-
There seems to be an uptick in Political comments in recent months. Those of us who are long time members of the site know that Political and Religious content has been banned for years. Nothing has changed. Please leave all political and religious comments out of the forums.
If you recently joined the forums you were not presented with this restriction in the terms of service. This was due to a conversion error when we went from vBulletin to Xenforo. We have updated our terms of service to reflect these corrections.
Please note any post refering to a politician will be considered political even if it is intended to be humor. Our experience is these topics have a way of dividing the forums and causing deep resentment among members. It is a poison to the community. We appreciate compliance with the rules.
The Staff of SOH
OK Americans... what do you think of the these recommendations.
- Thread starter crashaz
- Start date
Toastmaker
Charter Member 2016
Alright you ruffians - break out some ID and get in the back of the van. . .
Donnybrooke
Charter Member
Well, if we don't do it, maybe someone who doesn't have their head up their a$$ will. :ernae:
http://www.space.com/businesstechnology/090818-excalibur-almaz-spaceships.html
http://www.space.com/businesstechnology/090818-excalibur-almaz-spaceships.html
It boils down to a matter of will. Just how badly do you want to do it?
It seems, as a country, we have lost the "will" or desire to do things. It has become more of a money issue. How much will it cost? What is my return on investment? How will we benefit financially?
We, as a nation, can do whatever we want to. We have the talent, we have the ability, whe have the technology. What we lack is the will to do so.
-G-
It seems, as a country, we have lost the "will" or desire to do things. It has become more of a money issue. How much will it cost? What is my return on investment? How will we benefit financially?
We, as a nation, can do whatever we want to. We have the talent, we have the ability, whe have the technology. What we lack is the will to do so.
-G-
MaddogK
Sim Junkie
Kinda says it all, "No bucks, NO Buck Rodgers"
I'm of the 'deep space' option folks, but I doubt the G'ovt will give NASA the funds for ANY 'real' project but will be happy to pay for a quote "sellable" mission for NASA. Perhaps time has come to privatize NASA.
...just thinking out loud
I think you are right, Maddog.
If you google the speech by Burt Rutan, (who by the way has created several successful space craft recently), Burt talked on how privatization of certain markets and designs were required where the government could no longer afford to make the departments grow. One was radar, one was computer, and he mentioned several others.
The amount of money they could make on an orbital hotel could be phenomenal. I think that is what Virgin is planning on doing. Its going to be a big boom, from what I am seeing, if the economy starts improving. (Sorry, 'when' the economy starts improving).
Privatization usually means people finding cheaper alternatives to making things work, inexpensive ways to manufacture, new forms of economic systems and materials and fuels. The government really doesnt function well as a business. Business also doesnt function well as a government. So NASA should be actually dealing with new things, new technologies, not running a Satellite relay business. But no one else is doing it lately, so its a difficult call.
We should really be developing some hot new stuff by now, publically, like Magneto drive (magnetic lift/flight), and something like Philidelphia Projects 'dimensional warp' or what ever its called, (leaping to Australia from Philly in 30 min's in a ship in the late 1940's). That is NASA's thing. Not running things into space and working on satellites.
And we definately need to start working on the Moon. If the Moon has tons of ore on it, man, that would be awesome. We could mine less on Earth and mine the heck out of Luna. We could manufacture things 'there' and start learning to run a off-world colony.
For instance, you could make thick space craft hull plates on the Moon, even out of concrete, and magnetically launch them into Lunar orbit easily (low gravity) and join them all in orbit, having a radiation proof hull (concrete) that would protect its occupants, 'in space' (no rockets to launch it), and bring it to Earth orbit for outfitting it with all the equipment, engines, etc. A ship like that could then run back and fourth to Mars, dropping off people, equipment, supplies, and bringing people home. Sort of a supply ship or long haul ship. Colony ship in a small sense. Mind you, I am thinking big. 50 passengers, 300plus feet long, able to carry entire landers (several) and tons of supplies.
So much we could be doing right now.. So much....
Bill
Here is one I submitted to NASA years ago, lol... (yes.. I really did).
Its been in my mind for ages now. Perhaps 20 years. Its based on the Russians design for a concrete submarine but this would be created on the moon (the shell parts), and assembled in orbit, and the interiors fitted to the sections in Earth orbit. The inner sections are easily created on Earth and fitted into the airframe or shell modules.
The beauty of concrete (Lunar concrete) is that it does not let harmful radiations such as dangerous Gama radiation, pass through the hull, so you are protected from solar flare storms and other solar weather anomolies. That also includes micro-meteorites.
Such a huge ship could enable storage of many backup parts, reserve fuels and gasses, etc. Its basically like an ocean liner but for space and for several month rounds.
This is a quick rendering in Gmax to show how it all works.
EDIT: I failed to show scale. This is like a sky scraper if you put it on its tail and set it up in a city. This would be like a thin building. If it were sitting on the ground on its belly, it would be several stories high, so I guess its about the size of a WWII aircraft carrier. Not as wide, not as high, and perhaps a bit longer.
Bill
Its been in my mind for ages now. Perhaps 20 years. Its based on the Russians design for a concrete submarine but this would be created on the moon (the shell parts), and assembled in orbit, and the interiors fitted to the sections in Earth orbit. The inner sections are easily created on Earth and fitted into the airframe or shell modules.
The beauty of concrete (Lunar concrete) is that it does not let harmful radiations such as dangerous Gama radiation, pass through the hull, so you are protected from solar flare storms and other solar weather anomolies. That also includes micro-meteorites.
Such a huge ship could enable storage of many backup parts, reserve fuels and gasses, etc. Its basically like an ocean liner but for space and for several month rounds.
This is a quick rendering in Gmax to show how it all works.
EDIT: I failed to show scale. This is like a sky scraper if you put it on its tail and set it up in a city. This would be like a thin building. If it were sitting on the ground on its belly, it would be several stories high, so I guess its about the size of a WWII aircraft carrier. Not as wide, not as high, and perhaps a bit longer.
Bill