|
|
Thread Tools | Display Modes |
#1
|
|||
|
|||
"The End of Manned Spaceflight Looms Ever Closer"
"Paul F. Dietz" writes:
The OSP is cast as the latest folly: http://www.spacedaily.com/news/rocketscience-03zj1.html While most of the information in this article looks good, some is false (e.g. the one about Columbia "not adapted to dock with ISS"). Also, I'm not sure that flying Apollo CM's pulled from museums as CRV's would be a very good idea. The author seems to have forgotten the issues raised by the lower pressure CM during the ASTP mission. I doubt you'd want to mess around with this issue during an emergency that requires you to leave ISS in a hurry. Jeff -- Remove "no" and "spam" from email address to reply. If it says "This is not spam!", it's surely a lie. |
#2
|
|||
|
|||
"The End of Manned Spaceflight Looms Ever Closer"
"Paul F. Dietz" wrote in message ...
The OSP is cast as the latest folly: http://www.spacedaily.com/news/rocketscience-03zj1.html In that article it says: "But surely all the technological advances made since Dyna-Soar/Shuttle/Hermes will allow OSP to be much faster/better/cheaper," some of you are saying. Whenever anyone says this, I demand that they name those technological advances. Nobody is ever able to, since there haven't been any since about 1964, when NASA's narrow focus on the Moon Race caused them to stop funding basic rocketry research. As a space tether enthusiast, my answer to this is: 1) Spectra-2000 - very high strength cable for tethers 2) Hall Thrusters - can now get enough high ISP thrust to make reboosting a tether practical 3) The computers and software used for simulation are better now However, I too am amazed at how little progress there has been in areas I would expect NASA to do research in. In particular, I am amazed at the lack of progress in reentry technology. When looking for papers on transpiration, most of them are from back in the 1960s. It seems the DOD has ICBMs that use transpiration during reentry, but details of mass of vehicle, mass of water used, etc are secret (as far as I can tell anyway). It seems NASA has not done a single reentry experiment using transpiration. -- Vince ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Vincent Cate Space Tether Enthusiast http://spacetethers.com/ Anguilla, East Caribbean http://offshore.ai/vince ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ You have to take life as it happens, but you should try to make it happen the way you want to take it. - German Proverb |
#3
|
|||
|
|||
"The End of Manned Spaceflight Looms Ever Closer"
"Paul F. Dietz" wrote in message ...
The OSP is cast as the latest folly: http://www.spacedaily.com/news/rocketscience-03zj1.html Paul Lot of interesting suggestions. I thought of a while the guy did not know about the ATV. He does not seem to mention the ATV's reboost capability. Or that it has a bigger supply capacity than Progress. I think his idea of Nasa buying ATV's makes sense, however actually it is the Astrium division of EADS that builds the ATV (of which Daimler-Chrysler is only one member). |
#4
|
|||
|
|||
"The End of Manned Spaceflight Looms Ever Closer"
Raymond Chuang wrote:
Actually, there is still a better solution: a horizontally-launched spaceplane. Has anyone been following what Burt Rutan is doing with the White Knight/SpaceShipOne combo? That could become the technology demonstrator for a true spaceplane that could be launched from the top of a modified Boeing 747-200 fitted with a de-rated Shuttle main engine (which will allow the 747 to do a steep climb to 45,000 to 50,000 feet, the altitude of the spaceplane launch). Mach 4 and Mach 25 are very different goals. SS1 is an interesting step, but don't overstate the size of that step. Paul |
#5
|
|||
|
|||
"The End of Manned Spaceflight Looms Ever Closer"
"Paul F. Dietz" wrote:
Mach 4 and Mach 25 are very different goals. SS1 is an interesting step, but don't overstate the size of that step. SS1 is like a commercial X-15, except more oriented toward sub-orbital flight than super/hypersonic flight in the atmosphere. That is, I think, quite an achievement. Especially considering the way a lot of people go on and on about the X-15 in the sci.space newsgroups. The real achievement though will not be technological but operational. The creation of a profitable company dedicated to providing commercial manned spaceflight services. And the creation of a profitable aerospace venture creating new manned rockets for that purpose. That would be a far more impressive achievement, should it happen, and just now there's no guarantee it will, because it would mean all bets are off in manned space. It would mean that there was a path (via profitability and new vehicle design) to orbital manned spaceflight, and to new designs for such, and finally to activities *beyond* what governments have done so far. |
#6
|
|||
|
|||
"The End of Manned Spaceflight Looms Ever Closer"
"Raymond Chuang" wrote in message
... I remember one company is investigating something fairly similar by using a 747 to tow a spaceplane to 40,000 feet then launching the spaceplane--it will probably need a somewhat bigger propellant load and more powerful rocket motors, but it still won't need the huge propellant load the Space Shuttle now needs. You seem to be under a false impression that space transportation system that requires lots of propellant to get to orbit is a bad thing. The fact of the matter is, amount of propellant, number of stages, degree of reusability, launch method - all of them dont matter as long as the thing is cheap enough and reliable enough. -kert |
Thread Tools | |
Display Modes | |
|
|
Similar Threads | ||||
Thread | Thread Starter | Forum | Replies | Last Post |
Soyuz TMA-3 manned spacecraft launch to the ISS | Jacques van Oene | Space Station | 0 | October 21st 03 09:39 AM |
Management, mandate, and manned spaceflight | Greg Kuperberg | Space Shuttle | 55 | July 30th 03 11:53 PM |
The End of U.S. Manned Spaceflight? | Joseph S. Powell, III | Space Shuttle | 0 | July 29th 03 07:15 PM |
FUTURE MANNED LAUNCHER...... | Joseph S. Powell, III | Space Shuttle | 1 | July 27th 03 09:56 AM |
Article: "The End of US Manned Spaceflight is Looming Closer" | aero_engineer | Space Shuttle | 2 | July 11th 03 01:34 AM |