Second Space Race?

[ThinkOutsideTheHangar]

Recently, I've noticed developing nations getting along with their own space programs, with China and their Moon Landing, and India's mars mission I wonder if, sometime in the near future, their could be a space race among the Asian developing nations, who's economies could grow significantly by that time. Their is also evident rivalry of China and India. Tell me your opinions in the comments below!

[Sillychris]

I think we seriously need a space race to scare USA into going to Mars first.

[TerLoki]

I'm still waiting to see who get a manned vehicle in orbit first, India or the ESA. Though at this rate it's like watching a race between a snail and a sloth that don't realized they're racing.

[Stargate525]

Eh. Probably not to the moon. People have already been there, so there's not much incentive to come in second place. The USSR didn't even want it. I could, however, see a manned race to Mars in our lifetime. Given NASA's budget and ability to keep a goal, my guess would be that the racers will be China, India, and some American corporation.

[Nuke]

with the declining relations between usa and russia, we might see the super powers have another run at it as part of cold war 2. usa, europe and russia will race to mars while the asian space agencies compete for the moon.

[Nibb31]

I'm still waiting to see who get a manned vehicle in orbit first, India or the ESA. Though at this rate it's like watching a race between a snail and a sloth that don't realized they're racing.

ESA has no plans for a manned spacecraft. They are investing in DreamChaser, so you might see ESA buy a couple of ISS tickets from Sierra Nevada for European astronauts. Another possibility is to stick one on top of an Ariane V, but a manned Ariane V would require lots of pad modifications, which will be hard to justify this late in the program.

[bsalis]

Yeah - would be really nice to see a Space Race actually. Sadly, all I see is an Arms Race.

*sigh* the Cold War, those were the good days.

[RuBisCO]

Ok lets suppose SpaceX manages by 2020 to achieve a fully reusable falcon 9, both stages fly-back reusable, manages over 12 launches a years consistently, and manages to at the very least keep it prices down, perhaps even lower, and finally ULA contracts laps and SpaceX is allow to compete with them in defense contracts. But most importantly let us assume demand for launching actually grows with reduce pricing provided by SpaceX. For ULA, Ariane, Starsem, etc to avoid bankruptcy they would be forced to completely overhaul their business model and develop rapidly a fully reusable rocket system that can compete with SpaceX. Would that not be a Space Race? Only this race would be measured by $ to LEO and not specific achievements.

[xenomorph555]

To be honest this is more like the 3rd space race, the second in my opinion was from 1970-1998 and was who could get the biggest and best space station (spoilers: russia won). As for this however it does seem like there is more exploration of the moon coming, however not a race, to slow and casual for that.

[Nuke]

i have a feeling if we were involved in another space race, we would loose. nasa is somewhat of a beurocratic hellhole and cant get anything done these days. they just dont have the get er done attitude they had in the 50s and 60s.

[szputnyik]

Can you imagine North Korea joining this new space race, trying to repeat the Vostok and Mercury missions using very primitive cobbled-together equipment Kerbal-style?

[Nuke]

that would be interesting. i would also feel very sorry for the astronauts, as their death rates would be the highest of any other space agency in the world. of course if they survive they would have the option of landing away from nk's reach and request asylum from whatever government they landed near, unless of course the ship was rigged with demolition charges to prevent that from happening. north korea makes everything funny.

[vger]

i have a feeling if we were involved in another space race, we would loose. nasa is somewhat of a beurocratic hellhole and cant get anything done these days. they just dont have the get er done attitude they had in the 50s and 60s.

Correction, the source of their funding doesn't have the attitude. If NASA had the equivalent funding they had during the space race, you'd see some pretty amazing stuff go down, methinks. That's not to say it isn't still going on though. Quantum leaps in computing technology makes manned missions far less necessary than they used to be.

As for whether or not another space race could happen? Based on how politicians barely bat an eyelash at America being outperformed in every aspect of industry by "3rd World Countries," I can't see them giving a darn about spending money to 'beat' another country at anything in space.

American pride is also at an all-time low, and if we went ape trying to race China to Mars, or (insert space mission here), all anyone would be saying is, "Great, will beating them to Mars bring the jobs back?"

Edited April 25, 2014 by vger

[CaptainKipard]

Another space race would be nice, but I'm afraid for the USA it would be like arranging the deckchairs on the Titanic. That country's education system is very poor considering it's a first world country. I saw statistics once showing that the number of scientific papers being published by Americans has dropped significantly, whereas Europe, and Asia are doing better and better in that respect. Long term that bodes poorly for any kind of intellectual competition. Some of you will know that Arabs were once some of the most scientifically minded people, but traditional influences saw to the end of that. I see the same thing happening in America right now. I don't think they'll get back to form.

[RuBisCO]

Another space race would be nice, but I'm afraid for the USA it would be like arranging the deckchairs on the Titanic. That country's education system is very poor considering it's a first world country. I saw statistics once showing that the number of scientific papers being published by Americans has dropped significantly, whereas Europe, and Asia are doing better and better in that respect. Long term that bodes poorly for any kind of intellectual competition. Some of you will know that Arabs were once some of the most scientifically minded people, but traditional influences saw to the end of that. I see the same thing happening in America right now. I don't think they'll get back to form.

Didn't think a space race was going to save a country anyways.

[rkman]

nasa ... cant get anything done these days.

When exactly is "these days"? NASA has several ongoing missions.

Maybe NASA is not doing what you would like them to do?

[jwenting]

the only reason for another space race is another major political boistering program. And that won't start unless the Chinese or Soviets start seriously working on hardware to send people to Mars or on permanent moon bases.

And even then, the US have pretty much degenerated into a country of has-beens, at least where its political leadership is concerned, and they're the ones who'd have to kick it off, so it's unlikely they're going to set up the programs and provide the funding.

And even if, the space race brought us little in long term benefits. We're still shooting up satellites using derivatives of the same 1950s ICBMs that were used for Gemini and Mercury, for lack of dedicated boosters.

The only dedicated equipment designed for the space race was Saturn, and that's long gone, down to the tooling and design drawings needed to construct them.

[Nibb31]

There are no "Soviets" any more. The country is called the Russian Federation and the current ruling party United Russia is considered conservative and nationalistic. By most standards, it's closer to a patriotic authoritarian right-wing party than to communism or socialism. Its main opposition is the Communist Party, which is in the minority.

Constantly referring to modern Russia as the USSR is like calling modern Germany the IIIrd Reich, or Italy the Roman Empire for that matter. It's anachronistic and inaccurate.

Edited April 26, 2014 by Nibb31

[CaptainKipard]

There are no "Soviets". The country is called the Russian Federation. Constantly referring to modern Russia as the USSR is like calling modern Germany the IIIrd Reich, or Italy the Roman Empire for that matter. It's anachronistic and inaccurate.

Maybe they're just being derisive.

[sal_vager]

Please refrain from turning this into a political discussion and resorting to personal attacks, thank you.

[vger]

Please refrain from turning this into a political discussion and resorting to personal attacks, thank you.

Not nitpicking, but is it even really possible to discuss the space race without bringing politics into it?

It primarily was, after all, fueled by politics.

[jwenting]

Not nitpicking, but is it even really possible to discuss the space race without bringing politics into it?

It primarily was, after all, fueled by politics.

correct. Without politics no space race, no rockets, no space program.

Some amateurs might get into space eventually, but it'd take a lot longer.

Politics created the environment in which the technology could evolve rapidly (in fact needed to) to build rockets large and powerful enough to put thing in orbit, which was what triggered the space race.

Every single rocket the US, USSR, China, India, ESA, and I suspect everyone else has ever put up there is based on technology created for ICBMs and SLBMs, using components of those missiles (or being those missiles with just the payload bus swapped out if that much) or very close derivatives.