US Spaceflight for the future [update]

i take interest in the best hope for humanity to survive itself and the awesomeness that is our universe

anything you wanna know?
 
that's a retarded statement to make
we spend as much subsidizing agriculture as we do the entire space program
faggot
 
Yeah, food vs. whatever we do in space. It's a fun idea, but a giant waste of money. Satellites were a solid idea, and can be used by businesses to make back the money it costs to put them there. But building your ares whatever to go exploring whatever that will result in nothing is a waste of money.
 
2bad4u said:
Yeah, food vs. whatever we do in space. It's a fun idea, but a giant waste of money. Satellites were a solid idea, and can be used by businesses to make back the money it costs to put them there. But building your ares whatever to go exploring whatever that will result in nothing is a waste of money.
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making food in space!
 
Space station to fly till 2020 - RT Top Stories
“Assembly of the ISS will continue until 2015. The partners have already agreed to continue its maintenance till 2020. The agreement will be signed in a matter of months,” Vitaly Lopota, president and chief designer of Energia, producer of the Russian space workhorse Soyuz, said on Tuesday

He added that NASA has suggested an even greater extension of the station’s lifetime till 2028.

The International Space Station is mankind’s most ambitious and expensive project. The assembly has started in November 1998, and today the ISS has grown into a 330-ton construction. The latest plan was to run the project till 2015.
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some info on the modules on ISS:
The U.S. pressurized elements and core systems were designed for Space Station Freedom. The Level 1 requirements for SSF were a 30 year life. Nearly everything inside them can be replaced very easily with the exception of fluid lines and power/data cabling in the standoffs and endcones. And those are liable to last for 50 years or more absent moisture and corrosive gases in the atmosphere (which are either prohibited from the station environment altogether or removed by the TCCS of the ARS racks). Unless the MMDS looks like it's been peppered by birdshot, the core elements will be fine. It's the external elements which will need replacing: PV arrays, TCS radiators, exposed power/data/fluid lines, etc.

Even so, the Russian segment is the big issue, it uses older designs that were meant for at most a decade or two. Zvezda is simply another Mir Core, and Zarya is a derived TKS module.
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also, keep in mind that keeping the ISS around thru 2020/2028...will be expensive. I agree we should keep it up there for a bit, since the science return is going to go through the roof now that assembly is nearing completion. It's about 2 billion dollars a year to keep the station active. That comes out of the nasa budget which is already strained a bit. So that means exploration, unmanned and manned, as well as R&D and all other areas take a hit

damn budgets

some info on some iss research
HSF - International Space Station
regarding enabling technologies to go to mars
General ISS Science: NASA - NASA - Space Station Science
Weekly (with some delay) Science update: NASA - International Space Station (ISS) Research - from the ISS Program Scientist
Publications: NASA - ISS Experiment and Facility Results Publications
List of all experiments performed by all expeditions (you can also search alphabetically and chronologically): NASA - ISS Experiments by Expedition

this is russion experiments, but who cares, it is utilization of the ISS
Science Research On ISS Russian Segment
INTERNATIONAL SPACE STATION

Human Life Research
INTERNATIONAL SPACE STATION
Read more about these experiments on the left

Geophysical Research
INTERNATIONAL SPACE STATION
Read more about these experiments on the left

Earth Resources Sensing
INTERNATIONAL SPACE STATION
Read more about these experiments on the left

Space Biotechnology
INTERNATIONAL SPACE STATION
Read more about these experiments on the left

Technical Research
INTERNATIONAL SPACE STATION
Read more about these experiments on the left

Integrated Analysis And Program Formation
INTERNATIONAL SPACE STATION
Read more about these experiments on the left

Contract Activities
INTERNATIONAL SPACE STATION
Read more about these experiments on the left

Study Of Cosmic Rays
INTERNATIONAL SPACE STATION
Read more about these experiments on the left

Educational And Humanitarian Projects
INTERNATIONAL SPACE STATION
Read more about these experiments on the left

Space Technology And Material Science
INTERNATIONAL SPACE STATION
Read more about these experiments on the left

Problems Of Space Power Systems
INTERNATIONAL SPACE STATION

Interesting factoid: viruses become more virulent after going to space. So they are trying to figure out how to decrease the risks of virus infections for astronauts as well.

Article about the "Microbial Drug Resistance Virulence" experiment to be carried out during STS-123, a direct follow-on of a similar experiment whose results were published at the end of last year, showing that Salmonella has greater virulence after being in space, as other types of bacteria before:

Microscopic 'astronauts' to go back in orbit

"In the new experimental wrinkle, the team will test a hypothesis that may lead to decreasing or preventing the risk for infectious diseases to astronauts. The experiment will determine if the modulation of different ion (mineral) concentrations may be used as a novel way to counteract or block the spaceflight-associated increase in the disease-causing potential that was seen in Salmonella. "
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and that was in 2008. Apparently they found a treatment for salmonella due to this research.
NASA - Vaccine Development

i think we were talking about spacesuits earlier in the thread?

A series of six sample spacesuit pressure garment assembly (PGA) fabric samples were prepared for the Materials International Space Station Experiment 7 (MISSE-7) flight experiment to test the effects of damage by lunar dust on the susceptibility of the fabrics to radiation damage. These included pristine Apollo-era fluorinated ethylene-propylene (FEP) fabric, Apollo-era FEP fabric that had been abraded with JSC-1A lunar simulant, and a piece of Alan Bean s Apollo 12 PGA sectioned from near the left knee. Also included was a sample of pristine orthofabric, and orthofabric that had been abraded to two different levels with JSC-1A. The samples were characterized using optical microscopy, field emission scanning electron microscopy, and atomic force microscopy. Two sets of six samples were then loaded in space environment exposure hardware, one of which was stored as control samples. The other set was affixed to the MISSE-7 experiment package, and will be mounted on the International Space Station, and exposed to the wake-side low Earth orbit environment. It will be retrieved after an exposure of approximately 12 months, and returned for post flight analysis.

http://ntrs.nasa.gov/archive/nasa/casi.ntrs.nasa.gov/20090041618_2009042207.pdf
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NASA - Payoffs from ISS Research

thats an update for now
 
Goshin said:
here is sidemount, which probably won't be picked
A39.jpg

it lifts 100 tons or so to low earth orbit, but carries it's giant fairing the whole way and is a little unsafe in terms of crew ejection if something bad happened on the pad
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I don't understand why they put so much attention on this when it's already been shown that if something bad happens on the pad, they're (b)doomed. They're not going to have time to leave the rocket and pile into the cable car and zip to safety.

It's also been shown that after lift-off they will have, at a minimum best-case scenario, 2 seconds to detect a problem and initiate separation of the crew capsule/shuttle from the rocket. This is not enough time for the crew to gain enough distance from the on-going catastrophe to avoid becoming part of it, themselves. When the shit hits the fan, it hits FAST.

Even the Apollo Saturn 5 rockets, with the crew ensconced in a cone at the very tippy-top with its own ejection rocket system were thought to have little chance of saving the crew should things go boom.
 
nSpectre said:
I don't understand why they put so much attention on this when it's already been shown that if something bad happens on the pad, they're (b)doomed. They're not going to have time to leave the rocket and pile into the cable car and zip to safety.

It's also been shown that after lift-off they will have, at a minimum best-case scenario, 2 seconds to detect a problem and initiate separation of the crew capsule/shuttle from the rocket. This is not enough time for the crew to gain enough distance from the on-going catastrophe to avoid becoming part of it, themselves. When the shit hits the fan, it hits FAST.

Even the Apollo Saturn 5 rockets, with the crew ensconced in a cone at the very tippy-top with its own ejection rocket system were thought to have little chance of saving the crew should things go boom.
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These systems are just American feel good systems. When it doesn't work it we can act all surprised and say we gave it our best try...
 
Every moment we spend not colonizing other objects in space is another tick closer to humanity getting wiped out before we get a foothold in our galaxy. Maybe this is why we are not up to our ears in aliens, they too all argued about the cost and "worthlessness" of space exploration right up to the extinction level impact event that ended every trace of them existing.

If we manage to luck out and the next 50 years don't contain a surprise planet killer we might just live to see what humans can do with a few million years of technological advancement. If not... I guess there will be no one around to care so it won't be all bad...
 
I really hope ares 1 is dead. DIRECT is the way forward. Ares 5 is sound and I'm willing to wait if they implement transition stuff until it's ready. Don't forget that the falcon 9 is due for test launch this year. I hear reports that lockheed went ahead with testing the x-33.. And aerospike research is still ongoing.

Shit's gettin real in the space race. I am excited. :)
 
nSpectre said:
I don't understand why they put so much attention on this when it's already been shown that if something bad happens on the pad, they're (b)doomed. They're not going to have time to leave the rocket and pile into the cable car and zip to safety.

[/b].

Even the Apollo Saturn 5 rockets, with the crew ensconced in a cone at the very tippy-top with its own ejection rocket system were thought to have little chance of saving the crew should things go boom.
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the ares 1 costs so much partly because its specifically designed to be like 99% safe for humans. it has an escape pod mechanism thats suppose to work

Image of the Day : Wrong Way Up
 
the ares 1 has a blackzone that can't be fixed without lots and lots of money and schedule delays (again)

Jupiter rocket is easier to deal with, since the capsule is higher from the SRBs instead of DIRECTLY ON TOP OF ONE
emphasis mine

the escape rocket system does work, it's much more powerful than the ones on the apollo capsules. They will also be wearing their space suits during launch i think incase of fire or whatever
the side mount is dead now too
so it's inline only. Either Jupiter or some derivative of Ares V. I'm ok with that. Falcon 9 remains to be seen unfortunately. I was pulling for spacex for most of last year. Heres to hoping they fire off the rocket and it works. If that happens, Bigelow can start preparing launch for his BA330, which would be such a boon for space access that it's silly

inflatibles in space just makes sense

there was an interesting article i read a bit back about why we havent seen aliens yet.
Most astronomers today believe that one of the most plausible reasons we have yet to detect intelligent life in the universe is due to the deadly effects of local supernova explosions that wipe out all life in a given region of a galaxy.

While there is, on average, only one supernova per galaxy per century, there is something on the order of 100 billion galaxies in the observable Universe. Taking 10 billion years for the age of the Universe (it's actually 13.7 billion, but stars didn't form for the first few hundred million), Dr. Richard Mushotzky of the NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, derived a figure of 1 billion supernovae per year, or 30 supernovae per second in the observable Universe!
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Supernova Shockwave -The Death Ray of Life in the Universe (VIDEO)
 
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