X Prize has been WON !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I watched that show on discovery channel last night, it was so intresting and amazing how that was all privately funded. this really is a big day in history and is the beginning of a new industry. to bad i missed it this morning, its all schools fault.

 

NASA isnt trying to set up space vacations. Their job is in the advancement of science.
However, its good that a private company has gone into space, but i think they have a long time fo go until they can put something into orbit as i would bet my last dollar that SS1 is not capable of orbiting the earth because from looking at pics of it it cant possibly carry enough fuel to get it up to the speed required (i think its something like 8000 meters per second) to put something into orbit.

 

IMO, it's an amazing, but worthless, accomplishment. Sort of like hitting 400 mph on water in a piston-powered boat (or maybe flying around the world non-stop )-- neat, but of no real economic value.

My guess is that our future is more like the Eloi in the "Time Machine" movie rather than us successfully colonizing other planets -- just wish I could be around in a few million years to see how it all works out ...

 

I somewhat agree with what 911tr said, but i wouldnt say the accomplishment is worthless, but it has limited value to every day peolple. Colonizing other planets is so far into the future that it isnt really an issue now. We should be more concerned in taking care of our planet rather than thinking we can just move somewhere else. The fact is we wont find any place like it. I know in my lifetime i will see manned missions to mars, but never anyone living there. I dont even know if there will be manned missions to the moon while im alive.
What rutan did is show that he can go into space, but whats the point of just going there? If people want to pay just go to into whats classified as space, then it has some commercial value. I would rather pay to go up in a russian shuttle and actually get to experience weightlessness and see the earth from something like 600 miles away .The fuel costs associated with sending something into orbit is far far more expensive than just getting something to 360,000ft.

 

humans have no choice but to explore and colonize and as william says mine. Beyond being each generations duty it will be necessary to keep up the standard of living.

Feeling good today?? read this

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/4287300/site/newsweek/

T

 

I am sure a few people felt the automobile was worthless when it first showed up. I understand there is a little more technology to be overcome. I am not saying there will be space traffic in 50 years. - You have to start somewhere. Perhaps they will make space travel (low atmosphere) more economical in the future ?


Good show.

 

I think these same words were spoken after man flew his first air-plane.
If space follows the same model ( that the first air-plane did ) built by average guys from a bike repair shop....

Step 1 prove it can be done
Step 2-thru-437,000 modify the crap out of it

 

You sir have no vision. It took months to sail the Atlantic to colonize and explore America. It takes mere days to go to the moon. It takes mere minutes to go to an orbiting space station.

That aside, his accomplishment is the beginning, not the end. The plans are to move forward and build orbit capable ships that can carry paying passengers. To build a orbiting hotel of sorts. Those things do have real economic value if there are enough people who are willing to pay to experience it and I for one would sell my house and live on the street for the chance to experience space.

And you heathen. The Time Machine is a BOOK. All movies are horrible bastardizations of it

Oh and Tim, you are right. there is no reason to live on mars. Afterall it is likely cheaper and easier to build self-supporting space stations

 

Sorry, but providing space joy-rides and space casinos for the wealthy is not my idea of a useful endeavor. As long as you and the billionaires want to spend THEIR/YOUR money (and not MY tax dollars) doing it -- I say more power to them/you.

 

How do you think anything gets cheap enough for everyone's use? Billionaires or governments subsidize it until it's developed enough to be cheap. Everything goes through the following phases:

1) it's impossible
2) well, ok, it's doable, why would anyone want to do that?
3) it's been done, but has no purpose.
4) it's being done, but it's way too expensive.
5) it's regularly done, and kinda interesting.
6) it's ubiquitous, and unnoticed.

Think ocean travel, think automobiles, think aircraft. See the parallels?

 

Space travel can be made cheaper but not cheap enough for someone like me to afford. Its harder and more expensive to build a spacecraft than somethingn like a plane and the fuel costs are extremely high. You have to get something to a speed of like 17k mph for it to not fall out of orbit. It takes alot of fuel to do that (look at the size of the rocket boosters and center tank on the space shuttle. they wouldnt take up all that fuel if they werent going to use ALL of it) I dont know if i'd call what rutan does 'space travel' (i know hes traveling in what is defined as 'space'). In sure nasa could put a plane that high for a relatively low amount of money. When i think of space travel I think of going to the moon or to mars. Space travel is something that cant be made cheap like owning a car became in the 1920's. Even if you have assembly lines cranking out ships to cut down costs tghat still doesnt change the prices of the materials (and spaceships arent made mostly out of steel as far as i know like a car) and processing of them. What he did shows that it can be done for cheap but when he puts something into orbit then he will show nasa that they should think differently.

 

Oh God... imagine what our grandkids have to deal with....


















spaceship ricers!

 

Is that a bird??
















A plane?????





















Superman??????????????


























No, it's a gawd damn civic with an afterburner! And it's crashing THIS WAY!

 

This is awsome! If you think that this doesn't mean anything your are nuts. As for me, and I'm sure hundreds of thousands of people, it has been a dream of mine to go to outer space since I was a kid. As soon as they get things up and running I will be one of those comercial astronauts, and yes even with a price tag of $200k. I will also say that it is absolutley fantastic that it was AMERICANS that did this. YEAH BABY!!!!!!!!!!!! U.S.A., U.S.A., U.S.A., U.S.A., U.S.A., U.S.A!!!!! GOD BLESS AMERICA!

 

Hey what kind of stewardess are you going to have on those space planes ?


How about Blanca from Soul Plane ?

 

I dont think its fair to compare the SS1 to the space shuttles. The space shuttles actually orbit the earth, which as i pointed out earlier in this thread is very different than just flying above an altidute that we define as space. The space shuttles routinely fly to 354 km (this is the altitude of the ISS at the time i wrote this). thats 1,161,000 feet. which is considerably more than the 360,000ft of the SS1, im no astronaut but i can tell you you wont have the fuel. The space shuttle, although 30 years old, is still state of the art inside. IT is made to support a crew for many days whereas the SS1 i would imagine is unable to do this. The space shuttle is also a floating laboratory where experiments are conducted. Does this happen in the SS1? The space shuttle also travels over 17,500mph to keep stay in orbit. The SS1 could never attain such speeds and even if it could, would it be able to slow down? Does the SS1 have many people on the ground at all times serving as mission control? The point of this post is to point out that the SS1 is not and can not be a replacement for the space shuttle. theres a reason gthe space shuttle is so much more expensive to operate (reasons other than the fact that its operated by the gov't) than the SS1.

 

Stands up and cheers! Someobdy should chip that into stone so the wisdom will live on when we're all dead and gone and space travel is so routine it's given nary more thought than going to the 'corner store'.

This is really the big begining folks.

You don't think this is big? We're all wondering if NASA could run ONE OFFICE BUILDING on 95 people and $20mil! That's less than a production G5, and this is a one-off!

Wish like hell Branson would return my calls...