Space Age

A distraction of fresh discoveries is not only imperative but welcomed

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One of the primary problems is the costs of transporting payload to LEO.

If one could find a way to transport payloads cheaply, space exploration would advance accordingly.

 

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Our progress into space is held up mainly by two things:

1) Lack of funds. People are too busy doing stupid things like bombing Baghdad and building 747s with lasers in the nose.

2) Stupid bureaucrats and their red tape blocking progress as much as possible just so they can make sure everyone knows they have the power to block things. (This is NASA, by the way.)

 

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Lack of leadership to give a clear direction to NASA and to inspire Joe public.

Lack of a reasonable cost in getting pounds to LEO, as (Q) stated.

Bureaucratic inertia. In my opinion much of NASA's functions should be given over to private enterprise as is possible. NASA should be freed from the ISS support to do what they do best, explore.

Being as I could not make multiple picks I chose; none of the above.

 

You must excuse me, I often get confused here, does the public have no voice in this elected government? Do the people pay taxes yet have no say in
where the money goes? Nevertheless, If a people will risk their lives why not blast them to the stars.

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** Space lottery tickets ( winner - a free trip to space/or cash)

 

I think many of the reasons can be summed up as "Politics"

 

You have opened up a whole 'nother can of worms with that one. The politicains determine where the money goes. Many is the way that has been developed to turn monies from their intended targets. When money goes into general coffers, it gets spent for things, sometimes deemed frivolous in nature. Many "horror stories" have been exposed of $800 hammers and development costs for weapons that only work on the books and in staged tests. It is not limited to this alone. Pork barrel projects for the consistutancy at home to get this or that politician to vote in favor of anothers pet project is not unheard of. Many of these are attached to bills that others favor. To pass the bill into law means that the attachments must also pass. It is a nightmare of "me first", political intrigue, and scratch my back.

 

I never hear any promises of deep space exploration from politicans or Presidents. Nata, Nothing, Zip, Zero, perhaps more involvement with the public is mandatory and neccessary to raise funds. There's a little astronomer in all of us.

 

The state. There's no other reason.

 

I agree, but it also has a lot to do (as you know) with "money" it cost so much money to leave earth's gravity. I also think that there are a lot of people in the government that believe there is nothing good to come from space travel. Which I think is pretty retarded. I wish all of the American public was interested in space as much as I am.

 

I think a major reason is that most think it is necessary or fun to be in space to do the exploration. It costs way too much to gte a human into space. ASnd it is not necessary at all. We would be much further, I think, if we would stick to sending small and cheap (and safe) unmanned spacecraft.

 

The space shuttle

A working, long term project that would provide cheap access and everything the sci-fi people dream of is too expensive, the politicians are scaredy cats who play games like Wet1 said, and there are too many risks for anyone with the capital in the private sector to risk it. This is why people say all these things are hundreds of years in the future.

 

The cost of insurance

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And Open-cycle rocket design
Closed-cycle is alot better, pulsed-closed-cycle is alot alot better, but the risks of failure go up and thus the cost of insurance.

Make statelites/probes modular(platform based) and you could use riskier technology without worrying about the odd failure- hey the 11 million parts is alot to worry about anyway.

By the way has anyone tried forcing super heated steam through a carbon arc?
Couldn't you accelerate the plasma produced as well?

Carbon - very light
water - needed anyway(and we've got plenty)
solar panels - needed anyway
sunlight - free

 

God knows what is the right
Neyin dogru neyin yanlis oldugunu Allah bilir...

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2001 Mars Odyssey - USA Mars Orbiter - (7 April 2001)

The 2001 Mars Odyssey orbiter will nominally orbit Mars for three years, with the objective of conducting a detailed mineralogical analysis of the planet's surface from orbit and measuring the radiation environment. The mission has as its primary science goals to gather data to help determine whether the environment on Mars was ever conducive to life, to characterize the climate and geology of Mars, and to study potential radiation hazards to possible future astronaut missions.

Genesis - USA Solar Wind Sample Return - 30 July 2001

The primary objective of the Genesis mission is to collect samples of solar wind particles and return them to Earth for detailed analysis.

CONTOUR - USA Fly-by of three Comet Nuclei - 4 July 2002

The Comet Nucleus Tour (CONTOUR) will fly-by the comets Encke, Schwassmann-Wachmann-3, d'Arrest and possibly a fourth comet. Scientific objectives include imaging the nuclei at resolutions of 4 m, performing spectral mapping of the nuclei at resolutions of 100-200 m, and obtaining detailed compositional data on gas and dust in the near-nucleus environment.

Muses-C - Japan Asteroid Sample Return - (Nov/Dec 2002)

The primary scientific objective of the Muses-C mission is to collect a surface sample of material from an asteroid and return the sample to Earth for analysis.

SMART 1 - ESA Lunar Orbiter - 21 December 2002

The SMART-1 (Small Missions for Advanced Research in Technology 1) is a lunar orbiter designed to test spacecraft technologies for future missions such as a solar-powered ion drive. It is to return data on the geology, morphology, topography, mineralogy, geochemistry, and exospheric environment of the Moon.

NEAP - USA Asteroid Nereus Rendezvous - 2002

Rosetta - ESA Comet Obiter and Lander - (12 January 2003)

Rosetta will investigate comet Wirtanen. The spacecraft will orbit the comet and drop two probes to land on it. During the spacecraft's eight-year voyage to Wirtanen, it will conduct flybys of the asteroids 3840 Mimistrobell and 2530 Shipka.

Mars Exploration Rovers - USA Two Mars Rovers - 22 May/4 June 2003

Mars Express - ESA Mars Orbiter and Lander - 1 June 2003

Lunar-A - Japan Lunar Orbiter and Penetrators - (1 September 2003)

Lunar-A will deliver three penetrators to the Moon's surface to study seismometry and thermal properties. The purpose is to learn more about the Moon's interior structure.

Selene - Japan Lunar Orbiter and Lander - 2003

Deep Impact - USA Comet Rendezvous and Impact - 1 January 2004

MESSENGER - USA mercury Orbiter - 23 March 2004

Pluto-Kuiper Express - USA Pluto Flyby - (2004)

Work on this mission has been stopped for budgetary reasons. NASA is now seeking proposals for a new Pluto / Kuiper Belt Mission. It was originally scheduled for launch around 2001 and to arrive at Pluto around 2013. The mission will consist of a pair of small, fast, relatively cheap spacecraft weighing less than 100 kilograms each. The spacecraft will pass within 15,000 kilometers of Pluto and Charon. They might include Russian Zond probes designed to study the Plutonian atmosphere.

Mars Reconnaisance Orbiter - USA Mars Orbiter - (July 2005)

history

Assessment of Solar System Exploration Programs



return your tax cuts and bring back the soviet union

 

If I could be sure that that money would go to the space exploration then it would be a considerment. Knowing our politicians as I do from past actions, that would probably entitle a budget cut of ever how much was recieved effectively making null the contributions while continuing to line the pockets of those I wish not to.

 

future orbital telescopes

SIRTF (JPL/Nasa)
Space Infrared Telescope Facility. Fourth and final of NASA's Great Observatories, in Nasa's Origins program. Scheduled for launch with a Delta 7920H from Cape Canaveral, Florida on January 9, 2003.

GALEX (JPL/Nasa)
Galaxy Evolution Explorer. UV imaging and spectroscopic survey mission. Scheduled for launch with Pegasus XL in early 2003.

SXG (Nasa/Russia)
Spectrum-X-Gamma. Scheduled for launch in 2003 (formerly 1998).

Astro-F, IRIS (Japan)
Infrared Imaging Surveyor. To be launched by M_V rocket in February 2004 (originally scheduled for 2002).

StarLight (Nasa)
Former Space Technology 3. Star interferometer: 2 telescopes separated by a 125m arm. Scheduled for launch in 2006.

RadioAstron (Russia)
Radio astronomy satellite, to be launched on March 15, 2006. (formerly scheduled for late 1997 to 1998, then for 2002).

Herschel, FIRST (Esa)
Far IR and Submillimeter Space Telescope; to observe objects in the 85 to 900 micron part of the spectrum. To be launched together with Planck on Ariane 5 in early 2007.

Planck, COBRAS/SAMBA (ESA)
Cosmic Background Radiation Anisotropy Satellite/Satellite for Measurement of Background Anisotropy. To be launched together with Herschel/FIRST on Ariane 5 in early 2007

Kepler
Space-based search for extrasolar planets. Scheduled for launch in 2007.

SIM
Space Interferometer Mission (JPL/Nasa). To be launched in 2009, from ETR at Cape Canaveral with a Delta-3, into an Earth-trailing solar orbit.

JWST, NGST
James Webb Space Telescope,. New Generation Space Telescope. Scheduled for launch in 2010

Spectrum UV
Spectroscopic UV satellite.

GAIA (ESA)
Global Astrometric Interferometer for Astrophysics. Astrometrical satellite, intended to improve the accuracy and extend the Hipparcos survey. Scheduled for about 2010-12.

Terrestrial Planet Finder. Scheduled for launch with Ariane 5 in 2012-15. Search for terrestrial planets at nearby stars.

Darwin (ESA)
Space Infrared Interferometer project. Space-based search for extrasolar planets. Scheduled for about 2015.

ExNPS
Exploration of Nearby Planetary Systems. NGST, SIM and ExNPS are parts of Nasa's Origins Program

ARISE
Radio astronomy/VLBI satellite project proposition for beyond 2000.


Orbital Telescopes

current ground based telescopes

future ground based telescopes

Federal Funding of Astronomical Research

 

nothing good on tv?

 

Brief Analysis

Sci -fi is the imaginations of people and I noticed technology wasn't chosen on the poll nor fear. If such a knowledge exist it wouldn't have dust on it and the public would be aware of it.