PRIVATE INDUSTRY REPLACING NASA?

[Reno_Steve]

Re: PRIVATE INDUSTRY REPLACING NASA?

Avoiding space junk and other satellites is a major problem with the rotating tether.
This probably means that it is more suited to use on other planets and moons where such debris is rare, or when a major build is being created in orbit which has a finite life. e.g. sunshield or interplanetary mission.

A tapered cable would help with strength problems.

[MXrider13]

Re: PRIVATE INDUSTRY REPLACING NASA?

A solution to convert a sub-orbital space craft into an orbital craft with low fuel cost is to use the rotating tether concept.

This consists of a 500km+ cable in orbit around the Earth which is spinning so that its lower tip is travelling at only appox 1000mph relative to the Earth surface.

By docking to the cable (will require accurate guidance) the sub-orbital craft is catapulted upto a high orbital speed, ideal for deep space missions.

It has been stated that the cable can be powered by electrical means against the Earths magnetic field, possibly even solar powered.

Im not an expert but is that like the Space Elevator concept?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pnwZmWoymeI

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kvFwe_875OU

[AirDOGGe]

Re: PRIVATE INDUSTRY REPLACING NASA?

Im not an expert but is that like the Space Elevator concept?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pnwZmWoymeI

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kvFwe_875OU

No.

Something more like this: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z81wpmqXQLo

[Reno_Steve]

Re: PRIVATE INDUSTRY REPLACING NASA?

I dont think the Space elevator will ever be built as it will be too slow and only allow one shuttle at a time.
22000 km at 220 km/h means 100 hours each way.
The problem is that you have to support the whole weight of a 22000km cable.

[MXrider13]

Re: PRIVATE INDUSTRY REPLACING NASA?

I dont think the Space elevator will ever be built as it will be too slow and only allow one shuttle at a time.
22000 km at 220 km/h means 100 hours each way.
The problem is that you have to support the whole weight of a 22000km cable.

And a Space Elevator would be a huge hazard, all that has to happen is one aircraft or space craft has to crash into it.

[AirDOGGe]

Re: PRIVATE INDUSTRY REPLACING NASA?

A space elevator would be located in restricted air space, no doubt.

And it would have to support it's own huge weight PLUS the elevator (big enough to live in for a few days...this is no department store-type elevator) PLUS the pull of the "counterweight" swinging out at the far end tens of thousands of miles away, keeping the line tensioned.

This is why I said Nano tubes are the only material scientists have found to be strong and light enough for a space elevator tether, but manufacturing methods are still forthcoming.


100 hours to a space station is no biggie. It already takes up to 3 days to catch up with and dock with the station. That's 72 hrs. already.


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P.S>....The Space Shuttle Atlantis touched-down successfully today, concluding 30 years of winged space ship travel...It's going to feel weird watching only old-fashion rockets fly now.

[IcePaq]

Re: PRIVATE INDUSTRY REPLACING NASA?

We've been doing Aerodynamic testing of vehicles on Kennedy Space Center's shuttle landing facility runway and I got to meet managers from most every program there in June.

Apparently, most all of them are gearheads and jumped at the chance show us things and give us access to places not normally accessible.

I got to drive the launch pad manager's corvette onto the launch pad because we let him drive the 2006 daytona 500 pace car (the actual one driven by Jay Leno).



A girl drove that corvette to 155 in the standing mile and we went 223mph at only 20 pounds of boost on an engine that is good for 50 pounds of boost and a 600 shot of nitrous oxide.

These guys baking in the sun were actually lucky as I was inside the car with my head around the pedals checking wiring (which rather turned out to be a faulty component in the Big Stuff 3 ecu).



Most of these great people at nasa have been given thier pink slip.

Someone is breaking up an already existing infrastructure and brain trust there and severely limiting or flat out denying thier pursuing private sector contracts.

You know how this goes..............a few years down the line, the government has a need for exactly what they dismantled and ends up spending 12 times to get 1/2 the result.

One thing I noticed as compared to other facilities back when I installed conference and ready rooms at various military facilities such as the pentagon is that there was literally no waste of resources at Kennedy Space Center.

In washington DC, I remember rooms filled with laptops thown there by managers who got a new one every year and tons of equipment left to rot before being scrapped.

At nasa, I found something as simple as a gate closer for a security gate that had obviously served an earlier purpose on a spacecraft.......the place was full of equipment that had been re-purposed over and over.

I guess the 30 years slowly being strangulated caused this thriftyness that does not seem to exist anywhere else in any government program and I feel these NASA guys should be used as effeciency experts to streamline the other government agencies runaway waste.

Many of the cameras used to film the shuttle are former quad or double 50 caliber gun mounts from the 1950s.

We're going back in August and I'll see if I can get a pic of the last touchdown markings on the shuttle's last mission.

Here's an earlier one.....notice the grooves....which are shaved down for at least a mile near the threshold as compared to how they were originally cast.

[AirDOGGe]

Re: PRIVATE INDUSTRY REPLACING NASA?

I got to drive the launch pad manager's corvette onto the launch pad...

Wow. VERY few people will ever be able to say that, and you are one of them...I'm envious.


What's even cooler is the photo of the car with the shuttle stack in the background. Nobody can ever get that shot now. Those birds will never again sit on a launch pad.

At nasa, I found something as simple as a gate closer for a security gate that had obviously served an earlier purpose on a spacecraft.......the place was full of equipment that had been re-purposed over and over.

That's what happens when you put a bunch of gifted engineers together and make them use the same old crap over and over (working on the Shuttle for 3 decades is just one example) instead of getting to create newer and better stuff. They have to release their creativity juices SOMEwhere... I know exactly how they feel.

[MXrider13]

Re: PRIVATE INDUSTRY REPLACING NASA?

@ IcePaq great pics!