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Robot Spaceplane To Launch In 2008
Posted by
samzenpus
on Wed Nov 22, 2006 09:44 PM
from the I-still-want-my-hover-car dept.
from the I-still-want-my-hover-car dept.
FleaPlus writes "The US Air Force has announced that it is developing an unmanned reusable spaceplane, the X-37B Orbital Test Vehicle. The first launch is in 2008 on an Atlas V rocket. The X-37B will be one-fourth the size of the Space Shuttle and serve as a testbed for technologies for future reusable spacecraft. Its predecessor, the X-37, was drop-tested from the Scaled Composites White Knight mothership earlier this year."
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A USAF research only craft? Sure ... (Score:5, Interesting)
A few of these shuttles in orbit at any one time could provide the ability to quickly take out other countries space capabilities without being as obvious as using a ground based laser or missile. Plus it would be far more accurate.
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but wouldn't it be easier to just shoot a missile at whatever you don't like, rather than using space-fighter planes?
The whole space-fighter/missile scenario would seem to apply here- a missile requires a quarter the fuel and no real capacity for reuse while being able to carry more boom per rocket.
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/tinfoilhat
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put that razor away.
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Re:A USAF research only craft? Sure ... (Score:5, Informative)
Parent
Re:A USAF research only craft? Sure ... (Score:5, Insightful)
Subsidization of the economy through the Pentagon system suggests a complicated ship for a simple mission would be acceptable.
Parent
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The Airforce has data from the X-15, the SR-71, the Space Shuttle, the Delta Clipper, and pretty much everything from the X-30 through somewhere in the X-40's. They don't need the Japanese design. What they need is funding, commitment, and trust. Three things that the executive branch of the US Government fails in spades to provide.
What about Buran? (Score:2, Informative)
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They couldn't afford to finish it. One model flew, once, unmanned because the crew compartment wasn't finished yet. It, and the other 2 Buran bodies fell into disuse, neglect, and outright destruction.
Re:What about Buran? (Score:4, Interesting)
Still, fairly impressive a fully automated launch and landing. 25 atmospheric flights were also conducted with the OK-GLI model (comparable to Space Shuttle Enterprise).
See this site [buran.ru] for cool videos of the launch and general Buran eye candy.
The jet powered takeoff [buran.ru] is a particularly intriguing sight given the reputed brick like qualities of the Shuttle/delta design.
Parent
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The life support system was not installed and no software was installed on the CRT displays. [wikipedia.org]
Flight 5 (3K1) - 1994 or 1995 - first flight of third orbiter. First manned flight; the third orbiter was the first outfitted with life support systems and ejection seats. [astronautix.com]
Buran -- what's in a name? (Score:5, Interesting)
On the other hand, we don't know what to call it other than "Buran" because the Soviet Space Transportation System (SSTS?) was never given a proper name other than letting people call it Buran.
By the way, does anyone know what kind of reentry vehicle -- lifting body, straight wing, delta wing -- this thing is?
The Russian and U.S. "capsules" were blunt body reentry vehicles -- some were ballistic, others used an offset CG for a small amount of hypersonic lift to mitigate the G-load and thermal load of reentry. Apollo along with the Russian Zond used offset CG to good effect for reentry from lunar distance. All landed mainly by parachute with either crushable couch struts to mitigate a land impact (Apollo, if they had to go down on land) or braking rockets -- the Russians may have crumped a Soyuz with a landing rocket failure, resulting in broken teeth.
The Shuttle famously uses a delta wing that produces a large amount of lift everywhere from hypersonic reentry down to the subsonic landing speed, and this famously drove up the cost and weight. Max Faget had a straight-wing Shuttle proposal that was equally famously rejected, both on the idea that straight-wing craft have nasty hypersonic handling (think Yeager and his tumble in the X1A, his tumble in the NF104, and Mike Adam's accident in the X15) along with the Air Force wanting the Shuttle to have more hypersonic cross range. But Faget's explanation of the thing is that the straight wing vehicle pancaked in -- it didn't really fly on those wings in hypersonic reentry -- and the straight wing Shuttle was like a cookie cutter applied to an Apollo heat shield, and the control of blunt body reentry with offset CG for some small amount of lift was well tested. But the Faget Shuttle would have to do some kind of Alley Oop maneuver at subsonic speed to transition from a full stall pancake attitude to proper flight on those straight wings, and there was some concern about doing that stall recovery safely.
Then there was the DC-X, the closest thing to a Buck Rogers spaceship from the 1930's comic books, which was to reenter as a blunt body (don't remember if it was nose first or tail first) but land on its tail using rocket thrust. Of course the DC-X on landing is this big mainly empty fuel tank so it is not going that fast before the rockets cut in for landing, but if the rockets fail, you are going to crump that thing.
Perhaps the only new thing under the sun for reentry (although not an orbital reentry) was the Rutans' "shuttle cock" folding tail where they reentered with a stable, high drag configuration and then straightened the tail for atmospheric flight and landing.
NASA wants to go back to the Apollo style reentry and landing but probably on land using parachutes and landing rockets like Soyuz and the Chinese spacecraft. You save big time on weight and there are safety advantages in terms of heat tile damage, but this low-control landing has problems of its own. Do you suppose NASA could wait awhile on the outcome of this Air Force project to see how it turns out?
Parent
Re:Buran -- what's in a name? (Score:4, Funny)
Oh dear...
Parent
Don't for get MOOS and Roton (Score:4, Informative)
Two other methods for reentry.
Man Out Of Space (MOOS) (50's or 60's?) was a proposal for an emergency escape system from a spacecraft that invoved the use of a heat shield in a can. A foam filled bag that froze into a giant blob was deployed from the back of an astronaut that acted as a balute and heat shield. The astronaut actually used a hand held rocket gun to de-orbit. I've heard of ballutes with relation to other projects, but can't think of the source at the moment.
The Roton launch vehicle (1990's) looked something like DC-X (tail-first SSTO and landing) intended to use rotors to slow it down as it descended tail first from orbit, much like a helecopter during an unpowered landing. A prototype was flown that demonstrated a landing using rocket-powered rotors. Tom Clancy was involved in funding it, but he had to back out when his finances got scrambled by a divorce, eventually leading to the company's demise.
Parent
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It wasn't just flight characteristics that caused the rejection of the Faget type Shuttle, tere were also serious concerns about reentry areodynamics. The sharp junction of wing and body in particular lead to shock waves impinging on the vehicle body, which means
Nothing much to see here, move along.... (Score:2)
Could be a good move toward cheaper space travel (Score:4, Insightful)
Now we're seeing more specialized designs. Heavy cargo launchers can be much cheaper when they don't have to carry people. Crew launch vehicles can be made safer at less cost if they aren't also being asked to carry heavy cargo loads.
The X-37B, if it leads to spacecraft that are truly reusable, could be another step toward making everything we do in space less costly and more productive. In the long run, that goal is far more important than any other mission in space, whether the short term goals are military or civilian ones.
Re:Could be a good move toward cheaper space trave (Score:3, Interesting)
The Ares 1 rocket, which will launch the crew capsule of future moon missions is, by most standards, a heavy launch vehicle. It has a low-earth-orbit payload comparable to the delta IV - Heavy, titan 4, and Atlas 5 Heavy. It is also not a cheap rocket. The Atlas 5 on which this test vehicle will be launched, costs a couple hundred million dollars to launch.
While there are efforts to make space che
Area 51 (Score:3, Interesting)
The HC program also mentioned how it had been later discovered that aircraft such as the AR-71 Blackbird were being developed at Groom some time before official public announcements were made, and that aircraft whose existence was continually officially denied would suddenly be released to a museum after they had been decommissioned. This article possibly lends more evidence in support of that being the case.
Even from a purely empiricist, non UFO perspective, it is tantalising to wonder about what other things they're possibly cooking up under the ground out there, as well...especially considering both the amazing technological advancement and aesthetic beauty of the aircraft we have already seen produced by the facility. This article and the historical cases (such as the Blackbird and stealth programs) also possibly lend hope to the idea that given enough time after the development of the individual inventions/aircraft, we will eventually be able to find out.
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"needed" for war between space-capable nations (Score:3, Insightful)
Something to think about: if China or another nation knocked out an unmanned facility in "international" territory (e.g.
Re:Air Force Bake Sale (Score:5, Insightful)
Doc, those people aren't starving. When the government says some people "have hunger" or "food insecurity", it's really the literal meaning. Sometimes they're hungry. That's not the same thing as starving - if you ever see a TV segment on this the thing that will jump out at you is most of them are grossly fat.
So no, 12% of Americans are not starving. Additionally, the government is getting these statistics from bureaucrats that want a bigger budget, who in turn are asking people on public assistance, in effect, if they want more money. So this number is very suspect even for what it is.
If you dig deeper you'll find these are people who are "falling through the cracks", and by that I don't mean there aren't programs to help them, I mean they aren't doing what they need to do to get the assistance that's available. So money isn't the solution to this problem.
Parent
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v. starved, starving, starves
v.intr.
1. To suffer or die from extreme or prolonged lack of food.
You can't be serious.