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CCIP · 03-20-10, 02:07 PM

Yeah, but how much better will it be than Soyuz? Or even how much different it will be...

I know ESA is considering a manned vehicle based based on their ATV freighters. That wouldn't be too bad, but again, so much of the technology in those is just old and proven stuff that isn't pushing engineering forward and isn't, in the long run, making space more accessible.

Don't get me wrong, I'm a fan of the Soyuz and in fact the whole Russian program of vehicles based on the famous "7" ICBM - the Soyuz especially is a real achievement, being by far the safest space vehicle series ever flown. But it's technology that is fundamentally the same mid-50s rocket and mid-60s capsule. Engineering needs to move forward and BE moved forward by space exploration. If we sit on the same old smoky, expensive, one-use vehicles, we ain't gonna get very far in the near future. Just sit in LEO with cargo delivery costing more than its weight in gold. And in the long run, being stuck in LEO is kind of a danger to space exploration, at that...

03-20-10, 02:07 PM	#6
CCIP Navy Seal Join Date: Apr 2005 Location: Waterloo, Canada Posts: 8,700 Downloads: 29 Uploads: 2	Yeah, but how much better will it be than Soyuz? Or even how much different it will be... I know ESA is considering a manned vehicle based based on their ATV freighters. That wouldn't be too bad, but again, so much of the technology in those is just old and proven stuff that isn't pushing engineering forward and isn't, in the long run, making space more accessible. Don't get me wrong, I'm a fan of the Soyuz and in fact the whole Russian program of vehicles based on the famous "7" ICBM - the Soyuz especially is a real achievement, being by far the safest space vehicle series ever flown. But it's technology that is fundamentally the same mid-50s rocket and mid-60s capsule. Engineering needs to move forward and BE moved forward by space exploration. If we sit on the same old smoky, expensive, one-use vehicles, we ain't gonna get very far in the near future. Just sit in LEO with cargo delivery costing more than its weight in gold. And in the long run, being stuck in LEO is kind of a danger to space exploration, at that... __________________ There are only forty people in the world and five of them are hamburgers. -Don Van Vliet (aka Captain Beefheart)