/sci/ - Science & Math

>>6175680
indeed! I mean think of how tall they had to build that periscope there off in the distance, just to find out where it got stuck!

>>4484884
>>4484890
Here we are:
http://www.astronautix.com/lvs/shuttle.htm
>The pretext for the shuttle was that it would be much cheaper than expendable launch vehicles and would replace them all. Production was accordingly terminated by the US government of Delta, Atlas, and Titan vehicles. NASA staff and contractors were under incredible pressure to justify this decision by increasing the shuttle launch rate, lowering the turn-around time, and thereby reducing the cost per launch. When the shuttle Challenger exploded and the entire US space lift program was shut down for almost a year, the fallacy of this decision was exposed. The US Air Force and commercial users returned to use of expendable launch vehicles. When the shuttle began flying again, it was only for NASA programs.

>>3867939
The time (and one of the main kicks in the ass to get it started):
http://www.hplusmagazine.com/articles/forever-young/manhattan-beach-project-end-aging-2029
http://www.ted.com/themes/might_you_live_a_great_deal_longer.html
http://nextbigfuture.com/2011/07/sierra-sciences-working-towards.html
http://www.sens.org/sens-research/research-themes
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-3329065877451441972#
http://www.nature.com/news/2010/101128/full/news.2010.635.html
http://www.guardian.co.uk/science/2010/nov/28/scientists-reverse-ageing-mice-humans
http://www.physorg.com/news/2011-06-biologists-yeast-cells-reverse-aging.html
http://www.physorg.com/news/2011-06-dna-reverse-premature-aging.html

The economic benefits:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Asteroid_mining
>At 1997 prices, a relatively small metallic asteroid with a diameter of 1 mile contains more than $20 trillion US dollars worth of industrial and precious metals.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Near_Earth_Objects#Near-Earth_asteroids
>As of May 2010, 7,075 near-Earth asteroids are known,[14] ranging in size up to ~32 kilometers (1036 Ganymed).[16] The number of near-Earth asteroids over one kilometer in diameter is estimated to be 500 - 1,000.

>>3748525
a related nostalgia pic

>>3622986
I was thinking of sending back materials molded in a helicopter rotor shape to slow the descent, having it impact in a desert.

In addition to shielding against gamma shine and avoiding the absorption of engine heat, another major design consideration is shielding against interstellar dust grains. Flying through space at significant fractions of lightspeed is like looking through the barrel of a super particle collider. Even an isolated proton has a sting, and grains of sand begin to look like torpedoes. Judging from what is presently known about the nature of interstellar space, such torpedoes will certainly be encountered, perhaps as frequently as once a day. Add to this the fact that as energy from the matter-antimatter reaction zone (particularly gamma radiation) shines through the tungsten shields and other ship components, the heat it deposits must be ejected.

Jim Powell and I have a system that can perform both services (particle shielding and heat shedding), at least during the acceleration and coast phases of flight. We can dump intercepted engine heat into a fluid (chiefly organic material with metallic inclusions) and throw streams of hot droplets out ahead of the ship. The droplets radiate their heat load into space before the ship accelerates into and recaptures them in magnetic funnels for eventual reuse. These same heat-shedding droplets can ionize most of the atoms they encounter by stripping off their electrons. The rocket itself then shuts the resulting shower of charged particles - protons and electrons - off to either side of its magnetic field, much the same as when a boat's prow pushes aside water.

you will never see another shuttle launch after this year... :(

>>2670270

NASA will be out of the rocket industry (HSL? lol), but private industry will take up the slack. And more inexpensively because there will be less political baggage.

1. SpaceX Dragon capsule
2. Orbital Science's Cygnus and Prometheus spaceplane
3. Sierra Nevada's Dream Chaser spaceplane
4. Boeing's CST-100 capsule

And it looks like the Atlas V will be man-rated to launch many of the above systems.

And when the ISS is decommissioned, Bigelow will start sending up inflatable space stations.

The 80's era Shuttle will fade into the mists of time, as the Saturn did before it, so that new technologies can grow.

Here we go ladies

http://www.livestream.com/spaceflightnow

>build giant bomb

>strap humans with huge balls onto it

>go into space

other animals are you even trying?