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Discovery launches tommorow (today my time)
The elvevator would need to be made of buckey balls right?

 

Offline Kosh

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Discovery launches tommorow (today my time)
Quote

The american space shuttle was a bad idea from the get-go, better solutions were proposed but ignored. (Arthur C. Clarke suggested a Spaceship one/White Knight system albiet nuclear powered). It's always been known that a parachute descent is much preferred to attempting to make what is effectively a huge, barely steerable glider.



You are absolutly right. Unfortunatly, it doesn't look like the next generation is much different. :(
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Discovery launches tommorow (today my time)
The carbon structures needed to build a feasable space elevator cost about as much as anti matter, IIRC and AFAIK.

Do a rough sketch on how much you'd need.....

I think anything but commercial space engineering is a waste of cash. Science might be a good thing, and it might help in the end, but stuff like going to Mars is useless. The amount of fuel needed to get there won't be replaced by any ore you find there. Unless the thing is mostly made out of antimatter, I doubt that if you look at it economicly, or worse, looking at it from a fuel-saving POV, you could ever make it look worthwile.

As for the shuttle, I don'treally care. It's not like the ISS is all that vital anyways, compared to commercial launches.
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Offline pyro-manic

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Discovery launches tommorow (today my time)
So Newton wasted his life then? Da Vinci? Einstein? Edison?
Any fool can pull a trigger...

 
Discovery launches tommorow (today my time)
So, what happened to the shuttle? They postponed the flight again?
No Freespace 3 ?!? Oh, bugger...

 

Offline FireCrack

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Discovery launches tommorow (today my time)
All we need to do is hoist a big freaking metalic asteroid into orbit around erth, and then mine it.
actualy, mabye not.
"When ink and pen in hands of men Inscribe your form, bipedal P They draw an altar on which God has slaughtered all stability, no eyes could ever soak in all the places you anoint, and yet to see you all at once we only need the point. Flirting with infinity, your geometric progeny that fit inside you oh so tight with triangles that feel so right."
3.141592653589793238462643383279502884197169399375105820974944 59230781640628620899862803482534211706...
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Offline Unknown Target

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Discovery launches tommorow (today my time)
The thing is, the shuttle, with all it's flaws, still works. It's only had two  mishaps, albeit both were fatal. However, the ratio between the hundreds of launches and the two fatal ones is so great, you can say it's probably got a better safety record than most passenger jets.
I have faith in the shuttle program, the thing is that NASA is completely screwing it up. They only patch what they need to, and blow the rest of their money on overbudgeted programs. They could probably give the shuttle's avionics a complete overhaul for the amount it costed them to make the toilet on the same ship. But they don't. Why? Because they're a government beuracrocy (spelling?).

 

Offline pyro-manic

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Discovery launches tommorow (today my time)
From the NASA website:

Quote
NASA is continuing extensive testing and troubleshooting into a problem with a low-fuel sensor in the Shuttle Discovery's External Tank.

Program managers have not set a new launch date, but say if the problem is fixed, an attempt could be made as early as four days later.


Firecrack: That isn't exactly easy to do. The Asteroid Belt is even further away than Mars. Any "rogue" asteroids closer than that are on wierd orbits, are moving very fast, and you want to keep them as far away as possible - we don't have the ability to slow them down or alter their orbits short of nuking the hell out of them and hoping, a la Deep Impact.

EDIT: UT, the shuttle had a complete systems replacement about 5 years ago. They got rid of all the old '80s equipment, and put in brand new digital stuff. Cost a lot of money, and meant that the shuttle could stay in service rather than being junked sooner than it now will be. It was never meant to be in use for this long. :)

True, the shuttle has had two failures in just over a hundred flights, which isn't bad, but those failures were the result of design flaws, rather than just being accidents. With modern technology, a much better design could be created, which would be cheaper to launch, safer for the crew, and more flexible than the current vehicle. I'd much rather see NASA bods bite the bullet and commit to a new orbiter and launcher, rather than spunk even more money away on an old, flawed design.
« Last Edit: July 15, 2005, 10:08:23 pm by 853 »
Any fool can pull a trigger...

 

Offline Bobboau

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Discovery launches tommorow (today my time)
Quote
Originally posted by kasperl
The carbon structures needed to build a feasable space elevator cost about as much as anti matter, IIRC and AFAIK.


you recall incorectly, and know a distance of four inches. we are makeing multi-kilometer long strands of the stuff, a japinese company, Mitsui&co, are about to set up a facility that will produce them at about $1 per gram, and there are techniques that can make sevral centemeters per second.
we need 40-70 million meters of the stuff per strand.
now I don't know the dencity of the nanotubes off hand, but I'd imigine it'd be similar to graphite wich is about 1.5g/cm^3, so lets say you want a strand that is about 3 meters in diameter, would cost about 1.5 billion dollars.

and there called carbon nanotubes.
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Offline FireCrack

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Discovery launches tommorow (today my time)
I now it's not "that" easy, but it's certianly possbile.
actualy, mabye not.
"When ink and pen in hands of men Inscribe your form, bipedal P They draw an altar on which God has slaughtered all stability, no eyes could ever soak in all the places you anoint, and yet to see you all at once we only need the point. Flirting with infinity, your geometric progeny that fit inside you oh so tight with triangles that feel so right."
3.141592653589793238462643383279502884197169399375105820974944 59230781640628620899862803482534211706...
"Your ever-constant homily says flaw is discipline, the patron saint of imperfection frees us from our sin. And if our transcendental lift shall find a final floor, then Man will know the death of God where wonder was before."

 

Offline Bobboau

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Discovery launches tommorow (today my time)
I didn't mean to imply it would be easy, it would be super dificult, makeing a mars shot look like a walk across the street, but it's within posability if we try.
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DEUTERONOMY 22:11
Thou shalt not wear a garment of diverse sorts, [as] of woollen and linen together

 
Discovery launches tommorow (today my time)
Quote
Originally posted by Unknown Target
Why? Because they're a government beuracrocy (spelling?).

Bueracracy ^_^

 
Discovery launches tommorow (today my time)
Quote
Originally posted by EtherShock

Bueracracy ^_^


Bureaucracy

Quote
Originally posted by EtherShock
We will live on the moon someday. I have forseen it. ^_^


We won't all fit :rolleyes:

 

Offline karajorma

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Discovery launches tommorow (today my time)
Quote
Originally posted by Unknown Target
The thing is, the shuttle, with all it's flaws, still works. It's only had two  mishaps, albeit both were fatal. However, the ratio between the hundreds of launches and the two fatal ones is so great, you can say it's probably got a better safety record than most passenger jets.


A NASA report after Challenger put the chance of a catastropic failure causing the loss of the shuttle at 1 out of every 78 launches. I certainly would't fly on a passenger jet which had ever gotten a risk assessment like that!

The shuttle isn't safe. But then going into space isn't safe.
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Discovery launches tommorow (today my time)
Quote
Originally posted by SuperCoolAl


Bureaucracy



We won't all fit :rolleyes:

Blast! I thought it looked wrong.

I know we won't all fit.

 
Discovery launches tommorow (today my time)
I'm sure astronauts know there is possibility of catastrophic failure with every flight but still make the choice to go up, unlike a passenger on an airplane that has come to expect a safe flight.

On another note, if and when that space elevator is built, they should build a Deimos!
Derek Smart is his own oxymoron.

 

Offline pyro-manic

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Discovery launches tommorow (today my time)
Nonono. They should build a Reliant. :drevil:
Any fool can pull a trigger...

 

Offline karajorma

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Discovery launches tommorow (today my time)
I fail to see what use that would be. :p
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Offline achtung

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Discovery launches tommorow (today my time)
:bump:

Bump!

EDIT:  CNN article now I don't know why in the hell none of the yahoo links I try work.
« Last Edit: July 25, 2005, 11:35:54 pm by 2559 »
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Offline Bobboau

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Discovery launches tommorow (today my time)
$50 says it explodes on takeoff.

and your link doesn't work
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DEUTERONOMY 22:11
Thou shalt not wear a garment of diverse sorts, [as] of woollen and linen together