No one in US is suppose to be exicted about this. US have dominated the space program for decades. For people in China, this is definately something to get excited about. For a country that just 25 years ago could not even feed all of its people, China have come a long way both economically and scientically. My in-laws stayed up all night just to watch the TV coverage in Shanghai!
You're not suppose to be excited, the people of China are suppose to be. We've had the pleasure of learning about space since we've been born (atleast I have), but for the millions of chinese children out there who finally get to learn and actually see for themselves about space flight, it's got to be very exciting for them.
We can get back a lot sooner but using Russian rockets. Anybody know if the Shenzhou spacecraft was designed with potentially docking with the ISS? I would imagine if the need arose the PRC might be willing to rent out the Shenzhou for an emergency ISS mission.
So if the Stros make it to the World Series are you going to say "eh the Cubs did that 97 years ago."
I searched online and found a theory saying that NASA didn't lose the Saturn V blueprints. However, the blueprints are useless because we cannot find suppliers for the hardware components used in the 1960s. So, it is easier to design a new rocket from scratch.
I've heard that same theory too Techlabor and it makes sense too me. There's the superstructure of a Saturn 5 sitting at Johnson space center and Nasa and the Smithsonian have left over parts or duplicates of much of the hardware for a Saturn 5 so at worst they could just remeasure those pieces to build a Saturn 5. I think the problem like you say is that it would be very difficult to rebuild the infrastructure to manufacture more Saturn 5 and given our current capabilities doesn't make much sense. With the ISS it would be far more practical to assembly a lunar vehicle in space and launch from there to the Moon.
Saturn 5's wouldnt be able to dock up with the ISS so practically speaking rebuilding those exactly would be worthless. That being said, a friend of mine who has worked at NASA described to me one of the leading ideas for replacing the shuttle. It would involve the same type of basic structural design as the saturn 5. They wouldnt be reusable and there would be two types of structures. One specifically for people and one for satellites and parts only (unmanned). The advantage of this two tiered system is that the manned system would be maxed out on safety features while the unmanned would not include most of those features. The logic is that the current system requires that we use maximum safety measures on delivering stuff to the ISS or launching satellites when we could just save money and build a system seperately for that and additionally not risk human lives. Also a system devoted exclusively to delivering goods would have a much higher capacity to carry stuff. Anyway hopefully NASA pulls this stuff off because otherwise space exploration could go down the drain.
NASA's held a monopoly for way too long. The space shuttle program and the ISS have become overburdened by inflating budgets. An open market would generate excitement the public hasn't felt since the moon landings.
This is correct. Man rating space equipment is tremendously difficult and expensive. Having a heavy-lift vehicle exclusively for cargo would be very beneficial for development time, as well as overall lift capacity. That being said, many of the new CEV designs reuse shuttle pieces to reduce development cost. The last design I saw had an enlarged ET with 5 space shuttle main engines underneath, and ringed by 3 SRBs. Placed atop the tank would be the crew module - eliminating debris concerns on ascent.
