Re: The Final Frontier or Ye Olde Space-Exlporation Thrade
American astronaut Colonel Catherine Coleman (on board the International Space Station) and Ian Anderson (of Jethro Tull fame) performed a flute duet in Gagarin's honor. Very nice.
__________________
“The greatest way to live with honor in this world is to be what we pretend to be.”
Re: The Final Frontier or Ye Olde Space-Exlporation Thrade
What's the deal here? Gagarin attacked Ft. Sumter from orbit? Why was I not informed of this?
__________________ Old Pain In The Ass says: I am on a mission from God to comfort the afflicted and afflict the comfortable; to bring faith to the doubtful and doubt to the faithful.
Re: The Final Frontier or Ye Olde Space-Exlporation Thrade
Private Rocket Firm Under Pressure to Fill Space Shuttle Void
Quote:
Private rocket builder SpaceX is trying to speed up testing of its new Dragon spaceship to enable it to visit the International Space Station on the next demonstration flight.
With NASA's space shuttle program set to retire later this year, the pressure is on for commercial providers to compensate for the loss of the shuttles' enormous cargo-carrying capability.
"We have a very serious responsibility here because the space shuttle is coming to a close ... What we've been told by NASA is that if we don't reach the space station by the end of this year, there's a risk that they will have to de-man the space station next year. We've got to be sure that we get to the space station. That is very much our primary focus."
I actually had a contact at SpaceX through an engineer friend in California that I used to play volleyball with. When I separated from the Air Force and moved back there in 2008 (jesus fucking christ has it been that long?!) he tried to get me in for an interview, but they wouldn't consider anyone without a graduate-level degree. My highest credential apart from my military experience is still my GED, so yeah, that did not happen.
Re: The Final Frontier or Ye Olde Space-Exlporation Thrade
It's interesting that when the shuttle is retired, US Astronauts will be launched by the Soyuz rocket which is just a development of a Russian missile that first flew in 1957.
Despite its age, the Soyuz is the most reliable launch vehicle ever flown. It shows, perhaps, that NASA went up a blind alley with the shuttle - sticking with an expendable launch system like Soyuz or a development of the Apollo Saturn launcher would have been a better decision. We might have landed men on Mars by now.
Hindsight is, unfortunately, something we don't have in advance.
Re: The Final Frontier or Ye Olde Space-Exlporation Thrade
Quote:
Originally Posted by ceptimus
Despite its age, the Soyuz is the most reliable launch vehicle ever flown. It shows, perhaps, that NASA went up a blind alley with the shuttle - sticking with an expendable launch system like Soyuz or a development of the Apollo Saturn launcher would have been a better decision. We might have landed men on Mars by now.
Hindsight is, unfortunately, something we don't have in advance.
American engineers sometimes sneeringly refer to Russian rockets as "BDB"s -- "Big Dumb Boosters" -- because of their relatively low technology. But then, that's why they're so reliable -- because they're so relatively simple and have so few complicated components that might fail.
Sometimes, simpler is better.
__________________
“The greatest way to live with honor in this world is to be what we pretend to be.”
Re: The Final Frontier or Ye Olde Space-Exlporation Thrade
Quote:
Originally Posted by Ensign Steve
This is the official thread to talk about advances in space exploration that don't have to do with Mars.
Manned space programs are a big dud compared to the unmanned programs. How can prancing on the moon or even mars compare to observing objects billions of light years from earth?
The next major adventure in space exploration will commence when the James Webb Space Telescope is up and running.
Re: The Final Frontier or Ye Olde Space-Exlporation Thrade
The hover text for that one is what's really depressing.
Quote:
The universe is probably littered with the one-planet graves of cultures which made the sensible economic decision that there's no good reason to go into space--each discovered, studied, and remembered by the ones who made the irrational decision.
Re: The Final Frontier or Ye Olde Space-Exlporation Thrade
Hate to be a hater - I usually <3 xkcd - but if there really are space-faring civilisations discovering the remains of planet-bound ones, then where the fuck are they?
Re: The Final Frontier or Ye Olde Space-Exlporation Thrade
The xkcd hover text does say "each", as in all of them. Allowing for hyperbole, it still seems like such a naive level of spacetech-optimism that I can't take it seriously, even as the sort of bittersweet joke that xkcd can do so well. Now maybe that's depressing.
Re: The Final Frontier or Ye Olde Space-Exlporation Thrade
This doesn't necessarily expand our understanding of outer space but it's still wicked cool.
Quote:
What you see above is the largest true-color photograph of the night sky ever created, shot by 28-year-old amateur astrophotographer Nick Risinger using six astronomical cameras. It’s not just the view of the sky from one location, but is instead a 360-panoramic view of the sky taken by trekking 60,000 miles across the western United States and South Africa starting in March 2010.
Re: The Final Frontier or Ye Olde Space-Exlporation Thrade
is.
awesome.
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