Come on why!?

[saggs]

Just thought I would throw this in here: at the bottom of this article it mentions a new American space  program apparently still being planned. Perhaps there is hope?

bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-13829782

Now I'm confused.  It mentioned the multi-purpose crew vehicle, which I think is part of the Orion vehicle, which was part of the Constellation program, which was cancelled by the President over a year ago.  

It seems like the BBC missed the memo.  Or perhaps I missed some recent news, maybe they are going to fund Orion, but not the rest of Constellation.  

I'll have to ask a guy I know who works at Thiokol, next time I see him.

[Golfer]

I am.  Ever since I was little, I had worked to become an astronaut.  Now I don't know what I'll do.  I guess I'll have to find a job in the private space industry.  I hope that the manned space program will return soon.

-Penguin

You didn't plan your career very well if this "news" which isn't news at all you didn't see coming.  It hasn't been a secret and it's been known for years that the Shuttle will cease to be.  In fact Atlantis got one more "final launch" than originally planned which is the July 2011 launch otherwise Endeavour would have been the last.

[saggs]

Ahhhh...    Wikipedia to the rescue, I dun figgered it out.

Apparently I missed the news and announcement last month about this.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Multi_Purpose_Crew_Vehicle

http://www.usatoday.com/tech/science/space/2011-05-24-nasa-orion-capsule_n.htm

Basically, they ARE going to build a new crew vehicle based off the work done so far on Orion, called the Mulit-Purpose-Crew-Vehicle (what an inspiring name).  Just NOT the rest of the Constellation program.  So when/if they actually build this, we'll be able to get crew into space, but nothing else...  seems kinda odd. 

[Tyrannis]

Sorry I figured the price wouldn't be as high if none of the boosters were reused. but dang I had no idea! and I see how that works, but the parts blast away and burn up right? So none of it would be reusable or am I wrong?
To get to the closest star would take billions of years, the moon a few days. Not very likely.

"if I shoot for the moon, even if I miss, I'll land among the stars"

is a Verse from Eminems song space bound.

[F22RaptorDude]

If you "knew all that" then why did you ask if the SRBs and fuel tank burned up?? 

The SRB's don't burn up i knew that, they parachute to the ocean and are picked up but the fuel tank burns up. To me its simple logic. I guess I just stopped caring about being smart. Whats the point of it if people cheat off of you and become successful off your work? I always get put next to the dumbest kids at my school and they always cheat off of me, and if I cover my answers they start bugging me or say crap about me.

[gyrene81]

It always seems simple, but there is a great deal involved in shooting something off anywhere.  Planning, timing, fuel management- it's very difficult to do, especially with the limited amount of time and money that NASA has.  Sending into Earth's atmosphere is also a great PR move for drumming up new funds, since there's nothing that gets people to agree with you faster than a fireworks display.

-Penguin

sorry, i was talking about the information in the bbc article serenity posted the link to.

bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-13829782

it's not nasa's project and it's an automatic unmanned space vehicle, evidently designed to be disposable. sending it into the earth's atmosphere for destruction doesn't seem nearly as effective as sending it toward the sun would be, a lot less destructive to the earth at least.

[katanaso]

I am.  Ever since I was little, I had worked to become an astronaut.  Now I don't know what I'll do.  I guess I'll have to find a job in the private space industry.  I hope that the manned space program will return soon.

-Penguin

I don't know you, but I'd bet the future Astronauts are not spending as much time on a video game message board.

[Tyrannis]

I don't know you, but I'd bet the future Astronauts are not spending as much time on a video game message board.

when i was jobshadowing Apache pilots at fort knox back in 06. one of the first things a pilot asked me was "do you play alot of video games?"
i told him yes. and he told me that the best pilots are usually the kids who played alot of videogames in there youth.

[Yossarian]

Just a point of order:

The US human space programme is not 'dead', by any definition of the word.  The way I see it, there are effectively two 'parts' of it now, rather than just one.  Firstly, there's the more-or-less new commercial side - for example SpaceX, and SpaceDev (just to name two - here's a bigger list).  There's been a lot of talk about this, but so far it seems to be going well, IMO.  Secondly, you have what NASA's doing: there's the ever-present ISS - which is just casually lurking around 200 miles above the planet at about 17,000 mph at the moment - and then there are their rockets, which quite frankly confuse the hell out of me, since I haven't been following what's happening with them.

At any rate, it does suck that the Space Shuttles are being retired, and NASA itself won't have any new vehicles for a few years, but I'd be extremely surprised if they don't get something else (ok, it won't be as cool as the Shuttle - but it'll probably do whatever it's designed to do very well) in the near future.

The shuttles are being shipped to different places for display. Some of the places really make you scratch your head. Not one was sent to NASA Houston. lol

IMO, I don't think Houston particularly deserved one - just look at what they allowed to happen with their Saturn V (http://www.collectspace.com/news/news-030104a.html#030104).  That is a fairly thin argument to not give them one (and just giving them two seats, IIRC, seems a bit stingy to say the least), but I have to say I can't disagree with any of the other places: Florida - of course, Air and Space Museum - of course, NYC - hard to say, but it is a massive tourist attraction, so it does make sense to have one there*, and LA - they were built nearby and it is sensible to have one on the West Coast.

*However, they are relocating Concorde to make room for it, which is a big no-no in my books.  Nothing moves out of the way for Concorde.

[Shuffler]

NYC  lol oh yes lots of folks go to NY to see space memorabilia.   

[katanaso]

when i was jobshadowing Apache pilots at fort knox back in 06. one of the first things a pilot asked me was "do you play alot of video games?"
i told him yes. and he told me that the best pilots are usually the kids who played alot of videogames in there youth.

Yes, but you didn't comprehend what I wrote.  I said "video game message board," not "video games."

The video gaming aspect has been proven to be beneficial.

[gyrene81]

Yes, but you didn't comprehend what I wrote.  I said "video game message board," not "video games."

The video gaming aspect has been proven to be beneficial.

so is hanging out on the video game message board...look what you have taught him already 

pay attention tyrannis

[Tyrannis]

Yes, but you didn't comprehend what I wrote.  I said "video game message board," not "video games."

The video gaming aspect has been proven to be beneficial.

no, i easily comprehended what you ment, but the 2 go hand in hand.

if your on the game's forum then youve usually ether play the game, or have played the game.
(there are of course exceptions to this rule)

[dedalos]

this may be a silly question but, why would they send it back into earth's atomosphere for destruction when the sun could do a much better job without impact on the earth?

Cause fuel is not free.  Not mention they would need to aim it at the sun and use some kind of a booster to send it that way.  Easier and cheaper to just let it (or parts of it) fall into the ocean.

[katanaso]

no, i easily comprehended what you ment, but the 2 go hand in hand.

if your on the game's forum then youve usually ether play the game, or have played the game.
(there are of course exceptions to this rule)

I'll disagree with you here.

If ranking is indicative of active players in AH right now, there are over 3,000.  I'd guess there are only 300 to 400 that post regularly on the forum.  The other 2,600 or so may not care about a discussion board at all.

If the ranking isn't an indicator of actual subscriptions, then the point I'm trying to make is moot for AH.

But the real point I was trying to subtly make was in regards to the amount of time spent on the message board which is not spent actively working towards the goal of becoming an Astronaut.

We can discuss this in PMs if you'd like to understand my position on this.  No need to derail the actual thread.