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Atlas V's Maiden Launch a Success
PyroMosh writes "The next generation expendable heavy lifting rocket, the Atlas 5, lifted off today from Cape Canaveral Air Station. The American rocket, built by Lockheed Martin, sporting Russian RD-180 engines carried the Eutelsat Hotbird 6 telecommunications satellite into orbit. This next generation heavy lifter can out-lift any rocket built since the Saturn V 'Moon rocket', including the shuttle." Spaceflightnow has extensive coverage.
I am glad that in the post-9/11, terror-stricken world that we seem to live in now, advancements in travel to space are (albeit slowly) continuing to be made. With projects like the Space Shuttle replacement project being cancelled to fund "Homeland Defense" after coming so far along, one can sometimes begin to wonder if any of us will ever get to see things like the manned Mars missions during our lifetime.
l0ungeb0y wrote:
Perhaps, perhaps not. What we actually need is cheap, reliable transportation to low earth orbit now. This could very well mean taking existing technology and modifying and using it in known ways to reduce costs. The shuttle, for example, is a horridly complex machine designed to meet conflicting goals. The Keep It Simple Stupid rule was grossly violated during the planning stages. The automotive equivalent of the shuttle would be a vehicle that could haul 20 tons across the United States, transport 50 people simultaneously and then be driven to the Indianapolis 500 where it would be the fastest thing on the track during the race.
But the aerospace bureacracy likes it that way. They're in the business of selling things to the government, not opening up space.
l0ungeb0y also wrote:
There's a grain of truth in this. Unfortunately, this might also mean substantial reform of existing aerospace companies. They're not limber, independently acting entitites any more. Reform may be possible. Then again, it might be necessary to fund the handful of fairly new startups decently. There's also the problem that subsidizing the startups might just turn them into sluggish government dependents as well. We might do better to get people with some money to invest in the startups. Hey, didn't people put money into things as dumb as pets.com? The money spent foolishly on dot bombs could have made a major impact on space transportation.
"Beer is proof God loves us and wants us to be happy." -- B. Franklin
It's sad that the US Gov't, being the only body with enough power to really do something for our future in space keeps things on such a short leash. Perhaps they should just kick back and play the "grant-daddy" and let private companies work hand in hand with them to speed things up a bit and share in the risk
They would have to kick back farther than the US population (not to mention that of the world) would allow. In short, the only reasonable way to get to outer space efficiently right now would be nuclear rockets. They could be made clean, safe, reusable, and efficient. But the public would fear them because they have the word "nuclear" in them, and most people are irrational when it comes to heating water or other hydrogen or other propellant with certain types of warm rocks.
I am constantly amazed at how much hype goes into every new, expensive conventional rocket, when the DC-X & DC-Y (the Delta Clipper) experimental SSTO's were canned because they were TOO INEXPENSIVE and had a ground crew that was TOO SMALL.
I was going to make a half-hearted attempt to respond to some of the more absurd comments here (the "f*cking Americans" one is particularly goofy and baseless), but the motivation is slipping away. There was a day when I used to learn something from reading the responses to an issue here (or at least get angry and/or think). But this is pathetic. Now, people respond with the same answers, regardless of the subject!
I'm not talking about the usual penisbird, goatsex trolls, but stuff that actually get's modded up. I think most of the ongoing posters here are becoming "one trick ponies".
Standard responses:
1 Stupid Americans, anti-American, wasteful Americans, violent Americans (and of course no one else has these problems).
2 Ecology, Kyoto agreement, SUV's, American pollution.
3 RIAA, copyright, etc.
4 Teleporters, Anime, Power Armor, Star Wars, etc.
5 Whatever you mentioned is bad, bad, bad. No real reason, it just is.
Nothing wrong with any of this stuff in context, but responding to everything with the same answers and seeing most of them marked "interesting 3" is making a farce of the opportunity to respond (or is that the point?).
I know these "Slashdot falling apart" posts are starting to be a standard response too, but this is certainly the first time I've felt the need to post one, so it's new to me.
If you aren't interested in the Atlas V (or whatever, good or bad), try not to post your standard screed just to hear yourself "talk". It's really dull (Yeah, I know, this is as well)...
The only thing that seems to get genuine response is a new version of a game or a Linux software release. That's fine, because it is the core of Slashdot (which still seems to be there), but it used to be so much more...
Sad Really.