** The Official Space Flight Thread - The Space Station and Beyond **
- Thread starter Cosimo
- Start date
Berthing occured at 17:02 BST:
Dragon is scheduled to remain at the space station until May 31.
Dragon is scheduled to remain at the space station until May 31.
Sunrise in Station Cupola:
A reminder that Dragon is due to depart from the ISS tomorrow at 11:00 BST (06:00 EDT). It will be shown on NASA TV.
Splashdown in the Pacific Ocean is scheduled for 16:44 BST (11:44 EDT).
Splashdown has been confirmed at 16:42.
The Gaia mission.
LAUNCH DATE: 2013
MISSION END: nominal mission end after 5 years (2018)
LAUNCH VEHICLE: Soyuz-Fregat
LAUNCH MASS: 2030 kg
MISSION PHASE: Implementation
ORBIT:
Lissajous-type orbit around L2
OBJECTIVES:
To create the largest and most precise three dimensional chart of our Galaxy by providing unprecedented positional and radial velocity measurements for about one billion stars in our Galaxy and throughout the Local Group.
LAUNCH DATE: 2013
MISSION END: nominal mission end after 5 years (2018)
LAUNCH VEHICLE: Soyuz-Fregat
LAUNCH MASS: 2030 kg
MISSION PHASE: Implementation
ORBIT:
Lissajous-type orbit around L2
OBJECTIVES:
To create the largest and most precise three dimensional chart of our Galaxy by providing unprecedented positional and radial velocity measurements for about one billion stars in our Galaxy and throughout the Local Group.
Dragon coming home:
Soldato
Human settlement of Mars in 2023.
What do you think? Likely?
I doubt it myself.
http://mars-one.com/
What do you think? Likely?
I doubt it myself.
http://mars-one.com/
Soldato
Well yes and no. Mars is nice because it's practically habitable already. It has hydrogen, carbon, oxygen and nitrogen in abundance - we just need machines to separate those elements from the compounds they're locked up in. CHON - the elements necessary to maintain life*.
Also, going to Mars and establishing a settlement will probably work out to be much cheaper than a round trip. Simply because you don't have to carry your return fuel with you. It's a truism that in space flight, you need an awful lot of fuel to move a little mass. To make it a return trip, you need a crazy amount of fuel to move the enormous amount of fuel to move the awful lot of fuel needed to move a little mass. If you don't need return trip fuel, it works out much much cheaper.
In principle, there's nothing stopping us from doing things like that right now. It's just money and politics. Politicians will get squeamish about the idea of sending human beings on a one-way trip, but in reality, I doubt there would be any shortage of people who would volunteer for it.
*Edit: and that's to say nothing of all the metals and other elements in abundance there. There's no shortage of iron, so if the machines break, we could in principle manufacture replacement parts in situ.
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Soldato
I don't think that site and/or it's plan are legit.
http://www.reddit.com/r/worldnews/comments/ufb42/ama_i_am_founder_of_mars_one_sending_four_people/
Sounds like a publicity stunt or something.
http://www.reddit.com/r/worldnews/comments/ufb42/ama_i_am_founder_of_mars_one_sending_four_people/
Sounds like a publicity stunt or something.
Soldato
I confess I didn't actually look at their website. I was commenting on the overall feasibility of establishing settlements on Mars. It would cost a large amount of money, but it's definitely doable with existing technology. And when you compare what it would cost against the annual military budget of any first world country (especially Lolmerica), it suddenly doesn't look very expensive at all.
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Soldato
Kinda suspected as much. That's quite an elaborate hoax though.
Interesting, I didn't know they discovered oxygen on mars.
Interesting, I didn't know they discovered oxygen on mars.
Soldato
It has rust. Rust is iron oxide. Apply energy, and you get iron and oxygen.
Edit: to say nothing of the carbon dioxide atmosphere.
