/sci/ - Science & Math

[Scia No.1482326]

Spaceflight Thread!
Personally I think that the future of manned spaceflight is a corporate affair.
NASA does not do the the things required to make space colonization, the end
goal of space exploration possible. For example they don't find ways of driving down the
cost of space access. But the falcon 9 rocket can take more then the space shuttle to
LEO at less then 1/10 of the cost, and can actually go to GEO.


Also the private sector is about to surpass the ISS is volume at least. Bigelow aerospace
is working on the sundancer inflatable space module. It can hold 3 people long term 6 people
short term. The thing is each one costs less then 100 million(assumed because to BA 330 costs 100 million).
This makes is possible to construct a space station far bigger then the ISS at a small fraction of the cost.

[Scia No.1482339]

>>1482326
Also the space station in my picture is capable of holding 24 people long term.

[Anonymous No.1482344]

Ok, sounds good.

[Anonymous No.1482392]

bump

[Anonymous No.1482445]

We need to get at least 1000 people into a self-sustaining colony in some asteroid, comet, moon, or a habitat on Cisjovia.

All within this century, and I think it will be done. I hope.

Otherwise, whatever is causing the Fermi Paradox might get to us.

[Anonymous No.1482462]

>>1482445

You have read too many blog stories on the Internet. Sure, we'll expand into space, but I think we still have a few decades before the next deadly gamma ray burst/relativistic bomb/300 billion tonne asteroid/comet/wandering moon/pulsar event/sudden world-wide climate change/super solar flare.

[TripFriend !Wtna9j3sNA No.1482465]

HURRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR
RRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR DURRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR
private sector ain't going to take us to mars/phobos/an asteroid, wouldn't have taken us to the moon, etc etc

ambitious spaceflight, pushing the boundaries (i.e no LEO or GEO) is far too long term an investment for corporations, and even for governments too (unless you're in the cold war)

srsly, election cycles block progress in this area

[Anonymous No.1482472]

>>1482465

Well Bigelow Aerospace has claimed that after the space station they want to put a hotel on the moon, which is the first step for an all-out colony. Certainly much better than anything poor NASA could do, considering they have to fight all the ass-backwards pants-on-head retarded congressmen who go all "lol spaceflight is useless what a waste it's not like there are asteroids worth 20 trillion dollars just floating around and multi-gram quantities of antimatter being naturally produced".

[Anonymous No.1482506]

>>1482472

This.

[Anonymous No.1482526]

ITT:

[Anonymous No.1482533]

>>1482526

What?

[Anonymous No.1482540]

The current versions of the House and Senate bills cut all but a couple million for supporting the growth of commercial spaceflight. If they pass the new version instead of the first draft of the senate bill, COTS is essentially going to have no funding which means private spaceflight would no longer have any substantial incentives or contracts to work for.

[Anonymous No.1482655]

Once economically viable, space shall be conquered and exploited. Satellite investment has proven greatly beneficial, and poses great scope for future space-related technological investments within the next 50 years.

[Anonymous No.1482712]

[Anonymous No.1482977]

>>1482655
God, I hope so. We're going to really need those asteroid metals pretty soon here.

[Anonymous No.1482988]

You're going to need fuel stops in space

[Anonymous No.1483493]

>>1482988
>>1482988
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/In-Situ_Resource_Utilization

just get your LOX from the moon

[снайпер No.1483534]

>>1482988
Jupiter is a really shitty place to go for anything.

Too much radiation. Saturn's is superior.

Also
>Mining for oil on jupiter
Nigga you just went full retard

[Anonymous No.1483718]

>>1483534
If we found oil on jupiter I think energy would be low on the list of priorities.

[Anonymous No.1483783]

>>1482540
government funding would speed things, but all the active commercial players never set themselves up to be dependent on the government as a customer, Bigelow is funding with his own money and plans on the tourist market, same with Branson’s Virgin Galactic, SpaceX planned on launching manned dragon capsules in 6 years anyway (the government contracts just would have made it sooner) and already is eating the old sat launchers lunch.

[Anonymous No.1483816]

OP is absolutely right about the future of spaceflight being a corporate affair. In fact that is exactly why I'm majoring in Aerospace engineering so I can get in on the bottom floor of a huge industry. Private space companies are going to change the world the same way Ford did in the early 1900's. It's only a matter of time before permanent space colonies orbit the earth, each on costing billions of dollars in construction and maintenance. I'll be raking in that doe, yo. I'm just hoping that I get a good internship next year.

[Anonymous No.1483839]

>>1482472
I remember some guy coming to my elementary school talking about Hilton building a hotel in space. That must have been 10 years ago.

In order to do any realistic space operations we will need to mass produce carbon nanotubes for a space elevator. Anything short of that will still make space travel far too expensive to be worth it.

[Anonymous No.1483908]

>>1483816
OP here
agreed im going to be majoring in aerospace engineering and astronomy

[Anonymous No.1484238]

[Anonymous No.1484529]

bump