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Posted (edited)

OK folks... I have been holding off on this question I wanted to ask here for a while. This thread could be an opportunity to do it:

Did anyone flying here have seen a UFO?

Edited by yvesg
Posted

Can't even make one today, most of the blueprints are lost.  Still, can't quite see the point of sending folks to Mars.  Not that I'm not a big booster of space flight and all that, but robots do it way, way better and cheaper than we can.  You could send a whole fleet of the things for what the Mars mission is going to cost.  Heck, the Indians send an orbiter around Mars for less than the cost of the movie Gravity.

Posted

Is there a good reason to spend our tax dollars trying to send humans on Mars or anywhere else out there?

What benefit do we derive here on earth from such a venture, even if it was successful to send humans there and bring them back?

 

Posted

Is there a good reason to spend our tax dollars trying to send humans on Mars or anywhere else out there?

 

For the good old American life: for the money, for the glory and for the fun. But mostly for the money. 

  • Like 1
Posted

You can't run a liquid fueled rocket LOP! If there isn't excess fuel the LOX will consume the engine!

You know I was being silly - deliberately daft - when I suggested running LOP in a rocket engine.  I'm not a real rocket scientists - but I play one on TV.

  • Like 1
Posted

Is there a good reason to spend our tax dollars trying to send humans on Mars or anywhere else out there?

What benefit do we derive here on earth from such a venture, even if it was successful to send humans there and bring them back?

 

That's what people said about going to the moon. One of the many side benefits, completely unlooked-for, that now pervades modern society is miniature computers. Couldn't put a room-sized computer in the Apollo capsule, couldn't do the required calculations on a slide rule. Viola! Now they are smaller than ever, and everywhere . . .

What will we get from the Mars effort? Who knows, but it's worth trying. May get a functional space drive, better oxygenation equipment, food supplements or just better cold weather gear. Maybe something else completely unthought today.

  • Like 1
Posted

I came across a useless but fascinating factoid:

Fuel burn of the Saturn 5 first stage was an astounding 13.5 tons/sec kerosene!

Wow!

I guess this is what is called a controlled explosion? What is the margin for error before the engine actually explodes? Must be pretty difficult to control. Even today from time to time there are rockets that explode on the takeoff pad.

Posted

That's what people said about going to the moon. One of the many side benefits, completely unlooked-for, that now pervades modern society is miniature computers.

I get somewhat mad when people say that instead of going to the moon we should have used the money to solve problems at home, like poverty.

Whenever I hear this I tell them that had we done that, we wouldn't have solved poverty - and we wouldn't have gone to the moon.

  • Like 2
Posted (edited)
 

it's not about solving poverty.

But we went to the moon left a ton of junk there and we didn't solve anything on earth! 

We could go again and study the effects the lunar environment has had on the junk we left up there! 

Don't get me wrong! I'm all for space exploration but...

Edited by PTK
Posted

A piston engine runs on a controlled carefully sized explosion on every stroke.

You can't run a liquid fueled rocket LOP! If there isn't excess fuel the LOX will consume the engine!

You know I was being silly - deliberately daft - when I suggested running LOP in a rocket engine.  I'm not a real rocket scientists - but I play one on TV.

Posted
 

it's not about solving poverty.

But we went to the moon left a ton of junk there and we didn't solve anything on earth! 

We could go again and study the effects the lunar environment has had on the junk we left up there! 

Don't get me wrong! I'm all for space exploration but...

I couldn't disagree more - the Moon race gave dramatic advances in technology that we enjoy today.  The micro-chip that I enjoy when I type to you this message is the most famous.  Velcro is the second most famous.  All sorts of ceramics, engineering methods, etc are less famous.  From the space race we get direct descendant technologies like satellite weather forecasting, gps.  It was like a friendly war.  Technology always advances during a war - sadly and with great loss and human tragedy to match.  Somehow the Moon race/space race was like a friendly game of cricket between the USA and Russia that resulted in similar massive advancements of technologies like WWII but without the loss.  It was very much well worth the investment in the research.  Think of it as 1960s R&D investing in today's technology.

Posted (edited)

We chose the Moon...

We chose the Moon and the other things...(computers, Velcro and Tang)

Not because it was easy, but because it was Haaahd!

-JFK-

This has to be read out loud in your strongest Boston Accent.

Solving hunger is important as is curing diseases.  

Putting a man on the moon (and returning him home safely) was a demonstration for the generous leader of the USSR who promised Kennedy while banging a shoe on the lectern... 'We will bury you'

The USSR was known for sending animals in space with no intention of their return.  How would you like to be the first cosmonaut?

my memories of that long ago are a bit fuzzy.  

The cost put upon humanity by rogue nations is huge in comparison to a few missions in space...

i just like the opportunity to use a good Boston accent:).

 

Best regahds,

-a-

Edited by carusoam
  • Like 1
Posted

You know I was being silly - deliberately daft - when I suggested running LOP in a rocket engine.  I'm not a real rocket scientists - but I play one on TV.

you know I was just being a smart ass...

Posted

Seeing that we are talking about space...

 

About twenty years ago I was flying back from San Fran, I was at 11500. I had been talking to Joshua approach but they had turned me loose. About 10 min later, I was in the 29 Palms area, they called me on the radio and asked if I was still on. I said "go ahead" and they said I had 747 traffic climbing through 14000 at my 3 o'clock and 3 miles.

it was the Space Shuttle hauler with the shuttle on its back.

  • Like 1
Posted

..it was the Space Shuttle hauler with the shuttle on its back.

 

As the crow flies I live about 145 miles south of Cape Canaveral. Here's how the shuttle launch looked from outside my door. I was looking north and the shuttle was heading east.

 

Shuttle_Launch.JPG

Posted

Is there a good reason to spend our tax dollars trying to send humans on Mars or anywhere else out there?

What benefit do we derive here on earth from such a venture, even if it was successful to send humans there and bring them back?

 

If we want to have any hope of diverting a large asteroid from a collision course with earth we had better have the technology to travel farther than low earth orbit. 

  • Like 2
Posted

If we want to have any hope of diverting a large asteroid from a collision course with earth we had better have the technology to travel farther than low earth orbit. 

Yup - the dinosaurs went extinct due to budget cuts to their space program.

  • Like 2

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