Re: [seul-edu] Shuttle alternatives, space politics

[Leon Brooks <leon@brooks.fdns.net>]

On Sunday 02 February 2003 12:09 am, Nobody wrote:
> Yes, while I mourn the loss of life, I  remember that the primary
> goal of the shuttle project always has been to bind us with more
> and more force under the american rule.

Not the Shuttle project itself, the American military have their own space 
program. Ironically, it would have been safer and more economical for them to 
have use Energia as a launch vehicle.

Giving some beanhead politician the ability to push a button and raze a 
country has never seemed to me to be a particularly clever thing to do. Think 
about, say, Larry Niven/Jerry Pournelle's Footfall (or Lucifer's Hammer) or 
Robert Heinlen's The Moon is a Harsh Mistress:

http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0345323440/
http://www.hypothetical.net/sillydog/Text/eBooks/heinlein/Bob+Heinlein+-+The+Moon+Is+A+Harsh+Mistress.txt

Europe have had their own recent space catastrophes, albeit without loss of 
life, but are looking at scramjet space-plane designs and other more 
imaginitive stuff than the shuttle (which is basically just a rocket with 
wings).

Also, these guys reckon they can get us an elevator for around $40G (80 
Shuttle launches), within about two years of the capgun going off, which from 
here looks like a bargain price:

    http://www.highliftsystems.com/summary.html
    http://www.highliftsystems.com/convertedToHTML/niac_pdf/chapter11.html

...but it seems to me that for all of the enthusiasm about for space, someone 
has a foot on the brakes.

NASA has been consistently half-hearted about *everything*, Russia has run out 
of money, Japan has practically no resources and Australia even less (despite 
a well-earned reputation for doing amazing things on a shoestring budget), 
and the EU is too busy arguing (about whether Germany really can run the 
whole show and who gets to play with their marbles) to really focus on stuff 
like space.

I personally think the EU should throw large chunks of money at Dutch and 
German engineers, include scientists from odd places like Britain and 
Denmark, and just stand back. They'd hopefully get something up before the 
pollies squandered all the money on less useful things. (-:

Failing that, the Russkies have the technology, just order stuff that works 
from them and use it to build a space infrastructure until your own people 
get up to speed (and unless politics intervene, I see no reason to stop using 
Energia until an obviously technologically superior replacement is found for 
it.

As for the US, there's no point in lollygagging about, is there? Either the 
USA has a space program, in which case fund it properly, or they don't, in 
which case axe it and stop wasting money. With real funding, Columbia would 
have been retired a decade ago, and resting safely in a museum today.

I don't know what an Open Source Educational group has by way of input into 
this, but who knows? Maybe a game based on building and running an elevator 
might make the idea of an elevator popular, as well as being intensely 
educational in terms of engineering, finance and orbital mechanics?

Cheers; Leon