Space Shuttle is preparing for last flight

[sscadmin]

Well its a shame this is happening and more than likely a lot of people will be loosing their jobs when the Space Shuttle program is shutdown after this mission. I still don't see why not just keep it going until we have the other program ready? Russia and China are asking for big $$$ to send USA astronauts up in space. But this will be something to watch just because I believe that our next program isn't due to rollout for another 5-10yrs.Article: http://www.wesh.com/r/25095902/detail.html
Quote:
NASA rolled Space Shuttle Discovery to the launch pad Monday night in preparation for its final mission.With the rollout, Discovery inched closer to its 39th flight, which will be an 11-day mission.In early September, shuttle workers had the chance to pose for pictures with Discovery. While it rolled over to the Vehicle Assembly Building, NASA stopped the orbiter for a historic photo opportunity.Discovery has logged several milestones through the years. The shuttle has flown 38 flights, completed 5,247 orbits, and has spent 322 days in space.Discovery is the orbiter fleet leader, having flown more flights than any other orbiter in the fleet -- including four flights in 1985 alone.Discovery also flew both "return to flight" missions after the Challenger and Columbia disasters.People will gather at Space View Park in Titusville to watch the final Discovery launch.Craig Smith said he's ready for the launch, but he said he's concerned about the future beyond the flight."I think the government sticks its fingers into too many pies the way that is, but then again you can't just leave an area with no employment," Smith said.Matt Jackson has helped maintain the park for three years. As he prepares to watch the second to last launch, he does so with a heavy heart."It's hard to believe this is the last one, but I have enough faith that we might continue to see more shuttle launches," Jackson said.Launch is set for Nov. 1. The rollout will last about six hours. It's a 3.4-mile journey from the Vehicle Assembly Building to the launch pad.

[Pinback]

End of an era.I can remember watching the first one take off on tv.

[sscadmin]

Whats TAV?But the SpaceX project seems to be doing ok and they planning on a mission to ISS next year according to this schedule?http://www.spacex.com/launch_manifest.php

[Solace]

Will they build space ships now? Like real ones?

[Pinback]

Nope going back to rockets.But there is still Virgin Galactic.http://www.virgingalactic.com/

[cultist]

The only reason i see for continuation of any space programs is Earth get overcrowded,still a war is cheaper.If they are still pushing out i'm almost certain they are thinking to use space in the interests of making war,maybe they found a new mass destruction thingie that can be fired from orbit or something.Sadly going in space for nobler reasons is like reading books.You can live without it.Bottom line is that i don't think we will see any big steps in space for the next 20 or 30 years,not unless it involves war,anything else is too god damn expensive to be worth considering!

[cultist]

Ok maybe i was too pessimistic up there,all i am saying is if it does not involve a new way to destroy ourselves or help with it,it will take a very,very long time to get anywhere.

[Geraldine]

Basically our future will come down to two possible outcomes, take your pick.

[Pinback]

you can have both,then bomb em back to the stone age with asteroid bombardment or mass driver IIRC in Babylon5.

[sscadmin]

I'm sure there is a bunch of payloads that go into space that the populous knows nothing about. I would like to see the space program continue to move forward because I think it spurs great technology advances in our society. Nevermind the fact that we occasionally get to answer those questions about space, galaxies and planets. We should work toward an effort to move the station to the Moon.Society as a whole in my opinion is building up to have another war if we are not careful. If people really read the news and watch the markets it will be evident that something is slowly brewing and it is a matter of time before things get worse. Economies are hurting in most nations and tensions are starting to rise, people and countries are getting desperate and its only a matter of time before someone decides they have nothing to loose.What to do?I watched this movie like a week ago when I was bored and the political portion of the movie is kinda like it is right now. Maybe we do need a problem to the earth that is out of our control but can be solved if everyone works together

[cultist]

An old favorite of mine is good ol` Soylent Green,its a pretty scary prediction.Pollution, overpopulation, depleted resources, poverty, dying oceans and a hot climate due to the greenhouse effect.We don't have all of those in full effect just yet but give it some time :)And the present day food industry is a horror on itself,we are not so far off soylent green,natural food is scarce and not all humans have access to it and we find food made up from god knows what really (they can extract aminoacids from anything really,like hair,same goes for the other nutrients we need).I`d like to take the first spaceship out of here,thank you.At least in space i know i`m fed artificial food without some happy label showing a green pasture and a smiling cow to make me buy itCheers

[Pinback]

Boy this topic gone a bit south.

[sscadmin]

:PI guess as long as there is no accidents with the mission all will be well. If that SpaceX project does fill in until NASA can think of something else than all is good. Personally I think the civilian companies could do better at this personally, because companies are all about profits and accidents is a company closing thing with this sort of thing.

[Pinback]

Going back to rockets feels like a step backwards what happened to the space plane.

[sscadmin]

Maybe going back to rockets/capsule is the best, financially to get the job done? Because i'm sure there was a huge amount of moving parts and tech in the shuttle. Now they could really pimp-out a capsule and have it have all the bells and whistles. I personally think there is less worry for accidents in a capsule, but using a capsule will probably limit any long distance trips and will lower any cargo transportation to the ISS.

[Geraldine]

Cargo capacity doesn't need to be limited Darkone. After all, the Russians transported a heck of a lot of the ISS while the Shuttle program was down due to that terrible accident. If they are going back to using Saturn style rockets (oh I wish I could have seen one of those babies take off, the noise was supposed to be tremendous and the ground shook like there was an earth quake happening), they could make say, an ISS module actually part of the launch vehicle. This might be the way to go because a handy off shoot of that design is that it could also be used for long distance flights, like for example a Mars mission?

[s2odan]

We aren't going backwards. The shuttle IMO was never a true space-plane as it couldn't do anything on its own. It needed detachable rockets to get anywhere.NASA Trumps Star Trek: Ion Drive Live!
Quote:
The GOCE engines can provide 20 milliNewtons of thrust - for a one-ton satellite, that's an acceleration of less than the width of a human hair per second squared, which is less than impressive. Unless you keep it on for a month, say, and end up moving at four kilometers a second - and with a little work, you can refuel anywhere there's an atmosphere.
Theoretically with an Ion-drive, we can send a satelite to another star-system. But that would take decades to our closest star.Nasa's ScramjetScramjets are currently flying up to mach9.8, which is nearly half the speed you would need to achieve orbit (orbit is around mach24-26). This is all from an air-breathing engine. It is an extension of current Jet-propulsion technologies.The space-plane is coming, its just 50 years off or so.

[sscadmin]

That Ion drive is very interesting at least for the refueling process, it is a shame this thing doesn't put out any real thrust we would need to get to another galaxy in our lifespan. And roughly 50yrs for the space plane.. ouch. I will be knocking on heavens door at that time. It really amazes me sometimes how little we have done in the space program from landing on the moon back in the 60's. 50 years later and it seems like we haven't really advanced much. You would have thought we least would have made a better propulsion engine for deeper space travels. Maybe we just haven't reverse engineered that tech yet from the alien craft the governments of the world have

[s2odan]

Darkone wrote:
Maybe we just haven't reverse engineered that tech yet from the alien craft the governments of the world have
hehe. Give it time, those guys at area-51 know their stuff Well space tech is more advanced than it was back then in the 60s but we seem to lack the commitment as a whole. Especially with the world the way it is economically.For example we have rockets with perhaps three times the efficiency of those from the sixties, computers, robotics, air filtration ect. that is all far in advance of what was used back then.As well as a knowledge of orbital mechanics and aero braking maneuvers ect.If it turned out that jupiter was full of anti-matter or some sort of ultra valuable commodity, then we would suddenly see what can be done at out current level.

[sscadmin]

True. Unless probes are taking deep core samples of the surrounding planets we will not know what resources are hidden away from our satellites. Because even that remote rover we sent to Mars was really only taking samples off the surface and no real drilling or covering hundreds of miles testing soil samples.I know if I was the president I would definitely take Air Force 1 to Area 51 and get a tour :)Maybe private companies will get the ball rolling on landing on Moon and surrounding planets to see if there is resources to profit from, never know until you try.