Topic: =/\= german satellite falls, nasa leaked info fiasco, most preserved dino found

[stoneyface]

about 8 hours ago, the german rosat satellite fell from orbit. much like the september nasa satellite, the trajectory was unknown before hand where it would fall. it appears that most of the wreckage has fallen into the indian ocean yet there have been no eye witnesses to come forward yet so everything is still unconfirmed... read here for details: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-15402157

another story involving germans! lol anyway, some german paleontologists have found a nearly perfectly preserved dinosaur skeleton in bavaria. this is reported to be the most complete dino skeleton ever found. ever! they are calling it an "almost perfect" specimen. that i call exciting!
read here for details: http://www.spiegel.de/international/germany/0,1518,791496,00.html
(p.s. i love der spiegel great reporting)

last is a controversary concerning a leaked NASA document that contains info on research into fuel depot stations to reach distant targets versus larger "heavy lift rockets". one claim is that if they use fuel depots they could save $80Billion (with a capital B). the controversy stems from the fact that nasa is rejecting the finding that it could use fuel stations and existing small lift rockets and not have to design and build new "heavy lift" rockets at all. the large outcry from the science community is why they are not even considering this considering the state of NASA funding...
if i were paranoid, i would think that someone really wants that heavy lift rocket contract and may have "encouraged" this rejection with some easy cash to someone in NASA. it seems that the subtext of a few articles seem to indicate that i am not alone in this idea...
anyway, read here for more details: http://www.nytimes.com/2011/10/23/science/space/23nasa.html?_r=4 and the pdf stufy http://images.spaceref.com/news/2011/HATDepot.Study.pdf

[knightstorm]

Or it could be that NASA doesn't want to tie their planned exploration projects to a an orbital infrastructure which may never be built.  Until the depot is in orbit, using it to replace heavy lift rockets is not a viable option.  Once it is in orbit, I wouldn't be surprised if NASA switched to it to cut costs.

[Panzergranate]

So how would the astronauts pay for their gas at the depot and in which currency??

With the highway robbery currently in progress at gas stations, NASA may have just found a way generating revenue.... run a gas station.

[stoneyface]

it is much more than just an orbital fuel depot. they are talking about earth orbit in a lagrange point somewhere, the moon, mars, jupiter near titan, etc... a vast network. to me it makes much much much more sense than heavy lift. once we can actually do a space elevator, the need for lift rocketry at all is outdated and unnecessary! i just wish people at nasa had a longer vision...

[knightstorm]

it is much more than just an orbital fuel depot. they are talking about earth orbit in a lagrange point somewhere, the moon, mars, jupiter near titan, etc... a vast network. to me it makes much much much more sense than heavy lift. once we can actually do a space elevator, the need for lift rocketry at all is outdated and unnecessary! i just wish people at nasa had a longer vision...

Actually, they're not being short sighted, they're just looking at political realities.  When Obama leaves office, everything that NASA is working on will be on the chopping block.  If they tie their other long range exploration missions to this depot, and it gets cut, they'll have serious problems.

[stoneyface]

well i never said short sighted, just lacking in long range vision. nasa is always on the chopping block despite who the president is. the next president will be no different. one of the reasons i think that space exploration needs to move to the private science sector is to get rid of heavy handed government oversite.

[knightstorm]

well i never said short sighted, just lacking in long range vision. nasa is always on the chopping block despite who the president is. the next president will be no different. one of the reasons i think that space exploration needs to move to the private science sector is to get rid of heavy handed government oversite.

Unless a projcet has broad support or is far enough along, it will usually get canned when a new administration comes to Washington, then when that president has been in office for a few years, and decides he wants a legacy, he'll start a bunch of new expensive programs that will get scrapped by the next guy.  Also, tying their missions to this depot would be a bad idea.  For comparison, the Hubble Space telescope was was tied closely to the space shuttle.  It was almost never launched because of the Challenger disaster.  It was almost allowed to die because of the Columbia disaster.

[Kreeargh]

well i never said short sighted, just lacking in long range vision. nasa is always on the chopping block despite who the president is. the next president will be no different. one of the reasons i think that space exploration needs to move to the private science sector is to get rid of heavy handed government oversite.

 NASA is heavy handed government oversite .   BUT the same heavy handed government oversite + taxes + more heavy handed government oversite  cause its now "private sector" . Things wont change im my lifetime. Same well off ppl those can afford it whatnot can go the rest just pays for those trips via taxes or other crapola hidden 500$ hammer issues.

Any reports of trash smashing in to america from the german satellite ?

[stoneyface]

most of the debris hit the indian ocean according to the sources i saw. did you hear something about it hitting north america?