Astronauts Hook Up Harmony in Lengthy Spacewalk

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."

Comments

Really?

[WindBourne]

Well, lets look at this. Bigelow has 2 space stations up there. So, I guess that you are correct. Oh, wait. They obtained the technology from NASA for next to nothing (for the amount that they had, it should have cost bigelow 100's of millions). In addition, with 7 years of work, they have 2 stations that are the size of large coffins up there. So, while I expect big things out of them, they are like NASA, having a LONG way to go.

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?

[WindBourne]

First off, you appear to believe that you are unique. Hell, the fact that you hide behind AC shows that you are VERY non unique. As to reading sci-fi, I am guessing that /. probably has a sci-fi readership of just under 100%. Why? Because we are ALL interested in what the future CAN hold as well as what it DOES hold. Sci-Fi is about CAN hold. But if you look at history, you will see the beginnings of sci-fi through out time. In particular, IMHO, DaVinci was one of the greatest Sci-Fi's. The reason is that he envisioned so much about what potential we had and was working towards them. But how do you think that he could afford the time? Well, simply put, he was wealthy. In general, most ppl of science WERE wealthy. That is how they afford all that time. Right now, The west, and in particular, America, affords more ppl the opportunity to persue science. Shoots, The wright brothers flew in 1905. It took another 35 years before we had aircrafts in active warfare and doing VERY EXPENSIVE transportation service. And it was another 20 years before we had jet propulsion civilian aircrafts. And these WERE CHEAP to do compared to a doing a rocket. The hard part is finding the first means of flight. After that it slowly takes place. That is what is happening now. America (and USSR) pushed rocketry for 35 years, then coasted. Now, we are seeing a resurgence in it that will allow only the wealthy to fly. But I know that my children will fly on a rocket to space in their lifetime (not likely in mine). More importantly, ppl WILL be on the moon to colonize most likely within my lifetime, and possibly on mars as well. Assuming that we are not hit by another world war, we will finally be off this planet within 10 years. yes, I believe that private will make it happen before NASA. In fact, by the time that Ares V is developed, SpaceX falcon 53 (or what ever it is using the merlin 2) will be developed and will be landing numerous Bigelow stations on the poles of the moon.

Re:space lab? more like a low orbit aluminium can

[meringuoid]

if this is our best, lord help us. we should be building moonbase by now

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.