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Discovery approaches its May 15 launch date
Bones:
If these are the facts, then I am wrong.
On the bright side it wasn't my country that spent 150 billion. ;D
But in all seriousness, I don't think the shuttle program should be labelled a disaster. A lot of people have worked hard and the science has been good.
Gunstar Hero:
I agree with Bones, disaster is a strong word. But I also agree that NASA has wasted time and money. I mean, the shuttle was the first vehicle of it's type, so why did they stop there?
I feel the shuttles at best should have been a 10 year plan, and even with the Challenger accident happening I feel at that point they could have retired a success, but now the whole program feels like they're trying to band-aid it together. And if another accident happens, what then?
I mean, if you consider they started design in 1972, that program is over 30 years old!
Trimoor:
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When will it reach Jupiter? ;D
Project Orion was our best hope for cheap thrust. It's extremely cheap, and we would likely have moon/Europa colonies by now.
jbox:
--- Quote ---Project Orion was our best hope for cheap thrust. It's extremely cheap, and we would likely have moon/Europa colonies by now.
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Which is probably exactly what they said about their "re-usable space vehicle" idea all those years ago. ;D
Getting into space is hard. Yet it seems like six months can't go past without someone else coming up with The Perfect Solution(tm). Space elevators? High-altitude blimp launches? Slingshot launches?!? Everything is a 'great idea' until you actually have to build the rest of the stuff that goes with it. Until you need to have living quarters, life support, communications, and so on... :-\
Now, smart money to me says to watch the X-prize people. Regardless of whatever theories other people have, it has been done, and so will now likely be done again the same way they did it for private enterprise. 8)
Of course, I always thought the real reason NASA was still around was because the US didn't want all those rocket scientists having to get jobs outside of the US... ;)
Trimoor:
There's not much to Project Orion. Use a normal space shuttle with a heavy metal plate on the bottom and put a city-buster under it. All it does is replace the booster rockets. Nuclear disarmament people will be happy we found a non-killing use for nukes.