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Alternate title: If Goons did Spaceflight it would end up like SeaLaunch - The Spaceflight Megathread 3.0 The writing says: Do not point this bit down or you will not go to space today. Welcome to the third revision of the spaceflight megathread The one subject that we are not welcoming here is the "Buran vs Shuttle shitfest": Luceo posted:What I said was that there's a ridiculous amount of Buran-specific love in this thread for a spacecraft that only flew once. I'm a huge fan of the Russian space program; hell, it's actually the reason I studied the Russian language in college. Next Launch:   Delta IV-M+ to take USAF WGS-5 into Orbit, so USAF can tell each other just how much they see you fap.Rocket: Delta IV-M+ (5,4) Payload: WGS-5 Launch Location: Cape Canaveral SLC-37B Launch Window: 24 May 0027 UTC / 01:27am BST / 23rd May 8:27pm EDT Webcast: http://www.ulalaunch.com/site/pages/Webcast.shtml Upcoming Launch Manifest  Last Updated: May 7th You can also Sync to the Google Calendar!  Be warned, this is still a work in progress! Zaran fucked around with this message at May 21, 2013 around 11:09 |
| # ? Feb 18, 2013 20:19 |
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| # ? May 22, 2013 08:53 |
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Links to useful websites! - Stolen from last thread that was stolen from the thread before that. News sites http://www.astronomyaggregator.com/ - SA Goon Zero Gravitas' news site. Please help out by telling your friends! http://www.space.com http://www.spaceflightnow.com http://www.nasaspaceflight.com - including the obligatory plug for L2 on the forums http://www.nasaspaceflight.com/l2 Space Agency Sites http://www.nasa.gov http://www.federalspace.ru/?lang=en http://www.esa.int http://www.asc-csa.gc.ca/eng/default.asp http://www.cnsa.gov.cn/n615709/cindex.html http://www.isro.org/ http://www.jaxa.jp/index_e.html Private spaceflight companies The wikipedia article below has a list of companies, spacecraft, and links to each ocmpany's page. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_o...light_companies Blogs http://waynehale.wordpress.com/ - Required reading for all http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/beyondapollo/ - Came across this recently, plans for post-Apollo missions that never happened. Useful Encyclopedia-style websites http://www.astronautix.com/ - There is absolutely everything here. Seriously. http://www.russianspaceweb.com/ http://www.buran-energia.com/ If I missed a site or a link is dead let me know and I will fix it! If you are someone who hangs out on IRC, a lot of the posters in this thread can be found in #spaceflight @ irc.synirc.net Remember, if you too want to feel like this guy below:  Check out the Kerbal Space Program thread: http://forums.somethingawful.com/sh...hreadid=3485342 Past OP Images: Buran vs Shuttle Shitfest: http://i.imgur.com/Wt5iran.png (Never used this one in the OP, but sometimes refrence it in the thread) Kerbals of the Mun: http://i.imgur.com/nlo6vyM.png Iron Man Fixes Dragon: http://i.imgur.com/wfvHHiJ.png All of humanity, except Michael Collins: http://i.imgur.com/cNH3Qs0.jpg I just want to take this last line to thank thehustler who ran the last two threads and helped proof read the OP for me! Zaran fucked around with this message at May 9, 2013 around 13:02 |
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Great job Zaran!!
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| # ? Feb 18, 2013 20:24 |
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edit: goddammit, read right over it. ignore!
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| # ? Feb 18, 2013 20:31 |
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What was the big deal that people were unwilling to talk about from the last thread. It sort of turned into this circle jerk over who was paying for access to another forum that had some kind of inside information on some big spaceflight announcement. Has whatever that was been publicly announced yet?
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| # ? Feb 18, 2013 20:52 |
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Oh that was the announcement of the Golden Spike moon holiday company. We mostly laughed at it when it was made public and then forgot they exist.
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| # ? Feb 18, 2013 20:55 |
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That's it? Wow...underwhelming. Remind me to never get excited about space again. People were making it sound like we were going to land on Mars in the next 20 minutes.
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| # ? Feb 18, 2013 21:05 |
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Reposting because this was at the end of the last thread. Check out my pictures from my tour of KSC and the VAB yesterday: http://imgur.com/a/5lYiU 
Zero One fucked around with this message at Feb 18, 2013 around 21:14 |
| # ? Feb 18, 2013 21:12 |
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roymorrison posted:That's it? Wow...underwhelming. Remind me to never get excited about space again. People were making it sound like we were going to land on Mars in the next 20 minutes. Well, yeah. People got excited because some relatively big names were attached to the company, but once the details came out it became pretty clear that it is likely just another pie in the sky. e: The whole secrecy bullshit surrounding it got me to sign up for 2 months on L2. That is  I'm never getting back.
JohnSherman fucked around with this message at Feb 18, 2013 around 21:21 |
| # ? Feb 18, 2013 21:19 |
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Speaking of pie in the sky, what are the chances of this whole space asteroid mining industry actually taking off. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dVzR0kzklRE I watch these guys and my eyes cant help but roll into the back of my skull. Are they really going to be able to pull raw materials back to Earth in the next couple years? I hope so but I cant help but feel like I'm just listening to a slick sales pitch loaded with industry buzzwords while watching that video.
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| # ? Feb 18, 2013 21:25 |
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If they turn out to be unable to deliver on the mining front for the time being, as I am sure that at some point it will be viable perhaps just not yet, they will make a killing selling the Arkyd 100. $4Mill for a space telescope? I can think of a load of universities that will jump on that as soon as they can even here in the UK. Due to their small size you can probably get a good going rate to have yours sent up cheap on the Arianespace Vega or the Indian PSLV, perhaps even secondary cargo on the Falcon 9 or Falcon Heavy.
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| # ? Feb 18, 2013 21:33 |
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So on a scale from 1 to "Ahahaha you're still insane but maybe if we've very lucky," what effect will the Russia impact/explosion have on space funding?
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| # ? Feb 18, 2013 21:35 |
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roymorrison posted:Speaking of pie in the sky, what are the chances of this whole space asteroid mining industry actually taking off. It will work if they can get a vast array of theoretically possible, but untested, technologies all to work on the first try without the incremental development normally associated with spaceflight. In other words, no. There's not a chance in the world this is going to work or prove to be economically feasible if it ever does. I'm unsure if it's just braggadocio from monied egos or a flat-out scam.
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| # ? Feb 18, 2013 21:35 |
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Does anyone know if Bigelow will have a chance to test one of their inflatable habitats anytime soon? I vaguely recall hearing something about it.
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| # ? Feb 18, 2013 21:40 |
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redshirt posted:Does anyone know if Bigelow will have a chance to test one of their inflatable habitats anytime soon? I vaguely recall hearing something about it. Yes! They are sending one to the ISS in 2015, using the SpaceX Dragon's external trunk space to ship it.
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| # ? Feb 18, 2013 21:45 |
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JohnSherman posted:Well, yeah. People got excited because some relatively big names were attached to the company, but once the details came out it became pretty clear that it is likely just another pie in the sky. Mine all the docs you can out of it. It was a lot more fun having L2 when the Shuttle was around.
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| # ? Feb 18, 2013 21:46 |
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Also I really am sorry about the L2 stuff 
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| # ? Feb 18, 2013 21:47 |
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It's OK, lets talk about Buran instead.
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| # ? Feb 18, 2013 21:53 |
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Deteriorata posted:In other words, no. There's not a chance in the world this is going to work or prove to be economically feasible if it ever does. I'm unsure if it's just braggadocio from monied egos or a flat-out scam. A big part of the problem is that there's not a lot of money in the incremental steps, so you can't really have start-ups coming out to say "well, someday we want to mine asteroids, but only after a decade of trial and error with very little likely return." The fact that somebody has to go first and do all the unexciting, unprofitable stuff is a huge road block for private spaceflight ventures that aren't just trying to iterate on stuff we already do.
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| # ? Feb 18, 2013 22:00 |
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Some pics I meant to post in the last thread, but forgot to because I'm a scrub:  
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| # ? Feb 18, 2013 23:36 |
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Icon Of Sin posted:Some pics I meant to post in the last thread, but forgot to because I'm a scrub: I think the shuttle was one of the bigger mistakes our government has ever made, but damned if I don't get a weird feeling seeing the flight articles relegated to a museum...
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| # ? Feb 18, 2013 23:48 |
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MrYenko posted:I think the shuttle was one of the bigger mistakes our government has ever made, but damned if I don't get a weird feeling seeing the flight articles relegated to a museum... A Winner is Jew posted:The intent was sound (mostly re-usable orbiter and launch vehicle), but the execution was mostly all hosed up due to the Air Force adding on a bunch of poo poo to the program so they could take it in case of communists or something like that. I dont say the "b-u-r" word, but i reject the opinion that the worlds only operational manned spaceplane in history can be considered a mistake. If compromises had to be made to get it funded, that can only be considered a failure if you share how else exactly they should have paid to get the thing built and beyond the prototype/testing phase.
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| # ? Feb 18, 2013 23:53 |
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MrYenko posted:I think the shuttle was one of the bigger mistakes our government has ever made, but damned if I don't get a weird feeling seeing the flight articles relegated to a museum... The intent was sound (mostly re-usable orbiter and launch vehicle), but the execution was almost all hosed up due to the Air Force adding on a bunch of poo poo to the program so they could take it over in case of communists or something like that.
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| # ? Feb 18, 2013 23:53 |
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MrYenko posted:I think the shuttle was one of the bigger mistakes our government has ever made, but damned if I don't get a weird feeling seeing the flight articles relegated to a museum... It was a beautiful piece of tech, if nothing else. It could get into LEO (which is an accomplishment all it's own), dock with the space station, survive re-entry (with one exception) at ~Mach 25, and glide to landing. A piece of machinery that can do that (repeatedly) is still pretty amazing, all things considered. And seeing it up close was amazing in it's own right 
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| # ? Feb 19, 2013 00:15 |
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MattD1zzl3 posted:I dont say the "b-u Stop it. Stop it right there. I swear this thread had better not turn into another dick waving poo poo fest about whose spaceships are the best or whether spaceplanes are cool or whatever. I just can't take it. \/\/\/ Edit: Buran inevitably turns into a long, drawn out circular discussion about whether Buran was better than the Shuttle, which leads to a discussion about how terrible the shuttle was, which is ground that we've trodden roughly ten zillion times give or take a launch failure, and it's just boring at this point. Volmarias fucked around with this message at Feb 19, 2013 around 00:26 |
| # ? Feb 19, 2013 00:16 |
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Bistromatic posted:It's OK, lets talk about Buran instead. The amount of goons who loving complain about this in these threads is amazing. Edit: Close the thread already, because apparently a few people can't talk about space without getting extremely upset when the Buran gets mentioned.
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| # ? Feb 19, 2013 00:18 |
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DeusExMachinima posted:So on a scale from 1 to "Ahahaha you're still insane but maybe if we've very lucky," what effect will the Russia impact/explosion have on space funding? One would hope this will make a lot more people take the asteroid threat seriously, but I'm guessing it won't. My cynical self says either we need to spot a large one well in advance that's guaranteed to hit or a city needs to get wiped out by an asteroid before we do anything about it. But who knows. This is the first meteor strike that did any kind of serious damage to a populated area, so maybe it'll get things rolling.
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| # ? Feb 19, 2013 00:24 |
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Grand Fromage posted:But who knows. This is the first meteor strike that did any kind of serious damage to a populated area, so maybe it'll get things rolling. CNN was doing a piece on how the children were all scared because of the meteor. I think we need to have a meteor smack into a city in Western Europe or the US before we see any funding.
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| # ? Feb 19, 2013 00:28 |
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Grand Fromage posted:But who knows. This is the first meteor strike that did any kind of serious damage to a populated area, so maybe it'll get things rolling. Space power nations might get more involved with asteroid interception/ mining because of the dual use implications. Russians don't want America to independently develop technology for directed meteorites and vice versa. Hence the existence of Buran.
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| # ? Feb 19, 2013 00:29 |
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So that Indian satellite launch is interesting. I'd never thought about it, but India is a pretty good country for a launch site. Equatorial, good tech base and supply of educated workers, english is widely spoken... I think I'd rather work there than French Guiana. However, their launch base is on the east coast, against the Bay of Bengal. For a launch to polar orbit, doesn't the rocket have to go west? Are they going to be firing back over land? If there's one thing India doesn't have a lot of, it's unoccupied space where a failed rocket could fall safely. Volmarias posted:another dick waving poo poo fest about whose spaceships are the best *at least in terms of accomplishing a lot with limited resources
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| # ? Feb 19, 2013 02:04 |
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roymorrison posted:Speaking of pie in the sky, what are the chances of this whole space asteroid mining industry actually taking off. In all the concept images it shows these probes happily melting material off of what appears to be a perfectly still asteroid. I imagine a 100m asteroid could do a lot of damage to a tiny space probe if it rotated into it. How will they handle the fact that most asteroids have quite a bit of rotation to them? How do you stop an asteroid from spinning? I imagine it would take quite a bit of force to stop something with the density of platinum.
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| # ? Feb 19, 2013 02:05 |
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I just want to say the cyanotype prints this guy sells are fantastic. I got two of the Orion ones for Christmas, and I was so impressed I ordered two more.
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| # ? Feb 19, 2013 02:08 |
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Beer4TheBeerGod posted:I just want to say the cyanotype prints this guy sells are fantastic. I got two of the Orion ones for Christmas, and I was so impressed I ordered two more. Well. Thanks. There goes the rest of my spending money for this month.
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| # ? Feb 19, 2013 02:19 |
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Icon Of Sin posted:Some pics I meant to post in the last thread, but forgot to because I'm a scrub: I think I have my own version of each one of these.  I bring this up literally every time I see someone post pics of Discovery at Udvar-Hazy, but did you get a picture of the Gemini VII capsule just to Discovery's starboard side? The mind boggles at two guys spending nearly 14 days in that thing. Here's a quick phone shot I took the second time I visited discovery. The woman and toddler just walking into the hangar are Mrs. and N+1th Doctor. 
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| # ? Feb 19, 2013 02:56 |
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Deteriorata posted:It will work if they can get a vast array of theoretically possible, but untested, technologies all to work on the first try without the incremental development normally associated with spaceflight. MattD1zzl3 posted:I dont say the "b-u-r" word, but i reject the opinion that the worlds only operational manned spaceplane in history can be considered a mistake. If compromises had to be made to get it funded, that can only be considered a failure if you share how else exactly they should have paid to get the thing built and beyond the prototype/testing phase. Elukka fucked around with this message at Feb 19, 2013 around 03:29 |
| # ? Feb 19, 2013 03:24 |
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Klyith posted:So that Indian satellite launch is interesting. I'd never thought about it, but India is a pretty good country for a launch site. Equatorial, good tech base and supply of educated workers, english is widely spoken... I think I'd rather work there than French Guiana. Polar orbits go either (mostly) North or South. From India, I'd assume they'd be launching south, out over the ocean.
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| # ? Feb 19, 2013 03:28 |
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And another asteroid mining company appears: "Today's impact in Russia and the near miss by asteroid 2012 DA14 should shock the world enough to finally act with determination to create an appropriate defense system. Since we didn't even see the comet coming that exploded yesterday over Russia injuring over 1200 people and damaging buildings, a detection system in orbit would be a first step. The newly founded asteroid mining company Deep Space Industries is proposing to install a sentry line of spacecraft circling the Earth to intercept and evaluate incoming threats - a project on which they are already working." http://www.scienceworldreport.com/a...ense-system.htm http://deepspaceindustries.com
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| # ? Feb 19, 2013 03:39 |
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Nth Doctor posted:I think I have my own version of each one of these. I have that exact same picture too  I took a lot of photos while there, those were just the 3 that I had floating around my imgur account. That entire hangar (where the shuttle itself is) is amazing, with the Apollo, Gemini and Mercury capsules, space suits, heat shields, and all the other aircraft there as well. The Enola Gay has a home there, along with a few surviving Nazi warplanes (like the rocket-powered plane that I forget the name of), a Concord, an SR-71 Blackbird (which on it's final flight went from LA to DC in like 2 hours  ) and among a lot of other things I'm just not remembering right now. Admission to it is free (though you have to pay for parking  ) and I highly recommend going.Is this the capsule you're thinking of? It barely looks like it would fit one person, but I can see NASA cramming 2 people into it.  e: Imgur is finally spitting out some other pics too. A Saturn V Instrumentation Unit: 
Icon Of Sin fucked around with this message at Feb 19, 2013 around 04:45 |
| # ? Feb 19, 2013 04:37 |
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Icon Of Sin posted:Is this the capsule you're thinking of? It barely looks like it would fit one person, but I can see NASA cramming 2 people into it.
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| # ? Feb 19, 2013 05:05 |
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| # ? May 22, 2013 08:53 |
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Icon Of Sin posted:
I tried to find some of the pictures from my Gemini capsule, but they didn't turn out so well in a very cramped room.  Little trivia for everyone: Did any pre-shuttle craft ever get reused for 2 missions? uapyro fucked around with this message at Feb 19, 2013 around 05:14 |
| # ? Feb 19, 2013 05:11 |
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