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Russian Firm Plans Commercial Space Station
astroengine writes "Buoyed by plans for commercial space taxis, a Russian company plans to build and launch a privately owned outpost in orbit for tourists, scientists and other paying visitors. RSC Energia, which designed and built the Russian modules of the International Space Station, is partnering with Russian commercial space startup Orbital Technologies to manufacture the new hub, currently known as Commercial Space Station."
against prostitution in space.
Oh yeah, Zero-G Porn!
Or will the Russians have the first Spaceport in SPAAAAACE?
It's beginning.
I am glad some portion of the Earth population wants to try moving into space commercially. Tourism will be where the money is so it is a good way to start. Eventually the tourists will want to move to the moon and beyond.
I'd like to see a graph showing the total volume of pressurized, human-habitable "tin can" in orbit over time ... because I bet that graph is about to go hockey stick over the next few decades.
If libertarians are so opposed to effective government, why don't they all move to Somalia?
I'm saving up money for a trip into orbit. It would be feasible for me to spend $10,000 to $20,000 dollars for space flight. I figure this will be a possibility for me in 20 years when it drops to that price, maybe sooner when we have space elevators.
Taco Bell, of course. :p
Remember to maintain your supply of
Be more visionary. Maybe tables-based web pages are not that bad, but a space station? At least they're committing to CSS up front.
--
"Outlook not so good." That magic 8-ball knows everything! I'll ask about Exchange Server next.
If that's a Demolition Man reference, I hereby proclaim you winner of the Internet.
SJW: Someone who has run out of real oppression, and has to fake it.
Spamnik.
Why yes, yes it was.
Remember to maintain your supply of
...we'll need to build something to deconstruct the Commercial Space Station so that it doesn't pose a hazard to other orbiting items as space junk.
We could call it "Deconstructor of the Commercial Space Station", although I guess that's kind of a long name and would take a lot of effort to say it all the time.... hmmm... maybe we can come up with a shorter name....
coding is life
There's nobody who appreciates capitalism quite as much as those who have lived under communism.
Iz spece steshun. Iz good. You see. Khave rhokket ship . Of course still fly, just need poosh. Oleg!
they were never communist in practice. most people thought it was BS, stole from the system or did some black marketing
Another set of 'firm plans' [without visible funding and with yet another maybe this year, maybe that year schedule]?
If the Russians ever figure out how to monetize the endless stream of plans they produce, they'll be buying China in a year or two.
In Soviet Russia Mac Donald's writes you...
Only a former communist would think of selling spaceflight trips to a socialist American government because that government can't pull its head out of its own behind to be able to build a working vehicle that would get its own astronauts into space. As of June 2011, the USA will be without any sort of manned spaceflight capability..... all of it will be done by flying Soyuz spacecraft out of Kazakhstan.
Yeah, there might be some American companies who are suggesting they can fly a spacecraft of their own, but leave it to Congress to screw that up royally. A nice bi-partisan effort is making sure that only the best pork will flow to the proper congressional districts even if nothing ever actually gets built and the heck with anybody else trying.
The Russians announce their "plans" to build a new space station, to start a trip to Mars, create a fusion reactor, etc. periodically. It's ready to go, all the work has been done, all they need is someone to pony up money to actually finish the work. It's not a lot different from the Nigerian Scam.
It would have to be RKK Energia. As the only commercial organization to have actually sent people into space, they certainly have the expertise, training facilities, engineers, and even the travel agents already lined up to be able to pull this thing off.
Richard Branson can claim a whole bunch of things and pretend he has his own space agency, but these guys are doing it right now. They're ramping up production of the Soyuz spacecraft anyway. In fact, I swear that this company forgot that there is a global recession going on as they are expanding production and hiring a whole bunch of people to help build their vehicles. Of course it helps if you are Russian if you want a job there.
On another note, I'd LOVE to know why /. insists on submitting half my comments as AC, these days.
If it was purely manned vs. unmanned spaceflight that was the center of the debate, that would be fine. I find it horrible that the science budget for NASA is being cut in favor of sustaining pure pork for manned spaceflight.
Besides, travel into low-Earth orbit by astronauts is a solved engineering problem. If NASA was doing something new and original that would be a dramatic cost savings for getting that accomplished, I might support some research along those lines. About the only thing that the Constellation program was trying to prove is that they could take a shuttle SRB and fly somebody into space at the top. And that passes for innovation worth billions of dollars? If you are going to spend that kind of money, at least have something to show for it when you are done.
When celebrities start having extreme health problems from spending too much time doing coke in zero-g. We'll just call this ship the LiLo express...
Make a list of RKK Energia ventures and ask yourself which ones are implemented. Parom and Kliper are still on the drawing board. Wake me up when they do put commercial space station in space.
As several key prostitution laws were struck down recently.
However, I doubt that they'd setup a station in space to become an overprice brothel. It's still readily available on Earth (and legal in various places), and a ticket to another country is likely to be a whole lot cheaper than a trip to space for the visible future.
That being said, I wish that they could get past the "put a station in low orbit" concept and get on to building something on the moon. Having a semi-stable land-mass would eliminate a lot of issues that would crop up, and the moon at least has *some* gravity (if only a fraction of Earth's). Perhaps from there, they could figure out a way to deal with the raw materials issues, start some factories, and thus have a much more convenient launch location than from within Earth's gravity-well.
It's a trick, what the C really stands for is CCCP!
They could offer to buy the ISS. I hear it's going to up for sale in the next 10 years. I'll bet they can get it on the cheap.
Bibo Ergo Sum.
In capitalist Russia, humor laughs at you?
We could get astronauts to the space station then, just the DOD doesn't want to give up their ultimate crown jewels, the black budget advanced air/spacecraft/hybrids they are operating now. As it is now, they have ~marginal~ plausible deniability of such things as the TR3-B.
Unless one really believes they just ceased developing hyper advanced craft in total secrecy after spirit and nighthawk. I know where I would place my bets..it would be on them being true to form and always being 20-30 years ahead of what they admit to publicly.
before some ultra-wealthy asshat uses this as a tax refuge?
comment first, facts later. http://chem.tufts.edu/AnswersInScience/RelativityofWrong.htm
Amen to that, brother. If had mod points right now, you'd get +1 insightful.
-kgj
Speak of the devil: http://www.nytimes.com/2010/10/01/science/space/01nasa.html
Yep, and here in Russia there are many people who do believe in some "unchangeable truths" too - like one that "all Americans are fat, dumb, loud, constantly suing each other and give firearms to their children for free, so they can go in school and shoot everybody there". My American (and Canadian, German, Swiss, etc.) friends are always laughing with me, when I share such "truths" with them. But I don't think that it would be amusing if I'd refused to use some American technology because "they still use to hang black people on the trees, or burn them alive on Sundays". A little too old-fashioned humor, to my taste.
By the way, about warm holiday experience - there is still much more sanity in our airport security rules, as in other policies considering foreign visitors. Although weather right now is not all warm and sunny, that's true.
Absence of proof != proof of absence.
Your insights are almost all true. You are correct in assuming that "all Americans are fat, dumb, loud, constantly suing each other and give firearms to their children for free,...". But it is not true for all Americans, only about half.
The other half are the ones who created the most prosperous, powerful, and advanced country in the world. The country that everybody and their uncle wants to move to. Nobody wants to move to Russia. Nobody.
We don't hang black people from trees; no more 'strange fruit'. As far as burning black people alive, well, it would seem that you have us confused with Africans. In many parts of Africa, "necklace-ing" is a popular way of dealing with someone from outside of your tribe who comes into your neighborhood.
Now that you're free as a country, why not learn about your country? Try reading "The Gulag Archipelago" by Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn. You'll learn a bit about why your country is so fucked up.
As for us, we have always been free to read dissidents like Noam Chomski and Howard Zinn. We know how our country works:we know the difference between history and propaganda.
As for airport security, well, we have a common enemy there. The crazy muslims want to kill your people as much as they want to kill our people. But fascism is new to us, but not to you. We tend to over-react, because we are still learning to be perfect assholes. But with all the former communists running around with little to do, we have the world's greatest teachers!