Shuttle hijinks

[DaveMage]

I wonder if they would take a game designer's concept sketches seriously....?

Yeah, I didn't think so.

We don't need x-wing shuttles, Darrin...

 

[Staffan]

We don't need x-wing shuttles, Darrin...

Actually, if we ever get out into space "for real" (as in having colonies and stuff), the x-wing configuration would be a pretty good one for a space fighter.

The way I hear it, when they were designing stuff for Babylon 5 they asked some highbrows to concept what a space fighter would look like. They decided that for optimal maneuverability, you should have four thrusters in each of the six main directions (front, back, left, right, up, down), preferably a bit away from the main body of the vessel, on "wings". Then they realized "That looks an awful lot like an X-wing, so we'd better change some other things like making it shorter."

Of course, the Star Wars X-wing has its engines in the back, like a rocket, but Starfuries don't.

 

[Belen]

That's what they plan to do, I hear. Newer shuttles. It'll take a while, though, since it's a pricey endeavour.

There will be no new shuttles. They plan to build rockets similiar to the Saturn V's. This is idiotic because you cannot test a rocket. You fire it and hope it does not fail, but they cannot seem to find a better way of doing things. They are morons.

They did have a new shuttle design in the late 90s. It is a SSTO (single stage to orbit) by Lockeed, which beat out the McDonnel-Douglas "Delta Clipper" design. It looked surprisingly like the shuttle and was about as reusuable. (ie. requires billions to fly and maintain).

The only hope for the space industry are the private companies like Scaled Composities, Virgin Galactic, XCOR etc. They offer a good chance to build the next gen of spacecraft.

 

[Ranger REG]

Actually, if we ever get out into space "for real" (as in having colonies and stuff), the x-wing configuration would be a pretty good one for a space fighter.

We need a space truck. Space fighters can come out later, when we have developed 5 more space stations with a supercarrier version orbiting around North Korea.

 

[Ranger REG]

I wonder if they would take a game designer's concept sketches seriously....?

Yeah, I didn't think so.

Well, I wonder if they used the same process as the Pentagon have used for the Joint Strike Fighter project.

Anyhoo, IIRC, the winning shuttle was supposed to have twice the payload capacity as our current ones (hence the bloat). How that will land, I honestly don't know. They didn't make past developing a real prototype.

 

[Henry]

...when we have developed 5 more space stations with a supercarrier version orbiting around North Korea.

Let's not go down this line of discussion further...


Also, keep in mind that there is a HUGE amount of time between concept and implementation on space exploration equipment. What may be conceived in the 1990's may not even be implemented until 2010 or even later. I wouldn't give speculation credence until I heard it from NASA's proverbial lips.

As for space combat, imagine two jousting knights on swinging willow poles to get an idea of how that might function in practice... In truth, though, if a computer could keep track of vector forces and thrusts in a dynamic enough manner, then a computerized fighter might be viable, though a mainly manned fighter would be quite hard to implement.

Also, not to lessen the sacrifice of those men and women who have died in shuttle disasters, but there was a pretty significant death toll in all of the X-plane tests in the 1950's, and the Mercury initial test flights, too. There's always a good bit of risk assumed in anything as hazardous as space travel.

 

[MaxKaladin]

Let's hope private industry saves us from NASA. I skimmed over a bit of that Project Constellation stuff and it's seems like a huge, expensive Rube Goldberg device. What we need is a simple, reliable, reusable space truck that doesn't cost hundreds of millions of dollars to launch and everything will follow on that. Seeing the plans of the successor to the shuttle fleet, it seems like private industry is our only hope of seeing such a thing anytime soon.

 

[Darrin Drader]

Let's hope private industry saves us from NASA. I skimmed over a bit of that Project Constellation stuff and it's seems like a huge, expensive Rube Goldberg device. What we need is a simple, reliable, reusable space truck that doesn't cost hundreds of millions of dollars to launch and everything will follow on that. Seeing the plans of the successor to the shuttle fleet, it seems like private industry is our only hope of seeing such a thing anytime soon.

So you don't want a ship that remains in space permanently that we can use to explore the solar system? Instead, you want something that can go up into space, and no further, and then back to Earth. Project Constellation isn't a shuttle replacement, its the first real step in space exploration.

 

[Tarrasque Wrangler]

What we need is space-based manufacturing. Instead of building satellites here on Earth and praying to Yahweh they don't blow up on the launch pad or breakdown on their way up into orbit, we could just assemble them in a zero-g lab and kick them out the door into orbit when they're completed.

There will be no new shuttles. They plan to build rockets similiar to the Saturn V's. This is idiotic because you cannot test a rocket. You fire it and hope it does not fail, but they cannot seem to find a better way of doing things. They are morons.

Well, everything I've read says you're wrong, and that the shuttles will be replaced by another reusable system. But what's so moronic about rockets? The Russians have been doing it that way for decades. And who says you can't test a rocket? Rockets get tested all the time. Hell, the rockets that power the shuttle into orbit get tested. What's the difference?

 

[James Heard]

Also, not to lessen the sacrifice of those men and women who have died in shuttle disasters, but there was a pretty significant death toll in all of the X-plane <skipped the rest because my mind halted>

At which point I immediately thought, yeah - like Jean at the end of X2. Oh! What a geek I am!