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Space Shuttles - 9/9/2008 10:15:56 PM

GreedyTop

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Personally, I would hate to see this happen

http://dsc.discovery.com/news/2008/09/09/nasa-space-station.html

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RE: Space Shuttles - 9/9/2008 10:20:12 PM

scifi1133

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That is just damned pathetic and so typical of this country. Don't worry about science or exploration. Just make more bombs. What a bunch of assholes.
The fact that we may have sunk that much money into a station we can't even get to....laughable to say the least.

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RE: Space Shuttles - 9/9/2008 10:43:05 PM

sappatoti

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I'm not sure if Hale is short-changing the personnel who currently work on the shuttles. While he may claim that it's too late for the shuttle parts (particularly the engines) to be brought back up to capacity, if given the choice between lay-off or working overtime, I'm sure the personnel would choose the latter.

Once the construction of the station is complete, we wouldn't need to be scheduling four to five shuttle flights per year. Two scheduled flights, with the third orbiter to be used on standby/backup, would be plenty for the purpose of moving people and supplies up to the station. Thus, we wouldn't have to build as many engines or whatever other parts that have already been scaled down.

To not extend the shuttle program, at this point, would mean the expense of the station was a waste. Not only in financial terms, but in terms of the investment of people who worked so hard to make it a reality, including the seven astronauts who died in 2003.

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RE: Space Shuttles - 9/9/2008 10:47:14 PM

scifi1133

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I agree Sap. Unfortunately most feel that since they get nothing tangible out of the space program that its not important. The shuttles can of course be used past the life they gave them, and yes they can extend the life of them with some new parts. Im concerned that they just don't care enough to do so.

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RE: Space Shuttles - 9/9/2008 10:52:58 PM

Vendaval

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I do hope that funding and politics can be worked out for the space program.

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RE: Space Shuttles - 9/9/2008 10:53:34 PM

Masternslave07

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I think that the shuttles were too complicated and too fragile to keep using. To lose one because of a tile coming loose seems pretty ridiculous. Hopefully the new ships will be simpler and stronger. It is a drag that there will be no flights until 2015, but I guess the moon isn't going anywhere, so we will get there when we get there.

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RE: Space Shuttles - 9/9/2008 10:56:18 PM

sappatoti

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It isn't just about going to the moon. It's also about getting people and supplies to the space station in orbit. Without the shuttles being extended, there won't be any crews from the US and its partners going up to the station. It will be manned by Russia and its partners, because they'll be the only country to have useable ships to get there.

Given the current state of mistrust between Russia and the US, I don't think it's wise to leave an outpost, built mostly with US money, in the hands of Russians.

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RE: Space Shuttles - 9/9/2008 10:58:45 PM

Masternslave07

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Yeah, it does seem like some screwed up scheduling.

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RE: Space Shuttles - 9/9/2008 10:59:21 PM

cyberdude611

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Yeah the shuttles are too old to keep going. And the Constellation program wont begin until 2015. So there is going to be a gap.

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RE: Space Shuttles - 9/9/2008 11:02:21 PM

TheHeretic

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Pretty much old news, I'm afraid. Folks in my neck of the woods are working on getting one to put in a museum. We built them here, and out running some errands this afternoon, I made a left from Columbia, onto Challenger. I think we have a good shot. "Spending all that money on a space station we can't get to" is utter nonsense. We go back to a single-use system.

The shuttle was a compromise to begin with, and has never lived up to expectations. It is time to let it go. The next generation will come, probably taking a very different approach to reaching orbit.

http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Image:Spaceship_One_and_White_Knight_in_flight_1.jpg

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RE: Space Shuttles - 9/9/2008 11:10:45 PM

sappatoti

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NASA could always commission a couple of flights from Branson's Virgin Spaceways (or whatever he's calling it) to run replacement people to the station. Figure out some way to dock the shuttlecock to the station (if it already hasn't been arranged to do so at this point).

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RE: Space Shuttles - 9/9/2008 11:31:21 PM

TheHeretic

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Virgin Galactic. And there is no need for that. The system was developed by Burt Rutan of Scaled Composites (the same guy who built the plane that went around the world on one tank of gas in the '80's), and that company was recently aquired by one of the major players in military aircraft. Just adapt the elements into something a whole lot more powerful.

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RE: Space Shuttles - 9/9/2008 11:40:25 PM

sappatoti

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I was just thinking of expediency. According to their web site, Virgin Galactic states they could begin flights in 2009 which, if true, would allow for an almost seamless way of keeping space station personnel rotated without a break in their schedule.

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RE: Space Shuttles - 9/10/2008 5:03:34 AM

TheHeretic

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Read a little closer, Sappa. The system is sub-orbital. In simple terms, the elevator doesn't go high enough.

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RE: Space Shuttles - 9/10/2008 5:17:32 AM

DomKen

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For anyone who doesn't keep a close eye on NASA this is probably pretty surprising however it is the culmination of what has been going on at NASA for decades.

In simplest terms NASA is divided into two camps. One supports manned spaceflight and the other favors strictly unmanned spaceflight.Since about the mid 1970's the unmanned group has been dominant inside NASA and has made every effort to kill the manned program. They killed off the Hubble telescope because a manned flight was required to do a maintenance flight to it. It's fairly obvious that if the new system won't be ready till 2015 that some stepps have to be taken to either get a new shuttle or do a full rebuild of one or more existing shuttles, on one of the retired shuttles perhaps, but instead they built a plan around using Soyuz to reach the ISS and to functionally kick the manned program out of NASA entirely. Now that has backfired and NASA top administrators aren't trying all that hard to find another alternative.

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RE: Space Shuttles - 9/10/2008 5:21:42 AM

kittinSol

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I bloody well hope they dismantle the thing and recycle the bits. There's enough rubbish circulating around the Earth already

.

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RE: Space Shuttles - 9/10/2008 10:27:09 AM

sappatoti

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quote:

ORIGINAL: TheHeretic

Read a little closer, Sappa. The system is sub-orbital. In simple terms, the elevator doesn't go high enough.

[... sigh ...]

Yeah, I saw that. Even if it were as simple as adding extra boosters to the shuttle-cock to raise its altitude, there are a whole host of other issues that would need to be modified:

- increasing oxygen supplies for the much longer voyage necessary to catch the space station, or installation of atmospheric recyclers

- adding beefed up heating/cooling to maintain a comfortable temperature within the cockpit

- adding toilet facilities

- adding and supplying food processing and waste containment

- adding orbital maneuvering thrusters and associated supplies and hardware

- adding in-flight entertainment ... wait, it's a Branson initiative so I'm sure they're already in there

- and possibly adding extra radiation shielding

and that's the minimum that I came up with.

Better to build a new craft built on the shuttle-cock principle, or refit one of the existing shuttles to extend its life.

Maybe China's capsules are ready to fly... hmm...

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RE: Space Shuttles - 9/10/2008 10:29:22 AM

sappatoti

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quote:

ORIGINAL: kittinSol

I bloody well hope they dismantle the thing and recycle the bits. There's enough rubbish circulating around the Earth already .

That would require a fleet of vehicles around the size of the existing shuttles to bring everything back down. The financial cost would be as much, perhaps more, as it was to put the thing up there.

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If you don't like my attitude, QUIT TALKING TO ME!

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RE: Space Shuttles - 9/10/2008 10:34:28 AM

Aylee

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Are you crazy? Just look at all the medical advances because of the Space Program. And I thought that we had an aging population. Sheesh!

quote:

ORIGINAL: scifi1133

I agree Sap. Unfortunately most feel that since they get nothing tangible out of the space program that its not important. The shuttles can of course be used past the life they gave them, and yes they can extend the life of them with some new parts. Im concerned that they just don't care enough to do so.

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RE: Space Shuttles - 9/10/2008 11:04:17 AM

thishereboi

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Your right, that would totally suck.

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