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NASA Scraps Shuttle And Returns to Rockets
nathanh writes "NASA is building a launch system that they've informally dubbed Apollo On Steroids. It's a hybrid design of the Apollo capsules and the Shuttle's booster rockets and engines. Crew and cargo are lifted by two different rockets: the crew use a single-booster/single-engine rocket and the cargo is lifted by an awe-inspiring two-booster/five-engine rocket. NASA reckons this craft will take humanity back to the Moon and then to Mars. Has NASA realised that the old designs were better? Or is this all a ploy to recapture the hearts of the public?"
Real news from NASA!
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Awesome!
When there are enough super-solar-panels up there the whole day will be like a rave. w00t, strobe sun! Oh yeah!
All their muscle mass will be gone, but they'll get there.
Unless they order the astronauts to have sex during the flight... Oh wait.
And, at the very least, we can stop wasting taxpayers'money on my-dick-is-bigger-than-yours space programs while the research is going on. Come on folks, we can't even organise ourselves on Earth to prevent avoidable damage from hurricanes and earthquakes, we can't agree on whether we are causing climate change by producing greenhouse gases, we are faced with an influenza pandemic that no-one really knows how to deal with, and we still have R&D money to spend on sending people to the moon and Mars?
Panurge has posted for the last time. Thanks for the positive moderations.
We're returning to rockets, you say?
Well it's about damn time. I'm sure it'll beat the pants off all those rubber bands we've been using in the mean time...
Sleep is futile.
The centerpiece of this system is a new spacecraft designed to carry four astronauts to and from the moon
We want battle star destroyer size ships, capable of shuttling thousands of troops, citizens and refugees between orbits.
No horsing around now, why is NASA peddling "four astronauts" when they could be rock'n roll troopers like those of Star Wars and Battlestar Galatica?
Personally I'm in favor of 50 G acceleration, a la Dragonball Z. That way we get Super Sayan astronauts out of the deal. Explore space and protect Earth all from one project.
Heroscape, it's like legos combined with anachronistic wargames.
Or they could use those electrostimulators I always see on the informercials that build muscle mass while you watch soap operas. I mean, they have to work -- they're on TV!
Each week we could have the "Walk of Asphyxia," where one person... will... be... voted... out... of... the... bubble (Insert Trump "Your Fired" hand motion here).
Scott Swezey
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Things that go "TWANG! ...wwwaaaaaaAAAAAAaaaaauuugh..." in the night.
Got time? Spend some of it coding or testing
how much acceleration do you need to maintain body mass?
42?
This post is awesome.
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I heard about this months ago when the latest shuttle landed. Good job staying on the latest-breaking stories. The data on the article is even a month old.
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put a valve in there???? :P
Great idea, it'll only come out late and need to be patched in a week
disclaimer: I've been known to store numbers in my ass for which to dig out when quantities are required.
We can't even get living on Earth right and we're going to Mars?
We're sending all the "important" people first. Lawyers, politicians, door to door salesmen, etc. We'll be right behind them.
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