Saturn Moon Landing

[shereads]

might be a good enterprise model for what you were talking about...

My ex husband had an Enterprise model. Didn't everyone's ex husband have one?

fyi:

NASA BUDGET: "under $15 billion for 2004."

http://www.cygo.com/cgi-bin/yabb/YaBB.pl?board=opendisc;action=display;num=1092365610

Isn't Google great?

 

[minsue]

Colly, I'm just curious. Do you have any idea of what's NASA's yearly budget these days?

"As part of the exploration initiative, the President has proposed increasing the NASA budget by 5.6 percent in the next fiscal year, to about $16.2 billion. " - House Science Committee Chairman Boehlert; April, '04

Edited to add: For FY 2004 - $15,378.0 million (from NASA's site)

Edited again - I'm so confused.

 

[Lauren Hynde]

So, the ESA budget is one fifth of NASA's. It wouldn't even cover the reported costs of the Space Shuttle program. I think that's astonishing...

 

[minsue]

So, the ESA budget is one fifth of NASA's. It wouldn't even cover the reported costs of the Space Shuttle program. I think that's astonishing...

It costs a lot of money to keep proving the 'star wars' missle defense program just don't work.

 

[Lauren Hynde]

It costs a lot of money to keep proving the 'star wars' missle defense program just don't work.

I imagine 15,378.0 millions can buy you a lot of machines that go PING!

 

[Colleen Thomas]

So, the ESA budget is one fifth of NASA's. It wouldn't even cover the reported costs of the Space Shuttle program. I think that's astonishing...

I think it needs to be noted here the project is a joint project. Nasa and the Esa are working together on it. the probe is Esa, but the cassini mothership is a Nasa ventrue. Along with the valuable information this is a joint venture where the governments involved were less important than the science involved.

 

[Lauren Hynde]

I think it needs to be noted here the project is a joint project. Nasa and the Esa are working together on it. the probe is Esa, but the cassini mothership is a Nasa ventrue. Along with the valuable information this is a joint venture where the governments involved were less important than the science involved.

Duly noted.

 

[shereads]

So, the ESA budget is one fifth of NASA's. It wouldn't even cover the reported costs of the Space Shuttle program. I think that's astonishing...

Manned space travel is enormously more costly. To obtain the same research, imagine how much more you'd have to spend to make a liveable environment and provide a means to bring the people home.

The added cost might be justified sometimes to capture the public imagination and assure support for further exploration. But there are limitations to where a manned mission can go, too. They'd have had to observe Titan from a safe distance, maybe launch the probe from an extraneous manned vehicle. It would be showy and there would be some moving sound bites of the eye-witness accounts. But the return trip would double the cost of the mission and extend the risk of a fatal accident, without adding any new learning.

Until we know there are reasons to send people someplace, it's hard to justify the cost as anything more than public relations. And when it goes wrong, it goes horribly wrong.

 

[Colleen Thomas]

I hope Doc M takes a look at this.

I was thinking about this last night and got to wondering. Seas of liquid methane. Methane is the principal component of natural gas, I know there are other filler elements, but it's mostly Methane.

Do you happen to know Doc, how difficult it would be to synthesize natural gas from liquid methane? If the process isn't too difficult or expensive, I wonder if it would be possible to assemble a small research station on titan. I know the principal impediment to robotic exploration on mars is the life of solar cells & batteries, but wouldn't it be cool if we could set up a station on titan that could generate it's own power for little natural gas operated rovers? Kinda like a rover gas station?

Of course, that assumes there is enough oxygen for combustion to take place, but the idea grabbed me

 

[domjoe]

My ex husband had an Enterprise model. Didn't everyone's ex husband have one?

I always wanted a little Lt. Uhuru doll.

 

[R. Richard]

Basic reasearch is and always has been a bit difficult to justify. It seems to yield only concepts, but nothing tanglible. However, the concepts result in very worthwhile advances in our scientific understanding. Our scientific understanding is now essential to support human life on this planet. Just as a an example are the advances in agriculture. Without the continuous advances in food plants, it would not be possible to support the current Erath population.

 

[dr_mabeuse]

I hope Doc M takes a look at this.

I was thinking about this last night and got to wondering. Seas of liquid methane. Methane is the principal component of natural gas, I know there are other filler elements, but it's mostly Methane.

Do you happen to know Doc, how difficult it would be to synthesize natural gas from liquid methane? If the process isn't too difficult or expensive, I wonder if it would be possible to assemble a small research station on titan. I know the principal impediment to robotic exploration on mars is the life of solar cells & batteries, but wouldn't it be cool if we could set up a station on titan that could generate it's own power for little natural gas operated rovers? Kinda like a rover gas station?

Of course, that assumes there is enough oxygen for combustion to take place, but the idea grabbed me

Chemistry? Did someone say chemistry?

Natural gas—the stuff we cook with—is 95% methane. The rest is mostly ethane and propane. They also add some stinky compounds known as mercaptans to give gas an odor so you know when there’s a leak. Methane itself is odorless.

There’s no reason why we couldn’t burn that methane for fuel, except we’d have to find a source of oxygen. I don’t think they’ve found any free oxygen on Titan, and I don’t think it’s cold enough for there to be deposits of liquid oxygen.

I’ll be surprised if they don’t find some amino acids though, although I don’t know if they’re set up to look for amino acids. Probably not. They stopped sending already, didn’t they?

So far it’s very bizarre and pretty cool. I hope we get more on this.

I always hoped Kurt Vonnegut was right.

---dr.M.

 

[Colleen Thomas]

Chemistry? Did someone say chemistry?

Natural gas—the stuff we cook with—is 95% methane. The rest is mostly ethane and propane. They also add some stinky compounds known as mercaptans to give gas an odor so you know when there’s a leak. Methane itself is odorless.

There’s no reason why we couldn’t burn that methane for fuel, except we’d have to find a source of oxygen. I don’t think they’ve found any free oxygen on Titan, and I don’t think it’s cold enough for there to be deposits of liquid oxygen.

I’ll be surprised if they don’t find some amino acids though, although I don’t know if they’re set up to look for amino acids. Probably not. They stopped sending already, didn’t they?

So far it’s very bizarre and pretty cool. I hope we get more on this.

I always hoped Kurt Vonnegut was right.

---dr.M.

thanks Doc

I think it's all nifty neato-mosquito

 

[rgraham666]

In point of fact, I did not have an Enterprise model.

I had a Klingon D6 Battlecruiser. I thought the Klingon's ships looked much cooler than the Enterprise.