NASA Rolls Out Improved Rocket Fuel Tank in Major Step Toward Return to Space

The Associated Press ^ | 12-28-04 | Paul Recer

[RightWhale]

The tension builds at Titan

The Huygens probe, built and managed by ESA, will remain dormant until the onboard timer wakes it up just before the probe reaches Titan's upper atmosphere on Jan. 14, 2005. Then it will begin a dramatic plunge through Titan's murky atmosphere, tasting its chemical makeup and composition as it descends to touch down on its surface. The data gathered during this 2-1/2 hour descent will be transmitted from the probe to the Cassini orbiter. Afterward, Cassini will point its antenna to Earth and relay the data through NASA's Deep Space Network to JPL and on to the European Space Agency's Space Operations Center in Darmstadt, Germany, which serves as the operations center for the Huygens probe mission. From this control center, ESA engineers will be tracking the probe and scientists will be standing by to process the data from the probe's six instruments.

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Don't know if there is a Huygens thread given all the interest in the tsunami.

[RightWhale]

Maglev would do very well for launches from the surface of the moon. Could even be useful for launches from the earth's surface. A long track running up a tall mountain, and there you are with 90% of your orbital requirements met.

[mc5cents]

"This is the safest, most reliable tank NASA has ever produced," Coleman said Tuesday in a telephone news conference from the Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Ala.

And nothing can go wron........................

[Blood of Tyrants]

Why redesign? It was the envirowackos complaints about the previous material (which to my knowledge was 100% reliable) taht caused NASA to adopt the man-killer foam that brought down the Columbia.

[Hu Gadarn]

Maglev in an atmosphere as thick as ours will not let us obtain escape velocity before burn-up......sad but true.

[Willie Green]

Maglev in an atmosphere as thick as ours will not let us obtain escape velocity before burn-up......sad but true.

I'm not sure that I understand why not.
If we can accelerate through our thick atmosphere with rockets, seems to me that we oughta be able to do it with Maglev.
Of course, you might not want to start out at sea level in Florida. Maybe launch 'em off a mountaintop in Colorado or somewhere 10K ft above sea level -- that way you don't have to fool around with the thickest part.

[null and void]

Launch off of Mona Loa. Thin atmosphere, and closer to the equator for earth's rotation boost...

[null and void]

True, but a maglev boost to high altitude would save a bunch of fuel/weight

[Hu Gadarn]

Granted... nut there is already enough yelling about how much the Space Agency is costing. It seems to me that people want to have their cake and eat it to! How many FReeper would get behind a multi-billion dollar outlay that it would take to run a maglev line long enough to toss something into high atmosphere.... A rough guestimate in length is something like 8 miles of constant 10 g acceleration... I have not done the calculations but that is a rough guess by heads much wiser than mine. I can't imagine the amount of hollering and screaming and yelling that would be done. Especially if it were done in a state like Colorado.... Think of the ski slopes that would have to be used think of all the poor little animals that would be displaced etc. etc. That was sarcasm by the way. Nothing against anyone here but from the posts I have read on this thread I don't think that there would be much support for the idea even if it were feasible at this time.