[FPSPACE] "Proprietary" (or, the jury is still out)

[Chris Faranetta]

Well maybe I should have you talk to the people who I hired to work on Project: Talent this in 2002. Another motivation for developing this mission is that I wanted Space Adventures to have another program in case we lost access to the ISS. Specifically if the ISS had to be abandoned due to some major failure-this was something that I learned from the Mir days. Even a new space station is at constant risk of being evacutated.

  CF
-----Original Message-----
From: DSFPortree at aol.com
Date: Sat, 13 Aug 2005 11:53:00 
To:davida at cwo.com, fpspace at friends-partners.org
Subject: Re: [FPSPACE] "Proprietary" (or, the jury is still out)

David:

> The Zond program 
> worked out the bugs during a series of unmanned tests, resulting in a final 
> test flight that demonstrated system success.

Asif Siddiqi has a good concise Zond account in his DEEP SPACE CHRONICLE, 
which is available online. I suggest that you read it. Zond 8 missed its landing 
site in the USSR and landed in the Indian Ocean after flying a punishing 
ballistic reentry. Your definition of "system success" is intriguing. 

Zond 7 was the only success - I bollixed the numbers earlier. Zond 6 dumped 
its air inflight and crashed. And you can read about the unnumbered Zonds that 
failed - Siddiqi includes those, too.

But, again - I'm getting tired of saying this - the Zond experience of 35 
years ago isn't relevant unless you propose to fly a Zond. The current Soyuz is 
not a Zond. The current Soyuz is not a 1969 Soyuz. It's not an LOK. It's not a 
carriage pulled by swans.

And this misses the larger point - how much is this a tourist flight and how 
much is it a Russian government effort to show up the US and China? I still 
maintain that the tourism thing is an ornament on the real mission. I contend 
that this wouldn't even be under study were it not for the Bush VSE and Chinese 
lunar ambitions. Knowing more about the mods planned and the test and 
development program would help confirm or deny that interpretation. That's what I'm 
interested in. What can you tell me? 

David

David S. F. Portree
Science writer & historian
dsfportree at aol.com
Flagstaff Arizona USA

DSFP homepage
http://members.aol.com/dsfportree/dsfp.htm

Romance to Reality: moon & Mars plans
http://rtr.marsinstitute.info
_______________________________________________
FPSPACE mailing list
FPSPACE at friends-partners.org
http://www.friends-partners.org/mailman/listinfo/fpspace


Christopher J. Faranetta
Vice President Orbital Space Flight Program
Office:1(703)524-7172 Ext. 808
Mobile:1(703)930-6128
cfaranetta at spaceadventures.com

Interested in the space business? Join: www.spaceentrepreneurs.org/