What if you were given your country's space program?

[Skyler4856]

Well, Australia pretty much officially doesn't have a space program atm. But with 1% of the budget that'll give me ~3.5 bill to get stuff off the ground (probably kill the economy in the process, but SCIENCE!) I'd definitely start off by getting some Aussie-owned and run satellites into orbit, maybe use SpaceX as a launch-provider. Nothing spectacular, just the usual weather-sats, comms, etc, just a bit humiliating that we're still piggybacking on our allies' equipment even though we're the 12th richest nation!We had to ask China to borrow one to monitor bush fires...I mean, no offence to China but, really? After that maybe see if we could start getting our own science going. I'm not so sure if we'd have the weight to produce our own launcher, but I'd love to give it a shot. I read somewhere that the total development cost for the Dragon was 390 million or something (found it! http://www.parabolicarc.com/2011/05/31/nasa-analysis-falcon-9-cheaper-traditional-approach/ :3) so maybe it's feasible. I'd also definitely lease some of Bigelow's stations, just because I think its time they got some love, and it would definitely shake things up if AUSTRALIA had astronauts working on a space station. Maybe give some of the bigger boys a kick in the rear to get their act together, not mentioning any names.

Other than that, try to put something on the moon for national pride, try to do some Antarctic research considering we're meant to administer a fair chunk of it, and see if we can do some kind of partnership with other friendly countries, almost ESA style to help with funding. At 1% of their budget that'll be an extra cool 500 mil, or maybe a few more launches in a year - plus you know, international collaboration for the betterment of mankind and all that

OSA Oceanic Space agency

[Nibb31]

Id dump all my money into R&D and finding a easier cheaper way into orbit.

Things i would look at:

Restart NERVA and getting the engine up and working

Continue SKylon research

Skylon is still 15 years away, at least, with no guarantees that it will work.

Orbital airships

LOLWUT?

Look into launch loops and space evelvators

Launch loops are a no go. Space elevators are way too far in the future.

Reopen project orion to see if it can be done safely given 2013 tec. This would be research ONLY until it can be proven safe.

The treaties on atmospheric testing are still in place.

Look at 100% fusion nuclear propulsion

Science fiction.

There's no money (and no real purpose) for any of this. So basically, you would have to suspend all current operations, push thousands of workers into unemployment, and potentially lose decades of experience of actually flying spacecraft, just to fuel your pipe dreams of nuclear rockets.

[Umlüx]

what would i do with austrias space programm..? (yes austria, the one without the kangaroos )

first step: make one

[crazyewok]

Skylon is still 15 years away, at least, with no guarantees that it will work.

So? That what RESEARCH IS FOR!

LOLWUT?

Basically a huge weather balloon with a rocket on it. I cant be bothered to do research for you.

Launch loops are a no go. Space elevators are way too far in the future.

Why are launch loops a no go? You like to say things are a NO but you fail to give reasons or at least scientific reasons not just based on you own narrow and cynical opinion. Anyway its what RESEARCH is for.

The treaties on atmospheric testing are still in place.

Hence the words RESEARCH ONLY. There no ban on research and if a safe a viable method can be made then I sure the treaty could be amended. Its written by men so could be changed by men. Treaty's get changed all the time.

Science fiction.

Why? Allot of progress has been made in recent years into fusion. It not impossible, at least on paper. Hence why RESERACH should be done. Would it work or not? I dunno that's what RESERACH is for!

There's no money (and no real purpose) for any of this. So basically, you would have to suspend all current operations, push thousands of workers into unemployment, and potentially lose decades of experience of actually flying spacecraft, just to fuel your pipe dreams of nuclear rockets.

Only half of my goals were nuclear and yes I would suspend all current operations. No real purpose? how about reducing the cost of earth to orbit by about at least half? Which skylon could do. Why spend 100's of millions putting stuff into orbit now when I could wait 10-15 years (or less if I dump some real money into it) and put things in orbit for 50 million or even much much less if it lives up to its hype? And nuclear rockets are not a "pipe" dream. If you want to actually move to anywhere beyond the moon in a reasonable time frame you have to face up and accept we need to go nuclear even if its has to built in orbit, Chem rockets just wont cut it at least for long range manned missions.

I don't get your aversion to even research of alternatives to chem rockets? Do you love chem rockets so much or are you so scared of change you will oppose any research?

Its cynical closed minded people l that hold Science back. Rather than look at things and be willing to at least research the feasibility. You immediately look at things with your own narrow view point and think NO! don't bother. If the world was run by people like you we would all be living in caves and throwing sticks about because every new idea would be a NO!

If us in the biology sector were so rigid in thinking and closed minded you still be using leeches and mercury.

And another thing. I hear you cry "science fiction" alot. Well alot of stuff we take for granteed today was once considerd science fiction. Mobile phones, touch pads, computer tablets ect were all once science fiction. If everyone had gone by your world view the makers of the first mobile phones would have abandoned the idea cause it was in "star trek". If a idea obeys the laws of physics then its a valid idea until research can prove it isn't.

Edited December 27, 2013 by crazyewok

[maccollo]

what would i do with austrias space programm..? (yes austria, the one without the kangaroos )

first step: make one

Austria is a member state of ESA, contributing about 1.5% of the 5.5 billion dollar budget.

[Spartan125]

Give Skylon a boost.

[crazyewok]

Give Skylon a boost.

Exactly. Even at worst it would cut Earth to orbit costs in half but could very well take the cost down by maginitudes. For a near term project (IE less than 20 years) it worth the money spent.

[Hailstorm]

First, some background: I'm from Turkey. My country does not have a well-defined, official space program, nor does it have the funds for it. Turkey has "launched" several communications & observation satellites over the last 15 years, at least two of which were indigenously developed. It, however, does not have an indigenous launch vehicle or a launch site. Launches were bought from Russia, France or China. Turkey has, however, a solid defense & arms industry, which can be utilized in building a launch vehicle. In fact, a development program has already been started last year.

If I were tasked to lead Turkey's space program, however, I would suspend domestic launch vehicle development. Funds are needed elsewhere, and developing what is basically a ballistic missile can upset Turkey's already strained relations with its neighbors. Instead, I would focus on the following:

- Increasing know-how in both manned & unmanned programs. I would immediately push for full membership into ESA, and issue grants for R&D. I would get people into ESA exploration programs, even if only as observers.

- Developing a capacity where Turkey can replace most of its "store-bought" communication satellites with indigenous variants. In a realistic scenario, this would take approximately 10 years. I would keep buying launches from other countries, but gradually shift towards commercial entities (SpaceX, OSC, etc.)

Now, about manned missions... Right now, it seems so far-fetched that the very concept of "Turks in Space" is considered laughing stock. That wouldn't change for quite a while, even under me I would, however, push towards getting at least one Turk up to the ISS before it retires. That means buying a seat on the Soyuz and that means getting back along with the Russians, but that's the Foreign Ministry's job. It would be a one-time thing, but I would hype it up, "Mercury Seven" style. Cover it with a reality show, make the networks pay for the seat. It would stifle the laughter, stroke the national pride and help raise funds for the unmanned stuff. That, too, can be done in about 10 years.

So, that covers the first 10 years. In the following 10-20 years, my objectives would be (in no particular order)

- More and more satellites

- Designing/building satellites for other countries

- Getting people to *work* on ESA exploration programs

- Designing/building some part of an ESA/NASA/commercial spacecraft

- Buying manned flights from commercial providers, at some point launching the first "all-Turkish" crew

- Designing/building some part of the ISS successor

[The Jedi Master]

USA!

Man on Mars as soon as possible,work with the ESA to get Skylon done faster, restart work on the Freedom space station, moon base.

Also, get the space shuttle back.

[Helix935]

build some space stations, make a better space shuttle, use Hyperloop as a means to get sats into orbit for cheap by say a cannon

(i'm US BTW)

[Coldfinger008]

I´m from germany, so obviously i´d add a brewery module to the ISS:

SPACE BEER! XD

[Galacticruler]

NASA is in too porr shape, with too low a budget to do anything with.

if anything, I'd sell all the assets and liquidate the structures.

then I'd donate anything left over to other nations.

I´m from germany, so obviously i´d add a brewery module to the ISS:

SPACE BEER! XD

Zero G beer would be horrible.

gravity is a needed thing in brewing alcohol, otherwise you get weird bits of whatever you made it from in it.(also, I doubt the yeasts would live long enough.)

Edited December 28, 2013 by Galacticruler

[Tw1]

Travel out to Woomera and do some work on the museum...

I doubt Australia will be doing anything space program-y in the near future.

We've got lots of good astronomy going on though.

[peadar1987]

Irish...

So I'd contribute far more to the ESA. And build a state-of-the-art launch centre on the Fastnet Rock

[Voidryder]

Well first I would fire everybody at NASA except maybe for those few souls who do the missions and future vehicles animations. Damn fine animations. Makes you almost believe the USA is serious about manned space exploration.

Second I would hire the best damn SFX people from around the globe.

And then we would bombard Youtube with top of the line videos of spectacular achievements, one a month, maybe one a week! Space Stations, Asteroid Mining, Space Colonies, STAR DRIVES!!!

China sends a rover to the Moon?

HA! NASAX (the added “X†makes it cutting edge don’t ya think?) will have real video of our already in-place 16 Astronaut lunar mining complex by that weekend.

India sends a probe to Mars.

Pshaw! NASAX will show you real live colonists living on a TERRAFORMED Mars cooking real Martian T-Rex steaks (we cloned them too) on their backyard BBQ grills.

And don’t think I’m leaving out the KSP Modding Community. No sirre! Today’s modders are Tomorrow’s rocket designers and mission planners.

Life on Europa! Windsurfing in Jupiter's upper atmosphere! Captain Zapp Brannigan as first man on Nibiru! It's all possible and true!

So sit back, buckle up and enjoy Tomorrow's space program today on Youtube! The Future is a mere hand-wave away.

NASAX

Our Motto: “Don’t believe us? We got video.â€Â

[Meta]

I would put a man on the moon again.. Not so much for scientific value, but to get people more interested. We've lost the good ole' space morale that we once had.

And I would of course hire Elon Musk and essentially buy out SpaceX for their technology. They're able to send a rocket for only USD$ 56 million.

[3_bit]

Being American, I'd bring back the Constellation project and ultimately make a self-sufficient Moon colony, both a valuable asset for pride and nationalism but also necessary for future missions. Launching rockets from Earth is extremely expensive, but now if we would gather ores from the Moon, even via automated robots, and build rockets, it would be an investment that would pay for itself quickly. The Moon should be what all our eyes are set on, not Mars. Besides, Helium 3 is there, which is a valuable commodity on it's own.

[Wormhol3]

American. Start on bringing back the space shuttle concept by working with Virgin Galactic, Rent/Buy the Dragon launch system from SpaceX, and in 5 - 10 years have America a major player in space again. (Maybe do some Kerbal things if the budget allows ;D)

[Palladium Corp]

Hmmm... I would probably keep the ISS going for another decade, but I would probably start thinking about an orbital resupply depot.

If we could develop low cost, reliable launch vehicles with a large amount of delta-V, then keeping an orbital re-fuelling station/material storage facility in MEO or GEO should be feasible.

I would also look into materials research, including in orbit, possibly another specialised ISS module for this purpose. Also some facility to produce these new materials. I would also look into space based shipyards, to create an orbital transporter, possibly to help save on delta-V requirements of STO vessels even further.

If this is feasible, then it would be constructed using new materials discovered and produced in orbit. I would then construct another depot in moon orbit. Possibly also a shipyard.

This would give a potential moon base supplies within (fairly) easy reach, until more can be produced on the surface. I am basically industrialising space here.

Any excess material at any stage of this plan could be sold/auctioned off to the general public/military to fund further expansion. I hope that this is actually feasible. Please correct me if not.

Oh, I am also thinking that 3D printing could be implemented to save costs/mass.

[Guest]

I think finding all objects that threaten Earth should be a much, much higher priority than it currently is. That would mean more investment in observation and detection facilities and less investment in physical exploration. Later, when our knowledge of all the objects in our solar system is more or less complete, we could focus on manned and unmanned exploration of anything that is interesting or that is potentially profitable.

[Skyler4856]

I think finding all objects that threaten Earth should be a much, much higher priority than it currently is. That would mean more investment in observation and detection facilities and less investment in physical exploration. Later, when our knowledge of all the objects in our solar system is more or less complete, we could focus on manned and unmanned exploration of anything that is interesting or that is potentially profitable.

That is going to take quite a bit of time.

[tmikesecrist3]

I would get nasa, 1% of the budget is not unresanble, it got a hell of a lot more when we where in the space race! put anther way that would geve nasa 1 penny on ever tax doller collected, right now it gets half, and with that half a penny the payed for the space shuttle asternot training, a good chuck of or satalite network, the mars rovers or probes, and the iss,

so I would incuress funding for the SLS I think it would be cheaper then trying to reactavate the satern 5 and we need the heavy lift if whour going to put a space station in higher orbet, or go to mars... I would look at the Advansed Gemini capslues like Gemini centar... (was a competing bid with the apollo csm could have done every thing apollo did and do it cheaper,) And I would look at the "big gemini.. also never made it off the drafting board.

I would higer neal degass tissyn as a conslatent... and foces on building the enfastrure nessary to move on.... I would contract with people like space x for most if not all NEO, and send us back to the mood with and I for econimic expoitation.... (neal's the reasion people spend wirght big checks, I dont want to die or I dont want to die poor... Work to opens space for mineing of raw materals and smealteing them into use ful forms in orbot even if I have to figer out how to bring them back to earth... Reserch on the solar macorwave energy satalits... expiditions to mars to test fesablaty of long term habatation.... (even if we mine the moon I dont think even the workers would stay longer the 3 mo. at a sreatch) porbly do the astoryed capture and retern the the luner lagrange point so we could look in to the fesablaty of mineing them as well (sure the un would not like this one) but then sell mineral rights to the moon and astoyeds, well I am sending men to mars I sould also look at sending men to marses moons to check out the fesabalty of expoting any elements they may have..

[Anodizer]

We have a military industrial complex.. We also have a space industrial complex.. Both exist to keep aerospace and defense contractors in business.. Nothing more, nothing less.. Any "exploration" is a by-product of that.. The entire world's space programs are a joke.. If we had our ***** together, we'd be developing fusion power and other technologies much more quickly instead of hemorrhaging funds to maintain semi-useful things in low Earth orbit.. Cut funding for all space ventures for 5 years.. Use those resources for the next 5 years to develop a stable fusion power source.. If we can't do that in 5 years, we may as well be grounded here on Earth for the remainder of our existence.. I'm tired of low earth orbit and the moon.. It's pretty pathetic that during WW2, we made an atomic bomb from scratch and had it operational in a very short amount of time, but our space program has remained stagnant in terms of technology for 50 years.. I honestly don't think we'll ever get much further than we are now with our world's space programs.. They exist for political and financial purposes.. Money and politics have gotten in the way since it's inception.. I don't have a lot of hope..

[Spiff]

I'm from Canada.

I think if I were able to freely dictate what the CSA does, I would probably continue much of what is already going on. I'm not really an expert about all the initiatives of the CSA, but it looks like they have a lot of areas of research involving humans' surviving in space. So to further that research towards eventual colonization I'd like to see branches dedicated to researching living long-term on the moon and Mars.

I'd also like to see more initiatives to inspire the general public, like space camps, writing contests, etc., because space is inspiring to everybody. Along those lines I think there could be a lot of really inspiring pieces of art and even scientific ideas that could come out of more of a connection between the general populous, space agencies, and the humanities.

Also, in preparation for space tourism, maybe build and deploy an attraction for space tourists and charge a buttload for entrance. Maybe a cushy observation module for the ISS or something. Curb the market!

[KASASpace]

Okay, here's what should be done:

1. Cancel SLS before it dies a slow and painful death

2. Retire the VAB at the KSC and dismantle it

3. Build a horizontal VAB at KSC

4. Build a factory for mass-production of modular EELV rockets (IE Atlas V)

5. Begin making deals with contractors for mass-production

6. In order for high demand to meet that mass-production, begin the biggest space program ever: SETTLING, on the MOON.

P.S.

You know, it's funny. I mean we had the technology to get a man into space in 1948, and the tech to get a man on the moon in 1959. We just didn't use it.......

Edited January 13, 2014 by KASASpace