[MatthewPapa]

The elvevator would need to be made of buckey balls right?

[Kosh]

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.

[kasperl]

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.

[pyro-manic]

So Newton wasted his life then? Da Vinci? Einstein? Edison?

[Swamp_Thing]

So, what happened to the shuttle? They postponed the flight again?

[FireCrack]

All we need to do is hoist a big freaking metalic asteroid into orbit around erth, and then mine it.

[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.
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?).

[pyro-manic]

From the NASA website:

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.

[Bobboau]

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.

[FireCrack]

I now it's not "that" easy, but it's certianly possbile.

[Bobboau]

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.

[EtherShock]

Originally posted by Unknown Target
Why? Because they're a government beuracrocy (spelling?).

Bueracracy ^_^

[SuperCoolAl]

Originally posted by EtherShock

Bueracracy ^_^

Bureaucracy

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

We won't all fit

[karajorma]

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.

[EtherShock]

Originally posted by SuperCoolAl


Bureaucracy



We won't all fit

Blast! I thought it looked wrong.

I know we won't all fit.

[MicroPsycho]

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!

[pyro-manic]

Nonono. They should build a Reliant.

[karajorma]

I fail to see what use that would be.

[achtung]

Bump!

EDIT:  CNN article now I don't know why in the hell none of the yahoo links I try work.

[Bobboau]

$50 says it explodes on takeoff.

and your link doesn't work