Stephen Hawking - For Humanitys long-term Survival, our future is in space
By
ApolloSteele,
Posted on: 2010-08-10 16:11 in Comic and Hero-Villain Culture
Quote:
It's too bad Russia's multi-billion dollar Buran space shuttle got trashed, huh?|
Originally Posted by Father Xmas
That may be true but man spaced flight is virtually extinct. In a year the US won't have the capacity to launch a man into orbit which leaves Russia and a fledgling China space program. SpaceX may have something in a couple of years but that's it.
Until we start to try to build bigger structures in space, we aren't going to be going anywhere, in any significant way, anytime soon. |
-np
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We have time. We've attained spaceflight in my lifetime. Our sun has plenty of fire left in it, and barring something cataclysmic we've got time to tiptoe out into space.
Don't Panic
Mostly harmless.
Be well, people of CoH.
Quote:
*cough* |
Originally Posted by Bonyfinger
We have time. We've attained spaceflight in my lifetime. Our sun has plenty of fire left in it, and barring something cataclysmic we've got time to tiptoe out into space.
Don't Panic |
It's not like there is a huge space rock that is coming right at us and if it's slowed or sped up just a little or has it's trajectory changed just a hair will hit us and kill us within the next 20-30 years >.> Nope not at all. Nothing like that.... Oh wait...
Come on, Apophis is only 900 ft in diameter and may be buzzing the Earth so close that it may disrupt the orbits of geosynchronous satellites and we will be able to watch it move across the night sky at a high rate of speed doesn't mean that there's anything to worry about. 
Father Xmas - Level 50 Ice/Ice Tanker - Victory
$725 and $1350 parts lists --- My guide to computer components
Tempus unum hominem manet
I really hope I'm alive to see a near-hit like that. That'd be one hell of a party night.
Be well, people of CoH.
Well you got less than 19 years to wait, April 13th 2029. My luck it'll be cloudy.
Father Xmas - Level 50 Ice/Ice Tanker - Victory
$725 and $1350 parts lists --- My guide to computer components
Tempus unum hominem manet
I think if there is hope, it's in this.
There are some absurdly wealthy people in the world. All it takes is one of them (or perhaps a handful) to make things happen.
But governments seem like a long-shot.
Yes, we need an Aeolia Schenberg.
Father Xmas - Level 50 Ice/Ice Tanker - Victory
$725 and $1350 parts lists --- My guide to computer components
Tempus unum hominem manet
Quote:
The Russians had good reasons to give up on it. |
Originally Posted by NinjaPirate
It's too bad Russia's multi-billion dollar Buran space shuttle got trashed, huh?
-np |
The Buran flew once, unmanned. It was an engineering test article (incomplete cabin, no life support system, etc). On that flight, it suffered severe structural damage; it was lucky to not have split in half on re-entry. It could not possibly have flown again. The launch vehicle that it rode on (unlike the US shuttle, it did not have it's own launch engines) was not very reliable; not that they built very many of them.
It didn't really do anything they needed, anway. They only built it because the US had a shuttle, so they had to have one, too. Their space stations were radically different than ours, and did not require that sort of vehicle to assemble.
(Arguments can be made that the US didn't really need one either, but that's getting into politics).
A person has very real short term goals that monopolize their life. What am I going to have for dinner? Does <insert name here> like me? What's on TV tonight? Is my boss going to be impressed by my presentation? What's opening on Friday at the theater?
Very long term goals need the collective will of a society, of a government, of a nation. Or people wealthy enough to know what needs to be done. We went to the moon because we had an enemy, a competitor and once we won that race we've been phoning it in. The best thing that can happen is another space race. The Chinese want to get to a man to the moon within 10 years. Let's see if we can beat them there.
SpaceX unveiled plans for the Falcon X and XX that can lift 140 tons into orbit, slightly more than the old Saturn V. Yea, they only got one Falcon 9 off the ground so far but at least they have a plan.
Bigalow Aerospace, which bought the inflatable TransHab module from NASA, is skipping the 2/3rds scale test platform after their two successful 1/3 scale tests in orbit and is looking to launch and test a full scale inflatable test habitat. Each one is self contained with power, cooling, life support and is more than 20% the volume of the ISS yet only has a launch mass of 10 tons. It's big brother has more than twice the volume. They have designs clustering them together and adding a propulsion system to move it into a lunar or interplanetary trajectories.
A former NASA astronaut has developed an electric plasma drive that would provide serious thrust for interplanetary travel. Japan currently has a solar sail in interplanetary space now and they just proved that they can steer it.
And the US just canceled it's shuttle replacement after one partial test flight.
We as a society need to be motivated to do this. I'm all for a BIG lie about a catastrophic threat 25 years into the future that would require the long term investment to avert it.
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