What, no love for shuttle launches?

[Baclava]

Have we become that jaded?

I got to see one up close a couple years ago, from inside the Cape, and it's an awesome sight. If you can't feel the sense of wonder, you might as well crawl back into your caves and let the shamans tell you about the world from the shadows on the cave walls.

fire rockets into the sky - it's a boys dream

[UrbScotty]

1. .

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=105x8761714

[Baclava]

4. dammit I was looking for that

all these pages look the same - we need shinng red flags to see what we've already seen or something

in the virtual world, of course


thus spake baclava

[HopeHoops]

2. Have you ever seen the movie "Rocket Men"?

It is the story of Goddard as a child - really good movie and done as a story, not a documentary.

[Baclava]

3. Yes I have , I suck at math - so I quit rockets at a very early age

probably before birth

[HopeHoops]

5. Rocket science is actually quite simple:

The center of gravity must be ahead of the center of pressure and the wider the gap the better. In other words, a heavy nose cone and big ass fins are as stable as you will get (although they might not produce the best flight characteristics). The equation has to remain in balance throughout the fuel burn cycle, so you have to test it without fuel. I made a few of my own with barely a half inch difference between the two centers and they flew beautifully.

[Baclava]

7. Oh, trust me, I blew a lot of stuff up as a kid

It only makes my amazement of how chemical energy is transferred into forward motion.

An anthropomorphic view would say that even the aliens must be impressed with our death-defying feats of flaming rocket plumes.


We will spread our seed to stars yet, you bastards.

[HopeHoops]

11. Actually, that's what I'm afraid of.

We took paradise and fucked it the hell up! Who wants us wandering around the universe fucking up other planets?

[pokerfan]

12. Haven't seen that one

but I've seen October Sky. Good movie.

[trof]

6. Hey, some people still get off watching airplanes take off and land.

:shrug:

[Baclava]

8. I've seen the aliens, I know.

The armada is on it's way, earthlings.

You will call me slavemaster.


It's a good job if you can get it.

[Baclava]

9. And some get off on nuclear explosions...

We're a step or two away from that for space travel, in the chemical stage of evolution, so to speak

[trof]

10. Nuclear explosions are great.

You just don't want to stand too close.

[Baclava]

13. I'm tired of baby steps in space - we need nuclear bomb propulsion

EARLY HISTORY
The linkage between nuclear energy and rocket technology long antedates Los Alamos and Peenemunde. The earliest pioneers of the Space Age soon realized the attractiveness of atomic propulsion for space flight.

A - EARLY SPECULATION

As early as 1907, American rocket pioneer Robert Goddard had concluded that nuclear propulsion would be essential for interplanetary exploration, if only a means could be found to liberate the energy of the atom. Other early pioneers either quickly despaired of the practicality of nuclear propulsion, like Tsiolkovsky, or ignored nuclear propulsion entirely, like Oberth.

Goddard was perhaps the first to contemplate the application of atomic energy to rocketry in 1906 and 1907, though he noted that the rate of decay of radium was far too slow to provide a practical means of interplanetary travel.(2) While he failed in his initial attempt to have this speculation published, it is characteristic of Goddard's penchant for secrecy that these calculations remained in his private notebooks, with Esnault-Pelterie being the first to publicly suggest the use of atomic energy for rocketry. However, Goddard remained convinced of the ultimate utility of solar and atomic propulsion for interplanetary travel


http://www.fas.org/nuke/space/c02early.htm

[AllenVanAllen]

14. I think it's great they're going to fix the Hubble!

Here's to a successful and safe mission! :thumbsup:





The cosmos is waiting!