Wednesday, December 26, 2012
Wednesday, December 12, 2012
Tuesday, July 10, 2012
What is an Astronaut's Life Worth? - An Interview with Robert Zubrin
A very interesting (yet compact) interview by ReasonTV with Robert Zubrin, one of the greatest advocates for a manned mission to Mars:
For reading:
"You're saying that you're going to give up four billion dollars to avoid a one in seven chance of killing an astronaut, you're basically saying an astronaut's life is worth twenty-eight billion dollars," says astronautical engineer and author Dr. Robert Zubrin.
Zubrin, the author of a popular and controversial article in Reason's space-centric February 2012 Special Issue, argues that the risk of losing one of the seven astronauts who repaired and rescued the Hubble Space Telescope was well worth it. "If you put this extreme value on the life of an astronaut...then you never fly, and you get a space agency which costs seventeen billion dollars a year and accomplishes nothing."
NASA's role, according to Zubrin, should be in the pursuit of ambitious missions such as "opening Mars to humanity," rather than a bloated, safety-obsessed bureaucracy. "The mission has to come first."
For reading:
"You're saying that you're going to give up four billion dollars to avoid a one in seven chance of killing an astronaut, you're basically saying an astronaut's life is worth twenty-eight billion dollars," says astronautical engineer and author Dr. Robert Zubrin.
Zubrin, the author of a popular and controversial article in Reason's space-centric February 2012 Special Issue, argues that the risk of losing one of the seven astronauts who repaired and rescued the Hubble Space Telescope was well worth it. "If you put this extreme value on the life of an astronaut...then you never fly, and you get a space agency which costs seventeen billion dollars a year and accomplishes nothing."
NASA's role, according to Zubrin, should be in the pursuit of ambitious missions such as "opening Mars to humanity," rather than a bloated, safety-obsessed bureaucracy. "The mission has to come first."
Saturday, June 16, 2012
Chinese Long March 2F/G preparing to launch historic Shenzhou-9 mission
Go China! It is not much more than a Mir-ripoff (a space station built by the Soviets in 1986) - but at least we will have another space station in orbit for a while.
Article:
Four years after the launch of the historical Shenzhou-7 EVA mission, China is set to write another chapter his space history with the launch of the manned Shenzhou-9 mission. On board, the three person crew – including the first female taikonaut – are scheduled to launch at 10:37 UTC on Saturday onboard the Long March 2F/G, from the 921 Launch Pad of the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center.
Chinese Mission:
The 13 day flight of Shenzhou-9 is centered around the expected docking with unmanned space module Tiangong-1 that was launched on September 29, 2011.
This module is the rudiment of China’s space station and is an experimental space laboratory, launched with the objective to carry out the rendezvous and docking test with the Shenzhou-8, that was launched in November, 2011.
The Chinese see this as a key step towards gaining the experience for the construction, management and operation of a space station.
After the launch, Shenzhou-9 will be initially inserted into a parking orbit, before raising its orbital parameters to a near circular orbit with an altitude of 330 km. The spacecraft will take two days to get near Tiangong-1.
Providing everything goes according to plan, the docking is expected to take place on June 18. Tiangong-1 and Shenzhou-9 will stay docked for a period of 10 days. However, during this time, a second docking manoeuvre will take place. After another period of docking, Shenzhou-9 will return to Earth.
Full article: nasaspaceflight.com
Article:
Four years after the launch of the historical Shenzhou-7 EVA mission, China is set to write another chapter his space history with the launch of the manned Shenzhou-9 mission. On board, the three person crew – including the first female taikonaut – are scheduled to launch at 10:37 UTC on Saturday onboard the Long March 2F/G, from the 921 Launch Pad of the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center.
Chinese Mission:
The 13 day flight of Shenzhou-9 is centered around the expected docking with unmanned space module Tiangong-1 that was launched on September 29, 2011.
This module is the rudiment of China’s space station and is an experimental space laboratory, launched with the objective to carry out the rendezvous and docking test with the Shenzhou-8, that was launched in November, 2011.
The Chinese see this as a key step towards gaining the experience for the construction, management and operation of a space station.
After the launch, Shenzhou-9 will be initially inserted into a parking orbit, before raising its orbital parameters to a near circular orbit with an altitude of 330 km. The spacecraft will take two days to get near Tiangong-1.
Providing everything goes according to plan, the docking is expected to take place on June 18. Tiangong-1 and Shenzhou-9 will stay docked for a period of 10 days. However, during this time, a second docking manoeuvre will take place. After another period of docking, Shenzhou-9 will return to Earth.
Full article: nasaspaceflight.com
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