Astronauts Hook Up Harmony in Lengthy Spacewalk 65
Tech.Luver writes "Astronauts spent seven hours in space to finish preparing the International Space Station for its next addition — Europe's first permanent space laboratory, the Columbus laboratory — which is sitting in the cargo bay of space shuttle Atlantis at Cape Canaveral, Florida launch pad — set to lift off on December 6."
Really? (Score:5, Interesting)
Then we have Spacex. They have launched 2x and are still not in orbit. The amazing thing is that ALL of their tech is a NASA derivative. That is, they did not do the research (though they are doing a bit of their own development). Currently, the payments for these 2 launches come from where? NASA. So, NASA is funding them. In fact, if you have been following the pace of COTS lately, you would realize that Spacex is putting pressure on NASA to give them a contract to service the ISS very quickly. In addition, NASA is likely to select SpaceDev for the second go of COTS2. They have also hinted that they want guarenteed sales to the ISS after they have launched. Considering that they are going to start by using deltas to launch their vehicle, they will have a good shot at 2010 flights.
So, what is the point? It is NASA that is helping to create the private business, not the other way around. If ISS had not been there, then spacex/bigelow would likely not be happening. Oh, BTW, you are aware that they feds have the ability to buy the first BA-330 from bigelow, yes? I am guessing that griffin will push for the first sundancer to be hooked up to the station. After all, it is a cheap way to expand the system, test a private space station, and perhaps ultimately get the funding to put the CAM on to the ISS as well. I am also guessing that Scaled as well as armadillo will get future funding from NASA (far beyond the xprize). What this should point out is that NASA is not hindering getting private enterprise into Space, They are their best partner for it.
Right now, I do not feel that NASA is doing everything correct, but they are finally moving forward again. Even now, I think that constellation the way it is being done, will be a mistake, but it will still get us a true heavy launcher (a delta V is not a heavy launcher; Saturn V, Energia were). In the end, the ASSORTMENT of launchers and finally launch technology (land based vs. airplane launch vs. rail launched vs. ladder) is what will strengthen the west's capabilities.
Re:Really? (Score:5, Interesting)
Re:space lab? more like a low orbit aluminium can (Score:4, Interesting)
What's wrong with a low orbit aluminium can? That's exactly what a space station should be. A moonbase would just be an aluminium can on the moon. Certainly we should have them by now, but at least we're back on the right track after the unfortunate spaceplane fad of the last 30-odd years.
The problem with building a moon base isn't the components. We know how to build those. NASA can build them, so can the Europeans and the Japanese and above all so can the Russians. Launching them is easy too. Once in orbit it wouldn't be hard to send them on to the Moon - rendezvous with a separately launched booster stage and off you go. Getting down in one piece would be an interesting challenge, though.
The big problem isn't so much in building a station as in maintaining one. ISS relies on frequent resupply rockets from Earth. That's Progress supply ships from Russia, small unmanned capsules crammed with equipment and consumables; these are soon to be replaced by European cargo ships of considerably greater capacity. There are plenty of rockets available to launch such large ships to ISS. There are no rockets available to launch them to the Moon.
This is where we're getting back on track. You'll have heard of the new Constellation project: NASA are going back to basics with capsules launched on big dumb boosters. Orion spacecraft, launched on two Ares rockets - one small rocket intended for launching manned spacecraft to LEO, one big rocket intended for launching cargo to LEO. That cargo can itself be a rocket; dock the manned ship with that rocket, and you're off to the Moon. This is a much better way of doing things. Even if the Moon project comes to nothing, you're not left with an expensive monster like the Saturn V with few no non-lunar applications - you have a perfectly good lightweight man-rated lifter, and also the mother of all cargo rockets. With something like Ares V, ISS could have been built in a lot less time with far fewer launches.