you missed out on a lot of really cool stuff. sure you can watch most of it on DVDs now, but to actually live through it was farkin' incredible.
damn our government for not gettin' a replacement program in place soon enough. it was bad enough that previous administrations were gonna leave us with a 5 year void in manned spaceflight, and now the current administration killed the Constellation program.
farkin' arseholes. everyone of 'em.
you missed out on a lot of really cool stuff. sure you can watch most of it on DVDs now, but to actually live through it was farkin' incredible.
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Constellation was never more than a reiteration of what we'd already done. The new direction at least opens the possibility of getting us out further, it just takes smaller, more cautious steps in doing so.
Also, Atlantis will be the primed backup in case either of the next two missions gets into trouble, so let's not play it off just yet.
Also, Atlantis will be the primed backup in case either of the next two missions gets into trouble, so let's not play it off just yet.
^Obama wants to land on an asteroid.
most of which are way beyond Mars.
really? I must've missed the part when we had long term missions to the Moon with more than two astronauts exploring the Lunar surface.
but then again, I'm of the opinion that the Apollo program was killed too early. we should've established a permanent base on the Moon a long time ago.
most of which are way beyond Mars.
really? I must've missed the part when we had long term missions to the Moon with more than two astronauts exploring the Lunar surface.
goin' back to the Moon would be the first step in getting us out further.
but then again, I'm of the opinion that the Apollo program was killed too early. we should've established a permanent base on the Moon a long time ago.
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No, the moon is off the table. Obama said, "I just have to say pretty bluntly – we've been there before."
Pretty much all prior plans to develop a permanent and permanently expanding presence in space have hinged on using the moon's resources. The new plan seems to be a couple of one-off missions to Mars, first a Mars orbit and return mission (to what point?) then a landing sometime later.
Pretty much all prior plans to develop a permanent and permanently expanding presence in space have hinged on using the moon's resources. The new plan seems to be a couple of one-off missions to Mars, first a Mars orbit and return mission (to what point?) then a landing sometime later.
That will come.
To prove it's possible for humans to successfully cross that much distance exposed to interplanetary radiation, and deal with the long trip lengths in close quarters. We don't need to add a (much more difficult than on the moon) entry-and-return-to-orbit requirement the first time out.
The whole notion of the flexible path concept is that half the battle is getting into and out of gravity wells; the other half is moving around the solar system. They're separable tasks, and the flexible path treats them as separate challenges.
Right now, we simply do not have a heavy lift capability good enough to get a manned capsule to Mars or beyond. We need to develop that first.
Yeah. Apollo 8 and 10 were pretty damn pointless, weren't they?
not soon enough as far as I'm concerned.
we've already been able to get plenty of data on how humans deal with being in close quarters for extended periods of time. this happens on the ISS all the time.
yeah, sure, they're separable tasks. but we've already proven we can navigate inside the solar system with the Voyager probes, the Cassini mission, Deep Space 1, and several successful Mars landings.
but we do have the heavy lift capability to get to the Moon. and since gravity on the Moon is 1/6th of the Earth's gravity, we could use the Moon as a launch point to further points in the solar system with our existing technology. of course, we'd need to establish a permanent presence on the Moon, which is the next logical step.
MeanJoePhaser
Admiral
We've signed the moon over to China.
RED MOON RISING...
RED MOON RISING...
Planning a Trip to KSC in September. Hope the weather cooperates.Yep. Just Endeavour and Discovery left to make their swansongs, and then it's all over for Project Space Shuttle, I believe.
Discovery was my favourite Shuttle. She had a good name and a great life.
^um, no, we don't have an HLV to get to the moon right now.
Also, Constellation as a program was underfunded, over budget, poorly engineered and behind schedule. The only good piece of it worth saving is the Orion capsule. Hopefully congress won't make the bonehead maneuver of re-instating it. NASA should go with Direct/Jupiter for an HLV or start with a clean sheet of paper.
Also, Constellation as a program was underfunded, over budget, poorly engineered and behind schedule. The only good piece of it worth saving is the Orion capsule. Hopefully congress won't make the bonehead maneuver of re-instating it. NASA should go with Direct/Jupiter for an HLV or start with a clean sheet of paper.
Okay, this I don't get. Here's the current approach:
A) Build HLV with capacity for manned flights to Mars
B) Manned orbital flight of Mars
C) Mars landing
Your approach:
A) Rebuild HLV for Moon landing
B) Build base on Moon, requiring either very large HLVs or many, many trips
C) Build rocket-assembly facility on the Moon
D) Design and build Mars lander... on the Moon
E) Mars landing
Which seems like a quicker and more logical approach?
That's the thinking that doomed the Apollo program.
With his approach, after the Mars mission is over, we'd have a moon base, orbital and L4/L5 manufacturing, and all sorts of infrastructure in space.
With the quicker and more logical approach, after the Mars mission is over, all we've got are a bunch of DVDs of guys bouncing around on Mars and a rusting launch complex.
^yeah, you got it. I couldn't have said it better.
umm, yes, we do.
the Boeing Delta IV Heavy, first launched in 2004, could be used for lunar missions.
would you expect an underfunded project to come in under budget?
which could be carried by the Delta IV Heavy.
umm, yes, we do.
the Boeing Delta IV Heavy, first launched in 2004, could be used for lunar missions.
would you expect an underfunded project to come in under budget?
which could be carried by the Delta IV Heavy.
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Yeah... um, No, again. While the Delta IV may have "heavy" in it's name, it's not an HLV. Delta IV has the same payload capacity as ARES I, enough to carry the Orion into LEO (around 25,800kg). ARES V was going to be the HLV with a capacity of 160,000kg to LEO.
And yes, the Delta IV could carry Orion quite well.
despite being underfunded, it was going over the original projected budget to reach completion.would you expect an underfunded project to come in under budget?
And yes, the Delta IV could carry Orion quite well.
