DailyDirt: Moving To Outer Space (Temporarily)

from the urls-we-dig-up dept

Mon, Oct 20th 2014 5:00pm — Michael Ho

The number of ways to get people into space is at a record low right now, but some projects on the horizon are planning to get more people living in space in the not too distant future. Commercial space ventures are going to be shuttling (or capsule-ing, as the case may be) people to low earth orbit, and some other projects are aiming for more distant journeys. Here are just a few space exploration plans to keep an eye on if you still want to be an astronaut someday.

In December, NASA is planning to launch Orion on a Delta IV Heavy rocket as a test for its next generation manned space vehicle that may one day get astronauts to Mars. No one will be on board for the first trip, but the craft will be gathering data to make sure the vessel is suitable for transporting people comfortably and safely. [url]
The Bigelow Expandable Activity Module (BEAM) is an inflatable habitat that can connect to the International Space Station and provide commercial living space for a little over $50 million for a 2 month stay. This will be a steal compared to the current $40 million price tag for an individual to stay on the ISS for a week. (No word yet if you'll be able to re-rent out your spot on Airbnb.) [url]
The optimism of the Mars One project should not be dismissed, but the technology to actually build a viable colony on the red planet may be further from reality than 2025. An analysis from some MIT students concludes that Mars One is unlikely to be sustainable with the current state of its technological progress. [url]

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Filed Under: beam, colony, delta iv, iss, leo, manned missions, mars, mars one, orion, space, space exploration
Companies: bigelow, boeing, mit, nasa, spacex

11 Comments

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Mason Wheeler (profile), 20 Oct 2014 @ 5:35pm

Wasn't the record low about 100 years ago, when the number was 0?
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Mason Wheeler (profile), 20 Oct 2014 @ 5:38pm

Also, from the Mars One criticism article:
The lead author, Sydney Do, a Ph.D. candidate in aeronautics and astronautics at MIT, said via email that in his view “the Mars One Concept is unsustainable” because of the current state of technology and its “aggressive expansion approach” of quickly adding more and more people rather than keeping the settlement at a fixed size for a period of time.

So even with well under a thousand planned colonists on the entire planet, people are warning about overpopulation issues? :P
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Lawrence D’Oliveiro, 20 Oct 2014 @ 6:42pm

Could We Do A Space Elevator In Low-Earth Orbit?
Just wondering about the practicalities of a shorter cable (say 150km) that isn’t anchored to the ground, but passes through the atmosphere at, say, stratosphere level. Something that can be reached by craft requiring less power than full orbital rockets.
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Roger Strong (profile), 20 Oct 2014 @ 7:15pm

Re: Could We Do A Space Elevator In Low-Earth Orbit?
Because a Space Elevator has its center of gravity out at geosynchronous orbit, it stays at one spot on the equator. A 150km cable would be in very low earth orbit, travelling VERY fast over the ground. The wind drag would rotate around.

But that's OK. That's where a Rotovator - a type of Momentum Exchange Tether - comes in:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Momentum_exchange_tether
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Roger Strong (profile), 20 Oct 2014 @ 7:19pm

Mars One's 2025 timeline has always been pure fantasy. Their economics for a manned trip are pure fantasy.

That doesn't mean nothing good will come of it. They're planning an unmanned lander - paying Lockheed Martin to build a duplicate of their Phoenix Lander.

http://www.mars-one.com/en/mars-one-news/press-releases/11-news/517-lockheed-martin-and-sstl- selected-for-mars-one-s-first-unmanned-mission-to-mars

They've raised $544,026 collecting application fees. Now they just need to raise the other 99.9985% of the $350 million needed to build the lander. If they do that soon, perhaps LockMart can have it built by their 2018 launch date.

And assuming they can con a second similar round of would-be astronauts to raise the same amount, then they just need to raise the remaining 96% of the $56.5 million Falcon 9 launch cost.
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Lawrence D’Oliveiro, 20 Oct 2014 @ 7:31pm

Re: Could We Do A Space Elevator In Low-Earth Orbit?
Ah, “Rotovator” ... that sounds like what I was thinking of.
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Nilsson, 21 Oct 2014 @ 5:02am

I wanted to be a spaceman
That's what I wanted to be
But now that I am a spaceman
Nobody cares about me
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Rekrul, 21 Oct 2014 @ 9:44am

Inflatable modules?
I don't know about anyone else, but if I were going to be spending time in an airless vacuum, I'd want nice, thick metal around me, not an inflatable bag. Yes, I know space suits are basically an inflatable bag, but they're also much smaller and you spend a lot less time in them. If a suit gets punctured, one person might end up dead. If an inflatable pod gets punctured, everyone in it might end up dead.
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John Fenderson (profile), 21 Oct 2014 @ 10:17am

Re: Inflatable modules?
This doesn't bother me at all -- mostly because in terms of protection from impacts, there's not much difference between one of these inflatable systems and having a hard shell. The things that can hit you in space are going very, very fast and have a lot of kinetic energy. They slice through the hull of a metal spacecraft as easily as an inflatable one.
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Roger Strong (profile), 21 Oct 2014 @ 12:22pm

Re: Inflatable modules?
Bigelow's inflatable modules use several layers of vectran, twice as strong as Kevlar. You'd be safer than in standard ISS modules.
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Anonymous Coward, 21 Oct 2014 @ 3:52pm

Re: Could We Do A Space Elevator In Low-Earth Orbit?
https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/shootthemoon/shoot-the-moon-a-documentary-feature-film?ref=48hr
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