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Russian Manned Space Vehicle May Land With Rockets
The Narrative Fallacy writes "Russia's next-generation manned space vehicle may be equipped with thrusters to perform a precision landing on its return to Earth. Previous manned missions have landed on Earth using a parachute or, in the case of space shuttles, a pair of wings. Combined with retractable landing legs and a re-usable thermal protection system, the new system promises to enable not only a safe return to Earth, but also the possibility of performing multiple space missions with the same crew capsule. The spacecraft will fire its engines at an altitude of just 600-800m, as the capsule is streaking toward Earth after re-entering the atmosphere at the end of its mission. After a vertical descent, the precision landing would be initiated at the altitude of 30m above the surface. Last July, Korolev-based RKK Energia released the first drawings of a multi-purpose transport ship, known as the Advanced Crew Transportation System (ACTS), which, at the time, Russia had hoped to develop in co-operation with Europe. 'It was explained to us how it was supposed to work and, I think, from the technical point of view, there is no doubt that this concept would work,' says Christian Bank, the leading designer of manned space systems at EADS-Astrium in Bremen, Germany. However, the design of the spacecraft's crew capsule had raised eyebrows in some quarters, as it lacked a parachute — instead sporting a cluster of 12 soft-landing rockets, burning solid propellant. Inside Russia, the idea apparently has many detractors. During the formal defense of the project, one high-ranking official skeptical of the rocket-cushioned approach to landing reportedly used an unprintable expletive to describe what was going to happen to crew members unlucky enough to encounter a rocket engine failure a few seconds before touchdown."
Of all the crap I've seen on /. I didn't realize we had unprintable expletives around here? Now, I'm curious - what could be so bad that it can't be printed on a /. page?!
If you can read this... 01110101 01110010 00100000 01100001 00100000 01100111 01100101 01100101 01101011
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It's Russian, and Slashdot doesn't support the russian alphabet well?
That's so retro.
I am TheRaven on Soylent News
Belgium
"Chechnya"
You have insulted my mother you American pig-dog, prepare for a duel!
Knowledge is power. Knowledge shared is power lost.
"Imagine, an expletive so vial it transcends language barriers."
I don't have to imagine it. The word you refer to is "Belgium".
If I were God, wouldn't I protect my churches from acts of me?
You can fit all of that in a vial?
It sounds like this just falls without a chute. I'm not going to do the math, but even if it is subsonic at 800m, you are going to have to brake like mad at the end. 10G braking? 20G doesn't sound like it would be outlandish. OK, so it is a short period of time and with solid-fuel rockets it is just one pulse. But it sounds like it would be ohe heck of a pulse.
You're missing the point, though. Gravity is an *acceleration*. These guys will be *decelerating*. You know, like zero gee is zero acceleration? Since they'll be slowing down, they won't feel a thing. It's genius!
(I can feel the karma draining now...)
Stressed? Me? Of course not. Stress is what a rubber band feels before it breaks, silly.
In French Québec, we're lucky enough to combine all four.
And not just in your profanity!
The enemies of Democracy are
I think this will work. It's used extensively on giant robots in Japanese cartoons.
Fuck systemd. Fuck Redhat. Fuck Soylent, too. Wait, scratch the last one.
Had a friend of mine that was Lithuanian. She told me that they had no curse words.
About the worst thing you could say to someone in Lithuanian was, translated to English: "I hope your rabbit gets mange!"
Scary words, those.