NASA Buys 12 Seats On Soyuz
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NASA Buys 12 Seats On Soyuz
1–10 of 19 posts
Re: NASA Buys 12 Seats On Soyuz
#2It's easy to see this as tragic or humiliating, but I think if you look deeper the current situation is actually quite exciting. It's true that the US has stopped building spaceships and has stopped going to space on its own, but this is very very temporary. The private companies (specifically SpaceX) are picking up the slack fast and should be able to do full ISS resupply missions within a few years.
And I'd definitely bet that the NASA will be the first organization to build the epically huge rockets, the heavy lifters to take people to asteroids and eventually to Mars. They'll take longer than any of us want to wait, but they'll do it properly and safely and it'll be magical.
Here's to hoping the Russians or Chinese decide they can beat us to Mars. That'd do the trick nicely, get the competition going and the excitement in the air.
Re: NASA Buys 12 Seats On Soyuz
#3I thought that they weren't allowed to because Russia is an axis of evil / evil empire / not in the coalition of the willing/ eats peas with their knife - or whatever the term of the day is.
Re: NASA Buys 12 Seats On Soyuz
#4It's easy to see this as tragic or humiliating, but I think if you look deeper the current situation is actually quite exciting. It's true that the US has stopped building spaceships and has stopped going to space on its own, but this is very very temporary. The private companies (specifically SpaceX) are picking up the slack fast and should be able to do full ISS resupply missions within a few years. And I'd definit…
Yes, it would get the competition going again, but I think it may be China that have the determination and drive to pull that one off (if they keep to their schedule). Although the US has been known to pull a few rabbits out of their hats from time to time. But perhaps not as willing to take risks any more and that may be what is needed.
Re: NASA Buys 12 Seats On Soyuz
#5It's easy to see this as tragic or humiliating, but I think if you look deeper the current situation is actually quite exciting. It's true that the US has stopped building spaceships and has stopped going to space on its own, but this is very very temporary. The private companies (specifically SpaceX) are picking up the slack fast and should be able to do full ISS resupply missions within a few years. And I'd definit…
Yes, it would get the competition going again, but I think it may be China that have the determination and drive to pull that one off (if they keep to their schedule). Although the US has been known to pull a few rabbits out of their hats from time to time. But perhaps not as willing to take risks any more and that may be what is needed.
Sadly I agree with you. The loss of a couple shuttles was a very public event and I think that has taken some steam out of the drive to push the edge. Exploration is by its nature risky and you just can't make it completely safe. All the money and time you spend trying to eliminate (not reduce, eliminate) the risk factor only destroys budgets and delays advancement.
I use the analogy of ships of explorers/settlers heading for the new world. Some ships never made it, some did but the settlements never took. Today we cross the oceans almost without thinking about it. Space is no different, just on a grander scale. But when those early settlers board the ships they will be taking the risk too. If our ancestors didn't do it we wouldn't have explored the world until the late 1900's. Nor would we have learned to build reliable ships as quickly.
Re: NASA Buys 12 Seats On Soyuz
#6Earlier quoted context omitted.
Yes, it would get the competition going again, but I think it may be China that have the determination and drive to pull that one off (if they keep to their schedule). Although the US has been known to pull a few rabbits out of their hats from time to time. But perhaps not as willing to take risks any more and that may be what is needed.
Sadly I agree with you. The loss of a couple shuttles was a very public event and I think that has taken some steam out of the drive to push the edge. Exploration is by its nature risky and you just can't make it completely safe. All the money and time you spend trying to eliminate (not reduce, eliminate) the risk factor only destroys budgets and delays advancement. I use the analogy of ships of explorers/settlers he…
That's the risk - you make an unnecessary manned vehicle to launch satellites because you can get funding for it being 'our brave heroic astronauts' then when it goes wrong the same publicity comes back and bites you.
Exploration of the West wouldn't have been possible if Nasa had been in charge: http://www.spacefuture.com/vehicles/how_the_west_wasnt_won_n...
Re: NASA Buys 12 Seats On Soyuz
#7Earlier quoted context omitted.
Sadly I agree with you. The loss of a couple shuttles was a very public event and I think that has taken some steam out of the drive to push the edge. Exploration is by its nature risky and you just can't make it completely safe. All the money and time you spend trying to eliminate (not reduce, eliminate) the risk factor only destroys budgets and delays advancement. I use the analogy of ships of explorers/settlers he…
That's the risk - you make an unnecessary manned vehicle to launch satellites because you can get funding for it being 'our brave heroic astronauts' then when it goes wrong the same publicity comes back and bites you. Exploration of the West wouldn't have been possible if Nasa had been in charge: http://www.spacefuture.com/vehicles/how_the_west_wasnt_won_n...
Or, to put it bluntly, if you are not killing people, you are not pushing hard enough.
I may be a weird person, but since when strapping yourself to a tank, the size of a building, filled with high explosives and riding it to orbit could be expected to be a safe thing?
If astronauts wanted safety, they'd be accountants.
Re: NASA Buys 12 Seats On Soyuz
#8Earlier quoted context omitted.
That's the risk - you make an unnecessary manned vehicle to launch satellites because you can get funding for it being 'our brave heroic astronauts' then when it goes wrong the same publicity comes back and bites you. Exploration of the West wouldn't have been possible if Nasa had been in charge: http://www.spacefuture.com/vehicles/how_the_west_wasnt_won_n...
Or, to put it bluntly, if you are not killing people, you are not pushing hard enough. I may be a weird person, but since when strapping yourself to a tank, the size of a building, filled with high explosives and riding it to orbit could be expected to be a safe thing? If astronauts wanted safety, they'd be accountants.
The problem is that Nasa don't seem to have a reason for having astronauts there - other than without the astronauts there would be no interest and no Nasa.
You could make it safer by replacing the Shuttle with an Apollo era capsule and sticking it on the front of every commercial ArianeV / Atlas IV launch. Wouldn't be any point in having the man there but it would be safer manned spaceflight.
Re: NASA Buys 12 Seats On Soyuz
#9SpaceX looks like it may do a great job in the currently envisioned outside contactor role. The Constellation program under Mike Griffin would have done a great job, but now that's billions of dollars wasted. Keeping the shuttles going would have done a good job in the interim at least, but now the upcoming, indefinitely long gap in national manned spaceflight capability threatens to erode the workforce. Having NASA's programs totally reworked every time there's a new president, on timescales smaller than those of developing new spaceflight capabilities and programs, has been a disastrous recipe for waste. Yet, it's hard to knock its record of accomplishment in the 60's when it had a clear mandate that was kept stable for long enough. If only it could be shielded from the whims of political leaders.
Re: NASA Buys 12 Seats On Soyuz
#10I thought that they weren't allowed to because Russia is an axis of evil / evil empire / not in the coalition of the willing/ eats peas with their knife - or whatever the term of the day is.
Apparently they have a special exemption. It's illegal for dell to let somebody in Russia download a driver but it's OK for the US government to pay for Russian rocket launches.