Space - The Final Frontier

[Midpack]

Another huge milestone for SpaceX, they've docked with the space station! SpaceX Dragon capsule makes historic space station arrival - CBS News

 

[clifp]

Another huge milestone for SpaceX, they've docked with the space station! SpaceX Dragon capsule makes historic space station arrival - CBS News

I love the headline and you've got to give Elon credit for great marketing also. I think we have been docking objects in space for nearly 50 years, since the days of Gemini or maybe even before that by the Russians. But SpaceX gets called historic.

 

[Midpack]

I love the headline and you've got to give Elon credit for great marketing also. I think we have been docking objects in space for nearly 50 years, since the days of Gemini or maybe even before that by the Russians. But SpaceX gets called historic.

Since the USA, USSR, China and Elon Musk are the only ones to put an object in orbit and bring it back, I think he's entitled. When an individual matches an accomplishment only three superpower countries have managed in all history (and we've had to abandon our space program) - that's something noteworthy beyond great marketing IMHO...

 

[Free To Canoe]

Another huge milestone for SpaceX, they've docked with the space station! SpaceX Dragon capsule makes historic space station arrival - CBS News

Way to go!
I am very happy for the Space X employees and for our country.


Having spent much of my life in US manufacturing and having also done a stint in the Aeorspace field, I have very real questions in my mind about whether or not we will be buying advanced tech military gear /drones etc. from Japan or somewhere else rather than the other way around (us selling our older generation gear to them as is the current practice). I was worried that I might see this in what's left of my lifetime. Today's accomplishment eases that worry.

 

[clifp]

Since the USA, USSR, China and Elon Musk are the only ones to put an object in orbit and bring it back, I think he's entitled. When an individual matches an accomplishment only three superpower countries have managed in all history (and we've had to abandon our space program) - that's something noteworthy beyond great marketing IMHO...

I didn't mean to belittle the remarkable engineering achievement. I meant more in admiring way as in "not only do Elon's companies make great products but he is doing a great job marketing it. " Similar to Jobs at Apple no doubt Apple products were well designed, but Jobs was the best high tech marketing guy. In Elon's case the products are amazing, but the guy is no slouch at getting publicity. We have seen more about space coverage in the last few weeks by the media than we've seen in the last few years, except for the sad news of the end of the shuttle.

Space X also has created a halo effect for Telsa. Last night I came really close to putting $5,000 down for an S coupe. I'm going to hold off until I (hopefully) get a chance to test drive one in July. Part of my justification for spending $50K on car from a start up car company, was well if this guy can design working rocket than an electric car should be easy.

 

[Chuckanut]

What I find interesting is that there are areospace companies that have been building rockets for the military, NASA and private satelite launches for years, but none of them has been able to do what SpaceX just did. Even the supply modules from Europe and Japan, could only bring supplies to the space station. They were unable to bring cargo back to earth in one piece. The Dragon has already proven it can make a round trip and survive.

 

[Free To Canoe]

I meant more in admiring way as in "not only do Elon's companies make great products but he is doing a great job marketing it. " Similar to Jobs at Apple no doubt Apple products were well designed, but Jobs was the best high tech marketing guy. In Elon's case the products are amazing, but the guy is no slouch at getting publicity. We have seen more about space coverage in the last few weeks by the media than we've seen in the last few years, except for the sad news of the end of the shuttle.

Space X also has created a halo effect for Telsa. Last night I came really close to putting $5,000 down for an S coupe. I'm going to hold off until I (hopefully) get a chance to test drive one in July. Part of my justification for spending $50K on car from a start up car company, was well if this guy can design working rocket than an electric car should be easy.

Pretty complimentry. I guess Elon is the complete package. Engineering really is not enough. You need the "rain maker" to sell it.

 

[Bikerdude]

I think it is a great idea for NASA to outsource (and subsidize) the routine mission to shuttle supplies (and in the near future Astronauts) to the space station. This free's up resources at NASA to concentrate on bigger projects. Good job!

 

[JOHNNIE36]

Read an article in todays newspaper about the docking of SpaceX Dragon and the ISS and the subsequest opening of the hatch. The article described what the astronauts observed upon the hatch opening. How impressed they were with the engineering of the spacecraft. How neat and clean it was and that it smelled just like a new car. SpaceX has a lot to be proud of.

 

[EvrClrx311]

Well, I'm still a fan and think Elon is a clever entrepreneur but "visionary" and "monumental" is a stretch for me. The electric car was invented in the early 1900's and we did land men on the moon in 1969. I don't recall people using Mac's, IPods, IPad's, IPhones or Itunes back then.

If you want to get technical, at its base the idea of an iPod isn't completely unique to apple either. Putting music in a portable system has been around for quite a while. IPads are essentially just flashy laptops. What apple and Steve Jobs did as a company is monumental on a generational front... but personally I don't see him as a visionary either.

Advancing humanity by creating iPods... or exploring space. Looking back 500 years from now not many people will know who Steve Jobs was, but they'll most certainly know Neil Armstrong... maybe even Elon (if he successfully launches the first company into space, literally).

Those things are truly visionary... IMO, and what will really change humanity.

Now if Apple creates the first true Artificial Intelligence, I'll move them above space travel... probably.

 

[Koogie]

Watching the return of the capsule and splashdown in the Pacific live on Nasa TV online.
If it all goes well, the start of a brand new era.

 

[EvrClrx311]

amazing... SpaceX has now accomplished what only 4 countries on this planet have done.

 

[Chuckanut]

amazing... SpaceX has now accomplished what only 4 countries on this planet have done.

Perhaps more. Many of those supply ships are destroyed on reentry. That is ok if they are loaded with garbage, but not good if something needs to be returned in one piece. Only the shuttle could return large objects. Now Dragon can.

 

[Huston55]

Perhaps more. Many of those supply ships are destroyed on reentry. That is ok if they are loaded with garbage, but not good if something needs to be returned in one piece. Only the shuttle could return large objects. Now Dragon can.

I guess I am just amazed at what is happening these days even if the Shuttle is no longer in operation. As I write this:

1. The SpaceX Dragon spacecraft is approaching the International Space Station.

2. A Rover are still operating on the surface of Mars.

Truly Amazing.

I watched this with great amazement, and a little bit of pride...for having a very detached relationship with this part of the space program.

Dragon was launched from Space Launch Complex (SLC) 40 at Cape Canaveral. I helped build the previous SLC-40 launch complex which launched the first Mars Observer mission (lost just prior to Mars orbit unfortunately). And now SLC-40 has launched Dragon, beginning a new chapter in the space program.

I'm anxious to see what's next.

 

[kombat]

I guess I am just amazed at what is happening these days even if the Shuttle is no longer in operation. As I write this:

[...]

Truly Amazing.

And yet not a single person has been on the moon in my lifetime. I'm 36.

In a lot of ways, I think the space program (and technology in general) has stagnated, or even regressed, in my generation's time. Sure, we've sent out a few more satellites (I was riveted by Cassini/Huygens), but the space shuttles have been mothballed with no replacement, and we still haven't put a human on Mars.

I think a lot of these types of programs have been completely bogged down in bureaucratic red tape. It blows my mind that they were able to put men on the moon in 1969 (with 1960's technology!), but it took them 5 days to get water to the Superdome after Katrina. It took a decade to replace a pair of skyscrapers in New York (are they done yet?).

When you really think about it, what great technological advancements can we lay claim to in the past 3 decades? I can think of just two game-changers: Cell phones and the Internet (and maybe the drastic scaling-down of computer chips). It's hardly penicillin or footprints on the moon. Still haven't "cured" AIDS or cancer, despite billions of dollars raised in hundreds of thousands of charity runs, book drives, and everything else.

Honestly, it's a little depressing.

 

[eytonxav]

Honestly, it's a little depressing.

As is not being able to balance the budget over the past 10+ years

 

[EvrClrx311]

When you really think about it, what great technological advancements can we lay claim to in the past 3 decades?

Technology is one of those things that appears to always be slow moving, unless you step back and really look at what things are like now compared to x number of years ago...

Here is a very small list of things that didn't exist when the last human set foot on the Moon...

1973 - MRI
1977 - Voyager I and II (humans sent something out of our solar system)
1978 - Genetic Engineering
1980 - Hepatitis-B Vaccine
1983 - DNA Mapping
1987 - Prozac
1990 - lithium ion batteries (power on the move)
1998 - Genetic Sequencing
2000 - Mainstream GPS (cheap enough for you and me)
2001 - Global Knowledge Center - Wikipedia becomes the first global user-generated encyclopedia (humanity is now archived for all to see)
2003 - Human Genome Project completed
2008 - Bionic Lens (computer on a contact lens to aid vision and memory)
2009 - SixthSense is a wearable computer and arguably the first augmented reality that will spark a future of human and machine merging
2012 - As of Monday 770 planets have been found outside of our solar system (three decades ago we didn't even if extrasolar planets existed)

Also some technologies that are brand new seem irrelevant, or less important, until you get a chance to look back at them years down the road and see exactly how they have changed humanity. The computer is a perfect example.

A lot of people are out there who think they would be ok in a world without computers, but they are missing just how much would be lost:
- ATM's
- Internet (Access to all of that data, the ability to read this post and talk to a complete stranger about a topic of interest)
- Medical applications (life extension and quality of life)

I think genetics in 30 years will be a similar story... when we are able to cure diseases and better peoples lives through genetic therapy we'll then live in a world where people will be horrified that just 50 years ago people died just because they were unlucky to be born with genetics predisposing them to cancers and mental disorders...

 

[MichaelB]

Technology is one of those things that appears to always be slow moving, unless you step back and really look at what things are like now compared to x number of years ago...

Here is a very small list of things that didn't exist when the last human set foot on the Moon...

1973 - MRI
1977 - Voyager I and II (humans sent something out of our solar system)
1978 - Genetic Engineering
1980 - Hepatitis-B Vaccine
1983 - DNA Mapping
1987 - Prozac
1990 - lithium ion batteries (power on the move)
1998 - Genetic Sequencing
2000 - Mainstream GPS (cheap enough for you and me)
2001 - Global Knowledge Center - Wikipedia becomes the first global user-generated encyclopedia (humanity is now archived for all to see)
2003 - Human Genome Project completed
2008 - Bionic Lens (computer on a contact lens to aid vision and memory)
2009 - SixthSense is a wearable computer and arguably the first augmented reality that will spark a future of human and machine merging
2012 - As of Monday 770 planets have been found outside of our solar system (three decades ago we didn't even if extrasolar planets existed)

Also some technologies that are brand new seem irrelevant, or less important, until you get a chance to look back at them years down the road and see exactly how they have changed humanity. The computer is a perfect example.

A lot of people are out there who think they would be ok in a world without computers, but they are missing just how much would be lost:
- ATM's
- Internet (Access to all of that data, the ability to read this post and talk to a complete stranger about a topic of interest)
- Medical applications (life extension and quality of life)

I think genetics in 30 years will be a similar story... when we are able to cure diseases and better peoples lives through genetic therapy we'll then live in a world where people will be horrified that just 50 years ago people died just because they were unlucky to be born with genetics predisposing them to cancers and mental disorders...

That is a good list. The past 20 years has seen more improvement in standard of living and more people leaving absolute poverty than all of history combined to that point.

 

[Surfdaddy]

Technology is one of those things that appears to always be slow moving, unless you step back and really look at what things are like now compared to x number of years ago...

Here is a very small list of things that didn't exist when the last human set foot on the Moon...

Did you realize that we went to the moon BEFORE we invented the microprocessor?

Now if that isn't scary, nothing is...

 

[clifp]

Did you realize that we went to the moon BEFORE we invented the microprocessor?

Now if that isn't scary, nothing is...

But they had slide rules and a computer with 64k bytes of RAM, and blistering clock speed of 43 Kilo hertz. So roughly 1/1,000,000 as powerful as today desktops.

There were also equipped with highly trained Mark 1 human brains, and large sets of balls.

 

[EvrClrx311]

Did you realize that we went to the moon BEFORE we invented the microprocessor?

Now if that isn't scary, nothing is...

yep, a lot of wrist watches (GPS/workout monitoring ones) today hold more computing power than the Apollo modules did 30 years ago...

 

[Midpack]

They replayed the 60 Minutes segment on Elon Musk & SpaceX last night, with an update on the latest and most successful mission. The exchange about Cernan & Armstrong's comments to Congress and Musk's reaction to those comments still makes me very sad. SpaceX is not the only private/commercial firm in this race (Boeing, ULA, Lockheed Martin, ATK), but criticism of other programs seems to be less publicized or worse. Makes one wonder...

I wish Elon Musk and SpaceX the best come what may. Seems odd to oppose innovation to fill an obvious void/need for any pure reasons...

 

[marko]

Did you realize that we went to the moon BEFORE we invented the microprocessor?

Now if that isn't scary, nothing is...

We went to the moon before someone decided to put wheels on luggage!

 

[marko]

I wonder what else private enterprise can do as well/better than the government?

 

[clifp]

They replayed the 60 Minutes segment on Elon Musk & SpaceX last night, with an update on the latest and most successful mission. The exchange about Cernan & Armstrong's comments to Congress and Musk's reaction to those comments still makes me very sad. SpaceX is not the only private/commercial firm in this race (Boeing, ULA, Lockheed Martin, ATK), but criticism of other programs seems to be less publicized or worse. Makes one wonder...

I wish Elon Musk and SpaceX the best come what may. Seems odd to oppose innovation to fill an obvious void/need for any pure reasons...

It made me sad watching it again a second time. Not surprisingly there is another side to the story.

From the Houston Chronicle this piece

Here’s the statement [Chris] Kraft sent me on behalf of himself, Armstrong and Cernan:

What CBS and 60 Minutes did on Sunday evening was a distortion of the facts and the truth regarding SpaceX and people such as Neil Armstrong, Eugene Cernan and those of us that have been criticizing the present game plan of the U.S. Space Program.
We did not condemn the COTS Program. We commend SpaceX for their accomplishments and wish them every success in the future.
However, what they did — NASA and the US Space Industry did 50 years ago and without a road map. SpaceX had the benefit of all of this investment of the taxpayers money and without the taxpayers money today could not have accomplished the goals set by NASA — not by SpaceX.
But that is not the real story. The real story is what the U.S. did in the 1960’s revolutionized the space industry and not only Space but the entire U.S.Industry. Indeed the ROI of the taxpayers money and the resulting explosion of technology provided by this investment revolutionized the entire world.
What we (The past leaders of the U.S. Space Program) are concerned about is the lack of recognition that unless the U.S. continues to advance the state of the art and invest the taxpayers money in a rational and affordable Space Program we will become a second rate nation and be left behind by those who recognize what is required.
​

Now I agree with everything Chris Kraft said, including that space exploration has a good ROI for taxpayers. However, in a time of severe fiscal crisis, I have hard time arguing the my pet government program is so important that we should fully fund it and cut others.

SpaceX is cost effective way of keeping America in space. I hope once we get our economy moving again we can afford to do more in the future.