US Spaceflight for the future [update]

The base Falcon 9 is a two stage, LOX/RP-1 powered launch vehicle. Its first stage is powered by nine SpaceX Merlin 1C rocket engines with 125,000 lbf sea level thrust per engine for a total thrust on liftoff of just over 1.1 million lbf.

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The F-1 is a rocket engine developed by Rocketdyne and used in the Saturn V. Five F-1 engines were used in the S-IC first stage of each Saturn V, which served as the main launch vehicle in the Apollo program. The F-1 is still the most powerful single-chamber liquid-fueled rocket engine developed[1] (the RD-170 is more powerful but it has 4 chambers).[2
Each F-1 engine had more thrust than all three space shuttle main engines combined.

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Hawthorne, CA - March 15, 2010 – Space Exploration Technologies (SpaceX) and Space Systems/Loral (SS/L), have signed an agreement for the launch of an SS/L manufactured satellite aboard a SpaceX Falcon 9 as early as 2012. For this mission, Falcon 9 will launch from the SpaceX launch site at Cape Canaveral and insert the satellite into a geosynchronous transfer orbit (GTO).
Space Systems/Loral (SS/L) is the world's leading provider of GEO commercial satellites with 40 percent of the high-power market since 2004. The company has an international roster of blue-chip customers, and its 1300 model satellite is a decades-proven, modular platform with the industry’s highest power capability and the flexibility to support a broad range of applications including high definition television and broadband.
"SpaceX is proud to be selected by Space Systems/Loral as they are one of the premier manufacturers of commercial satellites and the industry leader in satellite sales," said Gwynne Shotwell, president of SpaceX. "With 24 Falcon 9 flights now on manifest, SpaceX has established itself as an excellent partner for both commercial and government customers, and we look forward to supporting Space Systems/Loral on this launch."
"Like SS/L, the SpaceX team is committed to flawless performance and reliability," said John Celli, president of Space Systems/Loral. "We are working closely with SpaceX to ensure the success of a 1300 launch based on our many years of experience. With numerous Falcon 9 launches on their manifest over the next two years, we are assured of a successful flight history in advance of our mission."

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Data said:

Guess size does matter.

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nSpectre said:

I love concept animations.

Reaction Engines Limited :: LAPCAT A2 Animation: Flash

They're like corporate videos. They have their own unique look and feel. Like paintings in restaurants and hotels.

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erhaps when/if humans get the ability to travel between star systems they'll also get the ability to destroy entire planets with the interstellar drive systems of the vessels they created. There's a scary thought.

That is actually precisely the plot-line of Charles Pellegrino's novel "The Killing Star", for which the Valkyrie is merely the instrument.

Any ship capable of travelling at relativistic velocities is also a relativistic missile. If the relativistic missile travels faster than 0.866 c, the kinetic energy is greater than if its rest-mass were transformed entirely into energy (and it is therefore more destructive than a block of anti-matter the size of the ship). Plus, a relativistic missile is impossible to defend against, because of light-lag (by the time you see it, it is almost on top of you).

And a relativistic missile is much easier to build than a relativistic starship, since it doesn't have to slow down...

In the novel, humanity is virtually wiped out by an alien relativistic bombardment. The aliens later admit they decided to do this the moment they became aware that humanity is capable of building relativistic spacecraft, because these are also the ultimate weapon. After that it was merely a matter of "doing it unto them before they do it unto us"...

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"Lightsail-1 fits into a volume of just three liters before the sails unfurl to fly on light. It's elegant,"

- Bill Nye the Science Guy, Planetary Society Vice President.

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Goshin said:

heres the space where you can ask about space debris, or solar sails and how they work, where i can dig up more info for those that care
or whatever

but no
you all suck and dont give two shits about the species

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Tribalbob said:

i'd say your girlfriend lied to you, but i'm not aware of you ever having had one.

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I worked at ARC in 2001 alongside the PSA team ( PSA Education Page - History ), but lost track of its development over the past few years. The SPHERES pages seems similar, and farther along since there are pics of KC-135 test flights. But I couln't see the connection to the PSA program, no visible heritage from PSA, and none of the people are common to both programs.
Always seemed like a strange program to me, went very slowly with few connections to real astronaut office requirements, but seemed like a pretty good idea. I can understand the hesitancy to use a bowling ball size device that can get itself going pretty fast but may or may not actually stop.

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I see the main problem with testing SPHERES is they need too much human interaction: both after their test flights, and in the preparation and setup for any new tests. That puts too much pressure on the already busy general ISS crewmember timelines to try and work test flights into them.

Additional large difficulties are the amount of space needed for storage, where that storage can be most efficiently located in already pretty full ISS modules, and the time needed in a test schedule for just digging everything out and getting it checked, prepped, and ready to test.

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