Slashdot Mirror
NASA Successfully Test Fires J-2X Engine.
tetrahedrassface writes "NASA successfully test fired the J-2X engine Wednesday for 500 seconds at Stennis Space Center. The J2-X is derived from the J2 engine from the Apollo Era, and will power the upper stage of the SLS. From the article: 'We have 500 seconds of good data, and the first look is that everything went great. The J-2X engine team and the SLS program as a whole are extremely happy that we accomplished a good, safe and successful test today,' said Mike Kynard, Space Launch System Engines Element Manager at NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Ala. 'This engine test firing gives us critical data to move forward in the engine's development.'"
Yes, but the shape, function and performance hasn't changed to the degree that it's ten thousand times faster, lighter, stronger, etc. It doesn't scale to space. Our technology doesn't, and it won't. Ever. Deal with it. Our "advances" are really about trying to squeeze every last Joule from our dwindling fossil fuels, because we have nothing else.
Look at this comment, for example: "If the planet weren't busy with squabbling with each other and getting fat with short-term greed, we'd have at least a habitable station on the moon by now."
What the christ is so important or appealing about a Moon base? Because you saw a movie or read sci-fi? It's never going to work or be practical, you can put as much carbon fiber as you want in a 747, that won't change the basic reality that space is empty, harsh and deadly, and humans are fragile, short-lived and not adapted for space.