Europe, Russia discuss 'orbital shipyard' plans

"Space bigwigs in Russia and Europe are
working on ambitious plans for an international
space shipyard in orbit above the Earth,
according to reports. The orbital shipyard
would be used to assemble manned spacecraft
capable of travelling to the Moon or Mars."

Source:

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2009/05...d_discussions/

wrote:

"Space bigwigs in Russia and Europe are
working on ambitious plans for an international
space shipyard in orbit above the Earth,
according to reports. The orbital shipyard
would be used to assemble manned spacecraft
capable of travelling to the Moon or Mars."

Source:

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2009/05...d_discussions/

Yet another brave powerpoint from Russia.
--
Touch-twice life. Eat. Drink. Laugh.

http://derekl1963.livejournal.com/

-Resolved: To be more temperate in my postings.
Oct 5th, 2004 JDL

On Wed, 20 May 2009 09:40:29 -0700, dumpster4 wrote:

"Space bigwigs in Russia and Europe are working on ambitious plans for
an international space shipyard in orbit above the Earth, according to
reports. The orbital shipyard would be used to assemble manned
spacecraft capable of travelling to the Moon or Mars."

Source:

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2009/05...d_discussions/

I can see some logic to this. It is possible that this has advantages.

It avoids having to develop a true heavy lift capability. You can make
small man rated rockets to lift people; and larger, higher g non-man
rated rockets for freight.

On the down side, you have the difficulty of manufacturing in
microgravity and you also have to bring up the manufacturing
infrastructure.

What you really want to do is... (wait for it) ... build a manufacturing
plant on Mars. Once on Mars, you can use Martian materials, so you don't
have to bring as much mass up.

wrote:

Source:

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2009/05...d_discussions/


You beat me to it!
Lots of good stuff over on The Register.
If they did actually builds this, it would be a return to the old von
Braun concept of building spaceships at a space station.

Pat

Marvin the Martian wrote:

It avoids having to develop a true heavy lift capability. You can make
small man rated rockets to lift people; and larger, higher g non-man
rated rockets for freight.

In some drug addled world where rocket costs scale with size and non
man rated boosters sufficiently reliable to trust with irreplacable
billion dollar cargoes are noticeably cheaper per lb of cargo
delivered than man rated rockets, sure.

But we don't live in that world.

D.
--
Touch-twice life. Eat. Drink. Laugh.

http://derekl1963.livejournal.com/

-Resolved: To be more temperate in my postings.
Oct 5th, 2004 JDL

Derek Lyons wrote:
Yet another brave powerpoint from Russia.


You can see how this is supposed to work, can't you?
Russia will supply the Big Ideas, and the ESA is to fund it. :-D

Pat

"Marvin the Martian" wrote in message
news
What you really want to do is... (wait for it) ... build a manufacturing
plant on Mars. Once on Mars, you can use Martian materials, so you don't
have to bring as much mass up.

Or the Moon - nearer to Earth; no atmosphere at all (compared to Mars) and
half the gravity of Mars. Also the Moon's closer to the Sun, so solar
energy can be used for smelting materials and industrial processes.

On Thu, 21 May 2009 03:42:56 GMT, "Alan Erskine"
wrote:

What you really want to do is... (wait for it) ... build a manufacturing
plant on Mars. Once on Mars, you can use Martian materials, so you don't
have to bring as much mass up.

Or the Moon - nearer to Earth; no atmosphere at all (compared to Mars) and
half the gravity of Mars. Also the Moon's closer to the Sun, so solar
energy can be used for smelting materials and industrial processes.

The two-week nights are the killer.

Brian

Brian Thorn wrote:

:On Thu, 21 May 2009 03:42:56 GMT, "Alan Erskine"
wrote:
:
: What you really want to do is... (wait for it) ... build a manufacturing
: plant on Mars. Once on Mars, you can use Martian materials, so you don't
: have to bring as much mass up.
:
:Or the Moon - nearer to Earth; no atmosphere at all (compared to Mars) and
:half the gravity of Mars. Also the Moon's closer to the Sun, so solar
:energy can be used for smelting materials and industrial processes.
:
:The two-week nights are the killer.
:

Start at the poles.

--
"The reasonable man adapts himself to the world; the unreasonable
man persists in trying to adapt the world to himself. Therefore,
all progress depends on the unreasonable man."
--George Bernard Shaw

"Pat Flannery" wrote in message
...


Derek Lyons wrote:
Yet another brave powerpoint from Russia.


You can see how this is supposed to work, can't you?
Russia will supply the Big Ideas, and the ESA is to fund it. :-D

That's why none of these joint ESA/Russian proposals ever pans out. Even
ATV was mostly ESA. It's like Russia is the idea man, but ESA does all the
work. Luckily for ESA they've wised up and spend the money mostly in
Europe, not Russia.

Jeff
--
"Take heart amid the deepening gloom
that your dog is finally getting enough cheese" - Deteriorata - National
Lampoon