tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6618880.post2705004612773332138..comments2024-03-27T00:26:31.343-07:00Comments on The Commercial Space Blog: Chuck Blackhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09506476753520146858noreply@blogger.comBlogger5125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6618880.post-52519718039640256862013-01-13T17:42:50.325-08:002013-01-13T17:42:50.325-08:00"Obsolete before it can get implemented...&qu..."Obsolete before it can get implemented..." The space industry is inovating at a snails pace commpared to the rest of the world. The real issue is Congress has stopped writing checks to Nasas never ending apitite for funding. As a result Nasa restructured their budget and almost had to cut the James Webb out of existence. The scarry thought is that Nasa may continue to see budget constraints as the Government fights itself over its uncontrollable debt and financial collapse.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6618880.post-51299224081109677842012-11-18T13:33:39.322-08:002012-11-18T13:33:39.322-08:00RZ is always saying the same damm thing he's o...RZ is always saying the same damm thing he's over confident it's almost so annoying we barely know what he propose and where's he will find the money or fundraisers who will back his ideas? unseen yet !!<br />2nd .it's well known that this fella it's very intransigent and usually comes with very mad ideas in the scientific community that usually confuse everyone even himself! much has to be investigate with the actual rovers and spacecraft that we got there ....PERIOD DEAL WITH IT!!<br />Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6618880.post-81671500168778480562012-08-30T15:28:20.453-07:002012-08-30T15:28:20.453-07:00I've turned the editorial above into a longer ...I've turned the editorial above into a longer article focusing more on the showmanship aspects which was published in the Space Review as "VASIMR and a new war of the currents" at http://www.thespacereview.com/article/1896/1. <br /><br />Feel free to check it out. Chuck Blackhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09506476753520146858noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6618880.post-69177967489892780152012-08-28T20:00:20.854-07:002012-08-28T20:00:20.854-07:00When you break it down though, Zubrin's pretty...When you break it down though, Zubrin's pretty much dead-on correct.<br /><br />The 200 megawatts VASIMR would need to make a 39-day run to Mars would require literally *thousands of tons* of nuclear reactor and heat-radiating fins. Put another way, 200 megawatts is enough to power a medium-sized CITY.<br /><br />The other way to supply power would be solar panels. But even with 50 percent sunlight-to-power conversion efficiency, you're talking roughly 100 ACRES of solar panels. More, actually, because the sun is weaker at Mars' distance from the Sun... you only get 43 percent as much sunlight as you do at Earth's orbital distance. <br /><br />VASIMR is a nice technology, but the application of it that Chang-Diaz has been talking up- fast transit times to relatively near planets (Mars)- is very wrong-headed and currently wildly impractical.<br /><br />Where VASIMR would make sense is on voyages to the outer planets (where a lower-power/thrust implementation would have a lot more time to accelerate the vessel), and as a low-speed, high-efficiency cargo transporter to Mars. <br /><br />But manned missions to Mars? They're much better served by NTP (Nuclear Thermal Propulsion) engines, which are proven (NERVA built and tested 'em 50 years ago), are twice as efficient as current chemical rockets, are high-thrust, and yet don't require thousands of tons of nuclear reactor or hundred of acres of solar panels. <br /><br />Zubrin's anger with VASIMR, other than its wild current impracticality, is that it increases the cost of any manned mission to Mars ASTRONOMICALLY, which in the current budgetary environment essentially kills any chance of such a mission, if ppl buy into Chang-Diaz's line that you can't go to Mars without his engine.<br /><br />Chang-Diaz, while admirable as an entrepreneur, has been VERY irresponsible in his salesmanship job for his pet technology, and he may yet set back any timetable for a manned mission to Mars via the confusion he has sown.<br /><br />Unknownhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/04045887949787201350noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6618880.post-90568417181666207722012-03-22T21:26:50.279-07:002012-03-22T21:26:50.279-07:00I am familiar with Bob Zubrin's work. Getting ...I am familiar with Bob Zubrin's work. Getting to Mars 'Old School' isn't that appealing. Spaceflight technology has done a lot of progress... any politician who sits on The Office of Science & Technology Committee has a tendency to wonder if a program will be obsolete before it can be implemented? Mars missions aren't going to be like Moon flights; you need more margins on performance. Zubrin would be happy if you could go to Mars to stay... but exploration is the key to NASA missions. You have to return alive, and it's not a tough sale to get to Mars 6 times faster than convention means. There is no crash program to finance + cost overruns... thats why a lot of policy is going this direction. Bob Zubrin is an expert on how to get to Mars with what we have... but doing something like this has many more options than just one expert's plan! Ad Astra is an applied plasma technology company that does more than build 'test engines'... and they go hand in hand with product development & customer needs. There is a finish line with what any enterprise accomplishes, let's see what happens...when Mars or any other objective is approached, it's done with planning and resolve... maybe that's what this is really about.tomhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05659018685939890936noreply@blogger.com