20050919   

Michael considered fate at 23:50   |   Permalink   |   Post a Comment

Between 1961 and 1972, the Apollo program cost $25 billion. Luckily, technology is helping to make things smaller and cheaper. Real cheap:

NASA on Monday unveiled its $104 billion plan to return Americans to the moon by 2018 aboard a capsule-like vehicle the space agency's chief described as "Apollo on steroids."

To be fair, that's not much more than 50% of the Apollo program in constant dollars, but still.. we've done it once before, shouldn't something be cheaper, especially considering how much crap they're going to be re-using?

The new space system is meant to replace the aging and now-grounded shuttle fleet, but would use some shuttle components, including its solid rocket boosters, its main engine and its massive external tank.

Boosters, engine, and tank? Sounds to me like they need a few new swivel-chairs and a espresso machine and they're practically good to go. Best part: Next man on the moon in 2018! Hey, that's only like.. umm.. wait, THIRTEEN years (the Apollo program was about 8).

But hey, all in the name of progress, right? Gotta beat those Malyasians, afterall, cause they're busy voting their astronaut's in like it's Malaysian Idol:

Once its 11,000 would-be astronauts have been whittled down to a handful, their details and updates on their progress will be posted on the internet.

Then, the public will be able to make their choice by telephone text message and Malaysia's space bosses will factor the votes into their final decision.

If the contest proves popular and the government charges for the votes, it may even be able to cover the cost of its space programme.

My favourite bit from the article, though, was this:

The national space agency has already announced plans for a research programme to send the country's favourite foods into orbit and the selection process to find the Malaysian who will taste them in zero gravity is already well advanced.

Did I read that right? Were the terms "Research Programme" and "eat twinkies in zero gravity" just used in the same sentence? Well, I digress.. they don't sound very in shape anyway, maybe they should cut down on their twinks intake:

So far, only 200 short listed candidates have managed to run 3.5km (2.2 miles) in under 20 minutes and pass a medical.

In completely different news, the FAA is allowing free range of air-space for space elevator testing?

The LiftPort Group, the space elevator companies, announced September 9 that it has received a waiver from the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) to use airspace to conduct preliminary tests of its high altitude robotic "lifters."

The lifters are early prototypes of the technology that the company is developing for use in its commercial space elevator to ferry cargo back and forth into space.