Recent content by Admiral_Ritt

Remarkable design. Some questions. 1) Currently the fully fueled and Rocketed(?) configuration have the range of about 1000 NM, is it worth it to develop aerial refueling to enable to fly closer to equator Thus increasing payload capacity by reducing delta Vee and fuel mass to go from 30deg...

Modestly upgrading this rover class, and putting into a semi assembly line, would have produced, three maybe four of this class of rover for the cost of the one Curiosity mission. They could have risked more interesting landing sites with some of them. A worthwhile gamble.

While Opportunity still thrives, It reminds me of nagging doubts regarding Curiosity's cost/benefit. It was a very expensive mission, and we could have used UPGRADED Mer-1 Class rovers to do similar things. we could have launched two of those, to more Interesting places. Many of it's...

that image of the Hubble to person to JWB can be Modified to another effect. [/URL][/IMG]

It was my intent in the prior statement, that the JW telescope would be assembled in LOE in range for shuttle crew assembly to be possible. SEE ION Drive Below. The mirror structure and its framework/active mounting points seems to be particularly sensitive to faults with the current plan...

Don't know If this has been mentioned, but. We had a shuttle program. If we separate the telescope in three parts. 1) Mirrors and Support Structure. 2) Main instrumentation, power, controls, solar panels 3) Propulsion system, (final position and station keeping), backup solar panels Could not...

I understand your perspective. You feel via your understanding of physics/chemistry. That It is impossible for animal life evolve to exist on planets with the conditions of VENUS. If you meant otherwise I don't see why your my question annoys you so much.

Throsten, Don't go all 3rd grade remedial on me , I'm no enthusiast/fanatic. I just wanted opinions, and wanted some alterative ideas. None came forth. So you are willing to say for ALL planets in our galaxy that resemble Venus and its development history in our solar system, None have extant...

I don't think a multicellular lifeform on todays Venus. would be able to live on the surface. However the ability to "submerge" to the surface of Venus temporarily would be a matter of survival and have strong selection bias. Any such creature would have to have a heat sink of some sort either...

Remember I did not say that the originating life forms arose in Todays Venus. It would have been a wetter Venus w/ a primordial atmosphere. I agree that no new lifeform can arise on Venus now. If there were enough evolutionary time, a complex lifeform that arose in this early period, would...

Did not want to put this question in the main spaceflight forums, since it is entirely speculative, and hopefully avoid certain killjoys on this bbs. It appears that Venus was more like Earth like at start. Let make some assumptions. If complex life up to simple animals (pre-Cambrian...

In addition to critical modules' internal workings wearing out... My impression was the other chief concerns about keeping the station operational were: over a 20+ life span 1) the hull structure it self taking the punishment of micro meteor strikes 2) heating and cooling cycle due to day...

So, are we supped to ignore that the Falcon heavy will be lighting up 27 engines. There must be a lot of confidence that no single engine component will fail in a way that will result Total loss of the Vehicle. Is that system going to give 95% reliability? While the Delta IV heavy is...

I salute SpaceX for the concept of trying to reuse boosters. But they sure chose a tricky landing enviroment 1) In water with a modestly rocking platform (even with dampeners) 2) Some wind motion potentially interfering 3) No room for error in terms of needing a direct hit Maybe they...

Even if there was some interest by some institutions to try to restart this engineering puzzle. You will still be hampered by a complicated landing gear, complex control surfaces, Heat Shield, Additionally if you actually man rate this thing, you will need TWO pilots, that's always expensive...