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Post by kemp on Jan 15, 2020 19:03:13 GMT -5
The US is trying to get back into sending American astronauts on American rockets from American soil back into space. NASA is now paying the Russians $85 million a seat to ferry US astronauts to ISS aboard the Soyuz. SpaceX and Boeing have been contracted by NASA to deliver the goods by 2017 with working vehicles that could carry crews into low orbit space, but it’s now been delayed until the summer of 2020 if the problems can get sorted out. www.space.com/spacex-boeing-commercial-crew-slip-summer-2020-nasa-oig-report.html‘NASA has contracted Boeing and Elon Musk’s SpaceX to build capsules to carry astronauts to the ISS, but both have faced significant delays in the past few years. Any further delays in crewed flights could pose problems for NASA, which currently has to purchase expensive seats aboard Russian Soyuz craft to get astronauts to the ISS. “Further delays in the Commercial Crew Program unfortunately means NASA will continue to be reliant on its Russian partner to fly NASA astronauts to the ISS,” says space consultant Laura Forczyk. Flying humans to space from US soil is a feat that hasn’t been achieved since the Space Shuttle program ended in 2011. It now looks like the US may have to wait even longer.’ www.newscientist.com/article/2228665-boeings-starliner-hiccup-could-delay-us-plans-for-crewed-spaceflight/Of course, SpaceX has launched successful resupply service missions to ISS, although unmanned. There are software issues and other obstacles that need to be sorted out. Boeing Starliner
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Post by kemp on Jan 16, 2020 8:48:47 GMT -5
I understand that the first Soyuz flight was started way back in 1966, and with the first crewed mission , Soyuz 1 , launched in April 1967. The Russian space program is a direct follow up from their work back in the 60’s and 70’s, for instance the Soyuz 7K and the first generation Soyuz all the way to the fourth generation models, including the Soyuz MS. NASA has not been able to follow through on from their work with the successful Saturn family of rockets, notably the Saturn V. The blueprints are held at the Marshall Space Flight Center on microfilm, and there are Saturn documents at the Federal Archives in East Point, Georgia , or so it was claimed by Paul Shawcross, from NASA's Office of Inspector General.
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Post by kemp on Jan 16, 2020 8:51:37 GMT -5
Some of the issues in recreating the Saturn V might revolve around finding vendors that could supply mid 1960’s vintage hardware, and building new launch pads and vehicle assembly buildings. The former ones were converted for space shuttle use.
I will not try and get too technical here, but there is also the problem of rebuilding the Rocketdyne F1 Engine ((those five huge engines at the bottom of the Saturn V) there seems to be some instances of a lack of information on a large number of small details on the fabrication process (how to assemble, fit, weld, etc...) that would be helpful to build a new F-1 engine.
Why Can't we Remake the Rocketdyne F1 Engine?
I think that many people don’t realise how difficult it really is to reinvent the wheel in this case.
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Post by kemp on Jan 17, 2020 20:37:01 GMT -5
Of course, if we are strictly speaking Low Earth Orbit we should consider the Space Shuttle technology that ran from 1981 to 2011. After all, the Space Shuttle made flights to ISS and was reusable. To launch, it was a combination of the orbiters main engines and the rocket boosters that provided the push. It was unfortunate that prior to the 1986 and 2003 space shuttle disasters that NASA management refused to listen to the concerns and warnings from design and ground control engineers. About 70% of the thrust used to launch the space shuttle came from the SRB ( solid rocket boosters ). These were the largest solid rocket boosters ever flown, each SRB about 149 ft tall and 12 ft wide. NASA was planning on replacing the post Challenger SRBs with a new Advanced Solid Rocket Motor (ASRM) to be built by Aerojet, but the program was cancelled in 1993 due to cost considerations.
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Post by kemp on Jan 17, 2020 20:41:42 GMT -5
Changes in presidency and congress meant that government priorities also changed and funding eventually shifted to finding more cost effective ways to getting to ISS and low Earth orbit travel, hence the contracts with SpaceX and Boeing. Of course both companies discovered that human spaceflight is more complicated that they originally thought. The next generation SLS ( Space Launch System ) is at least 'inspired' by the Saturn V and using some space shuttle components, but unlike their Russian counterparts there seems to be a clear lack of 'direct' continuity or progression between the rocket system technology of the late twentieth century and what is being done now by NASA and affiliates, and I think this may also be the case in the development of military aircraft. Some people have griped about 'outdated' Russian tech and Rockets, and yet, since the Space Shuttle program came to a close, NASA has had to rely on purchasing a spot inside the Russian space agency’s Soyuz spacecraft launched from Kazakhstan. Space Launch System Rocket.
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Post by kemp on Jan 17, 2020 20:53:52 GMT -5
Safety is of course a priority. www.nytimes.com/2020/01/17/science/spacex-launch-dragon.html'On Saturday morning, SpaceX hopes that destroying a rocket in flight will show that its spacecraft are safe for astronauts.' 'If the test is successful, Ms. Lueders said, the next Crew Dragon mission, which is scheduled to take two NASA astronauts, Douglas G. Hurley and Robert L. Behnken, to the space station, could launch as soon as early March.' I will be following this make or break moment closely.
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Post by kemp on Jan 20, 2020 7:45:33 GMT -5
Well, the In flight abort test for SpaceX’s Crew Dragon ship was a success. ‘Following the IFA, SpaceX and NASA will do a detailed review of the test data. The outcome of the IFA will help determine when DM-2 will launch – which is currently scheduled to fly no earlier than the first quarter of 2020. DM-2 may also be extended to a regular crew rotation mission length of 6 months at the ISS, per NASA approval.’ www.nasaspaceflight.com/2020/01/spacex-crew-dragon-in-flight-abort-test/If everything goes to plan this will be the first crewed orbital flight from the United States since the final Space Shuttle flight in 2011.
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Post by kemp on Feb 7, 2020 16:42:27 GMT -5
The Coronavirus has made somewhat of a significant impact on China, and has had a flow on effect on the rest of the world. Mass quarantine camps have been set up in Wuhan the epicentre of the Virus, and this is the situation in other parts of China, with holiday camps becoming quarantine zones in places such as Hong Kong. Wuhan hospital
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Post by kemp on Feb 7, 2020 16:47:28 GMT -5
The number of deaths as a result of the Wuhan virus since the outbreak last year is probably somewhere in the many hundreds. Some nations have taken drastic measures to keep the disease out. Russia has closed its land border with China to stop the spread of the virus, whilst some countries such as the US and Australia have put in place travel bans on Chinese visitors. Economically speaking, Australia could lose billions of dollars as a result of the outbreak, the tourist sector is being gutted due to some of the restrictions on Chinese students and travellers, there are staff lay offs in industries such as the fishing sector, not to mention that China is responsible for one third of all exports from Australia. In the US there is some concern that there may be some serious disruption in the Silicon Valley production lines, as much of the technology sector relies on factories in Mainland China. Some of these concerns may ( hopefully ) be speculative only. Considering that statistically the number of deaths as a result of the virus have only numbered in the hundreds it makes you wonder what effect there would be on the global economy if there was an outbreak around the corner where some new strain started killing thousands of people in a relatively short time.
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Post by zarono on Feb 8, 2020 22:23:51 GMT -5
Here's a site where you can keep up with the coronavirus stats in real time, all based on official reports. wuflu.live/
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Post by darklordbob on Feb 9, 2020 1:11:35 GMT -5
Meanwhile there have been rises in ethnic tensions in places like Manila and Kazakhstan against local Chinese populations due to fears of the illness spreading. And also given how much manufacturing has move to China from the rest of the world, the global economic impact is nothing to sneeze at.
Note that I am not apologizing for that pun. Hate the game, not the player.
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Post by kemp on Feb 9, 2020 7:42:50 GMT -5
Thanks for that stat link Zarono.
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Post by kemp on Feb 9, 2020 7:51:14 GMT -5
Meanwhile there have been rises in ethnic tensions in places like Manila and Kazakhstan against local Chinese populations due to fears of the illness spreading. And also given how much manufacturing has move to China from the rest of the world, the global economic impact is nothing to sneeze at.Note that I am not apologizing for that pun. Hate the game, not the player. Understandable, if I had been creative enough to think up a line like that I would have used it myself. Yeah, people always have to get medieval about things like that and target communities from the countries where the epidemics originated from.
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Post by Deleted on Feb 11, 2020 13:15:56 GMT -5
Meanwhile there have been rises in ethnic tensions in places like Manila and Kazakhstan against local Chinese populations due to fears of the illness spreading. And also given how much manufacturing has move to China from the rest of the world, the global economic impact is nothing to sneeze at.Note that I am not apologizing for that pun. Hate the game, not the player. Understandable, if I had been creative enough to think up a line like that I would have used it myself. Yeah, people always have to get medieval about things like that and target communities from the countries where the epidemics originated from. Yeah, unfortunately for some inexplicable reason the Kazakhs have been attacking the Dungan (Hui Chinese muslims) minority near the Kırgız border. Link: thediplomat.com/2020/02/violence-in-kazakhstan-turns-deadly-for-dungans/
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Post by kemp on Feb 11, 2020 14:54:42 GMT -5
Understandable, if I had been creative enough to think up a line like that I would have used it myself. Yeah, people always have to get medieval about things like that and target communities from the countries where the epidemics originated from. Yeah, unfortunately for some inexplicable reason the Kazakhs have been attacking the Dungan (Hui Chinese muslims) minority near the Kırgız border. Link: thediplomat.com/2020/02/violence-in-kazakhstan-turns-deadly-for-dungans/Some of the trouble probably comes from regional ethnic tensions exacerbated by unfavourable socioeconomic conditions in the last decade or so, perceived notions of inequality when it comes to wealth distribution. In tough times some sections of the populace in every part of the world start getting ticked off at the affluent. The Dungans just happen to be the targets in the Kazakh-Kyrgyz border regions.
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