Reddragon

You are somewhat right and I don't want to start a political debate but your economy is not that much in tatters any more. The defense budget has gone down and NASA actually got a raise in 2014.

Hopefully everyone agrees that NASA needs more funding for the Commercial Crew Program. I hope the Europa mission gets the green light too.

I didn't know that, sorry.

You could have just written the first post yourself like 'reserved for later use' or something and edit it later.

I like where this is going. Nice textures on the Saturn V!

Oh, it's that! I mixed the two, sorry. Now the "post mission program in June" makes sense to me. I doubt that has enough delta V to go to Mars but if it does I'd say the red planet is the best option. It really depends on it's equipment.

I think the next transfer window opens next year (early summer I guess). As far as I know no spacecraft has ever left lunar orbit for Mars. Isn't Chang'e 5-T1 a sample lunar return mission?

That might be true even though it would be odd for the Chinese. Thanks for that info!

Except one is made and controlled by an official state-run space agency and the other is a company trying to prove it's abilities for another state run agency and representatives. But you might still be right.

Sending supplies to the supply spacecraft? Perfect!

Now available for VHS.

It's interesting, I didn't know that. Well, future programs are aiming for longer stays on the moon. ESA on the other hand has a cool concept for '3D printing' a base but that's probably still 20-30 years away. Cool technologies are developing for lunar operations that's for sure.

That Delta II is awesome!

From what I remember a single module laboratory on the moon was mentioned as a possibility for the SLS program as a possible long duration mission in the late 20's early 30's. It's still possible and would make sense but the real question is the lander and it's costs. Boeing proposed a reusable lander for such tasks but all of these are just concepts.

Just for fun, I quote a random Youtube comment i remember from years ago: 'Why don't we just land the ISS on the Moon????!!!!!! Easiest way to have a moonbase!!!!!'

It's interesting because Xi proposed more before. I still hope it will change over time. It would be one of the best ways to keep the hi-tech industry at large.

I think at some point we will definitely see a larger boost for the CNSA budget. Even though the economic growth is slowing down in China, that doesn't mean they don't have the resources to raise it drastically over the upcoming years. Since the Chinese are very much committed towards manned exploration and since it's clear that a new era is starting in space with new players stepping in, they surely want to be a step ahead of most of them and other nations.

I have the same issue. Thee were scaling issues after the .25 update, it's probably that.

What everybody mentioned before. During Apollo almost the entire NASA budget went into that single program, and that amount of money was enormous. In 1966 NASA got about 6 billion '1966 dollars' (!), today they get about 17 and only roughly 2.5 goes to the SLS/Orion development.

SLS is meant to have liquid boosters powered by the F-1B I believe. That's for a 150-160mt to LEO version. Though I don't know what it will be used for.

I think if it really was only about jobs, cancelling it is the least they would want. If the government really wants to keep it's old NASA contractors busy which also creates jobs then running the program throughout years is exactly what they need. Also the tools for continuous production are almost all ready. I'm not saying cancelling it isn't possible after but it wouldn't doesn't make too much sense.

Probably for the proper inner Van Allen belt encounter.

You're right! Now they said it again.

I wonder what could be the minimum wind speed that triggers the hold.

I think it was a KSP joke.