gooddog15

The concept came around in order to keep Saturn V production going, so we could use it for a future return to the moon. It was deemed too expensive and so it was replaced by the rather inexpensive SRB's. Lowering the costs by doing this allowed for Nixon to approve the shuttle program. It's a pretty interesting but impractical design, and the concepts of mounting payloads on the top and bottom of the EFT were studied for the finalized shuttle design, but they were thrown away after the Challenger disaster.

Atomic Rockets has a lot of useful information on this, particularly in their "Space War" section.

We can still dream of it happening in the near future, can't we? Also on a less serious, off topic note, does anyone realize that martian pet rocks would probably be an actual product when the costs of flying to mars is mere peanuts? I already built a mockup:

Anyways, Odin is based off the real life concept of Kinetic bombardment, which was studied by the USAF as Project Thor. Just type in project Thor or "Rods from the gods" anywhere to find information about it. I think Scott Manley made a few videos based on it awhile ago.

Heck, we just could get rid of the pressurized compartments and transport everyone in the lockers. It'll be inconvenient, but it would be significantly cheaper and easier to both build, fly, and protect. We could go even further and make the whole ship a drone. We could also just blame the failure of the container in the event if we wanted to have certain unpopular politicians "accidentally" die.

Why not? Now, while the rocks and sand is cool to look at, I can understand why going there just to see said rocks and sand would not be a good reason to go there. But if there was a Stonehenge made of crashed landers and other works of art made by the crazy land loving martians, there would be an incentive to go. I would also imagine that there would be a thriving Martian pet rock market. Why? because capitalism.

Rocks and sand for landscaping. To be serious though, it would probably be tourism and land. People love land, even if it's really expensive and located in a cold inhospitable desert. Everything like mining would make no sense with the great abundance of resource rich asteroids.

Why not use the actual lockers themselves? In the event of a emergency where sealing up your ship is impossible, all you would have to do is throw everything that was inside the locker, (all the stuff would be in a inner liner, keeping everything from flying everywhere) put yourself in it, and close. Life support could be supplied by the spacecrafts own systems and if that has failed, it would use an oxygen bottle until help arrives. When help finally arrives, rescuers donning EVA suits would disconnect the locker, attach an external life support device (or their own suits), and send it to the rescue ship.

I think Bimodal NERVA's would be the way to go. Provides propulsion when it's needed, and electrical power when it's in idle. image from Atomic Rockets

Spaceflight Now has pictures of the wreckage at port: Link .At least they did recover the engines..

I bring good news! also some bad news I have created the Orion 50XLST and it's corresponding adaptor. It's a 0.975m stage that should be able to be converted into a Pegasus configuration with stock parts. The adaptor is an adaptor that adapts between the Orion and 1.8m Castor-120. Did I also mention that it adapts things? You can see them both below along with the Castor-120, Orion 50XL, and Orion 38 as the Minotaur-C/Taurus: I've also modeled a Pageos-type passive communications experiment (in other words, I've created a giant space balloon). It's pretty small, being no bigger than the stock 0.625 RCS tank (represented by the 0.5m x 0.5m cube). But when it's deployed it's huge! It's only a WIP at this point, but it is fully animated! Now for the somewhat-bad news: The Minotaur-1 parts have texture bleed issues, necessitating a new texture (Which is good. There were a lot of things that needed to be improved). There may also be some issues with the models themselves. I won't be able to work on this pack again for a week due to IRL problems (FInals suck). The pack will also not be released until after 1.1 comes out. I'm not dealing with the old horrible beast known as Unity 4 until those sweet new part tools are dished out by Mu for Unity 5. Hopefully the next Minotaur-C launch with SkySat will come around by then, so we all can recreate that mission!

Castor 120:

How about explosions? Lots and lots of explosions! Everyone loves explosions! To be serious, getting a Agena and a Titan for Gemini would be really cool. Also TKS could be need'in both a revamp and a some expansion, as the TKS-derived modules on Mir were really the meaty part of the station.

NASA's budget increase, Space X's landing, and Tantares getting a new release within 4 days of each other... I think Christmas has come early

YES YES YES YES YES YES YES YES YES YES YES YES YES YES YES YES YES YES YES YES YES YES YES YES YES YES YES YES! Finally at last!

Learning how to 3D model is a huge skill that can be expanded past modding into other applications, such as CAD design. You do not need to have a college degree to 3D model (although having one gives you a ginormous advantage), all you need is a lot time and patience, especially using programs like 3DS Max, Blender, Wings3D, ect. I learned how to model in Blender through free tutorials like Blender 3D: Noob to Pro and Youtube channels such as BornCG and SpiritCrisis, and expanded later on into some not so free books. It can take awhile to get a hold on the stuff they talk about, but eventually you'll learn through experience and experimentation. It can take a few weeks to learn how to properly use it , but it can years to master. I started learning 2 years ago and I still have a lot to learn. It's so worth the trouble of learning it, even if it isn't for modding purposes. As for stuff like Unity, I recommend you go to the mod development links compilation thread on this forum. Unity is a completely different pot of coffee compared to 3D modeling. It also tastes bitter.

I'm not surprised at all that this exists. People have been building large shelters since the start of the cold war, although the only ones doing it now are probably some of the most paranoid people you will ever meet.

[quote name='Shpaget']F9 return stage is never orbital. So F9 has more room for computer, navigation and guidance hardware. Is that what you're saying? Smaller rocket - smaller payload. It's proportional. NS is also a first stage and strictly a first stage, throwing up the weight of its payload - second stage. Not somewhere in Texas. Exactly on the targeted landing area that happens to be smaller than the barge. BTW, what's your estimate, how fast is NS going? No, they didn't. They crashed. Nope. It was never stationary, or even upright. And the barge in the middle of the ocean is surrounded by skyscrapers that hinder the approach?[/QUOTE] First of all, I was talking about that the Falcon 9 overall is meant to be an orbital launch vehicle, not the first stage. Second of all the Falcon 9 first stage like all rocket stages has a guidance system. Not sure what your trying to prove there Third of all, what you're saying is that the payload is a second stage for some reason. Fourth of all, I couldn't find any info NS relating to its speed upon separation. Seems like Jeff really doesn't like to release information. Also, NS is landing on solid ground inland, while Falcon 9 is landing on a constantly moving (but not in crazy amounts) barge with a stronger cross wind. if it stood there for second without falling and blowing up, it sounds like a landing to me. Is there apparently an official criteria for whether somethings landed or not? Last of all, is NS in the desert with skyscrapers? No? These are rockets not helicopters. I'm leaving before a glob of threadlock is applied.

Why are RD-180 engine nozzles painted white? [IMG]http://spacenews.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/11/RD180_NASA4X3_0.jpg[/IMG]

Hank Green at Scishow describes our solar system using only the ten hundred most used words. need I say more? Enjoy! :D [video=youtube;OdVh4LsH0mY]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OdVh4LsH0mY[/video]

Congrats to Blue Origin and their New Shepard team. What an awesome achievement. :D [SIZE=1]Now to become a hypocrite....[/SIZE] I don't think it's fair to compare New Shepard to the falcon 9. One's a suborbital rocket, while the other is strictly orbital. New Shepard is just peanut's compared to the Falcon 9. Sure, NS flies all the way to space and back, but so can any first stage with a simple capsule thrown on top, just without you know, the successful recovery part. The Falcon 9 is a first stage and is strictly a first stage, throwing up the weight of a second stage + payload high up in the atmosphere at a velocity of nearly 2.0km/s prior to deceleration and final touchdown on a [I]freaking[/I] barge in the middle of the [I]freaking[/I] ocean. Meanwhile, NS flies up to 100 km, separates it's capsule, falls back down and lands somewhere in Texas. It's still an impressive feat that it can perform a successful propulsive landing, but so could DC-X 30 years ago (except it did it without going suborbital). Besides Space X *technically* did it first, but on a [I]freaking[/I] barge, in the middle of the [I]freaking[/I] ocean, only to tip over and blow up after a second or two of being stationary. Blue Origin New Shepard landed in [I]Texas[/I], where everything is big, with it's wide open spaces and all. The only difference is that NS survived and is being examined as we speak. It's like Mars 3 and Viking 1. The latter was the first to [I]successfully land[/I] but it [I]died[/I] just 11 seconds after, while the former landed and was the first to [I]successfully operate[/I] on the surface and [I]continued doing so[/I] until somebody at mission control screwed the pooch. What is impressive though, is that they managed to do it on their second try. Although, it is only their second try. I wouldn't be surprised at all if one or two careens and kisses the earth at high velocity in the next few test flights. [COLOR="#E6E6FA"]Fret not my Space X fanboy brethren. This is like how the Ruskies Sputnik won the battle, but Merica's Apollo won the war. But this time our boots will be planted firmly on red ground.[/COLOR]

[quote name='Pawelk198604']Is that way American Explorer 1 satellite spinning before launch?[/QUOTE] Nope. Explorer 1's 2nd, 3rd, and 4th stages were spin stablized, in which their nozzles were pointed slightly to the left or right to induce rotation.

Congrats on the 1000 page milestone!

Found this gem on atomic rockets last night: This is Francisdrakex's concept of the Hermes from the Martian. Seen in the bottom right corner is the Mars Descent Vehicle. It's amazingly similar to your mars lander. Coincidence? I think yes!!

That lander-thing...