Space Shuttle Program to be Extended?

[Wumpus]

Yes, as a matter of fact I AM getting it. I'm saying you cannot launch an object of that size at ANY useful speed from a magnetic launcher with current technology... If you can point out where there have been actual practical applications of launching large objects at high speeds with a magnetic launcher, please let me know. I've never heard of anything.
.

You might try looking at current US Navy plans to launch aircraft off of carriers.

Doesn't make trying to use one for 1/month launches any more sane, much less trying to hit 60,000 feet or so at mach 3.

For those still reading this silliness, going to orbit isn't about height, it's about going mach 20 or you're coming back down. A ramjet will get you all 2% (kinetic energy) of the way there. A scramjet is annother story, but with magic like that the launcher isn't the big story at all (and you would use rockets on anything less than a daily flight schedule).

Launching at 40,000 ft is for when your load is small enough to really care about drag (Pegasus), otherwise it is a drop in the bucket and NASA would rather drop failed rockets in the Atlantic than get 10,000 ft free by launching in Leadville, CO.

 

[R1ckCa1n]

There are several private companies trying to get vehicles in orbit in hopes of getting a chuck of the old space shuttle $.....

www.spacex.com is one of them.

 

[xX_Jack_Carver_Xx]

Just a little bit of REALITY once again leaking into the fantasy world of the Bushie's and the "R" people's anti-science privatizing idiocy. Yes we need the shuttles, yes we need MORE SHUTTLES, and lets stop pretending otherwise.

For now, until Jan 21 2009, we need to do NOTHING. Once NASA has been PURGED thoroughly and the new actual science-believing people installed, then we can sit down and discuss logically and rationally what NASA needs to do.

But while the anti-science creationist wackjobs are anywhere near the government, its best we just postpone thinking.... they might strain something.

 

[Martyr]

we still could launch the living part of the cargo with rockets. but for bulk transport, jsut getting shit up there, we can be a bit harsher to the cargo.

 

[Manaknight]

As far as the Russians in S. Ossetia, they have done nothing that the U.S. hasn't been doing.
Sure they did it decisively, it is the Russian way.
It is much better than the American approach of long drawn out deployments.

You shouldn't be so naive as to believe all the American propaganda.
We have absolutely no business meddling in the affairs of that part of the globe.
Putin is a good leader for Russia, these are Russians not Americans.
They still look upon Stalin as a great leader, he did bring them into the modern world after all.
He did it the Russian way, it is different than our way, that doesn't make it wrong, for them.
There is a great big world out there outside of U.S. borders, we need to learn to respect the ways of other cultures and quit trying to turn them into America clones.

this post is full of win.

send this guy instead of rice to solve problems overseas. This is exactly what i have been saying for years.

 

[DemonDiablo]

When the territory WANTS to be annexed? How is it any worse than invading a country, toppling its leadership, and subjecting their country to half a decade of instablity?

If you believe it's wrong. That's fine, most people probably think it is. But the U.S. government has zero right to say anything about it with what they've been doing in Iraq for the last 5 years.

I guess next time Texas decides it wants to wave the middle finger at the Union we should just let them go and become a 49 state country.

You have no clue about what you're talking about. I love people that try to draw out simplicity out of something much much more complex.

 

[Axewerfer]

Realistically, the only modern technology that could replace rockets in the short term would be nuclear pulse propulsion. And that has problems of it's own...like radiation, EMP, and public perception.

More info at Wikipedia.

 

[xX_Jack_Carver_Xx]

The S. Ossetian's and the Abkasian's both want INDEPENDENCE and have been asking for it AND for US support since the Soviet breakup.

If we had tried to call for it ourselves, the RUssians would have never gone for it. Here we have a golden opportunity to say "OK, PootyToot, we concur and welcome both as independent soveriegn nations into the UN. Thanks."

After all, isn't the US supposed to support freedom and independence and self-determination?

Stalin drew the borders that sucked SO and Ab into the Georgian foot print. Stalin was Georgian and had other axes to grind at the time.

So here we are, the US of A supporting and defending the oppression and arbitrary boundries drawn by the world's number two mass murderer. Pretty ironic. Of course that is par for the course with the Bushies. Instead of pulling off a coup and working out with Georgia how to set them free, and announce to the world we agree with Putin and recognize SO and Ab's independence.... and that was our PLAN all along... he's not quite that bright.

While we're at it, lets close some other business, like recognize southern Sudan as an independent nation, complete with the oil reserves , and Somaliland's independence, and finally shove a WASP knife in China's ribs by recognizing Taiwan's independence.

Doing the RIGHT thing is somehow always so hard for the "R" types to manage to accomplish. Selling out other peoples lives and freedoms comes much much easier.

 

[w1retap]

Well, let's just hope you get your "C" types in there. It might save you from having a hernia or heart attack.

 

[TechieSooner]

I'm surprised NASA's silly enough to retire the Shuttle before they're certain it's replacement works.

That was my first thought exactly.

What still amazes me is how quick we moved with the technology that we used to get to the moon, yet NASA has done virtually nothing since then in that area.

No one is going to give them a blank check when the public largely believes space is empty and useless. Anyone who started dumping a ton of money into NASA would not be re-elected. Yeah it sucks, but the American people are largely ignorant near-sighted turds.

I understand it though. It seems like since we hit the moon, we've done nothing but TALK and produce THEORIES, no real action going on at all.

 

[[21CW]killerofall]

Have any suggestions on how to get things into space without using rockets using todays technology?

Space elevator. No joke.

 

[Elios]

Space elevator. No joke.

thing is thats harder then a Mass Accelerator

 

[TechieSooner]

Space elevator. No joke.

That's one of those things, while on paper it sounds FANTASTIC, I think we'd run into some serious problems once it is actually in place. Just my opinion.

 

[Monkey God]

When the territory WANTS to be annexed? How is it any worse than invading a country, toppling its leadership, and subjecting their country to half a decade of instablity?

If you believe it's wrong. That's fine, most people probably think it is. But the U.S. government has zero right to say anything about it with what they've been doing in Iraq for the last 5 years.

Sudetenland wanted to be annexed. So did Austria and Czechoslovakia.

Those who forget history, are doomed to repeat it.

 

[carlvs]

Sudetenland wanted to be annexed. So did Austria and Czechoslovakia.

Those who forget history, are doomed to repeat it.

And those who want to pick a fight with someone who could destroy them are doomed to someday having "mushrooms" blossom in their backyard...

 

[DemonDiablo]

The S. Ossetian's and the Abkasian's both want INDEPENDENCE and have been asking for it AND for US support since the Soviet breakup.

After all, isn't the US supposed to support freedom and independence and self-determination?

The next time a state decides it wants to secede from the union I fully expect you to be out there with your sign supporting that states actions. I also expect you to be out there with a gun in your hand helping them to fight for their independence given your logic.

That said the orbital elevator is epic fail. Great in theory not so good in practice more than likely. But I'm really really liking the rail gun idea.

I'd love to go to Nasa, give them this awesome idea about how we can make a rail gun blah blah blah, ask for funding, and then turn around and, you guessed it, tell them we lack the technology and materials at this current date and time to create said piece of technology. But the rail gun is definitely one of the better ways of getting into outter space. Create a drydock in space, start making nuclear powered space ships and were looking at trips to mars being an actual reality.

Oh and we can start to make a moon base on the dark side of the moon. Thats always what the cool kids do in science fiction movies/books/tv shows.

 

[uviuar2]

Anyone bother to mention nuclear powered rocketry? This was a gem of an idea back in the 60's but was tossed due to environmentalist complaints about potentially contaminated exhaust, spewing nuclear waste into the atmosphere as it blasts off. Still the only realistic solution to get that much power out of a flying cylindrical piece of metal.