[FPSPACE] Yuri Gagarin's trek aboard Sputnik
James Oberg
jeoberg at comcast.net
Thu Jan 28 17:50:48 EST 2010
This may surprise many fpspacers but I'm remarkably
sanguine -- at ease in my mind -- about the NASA-Soyuz
rent-a-seat deal. The two programs are so inter-dependent
now that neither side has an asymmetric advantage in
effective boycott-threatening or lockout-threatening,
even if they wanted to.
Russian officials have become accustomed to Western
cash flow throughout their space industry and any change
in the flow -- short or long term -- is bound to make a lot of
people (many powerful people, and some of them, forceful)
unhappy.
Lopota was lamenting in recent days that he thought it was
foolish to boast of dominating the world spacelift market when
it was only a tiny corner -- and the lowest-tech corner at that --
of the world spaceflight services market. Far more money is
earned in communications and navigation services and other
sophisticated specialties, where Russia has so far failed to make
much -- if any -- inroads (GLONASS is a sad example of this
Russian weakness).
Now that designers will be able to design a human-to-orbit taxi system
from 'first principles', instead of adapting a vehicle originally overbuilt for
far more ambitious missions, I think we're going to be astonished how efficient
and compact it will turn out to be.
Mission: carry a few humans and hand luggage to dock to an existing
habitat in a short (<24 hrs, probably less than 8 hrs) free-flight time.
Power? Batteries are good enough. Food? Cold sandwiches. Exercise
equipment? None. Waste management? Diapers. Earth observation?
Minimal, aside from visual docking windows. Flight data file? Maybe
a few dozen cue cards -- not 30 kg of books. EVA? None.
How much would a 4-person vehicle, using 21st century light-weight materials,
wind up weighing? 5000 kg? No, I'm not slipping a digit. 10,000 kg? Maybe,
if you require a few semi-luxuries.
Most severe capabilities shortfall for commercial builders? Launch escape
systems. Solution: NASA standard escape towers scaled to a series of
weight classes.
Let's see where this leads.
----- Original Message -----
From: John
To: Peter Pesavento
Cc: fpspace at friends-partners.org
Sent: Thursday, January 28, 2010 4:00 PM
Subject: Re: [FPSPACE] Yuri Gagarin's trek aboard Sputnik
I hope we can all take a deep breath and remember The Fallacy of Uninterrupted Trends: nothing develops the way we expected it will based on trends. 2020 is 10 years from now. The Apollo moon landings and the collapse of the Betlin Wall (to name only two events) were not predicted 10 years earlier.
Personally, I do not expect the termination of US astronaut flights.
JBC
On Jan 28, 2010, at 15:47, "Peter Pesavento" <pjp961 at svol.net> wrote:
That’s a very excellent question.
I am willing to bet not even NASA knows, or the Administration knows, or anyone in the Federal bureaucracy knows.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: Robert Law [mailto:robert_law at yahoo.com]
Sent: Thursday, January 28, 2010 4:27 PM
To: 'Anatoly Zak'; Peter Pesavento
Cc: fpspace at friends-partners.org
Subject: Re: [FPSPACE] Yuri Gagarin's trek aboard Sputnik
and what happens after 2020 ? ??????????????
Robert Law
--- On Thu, 1/28/10, Peter Pesavento <pjp961 at svol.net> wrote:
From: Peter Pesavento <pjp961 at svol.net>
Subject: Re: [FPSPACE] Yuri Gagarin's trek aboard Sputnik
To: "'Anatoly Zak'" <agzak at optonline.net>
Cc: fpspace at friends-partners.org
Date: Thursday, January 28, 2010, 9:03 PM
I think that we can say that ALL space exploration is a luxury that super
power nations, and those that aspire to be super powers, afford themselves.
Manned space efforts especially.
It brings in some science discovery and engineering development, but above
all other things it brings international prestige. And its military utility
waxes and wanes (for example remote sensing of varying brands).
Main reason for it. (I think that may be the main reason why Iran, North
Korea, even PRC want to become space faring nations.)
When the money isn't there, one doesn't engage in it. Or one cuts back on
it, or postpones it--or cancels it outright, and doesn’t return to it.
-----Original Message-----
From: fpspace-bounces at friends-partners.org
[mailto:fpspace-bounces at friends-partners.org] On Behalf Of Anatoly Zak
Sent: Thursday, January 28, 2010 10:07 AM
To: Untitled
Subject: Re: [FPSPACE] Yuri Gagarin's trek aboard Sputnik
Historians long warned us that the Cold War rivalry was the main driving
force behind the manned space program. Without such a powerful stimulus,
politicians might not find enough justification to pay for manned space
flight, not matter who is in the White House. Just take a look at Europe!
What Bush administration proposed in 2004 was unsustainable and unwise, but
few could see at the time, therefore a lot of time and money was wasted.
There were also ludicrous claims all over American press by self-proclaimed
"experts" about Chinese landing on the Moon within five years, which of
course, provided additional push to a quick-fix, feel-good, dump-partners
"return to the Moon." It is a pay back time now, however I think NASA can
still make it right. The decision to extend ISS to 2020 would be a first
good move and returning to the negotiation table with partners about the
future program would be another.
Anatoly Zak
http://www.russianspaceweb.com
On 1/28/10 3:34 PM, "LARRY KLAES" <ljk4 at msn.com> wrote:
> I love my country and what it stands for but the growing ignorance and
> religious zealotry I see all around me at so many levels has me feeling
that a
> strongly worded letter to the editor just isn't going to be enough any
more.
>
> And now we have Obama cutting NASA off at the knees and our future in
space.
>
> I recall during the 2008 election how one of his flunkies - I mean aides -
> kept heavily suggesting that people might want to experience space travel
> virtually rather than in person. Guess that's the real goal of this
> administration despite Obama telling us how much he likes Star Trek.
>
> Larry
> R
> Sent via BlackBerry by AT&T
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Anatoly Zak <agzak at optonline.net>
> Date: Thu, 28 Jan 2010 14:23:18
> To: <fpspace at friends-partners.org>
> Subject: Re: [FPSPACE] Yuri Gagarin's trek aboard Sputnik
>
> Jim, sorry he's got so much math shoved down his throat, that he could no
> longer swallow even most basic knowledge. Actually, sounds like many of my
> classmates in America - dumb and proud of their ignorance. I wouldn't
single
> out Hollywood.
>
> Anatoly Zak
> http://www.russianspaceweb.com <http://www.russianspaceweb.com>
>
>
> On 1/28/10 2:24 PM, "James Oberg" <jameseoberg at comcast.net> wrote:
>
> I also got a chuckle out of "Star City,
> somewhere on the dark side of Kazakhstan boondocks..."
>
> I'm presuming these howlers are from the reviewer, NOT the film itself.
>
>
>
>
> Space Tourists -- Film Review
>
>
http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/hr/film-reviews/space-tourists-film-review-
10
> 04062347.story
>
<http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/hr/film-reviews/space-tourists-film-review
-1
> 004062347.story>
> By Duane Byrge, January 26, 2010 11:09 ET
>
> PARK CITY -- Even us Baby Boomers who got advanced math shoved down our
> throats in the wake of Yuri Gagarin's trek aboard Sputnik, and couldn't
care
> less about outer space, will be entertained by this spry, melancholy
glimpse
> into the last half-century's race to space. "Space Tourists' " informative
and
> engaging trajectory should land it on cable somewhere: History and
Discovery
> come to mind as orbit platforms.
>
> If you've got $20 million set aside for your next vacation, you can sign
up
> to hop aboard a Russian rocket and get lifted into the wild not-so-blue
> yonder. That's what dreamer Anousheh Ansari has shelled out for her
lifelong
> dream vacation. In this wry and inspiring documentary, filmmaker Christian
> Frei concentrates on her trek to live her dream, from the rigors of the
> Russian space school located in Star City, somewhere on the dark side of
> Kazakhstan boondocks, to her eventual re-entry to the boondocks of Mother
> Earth.
>
> Told through the narration of a young Norwegian man attempting to connect
> with his Russian heritage, "Space Tourists" is alternately gloomy and
balmy:
> In essence, it visualizes the failure of Communism. We see the ugly ruins
of
> government apartments, which during the Khrushchev we-will-bury-you era,
> housed thousands of engineers and top scientists. It's now a ghost town,
shut
> down by Gorbachev and creaking toward "Mad Max" ruination.
>
> With its nicely languid story loopings, including a team of scrap metal
> scavengers who retrieve the re-entry detritus for its precious titanium,
> "Space Tourists" is a multi-dimensional glimpse into dreams and
obsessions.
> Filmmaker Frei smartly interweaves the pride that many felt because of the
> space program's accomplishments while visualizing its down-to-earth,
economic
> failings.
>
> Cinematographer Peter Indergand's scopings are expressively accented by
the
> fine editing of Frei and Andreas Winterstein: The images, glorious and
crude,
> butt against each other -- evocative of this Quixotic quest. The film's
spare
> musical score is also ascendant, courtesy of composers Jan Garbarek,
Edward
> Artemyev and Steve Reich.
>
> Venue: Sundance Film Festival
> Sales: Films Transit International
> Production companies: Christian Frei Productions GMBH in co-production
with
> Swiss National Television, ZDF/Arte and Suissimage
> Cast: Anousheh Ansari, Jonas Bendiksen, Dumitru Popescu, Charles Simonyi
> Director-producer: Christian Frei
> Director of photography: Peter Indergand
> Music: Jan Garbarek, Edward Artemyev, Steve Reich
> Editors: Christian Frei, Andreas Winterstein
> No rating, 100 minutes
>
>
> ----------------
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