tater Posted February 17, 2022 Share Posted February 17, 2022 Better late than never: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tater Posted February 18, 2022 Share Posted February 18, 2022 There was apparently some statement that Europe should have it's own human launch capability... Wonder where they would land? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Beccab Posted February 18, 2022 Share Posted February 18, 2022 (edited) 2 minutes ago, tater said: There was apparently some statement that Europe should have it's own human launch capability... Wonder where they would land? As an italian, why? I can understand the benefits of an independent launch capability in case the foreign ones are unavailable, but buying Soyuzes and launching them from Kourou completely defeats the purpose Not that I think Europe will ever launch humans on their own in the next decade, I know that won't happen Edited February 18, 2022 by Beccab Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tater Posted February 18, 2022 Share Posted February 18, 2022 https://www.teslarati.com/esa-astronauts-crewed-european-spacecraft-petition/ They said that, Russia immediately responded. As a stop-gap, seems not unreasonable if they want their own capability sooner. Alternately, they could use Soyuz for getting to LEO, and use Ariane to put a larger vehicle up there. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SunlitZelkova Posted February 19, 2022 Share Posted February 19, 2022 I think this will fail. Didn't ESA actually get parts of its budget reduced/cut just a year or two ago? Astronauts, scientists, engineers, or groups of all of them have tried to put forward space program proposals to their governments in the past. There were a number of government committees comprised of former astronauts, scientists, engineers, and former NASA management people in the 80s in the United States that "recommended" or "advocated" for more investment in space exploration, including a return to the Moon and/or an expedition to Mars. They had all of the fluff about how it would benefit Earth (and "political leadership"), yet their proposals were ignored- despite the US (according to the history I was taught) being in a period of economic prosperity! The reasons for developing independent European crew transport capability listed seem to be basically identical to that of Hermes in the late 70s or 80s. The only instance I could see this coming to fruition is if ESA's members have interest in maintaining their own independent presence in LEO after the ISS. IIRC, ESA has made no statements regarding its stance on Axiom. If they build their own small space station they will certainly need their own spacecraft to reach it. Or, if the US and China destroy each other in a nuclear war, then ESA will be forced to start its own crewed space program if it doesn't want in on the ROSS. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JoeSchmuckatelli Posted February 19, 2022 Share Posted February 19, 2022 (edited) 15 hours ago, SunlitZelkova said: ESA's members have interest ESA members spend too much on social support. They don't have anything else to spare. Retracted Edited February 19, 2022 by JoeSchmuckatelli Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RCgothic Posted February 19, 2022 Share Posted February 19, 2022 6 hours ago, JoeSchmuckatelli said: ESA members spend too much on social support. They don't have anything else to spare. This is not the case. There's just been little incentive to have an independent crewed capability beyond putting work towards strategic industries. With Russia behaving in a hostile manner in other matters that may provide enough incentive to develop a separate capability. Or it may not. In any case I don't think buying Russian vehicles would addresses the independence issue. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JoeSchmuckatelli Posted February 19, 2022 Share Posted February 19, 2022 5 hours ago, RCgothic said: This is not the case Upon reflection, I agree and retract my statement. Was intended to be snarky-funny but fails. Mea culpa Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
insert_name Posted February 19, 2022 Author Share Posted February 19, 2022 The president of france has requested that ESA assemble a "high-level advisory group" composed primarily of "non space experts" to "look at various aspects of society" and "come up with more specific European targets and ambitions for manned space travel". In other words, he wants to establish a committee to develop future manned spaceflight related committees. https://spacenews.com/esa-to-set-up-committee-to-study-human-space-exploration-options/ Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SunlitZelkova Posted February 20, 2022 Share Posted February 20, 2022 18 hours ago, insert_name said: In other words, he wants to establish a committee to develop future manned spaceflight related committees. This is not what appears to be happening based on that article. It's just a committee creating some preliminary concepts. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tater Posted February 20, 2022 Share Posted February 20, 2022 That Hermes idea was pretty cool. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tater Posted June 1, 2022 Share Posted June 1, 2022 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Beccab Posted June 13, 2022 Share Posted June 13, 2022 As expected Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SunlitZelkova Posted June 16, 2022 Share Posted June 16, 2022 HERMES IS BACK BABY And is that an electric space tug I spy? On a more serious note, it is just a “concept”, and likely exists alongside a semi-reusable (Orion) or Dragon-style capsule somewhere. But who knows? If DreamChaser is going to be a thing, why not new Hermes? Especially if new Hermes might not require throwing away anything, unlike a capsule’s service module. On an even more serious note, I wonder how realistic these “visions” are. Hermes died amidst economic troubles in the early 90s and the convenient appearance of Russia as a partner. The latter could arguably have been replaced by SpaceX while the situation isn’t exactly peachy with the former. It will depend on just how far this “being a peer competitor with other large nations” goes, I suppose. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tater Posted June 16, 2022 Share Posted June 16, 2022 18 minutes ago, SunlitZelkova said: On a more serious note, it is just a “concept”, and likely exists alongside a semi-reusable (Orion) or Dragon-style capsule somewhere. Actually, the boosters are Falcon 9 clones: So boosters reusable, too. I'm all-in for ESA becoming a peer organization to NASA instead of poor stepchild. That will grossly increase what is possible. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tater Posted June 22, 2022 Share Posted June 22, 2022 Ariane 5 launch this afternoon I guess: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tater Posted June 22, 2022 Share Posted June 22, 2022 I came back to my computer after an hour expecting this to already have happened, and it's still just yammering heads. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tater Posted June 22, 2022 Share Posted June 22, 2022 Now some sort of delay. Note to aspiring rocket companies, watch Arianespace launch coverage and do the exact opposite. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tater Posted June 22, 2022 Share Posted June 22, 2022 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tater Posted June 27, 2022 Share Posted June 27, 2022 Wonder if they build a fancy new set to host the launch coverage from so no one actually gets to see the new rocket? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wumpus Posted June 27, 2022 Share Posted June 27, 2022 On 2/18/2022 at 10:53 PM, JoeSchmuckatelli said: ESA members spend too much on social support. They don't have anything else to spare. Retracted India spends half of what France (just France*) spends on space. ESA seems to have all the pork of issues "old space". Granted, India hasn't stepped up to crewed flight, but I wouldn't be surprised if they do before the ESA isn't still having to buy flights from others. * source, one the the graphics in this sub-forum. Possibly the Chinese thread. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JoeSchmuckatelli Posted June 27, 2022 Share Posted June 27, 2022 I often dither with myself about whether we're on the cusp of an explosion of space exploitation or just a moderate shift from government run to privatized space with no real other change than the associated efficiency. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Minmus Taster Posted July 13, 2022 Share Posted July 13, 2022 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RCgothic Posted August 12, 2022 Share Posted August 12, 2022 Goes here as well I guess Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rutabaga22 Posted September 1, 2022 Share Posted September 1, 2022 Why does the ariane V have those funky tiles? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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