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rreilly656

Technology

NASA to De-Orbit International Space Station In 2016

By Posted on 7.13.2009 39 Comments
Despite nearing completion after more than a decade of construction, and recently announcing some upcoming improvements to accompany its full crew of six astronauts, NASA plans to de-orbit the International Space Station in 2016. Meaning the station will have spent more time under construction than completed.

7.14.2009 at 06:20pm - Comment by rreilly656

rodreilly I really, really think this is misinformation. I could be wrong, but it doesn't smell right.
Technology

NASA to De-Orbit International Space Station In 2016

By Posted on 7.13.2009 39 Comments
Despite nearing completion after more than a decade of construction, and recently announcing some upcoming improvements to accompany its full crew of six astronauts, NASA plans to de-orbit the International Space Station in 2016. Meaning the station will have spent more time under construction than completed.

7.14.2009 at 06:18pm - Comment by rreilly656

rodreilly NO WAY can this be right. 2016? No way. Please go back and check your sources. It makes no sense because: NASA cintracted a COTS program with SpaceX and OSC for ISS resupply. These companies won't be flying resupply missions any earlier than 2012, if then. The Ares/Constellation/Constellation system won't be up and running any earlier than 2016, and -- while the eventual destination is the Moon -- it is intended as the U.S. transportation to the ISS. These timelines make absolutley no sense if the station is going to be de-orbited in 2016. Go back and check your sources again.
Technology

So You Wanna Be a Space Explorer? Sure Thing: Cash or Credit?

By Posted on 2.4.2009 7 Comments
Move over, Sir Richard Branson. Someone else wants to play in your space sandbox. Thanks to a not-exactly-generous US$9.68 million injection from the EU, a new program is poised to offer competition to existing space-tourism services offered by Virgin Galactic, Xcor Aerospace, and Blue Origin. The funding will go toward the design, development and experimental validation of hybrid propulsion engines for the Future High-Altitude High-Speed Transport (FAST) 20XX program, which includes two separate "vomit comet" concepts. The first launch is scheduled within a decade.

2.5.2009 at 04:03pm - Comment by rreilly656

rodreilly """""Take the Big Bill from Comet 1 and use it to build an electromagnetic light rail system (L.R.T's) so you can get from Sydney to Berlin and back in Less then 90, possibly with the a boost from hydrogen fuel cells and energy conversion. Materials and Design able to withstand extreme weathering."""""""" Seriously, a train from Berlin to Sidney? How is building a rail system with all the attendant challenges halfway around the globe and under/over oceans etc. a better bet than going by air/spacecraft?
Technology

So You Wanna Be a Space Explorer? Sure Thing: Cash or Credit?

By Posted on 2.4.2009 7 Comments
Move over, Sir Richard Branson. Someone else wants to play in your space sandbox. Thanks to a not-exactly-generous US$9.68 million injection from the EU, a new program is poised to offer competition to existing space-tourism services offered by Virgin Galactic, Xcor Aerospace, and Blue Origin. The funding will go toward the design, development and experimental validation of hybrid propulsion engines for the Future High-Altitude High-Speed Transport (FAST) 20XX program, which includes two separate "vomit comet" concepts. The first launch is scheduled within a decade.

2.5.2009 at 03:59pm - Comment by rreilly656

rodreilly Comet 2 sounds like a better bet for an orbital vehicle, and a whole lot sooner than 2075. Seriously, 2075? That's a misprint, right? An orbiter with a drop tank that carries the boost phase propellant in the drop tank could use more conventional rocket engines rather than not-yet-developed hypersonic airbreathing engines. We already know how to "do hypersonic" with rockets. This would be a "virtual SSTO" since the only thing discarded would be the boost-phase drop tank. No need to fly the tank back, at least in an initial design -- just parachute it into the ocean, where it will float without flotation devices needed. Tow it back like the Shuttle SRBs and the planned recovery methods for the SpaceX Falcon series. Again, editors, please check if 2075 is a typo. Also, EU funding for a competitor to genuinely private efforts? Good luck with that. It will cost more and take longer to build (which implies that the 2075 timeline may NOT be a typo!) than a private venture.
Technology

Obama Clashes With NASA Moon Program

By Dawn Stover Posted on 12.11.2008 18 Comments
NASA Administrator Michael Griffin is not playing nice with the Obama transition team, according to a post by Robert Block of the Orlando Sentinel. He reports that Griffin is resisting efforts by former NASA associate administrator Lori Garver, who heads Obama's space transition team, to "look under the hood" of the space program.

12.12.2008 at 05:09pm - Comment by rreilly656

rodreilly: Oh, and yes, Griffin does indeed look a lot like Martin Short: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Martin_Short.jpg
Technology

Obama Clashes With NASA Moon Program

By Dawn Stover Posted on 12.11.2008 18 Comments
NASA Administrator Michael Griffin is not playing nice with the Obama transition team, according to a post by Robert Block of the Orlando Sentinel. He reports that Griffin is resisting efforts by former NASA associate administrator Lori Garver, who heads Obama's space transition team, to "look under the hood" of the space program.

12.12.2008 at 04:19pm - Comment by rreilly656

rodreilly: Before the torrent of passionate but wrong-headed comments begins, let me add a note of caution and sanity: We don't really know what went on in any personal exchanges between Griffin and Garver. Also, while there are valid criticisms of NASA's technological approach with Ares I in particular, some of the accusations are a bit over the top. Oh, and no, SpaceX is NOT going to save the day, OK?
Scaled Composites WhiteKnightTwo

By Posted on 11.11.2008 Comments
With the wingspan of a B-29 bomber, the WhiteKnightTwo is the largest all-carbon-fiber aircraft ever built. Its mission is to carry a smaller craft, SpaceShipTwo, and drop it at 48,000 feet, where it will blast off into suborbital space with paying passengers—in 2010, if all goes well. Virgin Galactic’s CEO, Richard Branson, also wants to use WhiteKnightTwo as a low-cost way to launch satellites into orbit. Scaled Composites engineers had to overcome numerous setbacks, including a fatal explosion at the company’s headquarters, to finish the craft.

12.2.2008 at 04:27pm - Comment by rreilly656

rodreilly """""Why isn't NASA pouring their multi-billion dollar budget into something like this,instead of their Saturn V makeover,Ares V? Carry the payload to 60,000+ feet (using a much more economical air-breathing vehicle rather than a rocket),and THEN use rockets for the final push into orbit.Seems like a no-brainer to me!"""""" How BIG a plane to you plan to use? The Ares V is intended to put up even bigger payloads than the Saturn 5 did. Can't do that with an airplane. Which "more economical" air-breathing engines are you talking about? Scramjets? Not far enough along yet. Ramjets? Maybe, but why not all-rocket? Why have two sets of engines on your orbiter? Air-launch is fine for sending up several people at a time, but not for building space infrastructure.
Technology

Going Up?

By Paul Adams Posted on 9.24.2008 68 Comments
One of the most promising technologies for the aspiring outer-space commuter is the space elevator. The concept, like quite a few others, was pressed into the public imagination by Arthur C. Clarke, who in his 1979 novel The Fountains of Paradise described a incredibly thin, incredibly strong carbon filament with one end anchored on Earth and the other extending up to a satellite in geostationary orbit. Now, a group of Japanese scientists are convinced that they can build a space elevator more quickly and cheaply than has been believed possible. Such a cable could convey cargo into space very cheaply and easily. Carriages would travel up and down the cable under modest power, not the vast expenditures of energy that are currently needed to send anything into orbit.

10.21.2008 at 05:02pm - Comment by rreilly656

""""Will the Japanese be the first to elevate to space?"""" No. The most baffling, head-scratching notion to me is the idea that a technology that's in its very early experimental stage (carbon nanotubes) is going to lead directly to a space elevator. It won't. Manufacturers are only just now using the technology in tennis rackets, and, long before we can have "space elevators," the material has to be used extensively in car and airplane bodies, bridge construction, other structures, etc. As a matter of fact, when I think of carbon nanotubes and Space, I think of rocket fuselages made of nanotube-derived material so that single-stage-to-orbit launchers would be much easier to build and operate, even with conventional rocket propulsion. The next step would be space tethers dozens of miles long, rather than 22K miles of "elevator." A tether suspended from a space station could grab sub-orbitally-launched payloads from the upper atmosphere, and reel them up into orbit. After all that, then, MAYBE we'll be ready for a full-fledged space elevator.