NASA creates the most powerful rocket ever built

[twilyth]

http://www.businessinsider.com/nasas-sls-launch-system-to-mars-is-most-powerful-rocket-2015-2

Right now, NASA is constructing a monster rocket, called the Space Launch System, that will be the most powerful rocket ever built.

This rocket is designed for NASA's future deep-space missions. It will launch four astronauts aboard the Orion spacecraft toward far-off destination, which could include an asteroid and even Mars in the not-to0-distant future.

 

[FordGT90Concept]

Looks like NASA got out of its slump. Good, good!

 

[bubbleawsome]

This is an amazing rocket.

 

[twilyth]

You can view about 30 or so more images from the gallery here. For example:

 

[OneMoar]

assuming it doesn't xplode on the launch pad
ho-hum
NASA isn't really relevant anymore
spaceX and projects like it has done more interesting and beneficial stuff in the past year then NASA has done in the last 4

 

[Arrakis9]

assuming it doesn't xplode on the launch pad
ho-hum
NASA isn't really relevant anymore
spaceX and projects like it has done more interesting and beneficial stuff in the past year then NASA has done in the last 4

you can thank obama for cutting the budget and letting that sort of thing happen

 

[twilyth]

assuming it doesn't xplode on the launch pad
ho-hum
NASA isn't really relevant anymore
spaceX and projects like it has done more interesting and beneficial stuff in the past year then NASA has done in the last 4

IDK. SpaceX's super heavy lift vehicle won't be ready until the mid 2020's.

 

[xfia]

http://www.spacex.com/falcon-heavy spacex claims to be launching a rocket twice as powerful as any other this year.

I would not say nasa is out of the game in anyway.. just making a rocket more powerful is not going to allow people to hop on board and take a ride where only probes have gone.

 

[twilyth]

I don't really know, but if I were to guess I would say that the idea behind a heavy lift vehicle is to get all of the gear you need for a round trip up in one launch rather than multiple launches. The SLS can loft 70 metric tons. I don't think Falcon can do even half of that. Which is fine if you plan to build your ship in orbit or send multiple modules to your destination. But it seems to me that might complicate things.

edit: OK just looked at the falcon heavy link. If they actually get it to work, it looks like it would provide some competition for SLS.

 

[xfia]

makes since.. I dont see spacex working on ion engines and who even knows what else nasa doesn't talk about with all the military collaboration.

 

[AsRock]

you can thank obama for cutting the budget and letting that sort of thing happen

O please, you really think it's him who did it, i man no insult to the American people but their just puppets to take the blame and some one new every few years.

Anyways.

assuming it doesn't xplode on the launch pad
ho-hum
NASA isn't really relevant anymore
spaceX and projects like it has done more interesting and beneficial stuff in the past year then NASA has done in the last 4

Are they privately funded ?. Maybe NASA need to ask the American people for money for their projects and no relay on government.

 

[twilyth]

It really does suck that NASA gets no respect in terms of funding. Some sort of public-private collaboration for funding purposes would be a good way to go. But I think having competition from the likes of SpaceX helps. It just looks bad to have a private company doing a better job of exploration than the agency that was created to do it.

 

[FordGT90Concept]

spaceX and projects like it has done more interesting and beneficial stuff in the past year then NASA has done in the last 4

They've been transitioning their focus. In the past decade, they were mostly focused on near Earth launches with the shuttles. They stopped doing that, transitioning that role away from NASA to private programs like SpaceX in order to free up resources to do more ambitious things like land a drone on an asteroid and get man to Mars. The SLS appears to be what will accomplish the former but they'll need an even bigger rocket to do the latter. SpaceX isn't anywhere even close to the Saturn V rocket. NASA is for science; SpaceX is for profit.


As I've said before in many other threads: NASA should incorporated into the Department of Defense as a civilian, public arm of the Pentagon. Their purpose often overlaps (look at the space suits SR-71 pilots/engineers used, this SLS would work for delivering a 70 ton hydrogen bomb to any place on Earth, and the next generation of bombers will likely be hypersonic bouncing on the edge of the atmosphere that NASA could help with and learn much from).

 

[CAPSLOCKSTUCK]

Go NASA.... .....get those massive payloads in to space

Competition stimulates innovation and progress. Any agency that can keep us up in space gets my vote.



Britain used to be at the forefront of rocket technology (in a Wallace and Gromit fashion) ... Black Arrow ........if you like videos here is one. We build a lot of the stuff at the pointy end nowadays.

This is the Russian heavy lift equivalent The Angara 100 (proposed) will lift 100 metric tonnes

http://www.khrunichev.ru/ ........more on Russian Space Stuff

 

[krusha03]

makes since.. I dont see spacex working on ion engines and who even knows what else nasa doesn't talk about with all the military collaboration.

Ion engines are for low acceleration, long duration missions. They are high specific impulse and can achieve high velocity (in theory 0.3-0.4c) but it would take tens of years to accelerate and then to slow down again. So they are not really viable for human missions but for robotic ones. At that is once you are in space. You still need high thrust engines to escape the earth's gravity and that's where these big rockets come in

O please, you really think it's him who did it, i man no insult to the American people but their just puppets to take the blame and some one new every few years.

IDK who did it but NASAs budget is at all time low at % of federal budget if you don't count the first 2 years it was formed. In 1966 (moon missions) it had 4.4%, in 1972 it was about 1.5% (space shuttle program starts) and now it's at less than 0.5% of the total budget

 

[rtwjunkie]

you can thank obama for cutting the budget and letting that sort of thing happen

Yup. He slashed their budget by 90%, said we were scrapping Mars, and told all the eggheads that instead of using their brains they should concentrate on public outreach, whtever the hell THAT is. That was soon after taking office.

 

[xfia]

maybe some new two part ion engine could take people farther than ever. I was really just saying rockets that use a lot fuel are not furthering much.. I guess they are good for putting bigger holes in the ozone layer. we need some real innovation and my money would be on nasa to do so over spacex since they have been doing so since day one leading to changing most peoples everyday life.

 

[rtwjunkie]

Isn't SpaceX plan one way, no return possible? I recall reading in depth article which was to keep sending 3 people at 2 year intervals, interspersed with heavy equipment and supplies. It's alot easier to do a space mission if you dont have to plan on the return dynamics. and only plan on building a colony/conducting assisted suicide.

 

[krusha03]

maybe some new two part ion engine could take people farther than ever. I was really just saying rockets that use a lot fuel are not furthering much.. I guess they are good for putting bigger holes in the ozone layer. we need some real innovation and my money would be on nasa to do so over spacex since they have been doing so since day one leading to changing most peoples everyday life.

It really doesnt work that way. Current ion and other electric propulsion high specific impulse engines have thrust in the range of 10^-3 Newtons while launchers have thrust in the order of 10^6 Newtons. That is 9 order of magnitudes difference. For this to work probably a fusion reactor would be necessary (and even then it needs to have enough thrust to lift it's own weight + cargo). Unfortunately at the moment we are stuck with chemical rockets for going into LEO. Now if they could make those nano-carbon tubes going and make a space elevator, that would be a cheap way to orbit

 

[xfia]

I think I have seen dr michio kaku talking about a space elevator before. he certainly has a vision of the future.
https://video.search.yahoo.com/vide...a&sigb=12sh10tgc&hspart=mozilla&hsimp=yhs-001

 

[krusha03]

I think I have seen dr michio kaku talking about a space elevator before. he certainly has a vision of the future.

A japanese company said they plan to build a space elevator by 2050. I just hope i live to see it

 

[FordGT90Concept]

Yup. He slashed their budget by 90%, said we were scrapping Mars, and told all the eggheads that instead of using their brains they should concentrate on public outreach, whtever the hell THAT is. That was soon after taking office.

He needed to fund Obamacare. Can't spend $15 billion on space projects when he just created a $200 billion budget deficit due to the largely unfunded healthcare exchanges and Medicaid expansion (which is already barely solvent). Oh and with Medicaid, the federal and state governments jointly fund that. States had to make cuts too to expand Medicare.

 

[64K]

Spoiler: Off Topic

The Federal Deficit did fall last year even with Obama Care to the lowest level since 2008. The Federal Debt is up to 18 trillion dollars now. That's more than our GNP. If you are a Baby Boomer then that debt will be paid for by your children and grandchildren in some way.

 

[Lopez0101]

He needed to fund Obamacare. Can't spend $15 billion on space projects when he just created a $200 billion budget deficit due to the largely unfunded healthcare exchanges and Medicaid expansion (which is already barely solvent). Oh and with Medicaid, the federal and state governments jointly fund that. States had to make cuts too to expand Medicare.

Cut half the foreign aid the US sends overseas every year. There, I just funded national health care, NASA, rebuilding the crumbling transportation infrastructure, and pretty much anything else you want.

 

[rtwjunkie]

Actually, that's a popular misconception. It makes for good hysteria though. Foreign Aid is really a small part of the U.S. Budget.