Shuttle Lanch!

[denoir 0]

If the moon and eventually Mars is the target, then big-ass stuff is needed. It's one thing dropping things in low earth orbit, and a very different breaking completely free from Earth's gravity.

The only heavy lift boosters that could do that were the American Saturn V and the Soviet Energia. They've lost the schematics for the Saturns and the Russians can't afford to build Energias. IIRC there was a US plan of building a new generation of boosters that would in size be between the current heavy lifters and the Energia. As for Ariane, well, ESA seems to be happy with using them for earth orbit insertions and use Russian boosters for the rest.

Probably the most cost effective deal would be a joint NASA-ESA-RSA financing of building Energia boosters.  If the Russians know something, it's heavy lifting.

Perhaps the Chinese could be interested in participating as well - they've worked quite a lot with ESA and AFIK the cooperation has been very successful.

[Supah 0]

There were new SRB's developed for the shuttle which incorporated new safety features and had a much better design for the O-rings which caused the first accident with the shuttle but these were programs were cut after 2.2 billion was spent on them. The SRB's developed now are basically the same but with EVERY new safety feature budget cut out of them. The shuttle its self as a design is flawed due to budget cuts, it was planned as single stage to orbit but once the public eye was deverted to other things politicians quickly slashed its budget. The result? A vehicle that was marginally cheaper development wise but WAY WAY WAY more expensive operationally. Politicians should learn to not interfere with science but alas

[denoir 0]

Not shuttle, but space related:

Quote[/b] ]

The HRSC on ESA's Mars Express obtained this perspective view on 2 February 2005 during orbit 1343 with a ground resolution of approximately 15 metres per pixel.

It shows an unnamed impact crater located on Vastitas Borealis, a broad plain that covers much of Mars's far northern latitudes, at approximately 70.5° North and 103° East.

The crater is 35 kilometres wide and has a maximum depth of approximately 2 kilometres beneath the crater rim. The circular patch of bright material located at the centre of the crater is residual water ice.

And here are ful-rez versions (13 Mb/ 10 Mb)

http://esamultimedia.esa.int/images....Ice.jpg

http://esamultimedia.esa.int/images....Ice.jpg

Now this is just the way it should be. The images were taken with the 3-D High-Resolution Stereo Camera on Mars Express. I truly hope this sets the standard for future space imaging.

[Ex-RoNiN 0]

Wanna watch the spacewalk?

[FireflyPL 0]

I believe the planned new model for the space shuttle has alot of potential. It looks like it can hold alot of cargo.

I hope it doesn't get scrapped in the coming years.  

This project was just a concept and never was going to be build. So this concept was abandoned a few years ago. NASA has to build new shuttles because Discovery is going to be scraped in 2007/2008, Atlatnis in 2010 and service of Endeavour is due to end in 2012. After that they might build first CEVs.

[HellToupee 0]

they should just borrow the buran it can carry like 10times more than the american shuttle and dosnt even need a crew

[red oct 2]

one of the Buran shuttles is being auctioned for a meager $6 million. theres are homes in California that cost more than that.

http://www.space.com/news/spacehistory/buran_auction_020509.html

i think it would be cheaper to install the auto pilot equipment in the current NASA shuttles than buying the Buran shuttles. we would have to invest another billion per shuttle to get it safe enough for flight.

edit: i just notice on the link above theres another article to mentions a plan to bring the Buran back into service.

My Webpage

[EiZei 0]

they should just borrow the buran it can carry like 10times more than the american shuttle and dosnt even need a crew

Uhh.. don't know where you are getting that idea but Buran can lift 30 metric tons of stuff while the space shuttle can do 25 tons.

Reading too much pravda lately comrade?

[HellToupee 0]

they should just borrow the buran it can carry like 10times more than the american shuttle and dosnt even need a crew

Uhh.. don't know where you are getting that idea but Buran can lift 30 metric tons of stuff while the space shuttle can do 25 tons.

Reading too much pravda lately comrade?

heh got its stats mixed up with the rockets that carry the shuttle

[red oct 2]

one thing i like about the Buran Orbiter is that it doesn't have the large rocket engines its american counterpart has. instead it has a smaller jet engine that used to help manuver it during reentry. but than we would have design bigger booster rockets to compensate for removing the orbiters rockets.

[Balschoiw 0]

Uh oh...

Quote[/b] ]The STS-114 crewmembers continue to conduct joint operations with the Expedition 11 crew and prepare for Wednesday’s spacewalk, which includes the unprecedented task of repairing an area of the Shuttle's heat shield.

Hope they got a big role of duct tape with them

[red oct 2]

i don't think its nothing, all they are doing is pulling out a space filler thats sticking out. NASA said they had problems w/ these before but didn't have the orbital boom installed than so they couldn't really do anything about it.

[Albert Schweitzer 10]

watch the repair of the shuttle now !!!! A must see! My colleague can watch it on real high resolution even on full screen! Awesome

live

http://www.nasa.gov/multimedia/nasatv/

wohooo this time I am not late with my post!  

[Daddl 10]

Nice find! Just switched there in time to see him rip out the offending filler. Looked like childsplay after all the talk about how complicated the fix would be.

[BlackScorpion 0]

Just in case you didn't know, the shuttle landing is scheduled at 8:12 am ET (13:12 UK main time; 2 hours from now) on runway 22 at Edwards AFB, CA. Fingers crossed!

[theavonlady 2]

Watching live now, on Albert's link above.

[BlackScorpion 0]

Same here. Discovery is nearly leveled (about -10 degrees), passing Australia south of it.

[ozanzac 0]

Same here. Discovery is nearly leveled (about -10 degrees), passing Australia south of it.

You're post made me jump outside to see if I could see it...... I think I did, but can't be certain either!

[Ironsight 1]

home Discovery!

[eisa01 0]

The only heavy lift boosters that could do that were the American Saturn V and the Soviet Energia. They've lost the schematics for the Saturns and the Russians can't afford to build Energias.

They're not lost, that's an urban legend. http://www.space.com/news/spacehistory/saturn_five_000313.html

And welcome home to the shuttle

[denoir 0]

Ah, ok - I stand corrected. It's funny how these urban legends remain alive

Anyway, did you know that the EU (ESA) and Russia have started a cooperation to develop a next-generation reusable spacecraft - called Kliper/Clipper?

They announced the cooperation on the Paris airshow in June this year. It looks like it's the real deal. The Russians will build the craft it self, while ESA will do the computer system, avionics, etc.

Unlike the Space Shuttle, the Kliper will not be limited to low earth orbit, but will in some configurations be able to go beyond Earth orbit, to the Moon or Mars. If the plans hold, it will enter service in 2010-2011.

The overall idea is not entirely unlike the NASA Crew Exploration Vehicle. Incidentally, the original idea was an American-European cooperation, but it fell through because of export issues. Apparently lot of US space technology is classified by the military so sharing it becomes a problem. After a few rounds of negotiations, ESA gave up and turned to the Russians.

[BlackScorpion 0]

This thing was in Le Bourget? Damn, missed it.

[Daddl 10]

They're not lost, that's an urban legend. http://www.space.com/news/spacehistory/saturn_five_000313.html

From the above article:

Quote[/b] ]That seems doubtful -- it would be a formidable terrorist group that decided to build a Saturn 5 to wreak havoc on the world, or build a lunar base. Also, by the1970s, the Soviets apparently had given up on the race to the moon.

'The Moon is a harsh Mistress', anyone?

[Balschoiw 0]

Quote[/b] ]Anyway, did you know that the EU (ESA) and Russia have started a cooperation to develop a next-generation reusable spacecraft - called

One of the pro´s is that it sits on top of the rocket.

No isolation material that can hit the craft during start

ESA is also developing a fully automated unmanned cargo carrier that can dock at space stations on it´s own and has no limitations as vessels which carry humans have.

[Katzelowski 0]

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