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2013 Will Be a Big Year For Private Spaceflight
An article at Space.com forecasts an important year for private space companies in 2013. SpaceX is working on a new version of its Dragon capsule that is quite different from the current model. SpaceX CEO Elon Musk said that the first iteration looked similar to other space capsules because the SpaceX team was learning as they went. Now, they're drawing on the expertise they've gained to tailor the new capsule to their needs. "Musk described Dragon version 2 as having 'legs that pop out' and added that it uses parachutes and its eight SuperDraco thrusters for a 'propulsive landing.'" The capsule will hold up to seven people, and they hope to win a crew transportation contract for getting NASA astronauts up to the ISS. The bidding for that contract starts in the second half of 2013. Commercial space planes are also set to reach new heights in 2013. XCOR Aerospace will be building its Lynx I rocket plane, and a spokesman said, "we’ll be doing test fights throughout the year from early 2013 and then go into commercial flights." Virgin Galactic's SpaceShipTwo will also undergo its first rocket-powered flight this year.
I thought it was the year of the Linux Desktop. What the hell? We're all going to space instead of installing Ubuntu this year???
These are like Jesus. Always coming and never here.
I thought it was the year of the Linux Desktop. What the hell? We're all going to space instead of installing Ubuntu this year???
Sorry, Year of the linux desktop was 2003-2007, and 2009. 2010, 2012-2014 are designated as the year of the private spaceflight.
2008 was year of the end of going to war all the time in the USA and 2011 was year of waiting for Duke Nukem Forever and then trying to forget it ever existed.
- Nec Impar Pluribus, or so I'm told.
It is important for the nerds here to have a circle-jerk over private space travel - From both design and commercial passenger perspectives, private air travel was also once only a hobby for the rich who have nothing else to do, kinda like how back then Roosevelt ran for president and lost against Woodrow Wilson. Some people run for president, some design flying machines, and some pay hundreds of thousands of dollars a pop to ride in those airplanes. This reinventing and monetizing the wheel has all happened before and it was revolutionary, not nearly as profound as colonization, but it made all far off places accessible to reach from anywhere, thus hastening immigration to said colonies, and also Air Mail Happened!
All while the 1900's era kids were eating newfangled Peanut Butter and Jelly Sandwiches for dinner and parents were wondering how they were gonna pay for one of Ford's new "affordable" automobiles and next month's rent.
Crazy how only one century ago travel by automobile or air was something only the rich could do... How silly a nay sayer like yourself would seem to us now, but back then some might have foolishly considered such sentiments insightful. Today we're talking about doing the same for space, and you're less excited than Sam-I-am prior to having tried green space eggs and ham.
Wilson, Roosevelt, the wheel, colonization, Air Mail, PB&Js, Fords, and finally Green Eggs & Ham. Confused I am.
Where the "...walked into a bar..." part?
PocketPermissions Android Permission Guide
Legs aren't nearly as much dead weight as wings are. Furthermore, even winged vehicles have legs in the form of landing gear. SpaceX is just being efficient and going by the numbers.
Hell, if Musk had been born 30 years earlier, we'd all be on Mars by now.
What is expensive today will become cheaper tomorrow. What is exclusive today will become more accessible tomorrow.
I like that Musk is in it for more than just the buck$, and wants to really open up the heavens, instead of just trying to keep things exclusive, expensive and high-margin. He's freeing us from the bonds of gravity, and helping us to leave the womb.
If he achieves everything that he's promising, then one day people will talk about him like we talk about Moses.
Disappointing because Elon Musk is doing more to make spaceflight exciting than probably anybody since the 1960s by being up front and centre about what he is doing. The Dragon 2 sounds quite interesting and I'm looking forward to seeing the evolving concept (especially in light of the experiments that SpaceX have been publicizing).
The Boeing entry, even though it is similar to SpaceX's just seems to be "corporate".
XCOR seems to be an (interesting) contender for sub-orbital while Scaled Composites & SS2 have kind of dropped off the radar and has been eclipsed by SpaceX showing that individuals can actually make it into space for real.
Nice to see progress and some renewed promise for space!
myke
Mimetics Inc. Twitter
What was the point of becoming seafaring, and going to the same wet place as before?
Well, the obvious answer is that there were other interesting places on the other side of that "wet place" called the ocean.
Likewise, there are other interesting places on the other side of that "empty space" you complain about.
People want to go see those places and possibly even settle there, and they don't need your permission for it.
If you don't like those places, you're free to go back under the bridge, troll.
Hey, come on! I trolled you yonks ago with what I thought at the time to be righteous reasons, and haven't trolled you for ages (I seriously was just pointing out bad form - whilst admitting I'm not perfect.)
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OK, there's one thing we both definitely agree on. :-)
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I don't have sock-puppet accounts, and I am not Barbie Hudson. I was "around" when she was for a few weeks because I stumbled on a flame war that encompassed issues that are important to me (respect, gender politics, and computing) and was "dangling my toes" into the "white-hat trolling" role, here and nowhere else.
However, I may argue with you about HOSTs files and *NIX, and even as to whether you Microsofties are more like Borg / Cybermen than I, lol... but I will do, as I always have done, under my own single Slashdot username, this one.
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I still don't know what the real origin of all this "cyclops" stuff and animosity about Barbara Hudson is, and I'm not sure why she is so horrible and stubborn with you, either. I arrived as tongue-in-cheek amateur troll and attempted to play my normal role of peacemaker; but with colourful language and idioms to try to draw others in to help resolve the feud. It backfired.
As for HOSTs, give it, up you can't burn anyone.
Adblock:
Web Page Parser -->URL Analyzer -->Plugins ||| BLOCK
HOSTs:
Web Page Parser -->URL Analyzer -->Plugins --> DNS Lookup --> Process HOSTS file (sometimes in RAM) -->Timeout Period for Local Webserver (10-30secs) ||| BLOCK = Slower.
Hope you can handle that - not personal. And not a troll. To be honest if you're done your Google-sleuthing you'll see I've matured and become even more "white hat" IRL then ever. I'm simply not the character you were thinking I was.
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