Kryten

EoM being rubbish isn't really preventable though, unless we start fitting these mission with self-destruct devices. Spirit got stuck in some sand, the battery on Pathfinder went through too many charge cycles and broke, Yutu had a small rock break a wire, Chandrayaan overheated, et.c.

That's true up to a point, but what you're seeing here is Iran moving past that point and forming two distinct industries. Simorgh is too large to be a practical weapon system, and the ballistic missile program has moved onto solid-fuel systems like Sejil.

Well it's painted, so it's probably the engineering model. Last two flight Safirs were unpainted.

I don't suppose there are any close shots of the Safir that was in the same room? As it is I can't tell if it's a flight model (which would imply another flight soon) or if they just put in a mockup of it for comparison purposes.

This has nothing to do with launches, the issue is replacing hydrazine and derivatives as propellant in satellite and small upper-stage thrusters. The actual volumes involved are tiny, and the direct cost would be lost in the noise.

Isn't Simorgh basically a Persian dragon anyway? With the way the Iranian space programme scheduling tends to work, sometime between now and doomsday. Their last launch was 'imminent' for over two years, and that was with the same rocket model as the launch before.

Handling a material as toxic as hydrazine or it's derivatives isn't exactly cheap. Just take a look at the suits they need to fuel a sat with the stuff; http://www.arianespace.com/images/missionup-dates/2015/1265-lg.jpg

Do you believe in genetic mutations, that can have (even if infrequently) positive effects?

The answer to the question in the OP is simply; yes, if given the right environment. Selection pressures are a function of the environment, not an independent thing.

It sounds like a pile of BS to me. Even if we assume the transport system is technically feasible and hits the cost targets, you have a few hundred people being dumped somewhere where you can't even breathe the air. Setting up the infrastructure required to have an acceptable lifestyle, especially stuff like 'excellent healthcare', would take a huge amount of effort and ISRU tech far beyond anything we have today, and automated and miniaturised manufacturing tech far beyond what we have today, et.c. et.c.

That's exactly what we would expect, but the only neutron star planets we know of (these ones) are small, close, and have low eccentricity.

I can see how you would believe he intends to do it, but... there's no reason to believe any significant number of people even want to do it, or that the $500,000 figure is any less ludicrous than it looks. It looks far more like a religious endeavour than anything approaching a business.

Do you people actually believe this stuff? It gets hard to tell sometimes.

And, if you're comparing to ULA, you have to take into account that they have a very low R&D budget most of the time, as they're a joint venture and the parent companies take out most of the profit.

Do you still have the package, or anything else that might have a batch number? That really sounds like something the Estes company ought to be made aware of.

Space is a lot bigger than just launches, that's something a lot of people here could do with keeping in mind.

With the size they seem to be aiming for with the larger gantry, suborbital flights a la redstone-mercury would be easy, and something like atlas-mercury wouldn't be far off. If you're implying that they're producing gigantic pad-based rockets as missiles, then that's a bunch of nonsense; Unha is too unwieldily to be a practical weapon already. Despite what Fox might tell you, the DPRK is a nation with plenty of priorities that aren't military, and they do in fact have programmes that aren't designed to threaten The Land Of The Free And Home Of The Brave.

Mars One had less than 3000 applicants, at least to the point of actually handing over the application fee; and that was at most 75 US dollars (varying by country). So that business model of yours looks just a tad shaky.

The only modules the Russians are considering keeping are ones that haven't been launched yet (UM, Nauka et.c.). They had enough trouble with Mir, they don't want to be dependent on hardware that at that point would be outright decrepit.

Here's a good general overview; http://www.b14643.de/Spacerockets/Diverse/Atlas_MA-drive-system/index.htm all Atlases after the experimental Atlas-A (X-11) until Atlas III (introduced RD-180) used the staged engine.

Atlas (at least the orbital versions) was still staged, it dropped a pair of boost engines.

Roughly the same for most operators, the satellite operation and manufacturing industries are much more lucrative than launch in general: the launch business is mostly to stimulate the sat business.

To be fair every rocket on the market today is less than that price, with the sole exception of Delta IV Heavy.

Until it disintegrated, which likely wouldn't take too long.

That would be difficult, pretty much pointless, and wouldn't exactly help the orbital debris situation.