We live in an incredible time

"Jayhawk Jake" (jayhawkjake)
11/12/2014 at 21:35 • Filed to: None

Some people are quick to say that space exploration isn't as good as it used to be. Sure, our manned space efforts haven't been as amazing as the moon landings of the 70s, but holy shit has a lot been accomplished lately

We have a car sized robot driving around Mars. Multiple spacecraft orbiting the red planet, including s recent mission from India. China recently put a rover on the moon. The ESA just landed a probe on a comet.

There's a probe passing Pluto soon. A giant building orbiting the planet. Private companies launching satellites regularly.

We've taken pictures on Venus, Mars, and Titan. We have taken pictures close to an asteroid and a comet. And soon we should have pictures taken from the surface of that comet.

Mankind has really reached quite far recently, and it's nothing short of awe inspiring. I just wish more people would recognize it.

Next time you look to the stars and wonder if we'll ever make it to them remember how far we've gone already. There's no telling where we'll end up someday, we've already proven that nothing is impossible when you put your mind to it

DISCUSSION (14)

Life and Times of Magoo: The People's Champ > Jayhawk Jake
11/12/2014 at 21:45

Here Here! Landing on a damn comet was just an idea for the movies for most of us regular folk.

Agrajag > Jayhawk Jake
11/12/2014 at 21:46

You're right. There have been some pretty amazing accomplishments. We should still have a goddamn moon base by now though.

ly2v8-Brian > Jayhawk Jake
11/12/2014 at 21:49

The manned mission to Mars will happen. But before that what it sounds like is an even larger rover is in the works. I hope Skunkworks is right and their compact fusion reactor is for real. That would help a lot.

Also, for a manned mission to Mars, why don't they assemble a large ship in space? Build something like the ISS but smaller and with large enough rockets to propel it to Mars and back. If they built it in space than instead of overcoming the atmosphere with one large rocket with a limited payload, they send up a bunch of smaller rockets. Do you know where I'm going with my ramblings?

Jayhawk Jake > ly2v8-Brian
11/12/2014 at 22:15

Yes. That was the plan for Constellation before it was scrapped for the SLS program

Russia has a plan to build a space station that will then be set up on an orbit between earth and mars

ly2v8-Brian > Jayhawk Jake
11/12/2014 at 22:19

I still think it's a really good idea. Because they will need to be at the Red Planet for quite a while.

Racescort666 > ly2v8-Brian
11/12/2014 at 23:26

Did you read my post on fusion reactors? I don't remember, I don't really want to go back and look because the trolls came out of nowhere about a day later.

Basically, for part of it I explained how to use a fusion reactor as an upper rocket stage. DOE had done some testing on an nuclear rocket stage but you could go beyond that by using the reactor once it's in space. Hypothetically an asteroid capture mission could provide water or other liquids to be used as fuel. There is a bunch of stuff that could be used as fuel for a rocket and would make traveling between bodies much easier.

Dr Emilio Lizardo > Jayhawk Jake
11/12/2014 at 23:32

I have a power point presentation that I amend to other presentations about how MSL Curiosity flew 352 million miles (almost 4 times the earth to the sun) in 253 days (slightly less than it takes a baby to be born) and landed via rocket controlled robotic sky crane ( ROCKET CONTROLLED ROBOTIC SKY CRANE!!!!!! ) in an area of about 50 square miles (Boston).

Meanwhile, the Mars reconnaissance orbiter, which had already been in orbit around mars for six years, was maneuvered into position, from earth, and took pictures of it arriving and landing.

That's pretty frakking impressive and I use it as evidence that there is nothing we can't do if we put our minds to it.

ly2v8-Brian > Racescort666
11/12/2014 at 23:33

That would be amazing if it could work. I kind of remember such a post.

Racescort666 > ly2v8-Brian
11/12/2014 at 23:36

I'm a guy with crazy ideas. I seem to recall a similar type of guy founding both a car company and a rocket company...

ly2v8-Brian > Racescort666
11/12/2014 at 23:38

I would put myself in the same boat. My imagination hasn't been crushed out of me.

Racescort666 > ly2v8-Brian
11/12/2014 at 23:49

Yep! Although the project I'm on is doing its best to crush my ambition of paving new ground.

ly2v8-Brian > Racescort666
11/12/2014 at 23:51

What do you do if you don't mind me asking? I'm in school for engineering (I'm 25 but just getting started now) and I like to hear about what people do.

Racescort666 > ly2v8-Brian
11/13/2014 at 00:21

Mechanical engineer. I will do an AMA at some point but it will unfortunately be somewhat vague since I can't share much detail on the projects I'm on or their nature.

Suffice it to say, on a short project (less than a year from start to drawing release) I had a 3-4 month delay in receiving CAD data from our customer but they never changed the due date. Since I work outside the department that is managing the project I wasn't going to overstep my bounds by getting on the case of the customer for not providing us data in a timely manner.

Normally, I'd have no problem with hassling someone who owes me information but going around program management in this case would have made my company look bad (at the time). Now the project is way behind and over budget and we look bad anyway.

Moral of the story: keep a working document, that gets date stamped and archived on regular intervals, of who owes you information and who you owe information to. We have called them open issues decks but it's basically just a dated task list. It helps keep things from falling off the table and if you're having trouble getting feedback from people it's an easy way of raising the issue as a priority. Also, it is a document that should be shared with everyone that who owes information. Some people don't like seeing their name on a to-do list that will probably end up going to their boss at some point but as long as you're up front by stating "this is going to everyone and is only for tracking tasks."

gmporschenut also a fan of hondas > Jayhawk Jake
11/13/2014 at 06:59

I would have loved to be a fly on the wall "We're going to land a car sized vehicle on mars and slow the descent with rockets."

Kinja'd!!!