General Message Board

I couldn't locate any Group for this subject. If there is one already, please let me know!

Arthur C. Clarke, Hermann Oberth, Robert H. Goddard, Willy Ley, Wernher von Braun, Chesley Bonestell? I can dig it! Who else?

Welcome aboard!

Since you mention Chesley B, there's In the Stream of Stars: The Soviet-American Space Art Book.

I have a couple of apparently "unshared" books on the Soviet program: Orbits of Peace and Progress edited by Popovitch, and The Russian Space Bluff: The Inside Story of the Soviet Drive to the Moon by Vladimirov.

Hello, I found you!

There isn't a lot I know about space crafts, my interests lie more towards the study and exploration of the alien worlds that surround us.

I look forward to talking to you all!

Hi folks! I just joined up at myshelves' invitation. While I don't have a good book to recommend right now, here's a link to what my wife affectionately refers to as "the mistress" after I spent six or so years on it...

http://pluto.jhuapl.edu/

Anyone interested in discussing current developments in spaceflight? There are so many new companies and rockets - Falcon, New Shepherd, H3, and so on!

I'm in.

>7 haydninvienna: Awesome. I saw this news last week in their newsletter, but this is a good summary:

https://www.space.com/blue-origin-new-shepard-mishap-engine-nozzle-failure

It is very concerning to me that the max temperature exceeded their expectations and that the nozzle couldn't handle it.

I'm in as well. I've followed the various space programs from the early days and remember well the excitement of the moon landing. It's a shame the way events went after that. Things seem to be back on track now. Commercialism and new national manned space programs could herald a new era in space travel.

I might get to see humans back on the moon in my lifetime. Being sixteen in 1969 I never expected to be saying that.

>9 UncleMort: I’m four years older than you, and I expect to see humans on the moon in my lifetime.

>9 UncleMort: >10 haydninvienna: I hope to see humans on Mars in my lifetime! Very ambitious, but I think it will happen. Also asteroid mining may become a reality.

>2 bertilak: - missing Isaac Asimov.

He has a great novel, Nemesis

https://www.librarything.com/work/3970/book/237225764

about travel to the closest inhabitable planet, written 3 years befor the first exosolar planet was discovered.

I'm currently reading Cold Fusion

https://www.librarything.com/work/30013404/book/237507348

which also seems to deal with the some plot outline.

I'm also following some of the technology developments for manned exploration beyond the moon, though like the promise of fusion energy solving our energy crisis, I don't currently hold out much hope for it being developed in time.

Nemesis by Isaac Asimov was published in 1989, three years before his death (6 Apr 1992).

Isaac described a planetary system masked by a nebula in the Oort Cloud (at the edge of the solar system) which included a gas giant planet in a short period orbit about its primary red dwarf star.

The cosmigrants settled on Erythro, a moon of of this planet. This was a radical idea in 1989, but was vindicated with the discovery of the first extrasolar planet orbiting a sun-like star (51 Pegasi) in 1995, dubbed "Bellerophon".

Furthermore, the first speculated "habitable" planet discovered in 2007, Gliese 581c, orbits a red dwarf star located only 20.3 light years from Earth — a notable similarity to the novel wherein Erythro is the first inhabited extra–solar body.

Congrats folks, we got this group back to active status! Now let's keep it going!

Boeing Starliner flight delayed again: https://www.space.com/boeing-starliner-first-crewed-flight-delayed-july-2023

At this point they should be renaming that thing to 'Yugo' or maybe 'Edsel'. There really should be another unmanned launch before they trust people in it.

>14 Karlstar: Why they keep plugging away on development of the Starliner is beyond me. There must be some powerful vested interests involved.

>15 UncleMort: Agreed, though there's a lot of sunk cost involved, so that's likely part of it. In the event of a Falcon 9 problem, it would represent a non-Russian backup launcher and vehicle. If it ever is successful. They should be forcing Boeing to conduct a couple more test flights before testing it, cost to be borne by Boeing.

I saw an article today, finally, that criticized the enormous cost sunk into the Starliner and NASA's clear preference now for the Dragon. Also saw an article that discussed Artemis II and why it won't land on the moon - might be the lack of a lander and Gateway!

>17 Karlstar: "Back to the Moon" sort of implies a landing. It's not as if Artemis II is even going into orbit.

It's being discussed on the BBC at the moment. They keep saying they will orbit the Moon. It's a fly-by.

>19 UncleMort: Right, Artemis II is just a fly-by. They really need to get working on Gateway if they are going to plan a landing this decade, instead of just pretending that's the plan.

Looks like SpaceX is basically ready to launch Starship on the orbital test flight, just waiting on FAA approval. Now if only the FAA would get done with that...

Now they are saying maybe the end of the 3rd week in April!

Highly anticipated here. Even a partial success will be a milestone.

Starliner delayed again. They really need to take a more SpaceX approach and fly several more unmanned test launches and probably just call this one a prototype and move on to 2.0. Too many issues.