Space shuttle Atlantis Landed!

[YotaGirl]

The shuttle Atlantis landed out here at Edwards Airforce Base. The sonic boom was pretty intense! The loudest I've ever heard! My dad heard it down in Beaumont. Anyone hear it?

[calrockx]

Aw, I missed it.

[AxleIke]

Good. I was at Kennedy for the launch. It was spectacular.

Glad all made it hope safe. I always worry about the astronauts in the Shuttle.

Luckily only a couple more years.

Horray for ORION!

[YotaGirl]

Amen to that! NASA needed to scrap these shuttles years ago. One of my dad's flying buddies has a son who was a shuttle pilot. He's retired now (thank God). I've always been interested in the shuttle missions; since I was little. Haven't been to see a launch, though. That would be cool to see.

Jenn

[ecchamberlin]

Agreed that the shuttle program is well due for an overhaul. Discovery HD had a NASA update show that shows the new Orion rockets. Very cool indeed. I think it was part of the show talking about a manned mission to Mars.

[Robinhood4x4]

That's good, I've been following the story. :)

[xonetruthcrewx]

Yeah i heard it. Im about 45 minutes from Edwards. I usually see the shuttle from where i work when it lands at Edwards, but i was crazy busy at work today and didnt have time to check it out.

[AxleIke]

Agreed that the shuttle program is well due for an overhaul. Discovery HD had a NASA update show that shows the new Orion rockets. Very cool indeed. I think it was part of the show talking about a manned mission to Mars.


ha!

Thats funny. The technology we have is so far out from being able to go to Mars, they'll need $60-100 billion more to get things that far. It'll be cool if they get back to the moon though, we've got the stuff to do that.

One of my very good friends just got a job as a junior engineer on the CEV for the Orion launch vehicle down at Lockheed. Said the Security clearance stuff was pretty funny, called all his family and friends to talk about him and what he'd been up to.

I love the astronomy and aerospace. Some of the positively coolest stuff.

[ecchamberlin]

The engineers on the show didn't seem to think it was that far out of our reach. THey said the biggest challenge is keeping the humans on the trip supplied with food and sane from the long ride there and back.

But that is way off topic here

[AxleIke]

The engineers on the show didn't seem to think it was that far out of our reach. THey said the biggest challenge is keeping the humans on the trip supplied with food and sane from the long ride there and back.

But that is way off topic here


Well, they weren't lying to you on part of that.

Keeping the astronauts supplied with air and water IS a big challenge.

However, not the biggest challenge.

The biggest challenge for a trip to mars is keeping the astronauts alive for the entire trip.

The current technology cannot protect the astronauts from the MASSIVE doses of radiation that they will be exposed to on the 2 year minimum journey round trip to Mars.

Let me take that back. We do have the technology, it is called lead. But, with a launch cost of roughly $10k per pound with the current system, (probably will go down as time goes on), and since lead weighs in at a density of 11.3 g/cm^3, the cost to transport enough lead to space, and then launch them back off of Mars, to protect would cost well into the trillions.

Astronauts can survive on the Space Station becasue it is in low earth orbit, and still protected by the earth's magnetic field. Trips to the moon are short enough that they can survive. A trip to mars would cook them alive.

[YotaGirl]

I love watching science programs on TV, especially space related topics. I have to wonder about them sometimes, though. They always make everything seem so easy and within reach. I wonder if they do that to keep the morale of the American people up so we can justify spending more money on the program.