[FPSPACE] No money to put astronauts back on Moon by 2020; Moon not a rea...

[Jens Kieffer-Olsen]

Hi David,
 
As we were reminded in Moscow back in 1996 our Russian hosts greatly
value the memory of the sensational 1962 launch of first Nikolayev in
Vostok-3 and less than 24 hours later Popovich in Vostok-4.
 
That's an important capability, as recent shuttle crew rescue considerations
have emphasized.
 
Am I right that the US have never launched a manned spacecraft less than
11 days after the previous? ( Gemini-VI in 1965 ).
 
--
Jens Kieffer-Olsen
Slagelse, Denmark   

-----Original Message-----
From: David Portree [mailto:dsfportree at hotmail.com] 
Sent: Sunday, August 16, 2009 1:35 AM
To: kosmos327 at aol.com; fpspace at friends-partners.org
Subject: Re: [FPSPACE] No money to put astronauts back on Moon by 2020;Moon
not a rea...


David:
 
I'm sorry, I should have specified - I meant "leads in ways that matter." I
don't think that flagpole sitting counts for much. Did all those
long-duration Soviet flights yield biomedical data anyone could use? Only in
a gross sense - they weren't gathered with much rigor. We had the most
powerful rocket in the world - who has it now? We're close there, anyway.
Number of launches - well, if your spacecraft are mainly recoverable
spysats, then that matters, but if they operate for a long time without need
for replacement, then it doesn't. Mass to orbit might be a better sign of
leadership, assumning that the mass is doing something. Modules attached
together - I think that the US is leading there, if you total up all the Mir
and ISS modules launched on the Shuttle. Someone else can do the count,
though, since I think it an arcane metric.
 
What are ways that matter? I think that to most people leadership in space
is about exploring places ahead of everyone else and pulling off engineering
feats no one has pulled off before. That sort of thing impresses people a
lot more the metrics you cite. 
 
The problem here may be that we haven't defined what "leadership" means. 

David S. F. Portree

dsfportree at hotmail.com
dportree at usgs.gov
 
http://robotexplorers.blogspot.com/
http://beyondapollo.blogspot.com/
 
http://astrogeology.usgs.gov/About/People/DavidPortree/
 



 

  _____  

From: Kosmos327 at aol.com
Date: Sat, 15 Aug 2009 12:47:49 -0400
To: fpspace at friends-partners.org
Subject: Re: [FPSPACE] No money to put astronauts back on Moon by 2020; Moon
not a rea...


In a message dated 8/14/2009 9:35:39 P.M. Eastern Daylight Time,
dsfportree at hotmail.com writes:

Name an arena of achievement, and the US probably leads.


Man hours in space, number of modules attached together in orbit, launches
per year, most powerful rocket, longest manned mission ...I could go on, but
why?
 
Regards,
 
David L. Rickman


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