Next time you think sci-fi, think again

[Acecombat 0]

I dont think any russian plans for going to mars are going to be re-inforced any time soon judging by their financial conditions .... its a pity though i hope they commercialize the whole thing instead of keeping it state runned.

Only a competition can truly help both sides atm NASA is moving at its own pace slowly .... with money being spect elsewhere (Iraq ) it would havebeen good to use it here.

Btw what were those chinese plans of building a whole Lunar base about in 2010?

[denoir 0]

The Russian stock market went up something like 300% this year. Give them time - there is no country in the world that has the natural resources as Russia. And they have a hell of a space experience.

I would not count them out quite yet!

[m21man 0]

Quote[/b] ]And they have a hell of a space experience.

Can't argue with that .

Quote[/b] ]The Russian stock market went up something like 300% this year.

Wow. I didn't hear anything about this in the US ...

[bn880 5]

I would not count them out, but they have to settle down a bit with everything. Especially Chechnya and crime..

[Acecombat 0]

I didnt count them out completely just said that they dont have the money to pull this through yet ...

They definitely have the tech and expertise but nomoney makes it pretty much useless.

[m21man 0]

Unless they ask the Russian Mafia to help them out .

[Gollum1 0]

The Russian stock market went up something like 300% this year.

I was unaware of that.

And LOL @ Pathy.

[denoir 0]

I didnt count them out completely just said that they dont have the money to pull this through yet ...

Not yet, but this is a long term (10y+) project. And Russia is today the second fastest growing economy in the world, second only to China (incidentally also a country with space ambitions).

Today already, Russians are the masters of putting things in space. Or better to say, the Russians are leading with booster technology - far ahead of both NASA and ESA. And that's actually the most critical component of Mars travel. Getting to Mars is all about how many tons you can put up in space at once. The Russian Energia booster can something like ten times as much as the space shuttle and could already today be used to put some serious hardware on Mars. The next generation of NASA boosters, planned to be activated in 5-10 years have half the lift capacity that Energia has today.

For a Mars mission, I'd like to see this:

1. Russia (RKA) providing the heavy lift booster

2. USA (NASA) building the spacecraft and lander

3. EU (ESA) building the computer hardware, software plus the required robotics

(with cooperation in all three areas of course)

Edit: Oh yeah, I'm sure that China could contribute too, I'm just not sure what they are best at.

Possibly Japan too, but they really suck at this space thing. IIRC they have had an extraordinary number of failures in space missions.

[Konyak-2 0]

Edit: Oh yeah, I'm sure that China could contribute too, I'm just not sure what they are best at.

Possibly Japan too, but they really suck at this space thing. IIRC they have had an extraordinary number of failures in space missions.

They could provide most people per cubic feet Safety in numbers

Konyak

[hellfish6 7]

No more talking about fundamentalists, please. Keep it on topic.

[toadlife 3]

For a Mars mission, I'd like to see this:

1. Russia (RKA) providing the heavy lift booster

2. USA (NASA) building the spacecraft and lander

3. EU (ESA) building the computer hardware, software plus the required robotics

(with cooperation in all three areas of course)

Sounds good to me. This time, let's make sure they all agree on Metric/Standard before the project starts.

[SpeedyDonkey 0]

After winning the WC in football 2006 Finland should try sending one of those nifty little things to space aswell!

[Acecombat 0]

After winning the WC in football 2006 Finland should try sending one of those nifty little things to space aswell!

What?

Lets first get through the qualification rounds shall we?

[Acecombat 0]

China to launch next astronaut in 2005?

Friday, January 9, 2004 Posted: 9:53 AM EST (1453 GMT)

Quote[/b] ]BEIJING, China (AP) -- China's next manned spacecraft will be launched next year and will carry more than one astronaut, a newspaper said Friday, nearly three months after the nation put its first man into orbit.

The Chengdu Evening News in western China's Sichuan province said Shenzhou 6 would stay in space for more than one day.

The newspaper said Shenzhou 6 will blast off in the second half of next year. It cited Huang Chunping, general director of Shenzhou 5, China's first manned spacecraft.

The story was also picked up by the online edition of People's Daily, the ruling Communist Party's official newspaper, amplifying the report significantly.

The newspaper covers the space program closely because a key aerospace company is located in Chengdu, and one of China's rocket-launching bases is nearby.

"The successful launch of Shenzhou 5 not only boosted national pride but injected confidence into the research of the next spacecraft. Shenzhou 6 will carry more than one astronaut and stay more than one day in space," People's Daily said, citing Huang.

It said he spoke "very affirmatively" about the issue.

In October, astronaut Yang Liwei became a national hero when he returned from a one-day orbital mission in Shenzhou 5. On the same day, it announced plans for a space station.

China says it also expects to launch 10 large-scale satellites this year.

http://www.cnn.com/2004....ex.html

[denoir 0]

I think that say AQ, Iran and North Korea should join up and start a space program. I mean face it, the motivation during the cold war for rapid progress was not because the Soviet Union and USA wanted to do something good for man kind. It was because they wanted to drop atomic bombs on each other from higher ground. What we need now is really a terrorist base on Mars. That will speed things up!  

[m21man 0]

Quote[/b] ]I think that say AQ, Iran and North Korea should join up and start a space program. I mean face it, the motivation during the cold war for rapid progress was not because the Soviet Union and USA wanted to do something good for man kind. It was because they wanted to drop atomic bombs on each other from higher ground. What we need now is really a terrorist base on Mars. That will speed things up!

We're only a few hundred years away until we can have space shuttle bombings . Imagine how much Semtex you could store in the cargo bay of a shuttle .

[bn880 5]

For a Mars mission, I'd like to see this:

1. Russia (RKA) providing the heavy lift booster

2. USA (NASA) building the spacecraft and lander

3. EU (ESA) building the computer hardware, software plus the required robotics

(with cooperation in all three areas of course)

Bleh, Canada is not bad at Robotics and computer tech as well. I think there is a capacity to do quite a lot in Canada, if only the contracts were there. (well some are)

[denoir 0]

Ok, ok, updated list:

1. Russia (RKA) providing the heavy lift booster

2. USA (NASA) building the spacecraft and lander

3. EU (ESA) building the computer hardware, software plus the required robotics

4. Canada (RCMP) providing all the bacon and mounties that the astronauts can eat.

No, but seriously, NASA, RKA and ESA are the biggest space players today. After them comes China and Japan. I don't think that Canada is very high up on the space list and I also assume that most Canadian space related stuff is done within the domain of NASA.

[m21man 0]

Quote[/b] ]1. Russia (RKA) providing the heavy lift booster

2. USA (NASA) building the spacecraft and lander

3. EU (ESA) building the computer hardware, software plus the required robotics

The US can make its own electronics, you know. I'm not going to dispute Russia's position as booster-builders, but I'm sure that electronics can be created in the US.

[bn880 5]

God damn! I mean, ok sounds good.

[denoir 0]

Quote[/b] ]1. Russia (RKA) providing the heavy lift booster

2. USA (NASA) building the spacecraft and lander

3. EU (ESA) building the computer hardware, software plus the required robotics

The US can make its own electronics, you know. I'm not going to dispute Russia's position as booster-builders, but I'm sure that electronics can be created in the US.

The problem with US and Russian space related computer systems (both software and hardware) are that they are antiquated (If it ain't broken don't fix it ideology at work). NASA is still running FORTRAN code from the 60's on most platforms. The most modern use ADA from the late 70's. The Russians have some own obscure old format too.

ESA is far ahead both in terms of utilizing modern hardware and software. From a purely technological point of view, the Ariane 5 rocket is two or three generations ahead of both Russian and American ones. Also ESA is leading at robotics and sensors - they're even ahead of the Japanese today.

NASA's and RKA's strong points are more orbital mechanics and most of all reliability while they've been very conservative in implementing new technologies.

[m21man 0]

So long as they're careful and do all their measurements in one system .

[denoir 0]

Heh, that's more of a problem on your side of the pond   We only have the metric system in Europe.

I can't believe why anybody would use anything else for physics as it is really the standard for physicists and engineers everywhere, including the US.

Hopefully they learned from that mistake

[m21man 0]

Quote[/b] ]I can't believe why anybody would use anything else for physics as it is really the standard for physicists and engineers everywhere, including the US.

Hopefully they learned from that mistake

I hope the scientists have, the regular American people still want to stick with the American (aka screwed up) system. Actually, I think the government here once tried to change road signs to metric. Of course, some people who were too lazy to learn metric (How hard can it be ) decided it would be a good idea to shoot the signs and knock them over. Your everyday slice of Americana .

[denoir 0]

ESA had a wonderful mess of its own with the 5 series of the Ariane in the start. Basically they ported the 4 series system without properly checking everything.

The rocket of the 5 series has a bit different behaviour (it's more elastic and can vibrate more). The software didn't account for that. So at the grand premiere of the booster, five minutes into the flight, it started vibrating.

The main computer thought that there was some sort of error as the values were out of bounds and shut itself off, switching to the backup system. Then the backup system ended up in an error loop and shut itself off. And suddenly the rocket was just a very expensive ballistic dildo that crashed into the ocean