What? No talk about the Mars Rover?

Taz-in-Space · #1 January 13th, 2004, 06:51 AM

IF we get a larger space program, it will probably be rockets again.
The Space Shuttle fleet was originally only going to be a temporary measure. There is very little that we did with shuttles that we couldn't have done with rockets.
Given that Maglev is fairly new, would YOU want to be the first to try it?

I only wish we would have found Gold nuggets the size of baseballs on the moon way back then.
We'd probably would have operational MINES on the moon by now...

narf poit chez BOOM · #2 January 13th, 2004, 11:50 AM

Quote:

I only wish we would have found Gold nuggets the size of baseballs on the moon way back then.

you really want to give control of that much gold to a government?

geoschmo · #3 January 13th, 2004, 12:16 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by narf poit chez BOOM:

quote:

I only wish we would have found Gold nuggets the size of baseballs on the moon way back then.

you really want to give control of that much gold to a government?

I think the point is if we had found vast resources lying around on the moon, then by now industry and private enterprise would have found a way to get there. Rather then waiting on the government to do it all. And that would mean access to space for the rest of us that aren't in NASA.

Narrew · #4 January 13th, 2004, 07:25 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by Taz-in-Space:
Given that Maglev is fairly new, would YOU want to be the first to try it?

Well, I was just thinking of large payloads, not people. I picture a huge rail running up along the side of some tall mountian. I remember reading a book (it may have been "The Moon is a harsh Mistress") where the moon was a prison colony that was raising grain and mag-railed capsules back to the earth full of grain, but then the prisioners took control and then started shooting huge bolders back at earth ect...

JurijD · #5 January 14th, 2004, 07:21 PM

I do recall that Bush senior proposed going back to the Moon way back during the end of the 1980s or beginning of 1990s... what happened to that anyway? Maybe sonny here is just doing what dad started

Maybe someone should get the blueprints of that big ol' russian Rocket... Nositel 1 I think it was called. I mean balancing out those 30 odd engines shouldn't be a problemn today with all the computing power we have... and besides those rockets looked so COOL. Too bad so many blew up in their faces on take off... no wait I think they all blew up hehehe... maybe we'd also need to talk to some of the former KGB officials that had all the spare parts destroyed and buried after the moon program was abandoned... correction ERASED

Yeah I too was SO annoyed when they canceled Venture Star... I mean why the hell did they do that. It was almost working and they had several ful-size engies and a smaller prototype of the thing built and estimates said it would reduce the cost of goin to space by 70%-90% compared to the space shuttle. Those stupid %#&#"!"$#!

[ January 14, 2004, 17:38: Message edited by: JurijD ]

geoschmo · #6 January 14th, 2004, 07:25 PM

New NASA space plane

Loser · #7 January 14th, 2004, 09:44 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by JurijD:
Yeah I too was SO annoyed when they canceled Venture Star... I mean why the hell did they do that. It was almost working and they had several ful-size engies and a smaller prototype of the thing built and estimates said it would reduce the cost of goin to space by 70%-90% compared to the space shuttle. Those stupid %#&#"!"$#!

It was canceled because it wasn't working, wasn't going to work. The entire project depended on a whole suite of unobtainable technologies. The folks that sold the idea to the government budget people led them to believe that each of these technologies only needed a little more time, just a little more money thrown at it, before they would all be ready and work together.

Well, they didn't. It sucked and should have gotten the boot a hell of a lot sooner. Instead it sat around eating up money that could have been spent on projects with real world potential. Tragic.

The simple fact is that we, the humans of Earth, simply lack the technology required for single-stage-to-orbit. Anyone who tells you otherwise is blowing smoke in your ear.

Oh, and the Soviet Rocket worth attention is the Energia. It is the largest rocket in the world and is capable of getting enough mass far enough out to put a man on Mars, if I recall correctly. Unfortunately, the trip would be made with minimal shielding against radiation and there would be no provision for a return.