Re: First impressions: spaceboot.eu


"www.spaceboot.eu" <andyhenospam@xxxxxxxxx> wrote in message
news:1161293076.059153.211120@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Hi,
Just started a new site at http://www.spaceboot.eu and wanted to get
some first impressions from you.
The site is about how human spaceflight today is going nowhere (in my
opinion) and will be about how maybe things can be done better.
Thanks for all constructive input.


My first impression is that I disagree with many of your points:

"There is no economic need to put a human into space."

Actually, there are. From a non-government point of view, tourism seems to
be the biggest reason to put people into space. That's why companies like
Virgin Galactic and Bigelow Aerospace are actively working on suborbital and
orbital tourism. That's also why a handful of private individuals have
flown on Soyuz.

Your solution to this non-problem is "mine an asteroid". I think that's
putting the cart before the horse. I think mining, whether it's done on the
moon, an asteroid, or another planet, would be in support of another
endeavor in space. In other words, I don't think it makes sense to mine any
extraterrestrial body and bring the material back to earth. It's best to
use that material in space, perhaps in support of a local colony, or perhaps
as material to build a solar power satellite for Earth. But these are still
very long term goals. I think the initial manned space activity not
sponsored by governments (i.e. private space travel) will be tourism.

Another of your points is:

"As mentioned earlier, current (human flight) space research is
concentrating on understanding and minimizing the effects weightlessness has
on living organisms. This, in my view, is a result of the fact that we do
not have any crafts in use that provide artificial gravity for its crew.
Hence, astronauts need to spend hours on end exercising to make sure their
body stays in shape, at least enough to survive return to Earth. The rest of
their precious time is spent researching what are the most effective
exercises to do, what organisms are better suited for weightlessness, how
flies fly in space, ... This to me seems rather one-sided research and a
dead end in the long run."

Again, I think this is backwards. People want to travel into space
*because* of microgravity. We'll only need "artificial gravity" when people
start living and working in space for years at a time. Until then, ISS
crews have shown that six month stays in microgravity aren't terribly
debilitating, as long as you do exercise.

Another point you make is, "In order to work in space for a prolonged period
of time, and do it in the best and easiest circumstances, tele-operation
might just do the trick."

You're just one of the many people who overestimate the ability to do actual
work with tele-operation. Note the many jobs that are still done by deep
sea divers, at much expense and risk, instead of being done by
tele-operation. Also, look at how little the two Mars rovers have traveled
over the very long time that they've been on Mars and compare that to how
far Apollo astronauts traveled using the lunar rover during a single EVA
lasting only hours.


I do agree that nuclear power in space has potential. It's actually a very
sensible way to get a lot of power in a small package, especially for
missions that are further from the sun than Earth. But again, I think this
is long term. In the short term, I'd expect solar power to be used for LEO
tourism.

Jeff
--
"They that can give up essential liberty to obtain a
little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor
safety"
- B. Franklin, Bartlett's Familiar Quotations (1919)






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