hugix

Didn't broke down. The Russians thought the simpler docking system was a great way to save money. The money was almost none and a space station was the last thing the country could use. They got lucky other country's had interest in placing astronauts on the station so there was a little bit of money to run the program on. If the USA finished the shuttle earlier and used it to refurbish the Skylab things would have been completely different for the Russian space program. this MIR would have been abandoned, the Soyuz would stop because there would be no more targets to fly to. I know I am over simplifying things, but people saying "Well the USA rely on the Russians to get them to space" are simplifying even more

Not quite true, the collision that destroyed Spektr module was because the Russians decided to test a new docking system that was less expensive than the KURS system (KURS is still in use on the ISS). It is true that there was an American aboard the MIR during the collision but the Russians didn't tell him that they where testing the docking system. Must have been quite the scare. without NASA / the space shuttle the MIR would be abandoned and left in orbit after the regime change in the USSR / Russia. But those where different times. Nowadays I see the space agencies as a big family that decided to sell the Jeep and keep the little Asian family car in order to save money.

The space station part, the reverse is also true about MIR. The only reason MIR got the funding it needed was because Americans helped funding it (In exchange that astronauts could board the station and do science). If it weren't for the USA the MIR would have been a lot worse.

That one was ESA. It hitched a ride on Cassini.

Woke up filled with energy and a feeling to work on all things I had planned, work, study, some cleaning. Woke up early, watched some news and everything was good. Untill I headed downstairs. Found the cat pissing on one of the kitchen counters, missed my train due to cleaning that up. Found out that my dad took my sandwiches I left in the fridge. and to make my day complete I got a huge headache. First time in 2 years I took pain relievers . Stayed in bed all day with my head exploding.

Nuclear ion cannon sounds like technobabble to me.

Found this on the facebook of M1 http://ablogaboutnothinginparticular.com/?p=1995

It does however, contain aliens.

I got bored after the first 2 episodes of Big brother. And these contestants where chosen because of their entertainment (Read : low Iq) value. Fun fact. One of the first sponsors of Mars one is Paul Römer, one of the creators of Big brother.

See my sig People generally hate science or science like subjects. I bet that for every one person you know that also enjoys KSP there are ten that thinks the game is to difficult. (Recently I started with Orbiter and this number increased tenfold). They do not grasp the basics of orbital mechanics and think spaceflight is like Star Wars. Luckily for us space geeks orbital mechanics is only a matter of velocity distance and energy. Chemistry is waaayyyyy harder. It has lots of fancy titles. The Periodic table looks like it is really hard (yet half my class can name all 150 pokemon...). This is where the problem starts. People know that monoxide is poisonous. So when you name a substance like DHMO. Which contains the dangerous word monoxide people tend to get scared. "Monoxide can kill. I learned that in school!" It is not just something in chemistry. I noticed it in my study. I am a computer network engineer and sometimes I meet people who are afraid of Wi-Fi and other wireless networks (Like GPS, GSM, UMTS). The main reason people are afraid of it is because devices using wireless tech are radiating. And radiation causes cancer. We all knw that since 1986. Yet these people do not realise that what a Wi-Fi antenna is radiating isn't the same radiation as Uranium produces. (Note : the WHO has yet to find evidence that electronic radiation is harmful to us humans. I agree with this. I'm not saying it isn't dangerous, I'm saying that as far as I'm concerned we haven't found proof it is dangerus). The bad thing about this is how how it affects us. this general ignorance about subjects that we deal with every day . (I'm 40% DHMO!) we are all made out of water, yet do not know out of what compounds it is made. Begin this summer I read an article of this going completely wrong. At this pool party that Jagermeister hosted some people came up with an cool idea. Pouring Liquid nitrogen onto the pool to create that cool fog effect liquid nitrogen has on room temperature. what happened was that the Nitrogen floated on the water and pushed all the breathable air to the sides. So the people INSIDE the pool where starving for fresh air. This simple not knowing how basic chemistry works resulted in 9 people getting hospitalized, at least two in a coma (Link here. Be warned it contains video footage of the incident. Can be shocking)

To be fair, the only place in LEO is the ISS. Which is more NASA than Roskosmos...

You are thinking way to big, bands and artists also make money by merchandising their albums and T-shirts and what not on a larger scale than Mars-one does. and all though there is lots of money in something like Lady Gaga or Metallica. Still it won't be able to fund such a project as a suborbital flight design. Hell Even Richard Branson has troubles pulling it of.

What people who complain about the fact that the US has no manned launcher forget is that there currently only is one location to fly to. the ISS currently is the only destiny for manned spaceflight. And even better. most of the components are from the USA (7 out of the 11 pressurized modules are US). So that one is a draw. A bigger aspect of space exploration is done by robots. That one is won by the USA. The Mars rovers, interplanetary orbiters like Cassini and MESSENGER. DAWN, etc... a lot of exploration is done by the USA or is im co operation with the USA (Like the Huygens probe). But the real winner is everyone who makes money out of it. Satellites are a every day part of our lives. GPS, weather, communication. these need to be build and launched. This is a market. If you can make money out of space flight. You've won.

With a simple set of instructions you can create complex structures. A computer can only count to 1 (binary) yet it is capable of producing KSP. Given that you count enough times to 1 (or sometimes 0). Our brains kinda work the same way. It sends signals between neurons but does this a lot of times per second. This creates a very complex structure that we experience as conciousness. If you give enough simple instructions on something it can produce something complex. We all know how a brick work, yet building a house isn't something we all can do. The same is with our brain. We know the instructions yet cannot compass the amount of them a second.

You should google to see if there is a model recketry club in your area / country. These groups organize come together about once a month during the summer or wind still days and fly rockets. They inform he local government and bring the equipment you need. Like a electric starter.

Well not exactly. One of the main things with probes is that once you send them. You are stuck in that technology. You cannot update the probe. For hackers it is far to difficult / time consuming to collect these devices. Also you would need very large and expensive antenna's to send data. And there is another drawback to encryption. Read this article on STS 27 : http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/STS-27

I'm not sure what your assignment is but about a year ago I did a research project on X-band communication (LONGGGGG range communication it is the communication form Earth to deep space probes). If it has to be about encryption you could do it on the Enigma. The story of Bletchley park is just as exiting as Apollo 11. (If you love that kinda stuff)

During the space race most communication wasn't encrypted. and why should you? Encryption can be a tedious process and requires more computing power. During the Apollo 11 descent to the Moon the computer started spewing out 1202 / 1201 alarms which meant that the computer was skipping non critical tasks because the CPU was being overloaded with calculations. There have been a few space shuttle missions which where encrypted because it was in contract with the DOD.

Sure we'll go back. The math ain't that hard. Jules Verne even did it! It is an interesting place. It is farther away than the other side of the Earth. Yet we can see it! Humans on the moon is a beautiful thing. We like spending cash on beautiful things. And we should stop asking what it will bring us in advancement. Being on the moon and doing more than just surviving creates a whole lot of challenges which can be solved by creative thinking. And that creative thinking will solve other Earthly problems in due time. As an example. A Mars Entry is fully automated. This requires a incredible complex piece of software to control the craft. the creativeness in this piece of code can be re used in other auto pilots. You know like those in planes. Those things we use to go on vacation. Because of Curiosity I'll fly a little bit safer to my next holiday . Who would have guessed?

Forgetting parachutes. Again. Noticed during Re entry...

The universe is created s we could ask why it has been created.

Lift-off; WHEEEEEEHHH; KPRGGGHHSSSSJJHGGRRRGHHH

I loved those! especially the one on the computer. Every one was giving 110% to achieve Kennedys dream except for the whiny programmers.

Most of the satellites being launched go into an Earth orbit albeit LEO or geosynchronous. And since technology has the tendency to become smaller as time progresses I reckon the need for super heavy launchers will be sparse in the future. It might be better to develop a launcher that is cheap and can send multiple lightweight payloads in orbit. I think the Antares rocket has a bigger market then a Falcon nine super heavy.

As a kid I always had a interest in space exploration. I loved the cool Hubble pictures or seeing a space shuttle launch. It was so majestic. But when I started studying I found more interesting things (Music, girls and my study). When I saw some news bulletin that was space related I would read it and think about it. About three years ago I had to write some research assignment. I did mine about distributed computing (with SETI@home as my main example). And noticed that my fellow IT students weren't impressed by the massive computation power. So in my next research I went the other way. I researched the computing power that the Apollo program had. It was then that my passion for space re-ignited. My fellow students still weren't impressed. But this time I could not care. I started reading books on space again. But this time about the American manned programs. My dad had some books and I found a couple of books in the local thrift shop. Watched documentaries on space exploration. And that great mini series starring Mark Harmon. (From the Earth to the moon I believe). Then I found a topic on KSP on a guitar forum and started playing it. (.16 was out then). It helped me grasp a lot of concepts of the manoeuvres that I read about.