"No astronauts or humans were on board the maiden flight"
This got me giggling too
SpaceX Crew Dragon Docks with International Space Station
211–220 of 273 posts
Re: SpaceX Crew Dragon Docks with International Space Station
#212Earlier quoted context omitted.
Everything about living on Mars is hostile to life. Doing anything there like mining and manufacturing will be orders of magnitude more difficult and for what? Wasn't there a fair bit of difficulty involved in building fleets of sailing ships and exploring the Earth? As it so happens, the reward for doing so was to become dominant in the new global geopolitical context. There's an incentive to keep up in the new expa…
It's been claimed that the high demand for timber is partially responsible for much of the deforestation of the British Isles. In fact, the demand was so high that the Colonies also provided a significant quantity. http://www.wou.edu/history/files/2015/08/Melby-Patrick.pdf
The performance of the large American frigates may be partially attributable to the characteristics of American timber.
https://www.quora.com/Why-did-USS-Constitution-bounce-cannon...
In Roman times, the British Isles were also a significant source of lead.
Re: SpaceX Crew Dragon Docks with International Space Station
#213Earlier quoted context omitted.
Did you notice NASA's RFP for a reusable lunar lander? Did you notice ULA's reusable/refuelable ACES is aimed squarely at BEO? And if SpaceX and Blue Origin bid for the 2 LOP-G resupply flights, they'll bid reusable launchers and claim significant cost savings. Sounds like everyone has reusable stuff in their plans. Believe what you want!
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I named 4 different organizations that think that reusability is important beyond earth orbit.
Also, saying "If you don't want to see that point I can't really help that" is not going to result in a good conversation.
Re: SpaceX Crew Dragon Docks with International Space Station
#214Re: SpaceX Crew Dragon Docks with International Space Station
#215Earlier quoted context omitted.
But our "redundancy site" is awful for human life. Imagine if we just worked on fixing up the place we live on already that has air we can breathe, abundant liquid water, and isn't inundated with deadly radiation. We will need to leave Earth in 5 billion years when the sun goes red giant. 5 billion years is an INCREDIBLE amount of time. Things we do in 2019 will have zero influence on those times. It is much more lik…
It's actually in about 100 million years as the sun gradually increases in luminosity.
Ask ten different scientists about the environment, population control, genetics and you'll get ten different answers, but there's one thing every scientist on the planet agrees on. Whether it happens in a hundred years or a thousand years or a million years, eventually our Sun will grow cold and go out. When that happens, it won't just take us. It'll take Marilyn Monroe and Lao-Tzu, Einstein, Morobuto, Buddy Holly, Aristophanes .. and all of this .. all of this was for nothing unless we go to the stars."
Re: SpaceX Crew Dragon Docks with International Space Station
#216Nice that it went flawlessly, the first stage landed back well, and they reached the ISS a bit ahead of time. They even did some intentional back and forth maneuvers to test the dragon. Do they need more tests before the manned flight?
They still need to do an in-flight abort test, which i'm super excited for. They are going to send the whole thing up a second time (I believe they will be using this EXACT Crew Dragon capsule after it comes back down), but this time they will abort the launch mid-flight around max Q which will trigger the capsule to eject safely away from the explosion behind it. It's going to be quite the sight, and if everything g…
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Re: SpaceX Crew Dragon Docks with International Space Station
#217Earlier quoted context omitted.
Which film?
Apparently there's a documentary coming out about Alex Honnold's free solo ascend of El Capitan. It's called "Free Solo"[1] [1] https://www.imdb.com/title/tt7775622/?ref_=nv_sr_1
It was already released and won an Oscar for Best Documentary Feature at the 2019 Academy Awards.
It's something that you should consider viewing if you have the chance. The cinematography alone is worth the price of admission // rental.
https://www.nytimes.com/2019/02/24/movies/oscar-winners.html
Re: SpaceX Crew Dragon Docks with International Space Station
#218Earlier quoted context omitted.
I watched Free Solo not long ago, yesterday I watched Falcon 9 launch then land flawlessly and today I watched Dragon 2 dock with the ISS. It's mind boggling how apt humans are to what should be impossible.
Imagine the energy and money spent on bickering and wars and ultimately useless junk were not.
Just wait until you hear about Wernher von Braun.
Re: SpaceX Crew Dragon Docks with International Space Station
#219Earlier quoted context omitted.
I like you ambition. However I seem to become more conservative and nostalgic with age. The thought of going on a one-way trip to Mars when you are 60 is scary. It is probably too cold and monochromatic for my taste. But thank you for the idea of longer term goals - "Experience zero-gravity and see Earth from outer atmosphere" is now on the list.
Virgin Galactic might make that happen sooner than later.
They’ve been promising that since spaceship one, 15 years ago.
Re: SpaceX Crew Dragon Docks with International Space Station
#220Earlier quoted context omitted.
I don't think any imports from Mars could be profitable. Except scientific data, of course. The colony will depend on Earth tech for a long time. The only case for a self-sustained colony I see is some local political extremism. To prefer to live on Mars by one's own means would take some very strong Earth-incompatible views.
The chance of a colony on Mars NOT seeking independence when it reaches a modicum of self-sufficiency is nil. Look at the US; separated by 6-12 weeks of sailing. It's human nature to seek to govern your own affairs, and with travel time to Mars being around 300 days, as soon as they can, they'll become independent.
I don't know. Look at Canada; separated by the same distance yet it remained a colony until 1931.
While rebellious space colonies has been a dependable sci-fi trope since the 50's, I am skeptical things would really work out that way given how dependent Mars would be on Earth for everything other than the very basics of self-sufficiency. I am talking about things like art (music, books, films) and the kinds of developments in science, medicine and engineering that can only be generated by having a support base of 8 billion people.