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Astronauts enter China's space station [video]

bbc.com

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Re: Astronauts enter China's space station [video]

#51

Post by fbender »

Tuna-Fish wrote: post #30
tjohns wrote: post #21

Earlier quoted context omitted.

We can launch things to space, yes. But we don't have any vehicles that have life support, abort, or re-entry capabilities. It would be a short, one-way trip. So no, we really can't send anyone to space right now. And the Soyuz is actually pretty safe, relatively speaking. Aside from two notable failures early on, Soyuz hasn't had a fatality in 27 years.

> We can launch things to space, yes. But we don't have any vehicles that have life support, abort, or re-entry capabilities. Dragon has all three. The reason there are not people it right now is just that there is not enough experience with it to rule it safe. If the risk was ruled worth it, the very next CRS mission could take people up to the ISS.

While it does have "a life support system", this basically means ventilation and some environmental monitoring & control (incl. N2 and maybe O2 for repressurization). It does not mean that it can sustain a vertebrate let alone humans for a substantial period of time. Experiments sent to the ISS containg lifestock always have their own life support system embedded.

The integrated life support system is designed so astronauts can access Dragon while attached to the station, not to sustain them. It receives all utilities from the station and returns "used utilities" (i.e. consumed air) back to the station's systems. It cannot reprocess/regenerate the components by itself.

Re: Astronauts enter China's space station [video]

#52

Post by madaxe_again »

throwaway123098 wrote: post #29
ChoHag wrote: post #25

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> But we were not _really_ behind. We should keep telling ourselves that. It may also help us convince ourselves that our arsehole is indeed the best place for our head to be.

Also, Explorer 1 had scientific payload (which discovered the Van-Allen belts), unlike Sputnik

Sputnik was the science payload - at that point the US were still saying it'd be years until orbit was reached.

Ironically, had it not been for the space race, we might have a more mature space program now, rather than one largely based on 1940s technology and engineering. They rushed to production and massively invested in a single model on both sides, rather than exploring options fully before commencing - similar applies to nuclear technology, insofar as thorium would have been the better tech, but was too late to the party to gain traction, never mind the weapon byproduct bit.

Re: Astronauts enter China's space station [video]

#53

Post by manarth »

exDM69 wrote: post #32
ChoHag wrote: post #26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's the point: we may not know until we have days or hours remaining to achieve them.

As far as I know, there's no party on earth who could execute a space mission on one month notice. And such a mission would have very little capabilities due to poor preparation time. Whatever doomsday scenario you are concerned about, it's not a realistic goal.

And an impending catastrophe so urgent that it needed an immediate launch would be unlikely to leave Russia or China unaffected, so any breakdown in relations would be quickly put aside for the sake of [deflecting meteors/fighting alien invaders/saving the moon from being eaten by a giant space shark].

Re: Astronauts enter China's space station [video]

#54

Post by manarth »

ballooney wrote: post #13
stickfigure wrote: post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

No private institution has achieved manned orbit. That's because manned orbit is motivated by prestige, not rational economic behavior.

Not really, there are commercial agreements in place between both SpaceX and Boeing, and Nasa, as part of its Commercial Crew Programme. The current estimates are that they will not launch until 2018, three years behind the original schedule: http://www.parabolicarc.com/2016/09/01/nasa-oig-report-delay... I also have customers who have been sold slots for their satellites on Falcon Heavy which is now 4 years behind s…

Whilst it's frustrating for the customers whose launches are delayed, I'm sure they're accepting the delay for rational economic reasons, otherwise they would switch to an alternative supplier.

Re: Astronauts enter China's space station [video]

#57

Post by palunon »

kuschku wrote: post #49
Hondor wrote: post #44

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Astronaut is the original English word. Cosmonaut is a transliteration from the Russian word for astronaut. So if we're speaking English, we should use astronaut regardless of the country they're from. Otherwise we're forced to invent silly new words that nobody understands like taikonaut and what will we call Indian astronauts or whoever's next? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Astronaut#Terminology

The argument is that Astronaut means "sailor of the stars", but "Cosmonaut" means "sailor of the cosmos". As they’re obviously not sailing between stars, but in the cosmos, Cosmonaut is obviously the correct term.

What about Spationaut ? They are sailing through space...

Re: Astronauts enter China's space station [video]

#58

Post by manarth »

miaoever wrote: post #46
505 wrote: post #7

Are the docks compatible with Soyuz?

no.

It sounds like there are mixed opinions on that - the Chinese docking system is reportedly a clone of the Russian APAS-89/APAS-95 docking system (which is also in use on the ISS).

So it's possible, but there doesn't seem to be a definitive answer at the moment.

Re: Astronauts enter China's space station [video]

#59

Post by finid »

freyfogle wrote: post #20
vinchuco wrote: post #17

Initially read this as "US astronauts enter China's space station". That would have been interesting.

Valid confusion. Correct headline would be "Taikonauts enter China's space station" Cosmonauts = Russian Taikonauts = Chinese Astronauts = Western

Any idea what the Indian version of is? Hindunauts?

Re: Astronauts enter China's space station [video]

#60

Post by Retric »

jcoffland wrote: post #4
djaychela wrote: post #3

Earlier quoted context omitted.

True, but is it not the case that NASA is focused beyond the level that's being achieved by the Chinese? I appreciate that the sls has its detractors (I'm from the UK so I don't think I have the same internal political perspective that a US commenter might), but aside from that the US government appears to have helped create a nascent private space industry that will yield real fruit in terms of both leo capacity and…

My statements above were neutral but yes I do think that the US and the western world in general are falling behind. What happens if US and Russian relations break down? Privatization of the US space industry is interesting but has yet to prove itself. No private institution has achieved manned orbit.

Having people in space is kind of pointless right now. Yes, it's a low G environment, but ISS is in such a low orbit that people in my state can be further from me than an overhead ISS 'Astronauts'. It's even protected by earths magnetic field making it a poor test of long term space flight.
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