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US & Russia Show Off New Rocket Designs
jonerik writes "Following up on today's story on the Soviet Union's massive N1 rocket are these two articles on the latest US and Russian rocket designs. Space.com covers the American side of things, with a story on Lockheed Martin's Atlas 5 and Boeing's Delta 4 boosters. The Associated Press has this article on the Russians' Rokot booster, originally built in the '70s as the SS-19 ICBM and converted to civilian use in the mid-'90s. The Rokot was in the news this past weekend when it successfully launched a pair of US-German satellites - dubbed Tom and Jerry - into orbit to map the Earth's gravitational field and 'chart large-scale movements of water around Earth.'"
Our private sector isn't taking off as many expected and NASA is...well NASA(this is coming from a former employee). We should covertly help China and Russia with their space and rocketry programs in order to kickstart congressional butts(read $$moolah) into action. Mars is a waste of time(radiation, gullies caused by CO2 not water, etc etc) The Space Station needs fiscal help Europa and Pluto missions are up in the air. something really needs to be done.
Our good friends in the Eastern hemisphere have had a hell of a century from which they're still recovering. Lately, however, I'm hearing quite a bit of good things about Russia's space program. While it may have started out rocky and dangerous due to the influence of the communist party, this is the same space program that gave humanity both the longest-working manned space station in the form of MIR and the Progress supply frieghter rocket, which supplies the ISS right now. Say what you will about these two, but in terms of space programs, the Americans have always striven to become 'doers of deeds' while the Russians have been 'completers of tasks'. Think about which one of those pays off in the long run.
Recently, more and more of Russia's space program seems geared to provide access to space for both commercial and scientific work. Space Tourism in ISS, anyone? I would be willing to bet that if they become even a little more efficient at this, their costs will quickly drop because they will be the less expensive option when compared to the U.S. space program. Perhaps space could be a growth industry for Russia, the same way information technology has been for the United States.
Anyone agree, disagree with me?
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In this instance, the russians have the right idea, their Rokot booster follows the market to a tea. As a general rule, private companies have used for smaller and therefore cheaper rockets with up to a 20 ton cargo capacity. It is this private investment that will make space travle feasible. The governemnts of the world cannot simply fund a continuing space progam to the fullest extent and other sources must be sought. Big rockets may be better for space travel to Mars and the like, but the demand now is for smaller ones and that may be how Russia gets its feet off the ground (literally).
It was pretty, though. Doesn't that count for anything? Prettiest crushing failure since 1986. MS should put wallpaper on their BSODs.
Note that the Atlas V is not powered by an American engine, it's powered by a closed-cycle Russian engine - the type Americans could never manage to work out how to build..
It's interesting to see 1960s Russian tech comfortably beating American tech, despite the sizable difference in available resources.
The ISS is a good example of how each country has screwed up. First, most of the cost of the ISS was underestimated (intentionally) by the US just so they could get something into orbit. Then, the bankrupt Russian Space program couldn't get their modules into orbit quickly enough, thus increasing the burden on the US to use their (very expensive) mechanism of delivery, the Space Shuttle.
The Russians have the right idea with using expendable rockets & modules like the progress to deliver supplies; let's hope the US is trying to do that as well.
--- There is a man in a smiling bag.
Aren't Russians and the other ex-communist countries against America and the capitalist way of life? Don't they hold spite against these people who were their enemies or do they completely forgive Americans and have no loyalty to communism?
Pretty much all of the folks from eastern Europe who I've talked to were thrilled to be rid of the Russians and communism. There are few who would say that the transition was easy or that capitalism doesn't have its own set of problems, and some countries (Poland, the Czech Republic, East Germany) have done better for themselves than others (Yugoslavia, Albania), but in many of the countries you'd be hard-pressed to find many people who'd be up for turning back the clock.
The Russians are another matter. Clearly, they've had a hard time of it, and I doubt they'll ever again be half as powerful as they were as part of the U.S.S.R. There's certainly some bitterness in some quarters, as well as a nostalgia for the communist era when the country was powerful. You know, "Communism beat the nazis, communism took us to space, and communism very nearly made us masters of the world!"
Would Russia ever go back to communism? At this point I'd be surprised, particularly since communist nostalgia means less and less to Russia's young as the years go by. But bitterness and nationalism? Yeah, that's there.