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Posts: 215 | Thanked: 158 times | Joined on Jan 2010
#71
Originally Posted by xomm View Post
Actually, I heard it from one of Michio Kaku's documentaries...
Michio Kaku is freakin' awesome!

The space elevator is a great idea; its simple and it gets rid of the controlled explosion to get into space.
 
Posts: 215 | Thanked: 158 times | Joined on Jan 2010
#72
Originally Posted by Dollyknot View Post
Mm when the whole stack is ready to rumble it weighs 2,000,000 kg, the idea of getting all that weight off the ground boggles the mind.

Space ship one fully laden, weighs 3,600 kg.

So how much moon mined delta v would it take to accelerate SS1to escape velocity?

Obviously the moon tug will have to have expend some fuel, getting from the moon to earth orbit and slowing down to the speed of SS1 which would be 3,518 km/h, then accelerate the whole kit and caboodle, back up up to orbital velocity and beyond?
Well, mass cancelled out in the equations. So the mass of the vehicle doesn't matter. However much energy it takes to get to orbit, it will take 90% of that energy to slow back down.

Also, comparing the mass of the shuttle to the mass of spaceshipone is not a fair comparison.

The shuttle stays in space for weeks, and carries a crew of 7. In order to do that, the shuttle has to carry food, water, oxygen, carbon dioxide scrubbers, air filters and vacuums, bathroom facilities, fuel cells, liquid hydrogen, liquid oxygen, hypergolic RCS fuel, Orbital Maneuvering Engines (OMS) and fuel, satellite transcievers, thermal radiators and cooling systems, space navigational systems like star trackers, a galley to cook food, places to sleep, EVA suits, oh yeah and it has a payload bay that can carry 15+ tons of cargo.

SpaceShipOne carries 1 guy and a pony-bottle of oxygen. Really, space ship one is much more similar to a Mercury capsule. It can't stay in space for more than a few minutes.
 
Posts: 92 | Thanked: 13 times | Joined on Nov 2009 @ leicester UK
#73
The problem is we don't have the time, the human race is being overwhelmed by a tide of decadence and pollution, we urgently need a sane direction. When we were exploring the planet we had a direction. We know where everything is now and it gets increasingly boring.

The kids need a dream that is realizable, space will never be achieved, unless a far cheaper method of reaching orbital velocity and beyond is reached and soon.
 
Posts: 215 | Thanked: 158 times | Joined on Jan 2010
#74
Originally Posted by Dollyknot View Post
The problem is we don't have the time, the human race is being overwhelmed by a tide of decadence and pollution, we urgently need a sane direction. When we were exploring the planet we had a direction. We know where everything is now and it gets increasingly boring.

The kids need a dream that is realizable, space will never be achieved, unless a far cheaper method of reaching orbital velocity and beyond is reached and soon.
I totally agree.

We recently launched a new satellite specifically designed to detect planets around other stars.

Living on a planet like mars or even the moon is difficult without a global magnetic field to shield from space radiation, a thick enough breathable atmosphere, adequate temperature and liquid water.

We are detecting new planets around other stars nearly every single day now.

I think that when we find an earth-like planet that meets all the above criteria - such that all we have to do is get there, there will be a resurgence in space travel - even if it is a century before we can make it to the new planet.

Last edited by Flynx; 2010-05-16 at 18:09.
 
Posts: 92 | Thanked: 13 times | Joined on Nov 2009 @ leicester UK
#75
The shuttle has been cancelled, Atlantis is flying her last mission, so NASA disagrees with you that the shuttle is a viable concept, if it were viable, they would be building new shuttles.

My idea has not been tried, so it is possible that it could work, the number of *experts* who got it wrong like the guy who said the planet would only need about 5 computer.

Or Bill Gates who said "640K of memory should be enough for anybody."
 
Posts: 1,400 | Thanked: 3,751 times | Joined on Sep 2009 @ Arctic cold of northern .fi
#76
Originally Posted by Dollyknot View Post
The problem is we don't have the time, the human race is being overwhelmed by a tide of decadence and pollution, we urgently need a sane direction.
Or maybe it would be better not to let humanity ruin the rest of the unverse as well.

 
Posts: 113 | Thanked: 8 times | Joined on Mar 2010
#77
what is the new rocket that is being developed i saw it on discovery a while back it reminded me of the old Saturn rockets for the Apollo missions, and the space elevator is defiantly the way to go to cut down costs;
how do you track far off planets its something to do with their sun having a wobble isnt it?
 
Posts: 215 | Thanked: 158 times | Joined on Jan 2010
#78
Originally Posted by Dollyknot View Post
The shuttle has been cancelled, Atlantis is flying her last mission, so NASA disagrees with you that the shuttle is a viable concept, if it were viable, they would be building new shuttles.
Actually... NASA wants to expand to asteroids, the moon, and mars.

Unfortunately, the Space Shuttle was designed specifically to be a complete bad-***** in LEO (Low Earth Orbit). The shuttle isn't capable of leaving LEO. So you can't go to the moon in a shuttle.

NASA needs a new vehicle, which Lockheed is working on (Orion). Problem is, the government won't give NASA enough money for both. So we are retiring the shuttles so we can spend that money on spacecraft that can leave LEO and go to places like the moon or mars.
 
Posts: 215 | Thanked: 158 times | Joined on Jan 2010
#79
Originally Posted by Rauha View Post
Or maybe it would be better not to let humanity ruin the rest of the unverse as well.

The Smiths were correct - humanity is a virus. It will expand until all its resources are consumed. Then move on or die out.
 
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Posts: 3,159 | Thanked: 2,023 times | Joined on Feb 2008 @ Finland
#80
[QUOTE=Dollyknot;660085]
Originally Posted by ossipena View Post
I am aware about the fact that bathroom tiles and ceramic tiles manufactured to spaceships thermal shields

Why do you think bathroom tiles and spaceship tiles have nothing in common, is it because you are god and must win every argument?
I am not a god. But all they have in common is some atoms. So almost anything has something in common to something...
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