US Spaceflight for the future [update]

Doing IT at the Cape Canaveral launch site. I'll post a picture of my badge or something later. Can't take pictures of most of the shit out here though.
 
word
that's pretty sweet dude
new space creating jobs woo!!!

if i recall correctly, spacex's falcon 9 should be up with the Dragon by year end, or maybe a month or two into 2011.
so, awesome :bigthumb:
:king:
 
There's a test flight planned for November 8.
NASA - NASA's Shuttle and Rocket Launch Schedule

Date: Nov. 8 *
Mission: Commercial Orbital Transportation Services-1 (COTS-1)
Launch Vehicle: SpaceX Falcon 9
Launch Site: Launch Complex 40
Launch Window: 9 a.m. - 1 p.m. EST
Description: The first COTS test flight of the Falcon 9 rocket with the Dragon 9 capsule atop will demonstrate key launch capabilities including on-orbit operation, entry, descent and splashdown of the capsule.
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Edit: And yes, it's a pretty awesome place to work.
 
that's the ticket! Thought last test flight was pushed a few months, which is why i'm giving them a wider time to push off into space.
Hope all goes well though, cuz that means great things for commericial space and the space station

:king:
 
well they are allowing for zero g/micro g research to really expand (which is a good thing) and they are opening up space to a huge number of people, relatively speaking. 5 minutes of float, but the real kicker is seeing the curvature of the earth and getting that awe and inspiration to protect what little we have.

but yes, sub orbital is a few orders of magnitude easier than orbital flight.

:king:
 
Sigh at those comments.
http://www.cnn.com/2010/TRAVEL/10/15/space.tourism/index.html?hpt=C1
Guest
This story shows the disparity between the rich and the poor in the United States. We have people who can't pay for the necessities of life while others can spend $100,000 to $200,000 for a brief moment in space. Those successful business people would not be successful if it weren't for the workers ... more
0 minutes ago | Like | Report abuse

dale98
who in there right mind would waste money on this?oh i forgot,the stupid,fat,lazy american public.i have no job,i need to pay the rent,i need to put food on the table,no i'll waste it all on space travel.people in the usa,have more space,between there ears,then there is in space.more stupid stuff,to... more
0 minutes ago | Like | Report abuse

dR00 Can't wait until there's an accident. 6 less rich people to deal with.
6 minutes ago | Like (1) | Report abuse

papou This is the true waste of taxepayers money. This people steal so much and pay so little in taxes, they get to go in the moon...for $500,000
6 minutes ago | Like (1) | Report abuse
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CNN comments are a comedy goldmine. There are the usual obvious trolls, but some of them seem like serious answers that make you want to kill mankind.
 
i have a lot of updates today, assholes

so strap yourselves in, and pull out those cocks:
These first two links have to do with Bigelow's inflatable habs.
SPACE.com -- Bigelow Aerospace Soars with Private Space Station Deals
Bigelow Aerospace Begins Testing Life Support Systems with Crew | SpaceRef - Your Space Reference
Bigelow Aerospace LLC, Las Vegas, NV, has begun the process of human rating its Environmental Control and Life Support System. The contained volume humans in the loop testing is in preparation for the 2015 launch of Sundancer - an expandable module approximately 27ft long, 22ft in diameter, with an internal volume of 180m3 and supports a crew of three. When completed, the process will have demonstrated the life support system s ability to safely support a crew of three persons for extended durations.
This system has undergone rigorous long term testing using human metabolic simulators which has shown it to be fully capable of maintaining a living and working environment. Bigelow Aerospace has volunteered their very own astronaut and Program Manager, Bill Oefelein as well as their Chief Systems Engineer, Eric Haakonstad to be the first test subjects.
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interesting that the sundancer (not the b-330) will go up in 2015. They've pushed back their initial launch schedule quite a ways, but they've always been waiting for commericial crew (which will be at least till 2014).

regarding other countries and their use of the habs:
The deals, in the form of memorandums of understanding, involve Japan, the Netherlands, Singapore, Sweden, Australia and the United Kingdom.

"I'm also in the middle of developing a new client leasing guide that will be available toward the end of the year. It will have new and exciting pricing opportunities that are very dramatic," Bigelow said."We want to open up the window and doors for a lot of participation for folks that need to spend less."
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:king:
 
next up, the international community has finally decided on an International Docking Standard for spacecraft, stations, etc

WASHINGTON -- The International Space Station Multilateral Coordination Board (MCB) has approved a docking system standard. The international standard will provide guidelines for a common interface to link future spacecraft ranging from crewed to autonomous vehicles and from low-Earth orbit to deep-space exploration missions. The interface definition document is available at:

International Docking Standard

The MCB consists of senior representatives from NASA, the Russian Federal Space Agency; the Japanese Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology assisted by the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency; the European Space Agency; and the Canadian Space Agency. The MCB is the space station's senior level management board. It coordinates the orbiting laboratory's operations and activities among the partners.

"The goal was to identify the requirements to create a standard interface to enable two different spacecraft to dock in space during future missions and operations," said Bill Gerstenmaier, MCB chair and associate administrator for the Space Operations Mission Directorate at NASA Headquarters in Washington. "This standard will ease the development process for emerging international cooperative space missions and enable the possibility of international crew rescue missions."

This standardization effort will ensure interface commonality without dictating any particular design behind the standard interface. The document contains the information necessary to describe physical features and design loads of a standard docking interface.

The technical teams from the five space station partner agencies will continue to work on additional refinements and revisions to the initial standard.

The Multilateral Coordination Board released the document to allow non-partner agencies and commercial developers to review the new standard and provide feedback.
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The International Docking System Standard (IDSS) provides the guidelines for a common interface to link spacecraft together. It builds on the heritage of the Russian developed APAS system (Androgynous Peripheral Attachment System) used for the Space Shuttle for the ‘hard docking’ and the innovative soft-capture features of the new NASA and ESA systems. Other agencies will be free to choose specific features behind the interface.

ESA Portal - New international standard for spacecraft docking
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:king:
 
and finally, oddly...

NASA Ames Director Simon “Pete” Worden revealed Saturday that NASA Ames has “just started a project with DARPA called the Hundred Year Starship,” with $1 million funding from DARPA and $100K from NASA.

NASA Ames’ Worden reveals DARPA-funded ‘Hundred Year Starship’ program | KurzweilAI

Worden also mentioned some nearer-term ideas that NASA is exploring. One new propulsion concept is electric propulsion, said Worden. “Anybody that watches the [Star Trek] Enterprise, you know you don’t see huge plumes of fire. Within a few years we will see the first true prototype of a spaceship that will take us between worlds.”

Worden said NASA is also funding a new program to develop microwave thermal propulsion for getting to orbit. “The idea is if you can beam power to the spaceship, so you don’t have to carry all the fuel; and then you use that energy from a laser or microwave power to heat a propellant; it gets you a pretty big factor of improvement. I think that’s one way of getting off the world.”

Caltech grad student Dmitriy Tseliakhovich has also formed a company called Escape Dynamics LLC to commercialize the microwave thermal propulsion project. (Tseliakhovich’s team project at Singularity University this past summer grew out of Parkin’s work)

Meanwhile, back on Earth, Worden says NASA Ames is exploring another radical new concept: a heavy-lift airship that could carry hundreds of tons. “I think that could revolutionize air transport, because it becomes very cheap and still goes 100 knots. The idea is that you could easily go to Hawaii overnight, for example… with a lot less fuel.

“The long-term answer [to the rapidly accelerating growth of travel in the developing world and the increase in greenhouse gas] is a “Tesla in the air” — using high-density batteries powered off ground-based solar grids, so your airliner stays plugged in overnight, and it’s got an electrical engine rather than a chemical engine. I think within ten years we’ll have small-scale business-level ones, and within 20, they’ll be the airliners.
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ah, the return of air ships

i am going to love the future

:king:
 
Well you build yourself a big ship, stick you biggest telescope on there with a way to send signal to old earth, even if it takes 100 years for signal to get there, and go exploreing.
 
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