NASA & World Space Exploration...News, Views, Photos & videos

Equation said:

It tells me that NASA wanted more people in orbit for research. If the rocket is that great in payload capacity how come there's only 3 crew members the max? Meanwhile the shuttle can take up to 6 crew members or more easily. The shuttle is more mission flexible as the cargo bay area can be used as space lab while in LEO and carrying robotic arm to bring in satellites that needs fixing. Can't do that with a space capsule could ya (no don't count docking modules)?

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jackliu said:

You are talking about Soyuz and SZ craft, which can only hold 3 people because that is the way it is designed, however the Dragon capsule of SpaceX holds up to 7 people and it is shaped very much like traditional Soyuz design. And there is nothing prevent it sending up a dozen people using conventional ball shape design.

What you describing is nothing more than the feature of Space Shuttle, but everything that Shuttle can do, a more cheaper and safer design can do as well, there is really nothing about shuttle can do and a conventional cheaper design can't. It is very possible to develop high thrust rocket that have 2 or more payloads, with the manned capsule at the top, and other payload at bottom, they would separate when in space and it would take a few orbit to align them together if spacewalk is needed.

Or they can just send up the crew rocket and payload in two different system, and it will still be WAY cheaper and safer than Space Shuttle.

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Equation said:

In space flight there is no such thing as cheaper and/or safer forever, just risks and rewards. So before the Dragon Capsule gets done, was there any other rocket that can compete with the space shuttle crew capacity? How many rockets throughout man's history of space flight did you see has cargo bay for a robotic arm and for loading and launching satellites all without a need for module docking?

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jackliu said:

The better question is, is there anything that space shuttle can do that anything else can't? Answer is NO.

A even better question is, instead of developing the space shuttle, can NASA use the fund to develop a system much cheaper than Space shuttle and get the job done? Answer is YES.

Your argument is that Shuttle have such and such features, and others does not, therefore it makes the shuttle superior, my argument is that shuttle over promised on it is feature, cost and safety factor, which cannibalize many other opportunity that would have been done if Shuttle was not developed.

Even the head of NASA had something to say about the Space shuttle.

NASA administrator Michael D. Griffin argued in a 2007 paper that the Saturn program, if continued, could have provided six manned launches per year — two of them to the moon — at the same cost as the Shuttle program, with an additional ability to loft infrastructure for further missions:

If we had done all this, we would be on Mars today, not writing about it as a subject for “the next 50 years.” We would have decades of experience operating long-duration space systems in Earth orbit, and similar decades of experience in exploring and learning to utilize the Moon.

Go read all of this page then we'll talk, or I feel like we are going in circles.

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Equation said:

The shuttle is superior in orbiting missions, meanwhile the Saturn V rocket types are for lunar missions. If I were NASA I would want to keep both. One will always need a space plane type for orbital docking to transport of people and cargo, meanwhile the rockets could be use to colonized the moon and transportation of goods and construction equipment. Basically I wanted to point out is that the rocket can't be a substitute for the shuttle, and vice versa.

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Israel, The Third Nation on the Moon?

Won't Israels neighbors be jealous? but what else is new............

If all goes according to plan, by December 2012 a team of three young Israeli scientists will have landed a tiny spacecraft on the moon, explored the lunar surface, and transmitted live video back to earth, thereby scooping up a $20 million prize (the Google Lunar X Prize), revolutionizing space exploration, and making the Jewish State the third nation (after the U.S. and Russia) to land a probe on the moon. And they’re doing it in their spare time.

The three engineers – Yariv Bash (electronics and computers), Kfir Damari (communication systems), and Yonatan Winetraub (satellite systems) all have high-level day jobs in the Israeli science and technology world, and also both teach and study. They all had heard of the Google Lunar X Prize independently, before being introduced by mutual friends who, as Yonatan puts it “thought we were all crazy enough to do it, so we should meet each other.”

By the end of November 2010 they had sketched together a novel plan to win the prize and submitted it to organizers. Only on December 21 (10 days before the December 31 deadline) did they set about raising the $50,000 entry fee. “Like good Israelis we left it to the last minute,” Yonatan laughs.

Since then they’ve recruited around 50 volunteers from across the Israeli science and technology community and have gained support from academic institutions, including the prestigious Weizmann Institute of Science (founded in 1933 by Chaim Weizmann, himself a successful chemist who went on to become Israel’s first president). They’re operating as a non-profit (“we’re looking for stakeholders,” says Project Coordinator Ronna Rubinstein), and any winnings will be invested in promoting science among Israeli youth.

The X Prize’s organizers say their competition is intended to attract “mavericks” who “take new approaches and think creatively about difficult problems, resulting in truly innovative breakthroughs.” They see the moon as a largely untapped resource, and believe that “inexpensive, regular access to the Moon is a critical stepping stone for further exploration.”

Maverick and creative thinkers the Israeli trio appear to be: According to the X Prize organizers, the 29 competing teams will spend between $15 million and $100 million on the project, with the earliest launch not scheduled until 2013. The Israelis aim to spend less than that (around $10 million) and to launch before 2013.

“One of reasons that we’re able to do this,” Kfir (who started programming aged six and wrote his first computer virus aged 11) explains, “is because of our different perspective. Most space missions aim to last many years and so have to be built in a certain way. Ours doesn’t have to last as long. This saves cost.”

Another way the team intends to keep costs down involves utilizing existing technology that just hasn’t previously been linked up for this purpose, rather than spending a new fortune. Naturally the team isn’t releasing specific details of the technology they’re using, but they’re confident that they’ve got what they need.

And once they’re on the moon? “The actual robot will be something the size of a coca-cola bottle,” says Yonatan. “Think about it – a cell phone has most of the capabilities necessary for communication and imaging, and to that we need to add a hopper” to move around the moon. “Simple” really. And the impact of this? “Once we do this it will break the glass ceiling,” Yonatan adds, “and show that space exploration doesn’t have to be expensive.”

As to why they got involved? “Three reasons,” say Yonatan, “Creating national pride, really putting Israel on the map as a start-up nation by doing something only the superpowers have done, and reigniting Israeli interest in science.” And it’s the third – rejuvenating interest among Israeli youth in science – that’s closest to these young scientists’ hearts.

In the 1960s and 1970s, they say, many young Israelis pursued careers in science, in part inspired by the American space program. Today that isn’t the case, and the number of high school seniors majoring in science is constantly declining. “We want to show that science isn’t just about sitting in a lab all day,” says Kfir.

In 1919 French hotelier Raymond Orteig offered $25,000 for the first non-stop flight between New York City and Paris. Eight years later Charles Lindbergh, considered an underdog, won the prize by making the crossing in his “Spirit of St. Louis.” That not only changed the way people saw flying, but how they saw the world.

The X Prize was inspired by the Orteig Prize, and if the “Spirit of Israel” is successful they can certainly count on changing how young Israelis see science and how others see Israel. They may also change how we all see the universe.

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Franklin said:

This story is cute.

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