Any way we can request they take a Kenyan with them?
Frowning takes 68 muscles.
Smiling takes 6.
Pulling this trigger takes 2.
I'm lazy.
>
Posted on 10/29/2009 3:10:03 PM PDT by kronos77
MOSCOW – A nuclear-powered spaceship that can carry passengers to Mars and beyond may sound like science fiction.
But Russian engineers say they have a breakthrough design for such a craft, which could leapfrog them way ahead in the international race to build a manned spacecraft that can cover vast interplanetary distances.
They claim they’ll be ready to build one as early as 2012.
In a meeting with top Russian space scientists Wednesday, President Dmitry Medvedev gave the nuke-powered space craft a green light and pledged to come up with the cash to cover its $600-million price tag.
“It’s a very serious project, and we need to find the money,” Mr. Medvedev told the scientists.
Small nuclear reactors and atomic batteries have long been used to power unmanned spy satellites, and both NASA and the former Soviet space program spent huge sums trying to design a safe system that could propel a spacecraft once it left the Earth’s atmosphere (see Project Orion and Project Prometheus), analogous to the way nuclear-powered submarines operate.
Most manned spacecraft are propelled by chemical rockets, and supplement their energy needs with solar panels. But experts say existing rocket technology would be impractical for long-distance flights, even for a voyage to our nearest planetary neighbor, Mars.
“The energy requirements for a three-year flight is very great, and that calls for a technology that can deliver a lot of power,” says Andrei Ionin, an independent Moscow-based space expert.
“The former USSR had a lot of accumulated experience in this field,” lofting scores of nuclear-spy satellites over three decades, he says.
(Excerpt) Read more at features.csmonitor.com ...
600 million? That’s All?
Well, I hope this is true and they do it.
I hope they fall flat on their faces in failure.
We prefer to Educate barely literate minorities instead of People who can make a difference in Science. We get worthless Racist ghetto organizers instead of Scientists.
If it’s anything like their nuclear subs they’ll be coming back with cancer.
why the heck would you hope that?
Or maybe a one way ticket. Can you say “Lost In Space”?
The mindless opposition by a hard core to all things nuclear in this country will preclude the US from matching the Russian feat if it is achieved.
Russians to ride? The headline makes it a done deal.
Let’s see when that happens.
Any way we can request they take a Kenyan with them?
>
I like this idea ... especially the 'beyond' part. Where do I sign up to nominate passengers?
Ha! The Mexicans (MASA) can do it for $300.
Six hundred million!!?? Is THAT ALL??!! For a nuclear powered vehicle to do interstellar travel??!!
It costs NASA almost that much just to fly the Shuttle back to Florida when returning flights are forced to land in California!
Ordered the destruction of every blueprint, too, die, etc - everything needed to build another Apollo Saturn V.
Approved inferior and dangerous low-orbit-only Shuttle program.
Is/was there a pattern here? Was someome afraid of Something?
So true!
Saturn/Apollo was one of the best space programs ever!
And Shuttle is waste of money... and lives.
Russians kept their Soyuz and still continue to use it.
Russia needs more volunteers for Mars flight simulation
© lesaccros.free.fr
20:3126/10/2009
MOSCOW, October 26 (RIA Novosti) - The Russian Institute of Medical and Biological Problems continues to recruit volunteers for participation in a 520-day simulation of an expedition to Mars, the institute said Monday.
“The basic requirements for volunteer testers are the following: age 25-50, higher education, knowledge of the Russian and English languages ensuring professional and household communication,” the institute said, adding the professions of doctors and engineers are required.
A 105-day experiment to simulate a flight to Mars ended in July. It involved four Russians - astronauts Oleg Artemyev and Sergei Ryazansky, oncologist Alexei Baranov, and sports physiologist Alexei Shpakov.
It also involved two members of the European Space Agency: French civilian pilot Cyrille Fournier and German mechanical engineer Oliver Knickel. The six people spent over three months in a lab that simulated life on board a spaceship.
Each participant was paid 15,500 euros ($20,000) and underwent a variety of physical, psychological and professional tests during the mission. The scientists also tested various life-support, communications and scientific equipment.
The 105-day trial was a continuation of a 14-day experiment in November 2007, and precedes the main event, a 520-day simulation flight due to start in late 2009-early 2010.
The 520-day experiment will simulate all aspects of a journey to the Red Planet, with a 250-day outward trip, a 30-day stay on its surface, and a 240-day return flight.
During nearly two years of isolation, crew members will experience many of the conditions likely to be encountered by astronauts on a real space flight.
They will stick to a rigid daily regime of work, rest and exercise, and follow the same diet as crews aboard the International Space Station.
Let’s be clear...”powering” a spacecraft with “nuclear power” is one thing, and “propelling” it is quite another. If you will recall, NASA was widely criticized for years over plans to launch the Cassini mission to Saturn, because the spacecraft was powered by a plutonium power source. It still needed conventional rocketry (along with numerous planetary gravity boosts) and nine or so years of travel time to get there.
The Russian’s most reliable launch vehicle uses over 20 rocket motors to launch the latest Soyez TMA-14 spacecraft whose original design is at least as old as the shuttle. (Even Gene Roddenberry didn’t think the Russians would ever amount to much, which is why Mr. Checkov wasn’t Engineering Officer....)
The bottom line is that the Russians won’t be leaving low Earth orbit any time soon even if they do figure out how to get a small nuclear reactor into orbit. All that means is that you need fewer solar panels on your “spacecraft”.
I remember the NERVA program. Often wondered what happened to it. Now the list for Tricky Icky Dicky gets longer: >> Killed Project Orion; Killed NERVA; Killed the USAF Dynasoar Spaceplane; Killed the Apollo program.
Ordered the destruction of every blueprint, too, die, etc - everything needed to build another Apollo Saturn V.
Approved inferior and dangerous low-orbit-only Shuttle program.
Is/was there a pattern here? Was someome afraid of Something? <<
Makes one wonder if some bureaucrat signed a treaty with some green skinned alien to NOT develop spaceflight....
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