OT: Space Station Fun

on-space.html

I doubt the A figure and doubt the B figure as well.

Oh I agree with you.. a waste. (I also think that CERN was a bit of a waste of "our" research dollars.. Don't tell Jerone.)

George H.

You do not get it. Probes are easy. Like a pool shot.

Larger payloads and live payloads require different methods.

Earth based boosters push SEGMENTS of the actual craft into space. A space platform, NOT the ISS is positioned above the ISS and is where the main mission ready craft final assembly is done. Fueling is done in space for any chemical based boost segments. Solid based breakaway boosters can be added to make the fuel parcel on board be for braking and return boost, if part of the mission. That conserves even more, but means more needs to be decelerated as well. I'd rather have it on hand myself.

ANY large mass Jupiter mission would require a space based launch, short of us building a really nice and really huge and really long catapult on The Moon for the initial velocity attainment task. A controlled acceleration rail gun set-up.

What? 50 years from now? I think it will be there longer than you will be here.

Current plans are to end it in 2020 to 2028. Unless the Russians, or a disaster, kill it first.

I sold a pile of gear for the Supercollider, in Texas, before the plug was pulled on that. We instrumented the world's largest helium liquefaction plant.

Well, then hopefully at least the second half of my statement remains true.

The US has the second highest corporate income tax rate in the world. US+California+FICA+Property taxes +++ etc are well over 50%. Personal income tax rates are huge, too. You don't need an outrageous income to pay a megabuck in taxes over a lifetime. And pay them again, when you die.

We would all like to allocate our tax donations, but I don't think you understand the system yet. Once you "donate", you have no say. Live with it and shut up like the rest of us. Or, start your own Ruby Ridge. Or lobby somebody. Or pay Arnold some of your cash to do your bidding. But your bitching here is accomplishing nothing.

Okay. Move your business overseas and quit bitching.

...and emits YouTubes.

Cheers, James Arthur

The helium plant worked fine; it's still there, I think. The scientists screwed up, asking for more money. Look it up.

Anyone who works on Big_Science projects likely gets associated with failures. If you're lucky, you make some money before they fail.

At least I didn't have to sell a house in Waxahachie; I know people who did.

Bigger businesses do offshore their manufacturing and IP and foreign sales revenue and stuff. You need a small army of lawyers to manage that.

We could move to Nevada and save most of the state tax. Might some day.

One can donate to tax-deductable charities, to steer some of the money. I do that to some extent.

How about the guy who flew a pedal-powered airplane across the British channel? Yes, clearly not with his own, biologically-grown wings, but yes, on his own leg muscle power!

Jon

I hadn't noticed the ambiguity of "hawking" radiation until now.

Any low-earth orbiting station is going to be on the other side of the eart h from the tele-operator once every 88 minutes. That's a bounce to a synchr onous satellite and back for the operator feedback - about 70,000 km, or ab out 0.23 sec of propagation time each way. I'd hate to be subject to surger y when the surgeon was coping with that kind of lag.

Ewe ought to be in pictures...

Get enough of ewe in one place, and something could happen...