/sci/ - Science & Math

[Scia No.1569337]

The age of private spaceflight is upon us.

There are companies making access to LEO far cheaper.
http://www.spacex.com/
People making reusable suborbital space planes.
http://www.virgingalactic.com/
People making space habitats that only cost 100 million$ and yet can carry and many as the 100 billion$ ISS.
http://www.bigelowaerospace.com/
People working on engines that could one day power a SSTO spaceplane that can carry 24 passengers to orbit.
http://www.reactionengines.co.uk/

If the senate NASA bill passes in September 2.4 billion will be given to the private sector to advance their goals.

assuming most of you are 15-30 its very likely that you could visit space in your lifetime.

[Anonymous No.1569343]

NASA being the space company right?

[Anonymous No.1569344]

SSTO? On Earth? Really?

I mean I don't want to sound like a pessimist or anything but SSTO on Earth isn't something you just go and do.

[Scia No.1569355]

>>1569344
look up the SABRE engine

[Anonymous No.1569365]

So basically, I can pay these guys to launch my own satellite or rocket, into space?

[Bill !///NYEnRAU No.1569371]

Coincidentally, we are approaching a solar maximum.

[Anonymous No.1569381]

>>1569337
>assuming most of you are 15-30 its very likely that you could visit space in your lifetime.

You don't know how much I hope that's right. :/

[Anonymous No.1569386]

>>1569365
Yes. And you've had this opportunity for a while now, it's nothing new. If you have the money and the payload you can find someone who'll put it up there.

[Scia No.1569402]

>>1569386
True but now its to expensive unless you super giga rich

[Anonymous No.1569421]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IfbOyw3CT6A

Technology is accelerating so fucking fast. We'll be living on the moon in no time.

[No.1569436]

There was a thread a few days ago about nano assemblers that once in the publics hand will result in the colonization of our solar system within only a few few decades along with all of /tg/ wearing power armour

[Scia No.1569442]

>>1569436

[Scia No.1569487]

Also Boeing is making a space Capsule the CST 100
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CST-100

[Anonymous No.1569498]

>>1569421
I don't want nano bots in my head, controlling me.

fucking Illuminati

[Anonymous No.1569503]

What about those of us who are 38?

[Scia No.1569508]

>>1569503
I dont why 8 years will make a difference

[Anonymous No.1569517]

>>1569508
Because space flight that peasants like you and me can actually afford won't come for another 50 years. The sobering reality: If you ever do manage to visit space it will probably be as a brittle old man.

[Scia No.1569532]

>>1569517
Well a trip with virgin galactic costs 200k and is suspected of going down

Were mostly scientists/engineers and aspiring scientists/engineers
We can just save up for a couple of years

[Anonymous No.1569546]

>>1569532
>saving money

Nigga, saving money is not possible for me

FIND ANOTHER WAY

[Anonymous No.1569559]

>>1569532
>Aspiring scientists
>Save up $200k in vacation money in a few years
You know that most scientists make shit for cash, right? A full professor is lucky to hit six figures.

[Anonymous No.1569583]

>>1569559
And we have to pay money to do our shit

they better lower it to $10k or i ain't going into space

[Scia No.1569608]

Be a planetary geologist and get sent to moon to do geology

Thats work?

[Scia No.1569652]

space bump

[Anonymous No.1569687]

>>1569608
Didn't you hear? They've got rovers for that stuff now. The only way to get your ass into space as a scientist is to somehow convince NASA that you have an experiment that absolutely must be performed in zero gravity and that you're the only person capable of doing it.

Honestly, the air force is your best choice if you want to go to space. NASA likes to pull their astronauts from veteran air force pilots. The USA has also stated that it has a set goal for setting up orbital weaponry and preventing other countries from doing the same, which means that in a few decades we may start seeing soldiers getting shipped up into orbit to protect weapons satellites from other astrosoldiers. In other words, Shattered Horizon is about to get real.

[Anonymous No.1569690]

>assuming most of you are 15-30 its very likely that you could visit space in your lifetime.

Assuming we could pass the pre-flight tests and have a couple million in the bank.

I can't wait!

[Scia No.1569710]

>>1569687
The best chance to get to space is with the private industry

[Anonymous No.1569732]

Asteroid mining will be what really gets us out into space on a large scale. Mark my words.

[Anonymous No.1569735]

>>1569710
Perhaps. But then you don't get to fire low-orbit ion cannons, shoot people in space, and engage in spaceship dogfights.

[Scia No.1569747]

>>1569735
thats a good thing

[Anonymous No.1569781]

>>1569732
Fuck, I hope so. I don't really want to have to deal with a minerals crisis in my lifetime.

[Anonymous No.1569783]

>>1569732
Nah, asteroids are a bitch to land on, much less get to. The only mining that's going to get us into space in the foreseeable future is H3 mining on the moon since:

- H3 is valuable as fuck
- The moon has a million fucktons of it
- The moon is *relatively* easy to get to, land on, and set up a mining operation on

Not to say that anyone is going to be mining on the moon in our lifetime, but rather that we'll probably be doing that well before we ever start mining asteroids for metals.

[Anonymous No.1569804]

This is a very exciting time to be alive. Okay, sure we're not jetting around the galaxy in sci-fi ships or anything... but we're at the very beginning. We're going to be alive to see humanity make the transition from dipping its toes in the shallow end to taking the plunge into the deep.

Frankly we should do everything we can to convince the House to vote no on HR. 5781, and yes on S. 3729

I know there was a thread earlier in the week rallying people to call/write their representatives. Might not work but it sounds like something worth trying.

[Anonymous No.1569834]

http://www.airspacemag.com/space-exploration/License-to-Thrill.html

Fucking awesome.

[Anonymous No.1569854]

i hope that we advance along the lines of Planetes.

Up there in space, colony on the moon, making our way to Jupiter. I want to believe, /sci/, i want to believe.....

;_;

[Anonymous No.1569877]

>>1569804
>This is a very exciting time to be alive

I'd agree, but not for the same reason: We live in the turning point. What the people alive right now do right now is what will largely define human life for the next few thousand years, and even seemingly insignificant actions will have a huge effect on the outcome.

[Anonymous No.1569889]

>asteroid mining
>ram unmanned rocket into asteroid
>divert its path to Earth orbit
>ram more rockets into it to slow speed
>asteroid crashes into moon
>harvest delicious minerals without crashing asteroids into Earth
>miscalculate and knock the moon out of orbit
>fuck

[Anonymous No.1569907]

>>1569889
Fuck indeed.

[Anonymous No.1570040]

>>1569889
Moon mining, FUCK YEAR!

[Anonymous No.1570220]

>Frankly we should do everything we can to convince the House to vote no on HR. 5781, and yes on S. 3729. I know there was a thread earlier in the week rallying people to call/write their representatives. Might not work but it sounds like something worth trying.

DO IT!!

[Integris No.1570245]

>>1569337
It will never pass. There are too many entrenched house members who would rather spend NASA money on anything that will get them re-elected. NASA will continue to be a jobs program.

[Anonymous No.1570309]

>>1570245
China, with its party-leaders who don't give a fuck about looking good, will lead the expansion to space.

America will become an embarrassment to the human race as their titanic bureaucracy renders them impotent to compete.

[Anonymous No.1570347]

>>1570245
Not necessarily. I went down to my congressman's office the other day to see if I could find out his position on the bill. The woman I spoke with was a space enthusiast herself and she's been in contact with a lot of people she knows who work with other Reps in DC. It turns out most of the House hasn't even read either version of the bill yet, let alone made up their minds. I left a letter for my Rep asking him to support the Senate bill and she promised to pass it on to him along with her recommendation.

The space program DOES have friends in DC.

[Anonymous No.1570424]

>>1570347
>most of the House hasn't read the bill yet

And they never will.

[Anonymous No.1570430]

>America will become an embarrassment to the human race as their titanic bureaucracy renders them impotent to compete.

Source that doesn't come from some faggot 14 year old?

[Anonymous No.1570575]

>>1570309
China abandoned two entire space programs in as many decades. They'll drop Shenzhou at the first speed bump.

[Scia No.1571937]

Im hoping that once orbital flight becomes routine for the private industry.

We could build a craft that could take us to the moon

[Anonymous No.1571982]

If y'all are interested, would halfway consider taking capital investments and resumés for a private space contractor who's sole purpose is to clean up space junk.

Several viable solutions even at present. Anti-satellite missiles are, as the Chinese proved, create more of a debris problem than they would solve.

ROVs to physically grab (or even just use a large amount of mass to gravitically nudge) space junk would be viable; they could then nudge them towards the Sun or into the Earth's atmosphere, depending on environmental concerns.

The issue would be tiny shit. Space vacuum, anyone?

[снайпер No.1572000]

>>1569783
You are ridiculously wrong. Stop parroting what you hear on tv.

>- H3 is valuable as fuck
No, it isn't. We don't have fusion reactors, we don't have much of *any* use for Helium-3 right now.

>- The moon has a million fucktons of it
In a concentration of 0.01ppm. That means you need to mine a hundred thousand tons of lunar rock for every ton helium-3. Mining and extracting the helium will cost more energy than using it as fuel will get us.

We might start mining the moon for metals or water. We most certainly will *not* be mining the moon for helium-3.

[Scia No.1572038]

>>1571937
then take the craft to a station orbiting the moon.
After that take a lunar lander back and forth from the station to the surface

[Anonymous No.1572046]

Private spaceflight you say?

[Boomer !!bcdVCSUmpgT No.1572054]

>>1572000
Yep, you want profitable? How about the 700 million ton asteroid that has a 1 million tons of Platinum, 50 million of nickle, and 50 million of Iron. Even with perfectly even distribution you'd get 1 ton of platinum, 50 tons of nickle, and 50 tons of iron for every 700 tons of that rock processed.

The total iron value would be 25 billion.
The total platinum value would be 30 trillion.
The total nickle value would be 115 trillion.

I of course won't shut up about the platinum.

[Anonymous No.1572071]

>>1572054
he said it wasn't profitable to mine FOR HELIUM
if you read it, he said it might be profitable for metals

[Boomer !!bcdVCSUmpgT No.1572081]

>>1572071
I said "Yep" and posted about a great place to mine for metals. If you read it, you'd calm the fuck down.

[Anonymous No.1572099]

>>1572054
The nickel is more valuable it's used in a lot of stuff.

We need copper as well that shit be valuable.

[Anonymous No.1572106]

>>1571982
>good idea
>everyone else ignores it and argues about getting H3 or nickel from the Moon
Enjoy not being able to leave orbit.

[Boomer !!bcdVCSUmpgT No.1572110]

>>1572099
Fuck copper! The only reason we are using copper so much now is because it is so much more common than the other metals while still being able to do the job. Once we have that million tons of platinum it will replace copper in all electrical applications. Everything electric will run better. Power plants will produce energy more cheaply. et cetera. Some people like to bring up "when you bring that much platinum it won't be worth that much anymore". But we need that platinum anyway, it will be worth enough as it changes the face of our entire world and improves quality of life for every human on it. More power plants built more cheaply and electronics that work better and last longer... we can forget copper, then.

[Anonymous No.1572127]

>>1572054
bonus is that unlike moon, asteroids are not on the bottom of a fucking gravity well.

[Anonymous No.1572132]

>>1572110
Copper is still useful as a construction material and for plumbing.

Not all about electronics you know dude, unfortunately electrons are incapable of moving our water for us.

[Boomer !!bcdVCSUmpgT No.1572142]

>>1572132
The electronics and cheap power thing would just create a vast improvement in one way. but now that you mention it... without copper being used in electronics a lot more is available for all the other applications it is needed for. Picture that.

[Anonymous No.1572144]

>>1572127
That's one of this issues you tard.

How exactly are you going to stop something from drifting away from the asteroid.

I'll tell you how.

We make runner rails on the surface of the asteroid, and you give everything a harness with a line and a carabineer clip onto the rails and bam no people or equipment floating away.

[Scia No.1572145]

>>1572132
moving water is easy
really easy

[Anonymous No.1572157]

>>1572145
I know it is tard but materials are required to do so, and we tend to use copper to transport it.

Ergo by using more platinum in electronics that frees up more copper to be used in water transport, which means some parts of Africa and under developed countries can be aided and mined and stripped clean, which means even more materials and advanced cultures and scientifically literate nations to aid us in leaving our homeworld.

[Anonymous No.1572174]

>>1572157
Total amount of platimium ever mined is 420 tons. At 21.3 the mass of water per givien volume thats 19.7m^3. Depressing isn't it?

[Anonymous No.1572180]

>>1569337

>SSTO

Not in this lifetime. You'd need a fuel and engine that's efficient as fuck. Getting an SSTO into orbit would be like trying to drive from Madrid to Shanghai on one tank of gas.

[Anonymous No.1572187]

>>1572110

Except for plumbing.

[Anonymous No.1572188]

>>1572180

Or a high thrust to weight ratio.

Something like 14:1

wait...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reaction_Engines_SABRE#Performance

[Anonymous No.1572201]

>>1569687
>The USA has also stated that it has a set goal for setting up orbital weaponry and preventing other countries from doing the same
>preventing other countries from doing the same
Europe says: "No."

[Anonymous No.1572209]

>>1572201
Europe says a lot of thing. USA has not given a shit since 1945.

[Boomer !!bcdVCSUmpgT No.1572212]

>>1572201
America says "...how would you stop us?"

But seriously, it is a lot more important we get that platinum then we set up guns in space.

[Anonymous No.1572220]

>>1572212
Er... shoot back?

[Anonymous No.1572230]

>>1572209
>>1572212

Oh lol at you guys thinking America is still the number 1 superpower.

[Anonymous No.1572235]

>>1572212
Haven't you played Tom Clancy's EndWar?
Europeans were the ones who had the orbital laser cannon.

But stupid retardedness aside, exploiting of space and it's vast richness should be a common goal for both USA and Europe, both NASA and ESA.

Lets push our political and cultural diffirences aside and conquer the cosmos before those nasty chinese do. For the common good of the white man.

[Anonymous No.1572249]

>>1572235
Hurah!

[Anonymous No.1572250]

>Private company tries to build huge orbital facility
>International community FREAKS THE FUCK OUT over the possibility of them screwing up and having it crash back, possibly on their own land
>Already expensive project is made more expensive by an endless increase in fees and taxes that discourage all but the most diehard space enthusiasts to support the project
>Something screws up eventually, like it always does, and the public from around the world demands we quit wasting money building shit in space that can fall back down and kill us
>Space travel beyond small satellites and maybe the once-a-century Mars lander is dead for the rest of this millenia
>Meanwhile, the Wars on Drugs and Terror continue and an even greater portion of the budget is devoted to welfare

[Anonymous No.1572256]

>>1572250
This is going to happen.

;_;

[Anonymous No.1572259]

>>1572230

>Only nation with Supercarriers
>Only nation with Stealth Aircraft (at least until the F-35 ships, and the PAKFA goes into production)
>Largest Navy
>Largest Air Force
>Second only to China in terms of manpower
>Not #1 super power

Pic related

[Integris No.1572261]

>>1570347
If those friends are not on the House Committee on Science and Technology, the Subcommittee on Space and Aeronautics, the Committee on Appropriations, or the Subcommittee on Commerce- Justice-Science, then whether or not they are a friend of the space program is irrelevant. Those last two are the most important.

http://science.house.gov/about/members.shtml
http://appropriations.house.gov/
http://appropriations.house.gov/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=331%3Aabout-com
merce-justice-science&catid=126&Itemid=17

[Boomer !!bcdVCSUmpgT No.1572263]

>>1572256
Unless the people trying to build the project just go "FUCK YOU!" the people crying out for censure of it. Seriously, it's notes on paper. We need the determination to say "Until you fucking bust into our homes and cap us, then bring the thing crashing down on your heads yourself, we shall continue."

[Anonymous No.1572273]

>>1572201
Better

>US: We shall perform the Rods from Gods operation
>World says: Right lads let's arm those anti satellite missiles and blow them out of the stars.

[Anonymous No.1572274]

>>1572259

>implying having a large army is enough to be a superpower

[Anonymous No.1572281]

>>1572250
This can only happen in USA.
Europeans simply love science, european governments would even support financing for the space station, just like EU spents millions of euros to support the building of the large hadron collider.

[Anonymous No.1572283]

>>1572235

I'm all for a joint operation between NASA, and the ESA to put a man on Mars.

[Anonymous No.1572301]

>>1572263

>Unless the people trying to build the project just go "FUCK YOU!"

>Tonight on Fox News, Generic-Space-Corporation has defied American demands to cease construction of orbital structures! Shocking news about GSC's CEO's ties to terrorism at 11!

>The United Nations has placed extreme restrictions on private space travel following GSC's reckless actions.

>Tonight on Local News! Are your children starving because of high food prices? You'll be shocked to find out where your money is being wasted: space stations!

Ad infinitum.

[Anonymous No.1572302]

>>1572283

Hell yeah. NASA already has a crew capsule, and they can build the TMI rockets, and the ESA can build the ascent stages and the lander.

Shit would be so cash.

[Anonymous No.1572311]

>>1572281

Watch someone point out an obscure tiny structural flaw on the station's blueprints. Suddenly, this information is plastered all over the news in every country for weeks. Reporters who don't know shit about it will talk about how "DO WE REALLY WANT TO RISK HUMAN LIVES FOR SOMETHING AS RIDICULOUS AS SPACE TRAVEL?!"

Then you'll have people coming out of the woodwork pointing out flaws in every little thing, even though most of them are wrong, and the general public will be convinced it's a horrible idea and will turn against it.

Or, at least, enough of them will so that politicians turn against it so that they can secure votes.

[Boomer !!bcdVCSUmpgT No.1572313]

>>1572301
Still over here in Kenya, still building. You guys going to argue on your news channels? Until you fucking come over here and put a bullet through my head, I will keep building. And then you need to put another through the head of the next man, and the next. You will have to kill all of these civilians because we wouldn't pay a fine without trial. Until we get that trial, no fine shall be paid and no illegal censure shall be honored. Until i get that bullet, no slip of paper shall be honored.

Talk all you want, CNN. Talk. I shall build.

Captcha is : LIBERATION gelischr

[Anonymous No.1572314]

>>1572311
Stupid cunts went batshit insane because of the collider too, yelling that it's going to make a giant black hole that will consume the whole planet, but they still built and used it anyway.

[Boomer !!bcdVCSUmpgT No.1572317]

>>1572311
Wah wah wah, same thing happened to the LHC. Talk all you want, the building continues.

[Anonymous No.1572318]

>>1572311
>secure votes

American politics suck dick, s'all about looking good.

The BNP have a seat in the EU because they got votes, they don't look good to anyone.

[Anonymous No.1572327]

>>1572318
What party is the BNP?

[Anonymous No.1572329]

>>1572311

The funny thing is, people bitch about the money we're putting into NASA, but our federal budget is 3.5 trillion. NASA's share of that is 18 billion. That's less than the rounding error I just introduced.

[Anonymous No.1572333]

>>1572327
It stand for British Nationalist Party.
Basically british nazies, though that's a little harsly said.

[fascist goldfish !Rrxa7zePwI No.1572335]

>bnp
>looking good
see, that's your problem. something like the bnp only appeals to ill educated nativist retards.

fix yer education system.

[Boomer !!bcdVCSUmpgT No.1572336]

>>1572329
And it would take less than 100 billion (but I am rounding up and asking for the full 100 billion) to secure the asteroid I want and process it. Think about that, 100 billion gets you 30 trillion worth of platinum and a quadrillion worth of nickle.

[Anonymous No.1572337]

>>1572317
>>1572314
>>1572313

Well, if you all truly believe in private space flight, then more power to you. I hope you enjoy it.

As far as I'm concerned, I'm convinced that space travel beyond satellites is dead. The most we'll get are a few special planes that may enter low orbit for tourists, but that's it. We'll all probably kill ourselves over something retarded before we ever get anything awesome done.

Then again, I'm an incredible pessimist. I won't bother this thread any further.

[Anonymous No.1572344]

>>1572261
Actually the committees and subcommittees no longer matter. The House and Senate both have completed drafts of the bill, there's not going to be any committee meetings in the House. All that's left for them to do is to decide whether to pass their draft of the bill, or support the Senate bill, a bill which the president is more likely to sign and which passed in the Senate with UNANIMOUS consent.

[Anonymous No.1572345]

>>1572336

What asteroid is that? Can I get a wiki link?

[Anonymous No.1572348]

>>1572336
Well, actually it wouldn't. Flooding the market with that much would essentially reduce the price of those metals to nothing.

[Anonymous No.1572354]

>>1572348

Problem, Economy?

[Anonymous No.1572402]

>>1572335
The education system is fine actually, too much child fucking poverty though.

And here in britian we have this incredible talent of telling each other that we'll never amount to anything higher than pond scum.

Some rise above it though to prove em wrong.

[Anonymous No.1572413]

>>1572348
Yup, causes a massive market crash as you force that much into the economy.

But then people take advantage of it and there is a massive technological boom as people can now get their shit out there with their super efficient electronics.

Suddenly 10 years later our ass is sitting on a porch in platinum rocking chair flying around the martian atmosphere playing a fucking space bassjo

[fascist goldfish !Rrxa7zePwI No.1572422]

>>1572413
i can't fault any man whose imagination involves platinum porches.

[Scia No.1572445]

>>1572422
neither can I

[Boomer !!bcdVCSUmpgT No.1572460]

>>1572413
It wouldn't all show up at once. Even at the maximum processing possibility of 10000 tons a day, only a few tons of that will be platinum. But after 3 months the amount of platinum on earth will have doubled. 3 more months and it has tripled. Nevermind the 50 times as much nickle making it even more profitable.

Then the cost begins to drop. Platinum is no longer worth as much because so much is available now... so then i reveal the blueprints for powerplants using platinum. If no one else will build them, i make them myself. I got the cash and the material for it anyway. And other powerplants I offer a platinum discount to modify themselves to utilize platinum and give up their copper.

...So yeah, I fucking drop the platinum price on purpose and become part of the force changing the world with it. Then we get those platinum porches after an easy transition, rather than recovering from a market crash.

[Tribersman No.1572495]

>>1572281
>>1572283
>>1572302
I think that ESA even planned to build a space-dock for said Martian mission.

>>1572311
Pointing a flaw only work if you know better.
Because unlike the Oil Spill there is no technological solution for "can't put on orbit a frigging autonomous bunker"

>>1572348
You have the right to put any price you want if you are the only one who can bring so much Metal, as long as you do benefice.
Though, since Helium3 is ENERGY just like petrol I expect this one to be the deciding resource, platinum will be second.

[Anonymous No.1572496]

>>1572460
That's a better plan.

But I still want my platinum flying house, rocking chair and Space Bass jo like this one in the pic

[Solipsist No.1572497]

Too bad atmospheric capture of asteroids is never going to get allowed.

[Anonymous No.1572512]

>>1572348
Who said anything about flooding the markets? Even discounting the time it takes to harvest the asteroids, its entirely possible to restrict the flow of materials available to buyers.

[Anonymous No.1572531]

>>1572460
So, how is platinum better than copper?
Can't be heat or electrical conductivity, so what is it?

[Tribersman No.1572532]

>>1572497
By the time we can move one at all I think they'll have authorized all sort of nuclear fusion in space already, at the very last you can crash land it on the Moon where you built a small space elevator.

[Solipsist No.1572548]

>>1572532
No, you can't. Besides which, that's LESS safe than atmospheric capture.

[Scia No.1572581]

Anyone know of any companies that i left out?

[Boomer !!bcdVCSUmpgT No.1572585]

>>1572531
>But platinum doesn't do what you want.

Well fuck. I'll just have to settle for it's other industrial applications so we have nothing but platinum tools then.

So, same plan, different markets, and we get the platinum banjo, porches, and rocking chair even sooner.

[Boomer !!bcdVCSUmpgT No.1572594]

>>1572497
>>1572548

Atmospheric... capture... wait, is anyone seriously suggesting LANDING all 700 million tons of rock AT ONCE? Uh, no, let's just process it bit by bit.

[Solipsist No.1572606]

>>1572594
Atmospheric capture puts the asteroid in orbit around earth. If you're moving it from the asteroid belt to earth, you'll end up with some velocity on the asteroid when it gets to Earth. You can either dump that velocity with the same kind of delta-v you use to move things around, or you could skim it across the atmosphere to slow it down.

[Anonymous No.1572615]

It was about time...
I'm more hot for the prospect of a space elevator though, it would make launching shuttles way lessexpensive I believe.

[Anonymous No.1572618]

>>1572585
if you want a copper replacement with better conductivity, try gold.

[Boomer !!bcdVCSUmpgT No.1572622]

>>1572606
Ah, atmospheric breaking to achieve stable orbit... no, not gonna do that either. Best to just process it and send little 1 to 10 ton packages to land. It would be much more efficient that way.

[Boomer !!bcdVCSUmpgT No.1572650]

>>1572618
Meh, I want whatever is out there, and will use it however it is best used. Anything in high demand is in high demand for a reason. People need that nickle as much as they need that platinum. People need a lot of things. And amazingly large quantities of all of it is out there. Heck, look at asteroid 16-psyche in the belt.

16-psyche is pure Iron-Nickle mix... 25, quintillion, tons... of pure iron and nickle. You can just end a lot of earth based industry with that.

[Scia No.1572803]

>>1572650
DAT PLATNIUM

also what asteroid is it?

[Boomer !!bcdVCSUmpgT No.1572823]

>>1572803
I have actually been looking for the platinum one for the past two hours... it's an NEO but i seem to have misplaced the registry. And i can't just search by physical characteristics. Either way, platinum doesn't do what I want, so why not go to 16 psyche out in the belt. Pure, fucking, iron nickle. Pure... no digging, just carve it out and there you go, a chunk of the stuff, pure. 16-psyche is the fallback in case the spectral readings on the NEOs turn out to be inaccurate.

[Lone Wanderer !K.aeLxKxZI No.1572859]

>>1569337

>he think SSTO from Earth is practical

[Integris No.1572861]

>>1572344
I hope you're right.

[Lone Wanderer !K.aeLxKxZI No.1572865]

>>1569337

>he thinks SSTO from Earth is practical

[Scia No.1572874]

>>1572865
>>1572865
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reaction_Engines_SABRE

[Scia No.1572912]

>>1572865
see
>>1572188

[Anonymous No.1573179]

I do hole SABRE and Skylon end up becoming the next big thing. It's kind of depressing how the UK dwindled into nothing important once the industrial revolution had run out of steam.

[Anonymous No.1573224]

>>1572250
...why would anybody want an orbital facility, let alone a for-profit corporation?

[Anonymous No.1573254]

op sees the light

op should also check out the emdrive

[Anonymous No.1573264]

I am happy that private spaceflight is upon us.

Ever since I first heard about commercial spaceflight, I knew that I would leave the gravity of the earth in my lifetime.

Furk year freemarket.

[Colonel Coffee Mug !phJ7yIcs.Q No.1573273]

>>1572313

>Still over here in Kenya, still building

ohhh what are you building

[Colonel Coffee Mug !phJ7yIcs.Q No.1573291]

Also pretty Skylon pictures.

[Colonel Coffee Mug !phJ7yIcs.Q No.1573298]

1/3

[Colonel Coffee Mug !phJ7yIcs.Q No.1573308]

2/3

[Colonel Coffee Mug !phJ7yIcs.Q No.1573311]

3/3

[Anonymous No.1573323]

>>1573298
>>1573308
>>1573311
Honestly...
I think it looks like a giant black dildo

[Colonel Coffee Mug !phJ7yIcs.Q No.1573329]

>>1573323

So what >;3~~½

[Scia No.1573332]

For funding SKYLON only has a 1million$ grant from ESA

How do we get adequate funding?

[Anonymous No.1573353]

>>1573332
Well atleast they already got some funding from a governmental agency, if they send nice enough letter asking more money, then they might receive more funding.

[Tribersman No.1573367]

>>1572548
>>1572594
The problem isn't it doing a aerocapture, it's it going anywhere near earth AT ALL.

I thing we are more going to install giant coil gun on it and throw it piece by piece, but it all depend about your capacity to catch them.
You'll need precision so you don't have to put thruster on any of them.
You have to make sure they don't break in half during the launch or the catch, knowing how much of them you'll have to send this is the reason you'll want to avoid any form of packaging (if you can't build it there though)
You'll also need a functional mass catcher (best way to test one is from the Moon to Earth)

And crashing it (slowly?) on the moon isn't that much of a problem seeing how much of a gravity well it is.

But, the asteroid better have something that can't be found on the moon or any planet already, meaning that asteroid belt mining will probably be for "closer" use (space station).
As horrible a planet is because of the gravity well, you'll find most resources there and you can use space elevator as a frond.

[Scia No.1573384]

>>1573353
For they are only working on the SABRE engine
because thats the main thing that needs to work if this is going to happen

[Colonel Coffee Mug !phJ7yIcs.Q No.1573436]

>>1573332

Door to door.

[Anonymous No.1573768]

I like the NASA concept art more

[Anonymous No.1573820]

>>1573768
That even looks gayer than the european version

[Scia No.1573843]

>>1573768
thats a green airplane not a spaceplane

[Scia No.1574366]

So do you think NASA is capable of putting men on a asteroid

or is it just a jobs program

[Anonymous No.1574571]

>>1574366
If the Senate bill passes? Absolutely.
If the House bill passes? Jobs program.

[Integris No.1575308]

>>1574571
gotta agree with this

[Scia No.1575621]

>>1574571
Agreed

[Anonymous No.1576500]

>>1574571
>>1575308
>>1575621
All the more reason to convince the House to do right by NASA. I mailed a letter today.

[Anonymous No.1577131]

bump

[Anonymous No.1577228]

this virgin galactic shit is nowhere near getting people into space. granted you get up to a height where there's no atmosphere but then you instantly come back down to earth again. you haven't actually escaped the earth's gravity and you can't go anywhere other than down. it's not the solution for anything other than brief pleasure trips.

[Anonymous No.1577233]

>>1569337

that reaction engines thing is a joke. HEY WE THINK WE CAN MAKE A SPACE PLANE! WE HAVEN'T SOLVED MANY OF THE ACTUAL PROBLEMS YET AND WE NEED ABOUT 10 BILLION DOLLARS TO GET TO TESTING LOL

[Anonymous No.1577237]

restart this program

[Anonymous No.1577240]

>>1577237
and this one.

[Anonymous No.1577243]

>>1577233
well, that's how rocket science works.

[Anonymous No.1577244]

Oh look it's Scia, the kid who doesn't know shit about money.

[Anonymous No.1577247]

>>1571982
I like the amount of attention people have paid to space junk in this thread. It's the same amount of attention they pay to it in real life.

There's even been examples of people wanting to add more space junk all willy-nilly.

Well, go ahead. But enjoy trying to get into orbit. Or having TV. Or weather reports. Or GPS.

[Boomer !!bcdVCSUmpgT No.1577248]

>>1573273

Not actually in kenya building anything. But the cheapest way to get the mining facility up into orbit would be to build the whole thing here on earth, launch it all at once with a massive launch cannon, and then use something like the SKYLON to send the crew up to unpack the thing from launch state to work state and pilot it to the asteroid to be carved up.

In one shot a launch cannon could send up 250,000 tons for a cost of only 50 million.

[Anonymous No.1577269]

>>1572259

i agree the united states is the strongest military, however i lol at the stealth shit. like the fact that a stealth aircraft was shot down BY FUCKING SERBIANS WITH 2ND HAND RUSSIAN HARDWARE, the fact that the british rapier missile system can track stealth fighters and the fact that the eurofighter has scored mock kills against the brand-spanking-new F22 during war games. stealth is a compromise of negligible benefit. HOWEVER, i do like those big boats america has.

[Scia No.1577276]

>>1577244
How exactly?

[Scia No.1577420]

bump

[Inurdaes !lololSGJBw No.1577426]

>>1577269
Don't diss old slavshit. it's still pretty good.

[Anonymous No.1577432]

Woo hoo for Skylon!

[Scia No.1577652]

So do you think its possible to get funding for SKYLON from telecommunications corporations?

[Anonymous No.1577655]

fucking deist 16 year old

[Scia No.1577657]

>>1577655
im 17 and what does my religion and age have to do with private spaceflight?

[Anonymous No.1577807]

>>1577657
that you should hang out on a /sci/ with less faggotry

[Anonymous No.1577844]

>>1577807
But im trying to fight the faggotry
with space threads

[Anonymous No.1577925]

>>1577844
4chan /sci/ was shit at its inception. No matter how lofty your goals are, or what you accomplish here, it will still be made of shit. Picture related

[Scia No.1577937]

>>1577925

[Anonymous No.1577938]

Personally, I don't think there are rational reasons for humans to live off of Earth in the near term. That leaves irrational reasons.

I predict that the Church of Scientology *already* has a secret SpaceOrg branch whose mission is to start a space colony. It is secretly funding SpaceX and Bigelow. When the technology is ready, they will go public, buy Bigelow's first Sundancer space station and start a colony. This will start an ideological space race, with Islam and the Catholic church striving to get their own toehold in the heavens.

[Scia No.1577961]

>>1577938

[Anonymous No.1577963]

>>1577937
there is hope

http://lmgtfy.com/?q=overchan

[Anonymous No.1577967]

>assuming most of you are 15-30 its very likely that you could visit space in your lifetime.

I would like that

[Anonymous No.1578217]

>>1577248
>>In one shot a launch cannon could send up 250,000 tons for a cost of only 50 million.

... Ho really Boomer, don't say shit like that, you make space enthusiast look really cut of reality.
Not that space propulsion isn't based on the most basic law of physic, but the method you propose is not only dangerous but impossible.

Not only it would be stupid to fire it more than never because of the nuclear fallout (as much nuclear space propulsion is the way to go, nuking where we live is to be avoided)
But a lot of thing can go wrong and send said "280.000 T" falling back.
And because I'm not sure anything useful could support 100 000 G's of acceleration unless it's mostly armor or raw material. Even the Orion plan is to nuke a ship into orbit through several burst of acceleration.

I also wonder how much of a problem the aerodynamic would be.

Have some less ridiculous method : Nuclear Fusion powered Ramjet.

[Scia No.1578285]

>>1578217
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bussard_ramjet
talking about this

[Colonel Coffee Mug !phJ7yIcs.Q No.1578306]

>>1578217

See: Verne Gun

http://projectrho.com/rocket/rocket3ay.html#vernegun

[снайпер No.1578324]

>>1578217
Nuclear fallout is not nearly as dangerous as you and a lot of other people think it is.

Besides, it's not like we can't build nuclear bombs that dramatically reduce the amount of fallout they create.

[Anonymous No.1578474]

So do you guys Virgin galactic will make an orbital spacecraft within the next ten years?

Or will they only be doing point to point suborbital?

[Anonymous No.1578550]

>>1578306
I know, but being on that site doesn't make this plan less retarded. (this is as plausible than FTL look today)

Aside, it's an "all or nothing" design, even if you didn't intended to put human in orbit with that you can't put small things into whatever orbit you want.

>>1578285
Ha ... the sweet dream of nearly-unlimited fuel or at least of relativistic speed.
Too bad I can't find "Tau-zero" in my country.

[Anonymous No.1578556]

>>1578306
I know, but being on that site doesn't make this plan less retarded. (this is as plausible than FTL look today)

Aside, it's an "all or nothing" design, even if you didn't intended to put human in orbit with that you can't put small things into whatever orbit you want.

>>1578285
Ha ... the sweet dream of nearly-unlimited fuel or at least of relativistic speed.
Too bad I can't find "Tau-zero" in my country.

[Colonel Coffee Mug !phJ7yIcs.Q No.1578565]

>>1578556

go on irc.undernet.org, go to #bookz, and type
@search Tau Zero

, or just

@search bookname

, alternatively:

@find Tau Zero

you get the results forwarded to you, paste a code from the list. if the user after the initial '!' is on you'll get the book sent, if not, try another code.

[Anonymous No.1579080]

>>1572235

>white man, no negros?

[Anonymous No.1579155]

space flight is, and will be for the foreseeable future, a joke. Materials and propulsion tech are decades, if not centuries, behind anything worth anyone's time.

[Anonymous No.1579610]

>>1579155

>Does not know a single thing
>Probably also a fatalist teenager

[Anonymous No.1580644]

>>1578474
They're working on designs for SS3 now, and the big debate is whether to do point-to-point suborbital or try for LEO.