Favourite space craft/space programme

[lkj802]

just thought i would start a thread to see different peoples views on different space programmes and different individual rockets. feel free to share your thoughts.

lkj802

[99TheCreator]

I prefer Apollo over everything, I mean we did go to the moon with it.

[Nibb31]

I like them all, but I have a soft spot for Gemini because it was the first "real" versatile spacecraft, capable of rendez-vous and docking, high orbits, and long duration flight. There were also plans to make it reusable (Gemini-2 was actually the first capsule to be flown twice, the second time as Gemini B for the Air Force MOL project).

Apollo got all the glory, but Gemini was the slapped-together underdog that made all the accomplishments and technological milestones that were required for the Moon missions to be possible: knowledge acquisition, astronaut training, long duration flights, orbital manoeuvers, rendez-vous, advanced avionics, EVA, docking, technology demonstration... And all that knowledge was to be passed on to the Apollo program, which had actually started before Gemini.

Gemini was also the most "buck-rogers-starfighterish" real space craft ever built, with its twin cockpit, gullwing doors, ejection seats, and even its military pedigree. It was also designed to land like a plane if only they had finished the paraglider project in time...

I love Soyuz too. It's ugly, but its the safest and most versatile workhorse, capable of just about everything Man needs to do in space. Exactly what a spacecraft should be about.

Edited August 29, 2012 by Nibb31

[Commander Zoom]

I'm a big fan of Apollo, and I give props to Vostok and Mercury for being first. And the Shuttle was the spacecraft of my generation.

But my very favorite programme of all would have to be Voyager. Yes, it was unmanned (heresy!), but it gave us the whole outer system - worlds that until then had been mere blurry discs in even the best telescopes.

[szpw]

Definitely Apollo, but I also like Soyuz for it's reliability, and Gemini for the same reason as Nibb31.

The space shuttle was pretty neat too, but for some reason I prefer capsules more.

[KAO]

I'm torn between Cassini or Galileo

[BurningSky93]

God, it's hard to choose! Vostok had the first human spaceflight, but Gemini gave us EVAs and Apollo got us to the Moon. Then there's Voyager with Voyager 1 which will be the first man-made object to reach interstellar space and Voyager 2, so far the only man-made object to have visited the ice giants. I'm probably gonna have to be cliche and say Apollo. I'd say landing on the Moon has so far been one of humanity's greatest achievements along with the invention of mathematics, the written word and computers.

As for individual space craft, it's hard to get more iconic than the Space Shuttle.

Edited August 28, 2012 by BurningSky93

[Nikolai]

I like them all, but I have a soft spot for Gemini because it was the first "real" versatile spacecraft, capable of rendez-vous and docking, high orbits, and long duration flight.

Love your points, Nibb31, and I absoltuely agree. Have you heard of the plans to use Gemini to land on the Moon if Apollo didn't work out? The most ambitious involved using a Gemini in place of an Apollo CSM and having the Moonwalker land in what amounted to a rocket-powered lawn chair:

http://www.astronautix.com/craft/gemnilor.htm

... or we could have used a Gemini with a booster stapled onto it for landing:

http://www.astronautix.com/craft/gemander.htm

http://www.astronautix.com/articles/bygemoon.htm

It would seem that Gemini was the vehicle that really got creative juices flowing once it proved itself as a spacecraft, and for that reason, it will always hold a special place for me.

[ilikemoneygreen]

God, it's hard to choose! Vostok had the first human spaceflight, but Gemini gave us EVAs and Apollo got us to the Moon. Then there's Voyager with Voyager 1 which will be the first man-made object to reach interstellar space and Voyager 2, so far the only man-made object to have visited the ice giants. I'm probably gonna have to be cliche and say Apollo. I'd say landing on the Moon has so far been one of humanity's greatest achievements along with the invention of mathematics, the written word and computers.

As for individual space craft, it's hard to get more iconic than the Space Shuttle.

You sir explained that well. So well im going to just completely agree with you. One exception though, chocolate is pretty much on the same line as the written word and computers. probably higher.

[illectro]

The best spacecraft, designed, but never built (because it would fail spectacularly) - The British Interplanetary Society's Moon Rocket plan, from 1939, using solid-fuel rockets (because liquid fuel was still hugely experimental). Also included Arthur C Clark as one of the designers.

http://www.astronautix.com/craft/bisander.htm

[Alchemist]

Love your points, Nibb31, and I absoltuely agree. Have you heard of the plans to use Gemini to land on the Moon if Apollo didn't work out? The most ambitious involved using a Gemini in place of an Apollo CSM and having the Moonwalker land in what amounted to a rocket-powered lawn chair:

http://www.astronautix.com/craft/gemnilor.htm

... or we could have used a Gemini with a booster stapled onto it for landing:

http://www.astronautix.com/craft/gemander.htm

http://www.astronautix.com/articles/bygemoon.htm

It would seem that Gemini was the vehicle that really got creative juices flowing once it proved itself as a spacecraft, and for that reason, it will always hold a special place for me.

And I love Soyuz because of the same features. And N1-L3 LEO assembly version (3 N1 are used to bring there and fuel the booster then a 7K craft is launched by R7 and docks with that) would bring a Soyuz-based craft to the surface of the Moon.

[Nikolai]

And I love Soyuz because of the same features.

Excellent stuff. You've heard of "Apollo Applications", right? The idea was to brainstorm all kinds of uses Apollo could be put to. One of my favorites was replacing the LM in the Saturn V stack with a pack of consumables and using it to dock with an NEA. (Some of those NEAs require less delta-vee than a Moon landing!) That sort of thing really tweaks my own imagination.

[ashrutoraman]

Voyager 1, Cassini-Huygens, and Venera-9

[Bioman222]

Gemini

And Orion

To be honest, I did love the shuttle:

Edited August 31, 2012 by Bioman222

[Elios]

Shuttle it really could of been so much more if the bureaucrats hadnt mucked it up

the Shuttle was ment to haul stuff to a space station when that got pushed back the program just went to hell

then right when we get completed station they take it out of service? its like using a train to build a train station then once the station is done you rip up the track

the Orbiters airframe is about as good as it was going to get for what it was designed to do some of the systems needed some upgrades but that would be cheap

imo they should build 4 new airframes with new tech kept whats left of the fleet flying till they where done then retired the old ones

now we have no heavy lift and no way to get crew to the ISS other then the Russians and Soyuz is even older and its having issues now too the last few launches has major safety issues

[nibula]

All the failed american rockets when they started making them

[aapkw9]

One of my favorites is the X-20 Dyna-Soar shuttle.

[Carthaginian]

The Voyager probes.

Nothing that man has built has gone so far, taught us so much, or worked so long after the warranty went out.

[Nibb31]

Shuttle it really could of been so much more if the bureaucrats hadnt mucked it up

The shuttle was a beautiful and inspiring maching. However, it was a rather poor spacecraft with too many design compromises and fundamental flaws, which made it impractical, dangerous and economically unsustainable.

Edited August 31, 2012 by Nibb31

[Werwolf]

Anything that involved the Saturn V rockets. I freaking loooooveee the Saturn V... drool

[nhnifong]

Anything that involved the Saturn V rockets. I freaking loooooveee the Saturn V... drool

Yeah the Saturn Vs were cool. My grandad worked on the rocket propelled swining arm the released from the rocket on the launchpad, so he got to walk around the tower while it was on the pad.... :0

[nhnifong]

Favorite program? The current Google Lunar X Prize. There are some really cool rover designs showing up, including one that is spherical, and one that's only a few inches tall.

[Rickenbacker]

Gemini for sure! That program established what could and could not be done in space, proved that docking was feasible and so much more. Plus the ship had the coolest gullwing doors in the entire space program. Do you think the shuttle would have been canceled if it had had gullwing doors? I think not!

Oh yeah, and Apollo Applications program had some neat stuff too. How about Skylab, or that crazy project to send two guys on a one-year flyby of Mars in a fuel tank? I love those dreams, although most of them never came to fruition.

[Felix]

Shuttle it really could of been so much more if the bureaucrats hadnt mucked it up

the Shuttle was ment to haul stuff to a space station when that got pushed back the program just went to hell

then right when we get completed station they take it out of service? its like using a train to build a train station then once the station is done you rip up the track

the Orbiters airframe is about as good as it was going to get for what it was designed to do some of the systems needed some upgrades but that would be cheap

imo they should build 4 new airframes with new tech kept whats left of the fleet flying till they where done then retired the old ones

now we have no heavy lift and no way to get crew to the ISS other then the Russians and Soyuz is even older and its having issues now too the last few launches has major safety issues

I love the space shuttle, and your post is driving me insane, I have to point out a few things

1. the space shuttle program was actually extended a few years, rather than being scrapped early

2. Soyuz can do all we really would need for the space shuttles, heavy lifting is mostly unnecessary now. and hey DRAGON HEAVY.

3. It was built before the reforms to the the safety requirements of spacecraft, and is quite dangerous.

Sorry if I sounded rude. /rant off

[Elios]

not rude but i dont like that that US is hitching rides just doesnt sit with me

but the point of the shuttle was to well shuttle stuff to and from a space station seems wrong to kill it right when its really useful life would be getting started

shuttle is pretty safe really the foam issue only came put when the eco nuts made them change foam types on the ET

http://ocw.mit.edu/courses/aeronautics-and-astronautics/16-885j-aircraft-systems-engineering-fall-2005/

watch the videos here youll learn more about the shuttle then you ever thought

the SSMEs are the safest engines ever built

buts 2012 we shouldnt have throw way most of a rocket just to get to leo

Shuttle makes sense if you make lots of launches if it was flown like it was designed to be not with NASA every thing must work

most of the systems on it where fail-op, fail-op, fail-op, fail safe main computer comes to mind were it was designed to fly with as few as 2 out of the 4 running

NASA insisted on always having all 4 running

heavy lifting is still needed if you want to do more things like Hubble

again why throw away stuff like that when you can keep upgrading it

Hubble proved this

Shuttle also has one thing that no other space craft can do thats bring back payloads

imo this alone is reason to keep it flying

Edited August 31, 2012 by Elios